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At the 21st SAE Forum in Atlanta Georgia last year, a civilian Engineering Technician working for the Air Force at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, presented a paper on an aircraft paint removal process he had been working on for four years. All tests had been positive and his presentation to Air Force Command had gained him a fund allocation to build the blast booth of his dreams at his hone base. His presentation to the SAE attendees was received with so much enthusiasm by those present, that the question and answer period had to be curtailed. The best part of all was that his paper received the coveted SAE First Place Paper Award. His dream had come true; The Air Force Staff had approved the money for a blast facility, and his peers were accepting his new proposal with little reservation. Now it was time to make the dream a reality!

Everyone who has something painted must usually have the paint removed from that item at some time during its life cycle. The following article covers one of the newest innovations devised for removing paint without contamination, hazards to personnel, the generation of waste or the consumption of toxic chemicals. Defined as PLASTIC BEAD BLASTING, the method provides an easy way of removing all types of paint in an average of one-tenth of the time previously taken to do the job with costly chemicals. A wide variety of equipment manufacturers are available with “off-the-shelf” equipment designed to do the job, and the plastic blasting media is available from the U.S. Plastics and Chemical Company. This new paint removal process is being hailed as the next “State-Of-The-Art” method for removal of paint from most aircraft and ground support equipment.