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8358910 
Meetings & Symposia 
Aircraft solvent depainting alternatives feasibility demonstration Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, OK 
Baker, GE; Sylvia, D; Stearns, RL; Springer, J 
1996 
Air & Waste Management Assoc 
Nashville, TN, USA 
Proceedings of the 1996 Air & Waste Management Association's 89th Annual Meeting & Exhibition 
English 
The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC/EMV) at Tinker AFB, an Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) installation, has been working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) National Risk Management Laboratory (formerly the Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory) to develop and demonstrate several pollution prevention alternatives involving painting and depainting technologies and techniques. The AF and USEPA have collaborated on several pollution prevention studies under the Waste Reduction Evaluation at Federal Sites (WREAFS) Program since 1988. The inter-agency feasibility study described here validates, prototypes, and demonstrates, on a full-scale basis, the use of an environmentally preferable aircraft depainting system. In the past, methylene chloride paint strippers were used in depainting operations. However, the new National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants promulgated by the USEPA will eliminate their use at sources subject to maximum achievable control technology (MACT). Benzyl alcohol depainting systems have proven to be successful alternatives to methylene chloride chemical paint stripping, but the use of benzyl strippers is limited to polysulfide primed surfaces, The number of polysulfide primed surfaces is being diminished as aircraft are stripped, and other coatings (koroflex, epoxy, and Self-Priming Topcoat) are being applied. This study evaluates the feasibility of depainting an entire aircraft using an alternative solvent blend that possesses enhanced hydrogen bonding characteristics. The enhanced hydrogen bonding characteristics serve to break the bond between the topcoats and primers, and the substrate. This technology will have wide applicability and when successfully implemented will help federal facilities meet requirements of Executive Order 12856 (EO 12856) and the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. 
Anon