U. S. Air Force maintenance personnel at Hill Air Force Base have found that dry ice blasting removed sealant from the wings of F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter planes faster than hand scraping with plastic scrapers. The F-16 wing shop supervisor told reporter Bill Orndorff that scraping the sealant by hand was a difficult job that he disliked and thought it would lead to carpel tunnel syndrome. The sealant has to be removed to repaint the wings with fuel-resistant paint.
The Air Force maintenance shop found that using dry ice blasting saved 60-75% of the labor. They found that the dry ice blasting could be used on aluminum only 30/100ths of an inch thick. The dry ice process minimizes cleanup after the sealant is removed, and does not require any hazmat precautions. Please follow these dry ice safety precautions.
Contact Continental Carbonic Products, Inc., for complete information and technical application assistance for saving labor with dry ice blasting.
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