Photo By Master Sgt. Duane Duimstra | F-16C wing dries after being painted in a portable paint booth assembled by the 114th...... read more read more
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By empowering Airmen to innovate, the 114th Maintenance Squadron structural repair shop found a solution to painting aircraft parts, one of their most time consuming tasks, to save time and money.
“What could be more innovative for our shop than getting a portable paint booth for painting wings all the time?” said Tech Sgt. Tyler Martin, 114th Maintenance Squadron Structural Repair technician.
The portable paint booth was acquired after hours of research to find a manufacturer able to build a booth size needed to paint large F-16C parts such as the wings and meet strict safety specifications and standards.
“Initially we submitted a NGB Innovation Funds Request but unfortunately it wasn’t granted. Our next step was to go through base contracting and that is the route in which we bought the booth at the end of the last fiscal year,” said Martin.
Hours of man hours have been saved since obtaining the portable paint booth. Repainting a wing now only takes four working days instead of six.
“It took our shop that long because we had to build a make-shift paint booth out of plastic sheeting,” said Martin.
In addition to saving time, the portable paint booth has saved the wing money by reducing hazardous waste disposal by 75%. This equals to about $1200.00 in hazardous waste disposal costs per aircraft wing painted.
This has a significant impact on 114th Fighter Wing readiness by the hours saved on finishing a big paint job safely, correctly, and on time.
“Getting things done the right way, ahead of schedule is always a great feeling,” said Martin.
| Date Taken: | 01.28.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 01.28.2022 12:55 |
| Story ID: | 413619 |
| Location: | SIOUX FALLS, SD, US |
| Web Views: | 333 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Empowering Airmen to innovate leads to money and time savings, by MSgt Duane Duimstra, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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