Found this article on a potential new paint for airplanes - lighter and tougher than existing paints. Still in the lab, too soon to get excited...
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Better Paint?
- Thread starter breister
- Start date
PainterJohn
Well Known Member
Man I bet that would be tough to apply in a hangar..
This stuff always cracks me up.. like the waterborne crapola. It works perfectly under perfect conditions.. Rarely is an aircraft (or anything else for that matter) painted in perfect labratory conditions. A polymer scientist spends thousands of hours painting 6"x6" squares in a lab.. Subjecting them to all the tests they can think of.. corrosion, wear and tear, stress, abrasions, flash point, freezing point, dew point, envioromental impact, Ultraviolet light, heat, shear, velocity, impact, on and on.
But they never actually test any of these things where they are actually used 90% of the time.. In a dank hangar, just before sunset, hot, humid, over questionable prep (cus it wasnt clear in the plans), compressor with condensation in the lines and a minor oil contamination problem just because the compressor was some used turd from craigslist, some guy using a rag for a respirator, bad lighting, spraying over rattle can primer cus it was discussed on a blog, bad airflow through the hangar, no filters, buddies opening the door "just to see how you are doing", sanding dust on shelves behind you, oil leaking from something somewhere on the airplane (cus face it they all leak), your neighbor smearing ArmorAll all over his prize possession at the exact time you decided to apply this wonderful new product... etc.
These are the conditions most things get painted under by do-it-your-selfers.. Every professional painter I know, Including me started out as a do-it-yourselfer. We all learned over the years its not as easy as people think it is to get my system down, keep a hangar clean, get a quality air drier, get good ventilation, develop prep procedures that could be done in our sleep, angles of application, side tones, flops, viscosity cups, mix ratios, on and on and on..
Under perfect conditions a scientist could probably make smeared Crayons stick to an airplane very nicely.. But the average do-it-your-selfer should stick with what the pros have been doing for almost 100 years.. Etch, Alodine, Zinc Chromate primer, Urethane paint.. It works, It lasts, Its the most forgiving. If you clean up your mess, and use your head its no more detremental to the environment than water.. After all it all came from our environment... wow sorry i kinda went on a rant.. didnt mean too!
Cheers,
This stuff always cracks me up.. like the waterborne crapola. It works perfectly under perfect conditions.. Rarely is an aircraft (or anything else for that matter) painted in perfect labratory conditions. A polymer scientist spends thousands of hours painting 6"x6" squares in a lab.. Subjecting them to all the tests they can think of.. corrosion, wear and tear, stress, abrasions, flash point, freezing point, dew point, envioromental impact, Ultraviolet light, heat, shear, velocity, impact, on and on.
But they never actually test any of these things where they are actually used 90% of the time.. In a dank hangar, just before sunset, hot, humid, over questionable prep (cus it wasnt clear in the plans), compressor with condensation in the lines and a minor oil contamination problem just because the compressor was some used turd from craigslist, some guy using a rag for a respirator, bad lighting, spraying over rattle can primer cus it was discussed on a blog, bad airflow through the hangar, no filters, buddies opening the door "just to see how you are doing", sanding dust on shelves behind you, oil leaking from something somewhere on the airplane (cus face it they all leak), your neighbor smearing ArmorAll all over his prize possession at the exact time you decided to apply this wonderful new product... etc.
These are the conditions most things get painted under by do-it-your-selfers.. Every professional painter I know, Including me started out as a do-it-yourselfer. We all learned over the years its not as easy as people think it is to get my system down, keep a hangar clean, get a quality air drier, get good ventilation, develop prep procedures that could be done in our sleep, angles of application, side tones, flops, viscosity cups, mix ratios, on and on and on..
Under perfect conditions a scientist could probably make smeared Crayons stick to an airplane very nicely.. But the average do-it-your-selfer should stick with what the pros have been doing for almost 100 years.. Etch, Alodine, Zinc Chromate primer, Urethane paint.. It works, It lasts, Its the most forgiving. If you clean up your mess, and use your head its no more detremental to the environment than water.. After all it all came from our environment... wow sorry i kinda went on a rant.. didnt mean too!
Cheers,
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