Open Call for Science and Technology Created by Early-Stage (e.g. University) Teams

Methylene chloride has been widely employed in Air Force Depots to remove painting off the aircraft components for maintenance, which creates unsafe working conditions and causes significant logistic and financial burdens. So far, alternative depaint methods has been labor-intensive and substrate damaging (abrasive media blasting and water-jet), and expensive and small coverage (laser and atmospheric plasma). To that end, Ultool, LLC and its academic partner proposes a large area ion depaint process that is environmentally benign, non-damaging, batch process compatible, rugged, and efficient. Moreover, it generates minimum waste streams and does not create chemistry to interfere with Air Force Depot’s downstream industrial wastewater treatment plant (IWTP). If successful, it will help Air Force Depots to improve operator’s working condition, reduce waste streams, and meet future regulatory restrictions while still meeting mission critical maintenance efficiency.