When it comes to industrial cleaning – efficiency is the key. It really doesn’t matter if you are washing and cleaning luxury yachts, executive jets, or blasting of railcars used for cleaning coal. How do I know this you ask? Well, for some 27-years I’d been in the business of cleaning locomotives, trucks, buses, aircraft, boats, and heavy machinery. I’d say there is probably noting our company hasn’t washed over the years besides maybe a UFO, but if you produce one, we’ll come out to wash it.
Now then, the other day, I was discussing all this with a fellow think tanker, Troy Laclaire, and his concept was to build a giant automated washing system, something similar to a giant truck or business washing system, but big enough to wash a large airliner too. Of course, first we had to get down to the details, and so he asks; “Are detergents ever used?”
Yes, and most people don’t know this but Southwest Airlines was painting their airplanes in Wichita Kansas with a special type of paint, which was very light weight, and this means the aircraft’s paint would be less weight, that means better performance, better fuel economy, and an increase in useful load, and safety factor.
Although, it really bothered me because I know that many aircraft washers are probably using chemicals and detergents to clean the paint, which could cause its deterioration, and therefore leave the aircraft unprotected for corrosion, which could eventually cause the very same problem which occurred on that Southwest jet. Thus, Southwest had to only contract with specific aircraft washing companies, using a specially spec’d soap, or do it themselves.
In other words one of the potential problems could have been the paint, and the combination of detergents used to clean the aircraft. It’s a really serious matter, and people don’t take it as seriously as it should, but that’s the fact. Resale Price Maintenance Airlines of course do, but you can see why anyone wishing to build an aircraft washing system of that type would definitely need to understand all the different types of detergents and paint, on each specific aircraft. See that point?
Next, Troy asks me another very important question, are there “Issues with brushes/other cleaning items touching the plane?”
Yes, indeed there definitely are. You see, there are different types of systems used to clean aircraft, some of them have brushes on them, and over time the bristles of these brushes get hard, and they cause minute scratches in the finish of the aircraft. It’s the same basic type of problem that you have with drive-through carwashes which puts swirls in the pain of your car, if they have grit, pebbles, or debris in them, which they will as they go over the surface of the aircraft, as they picked up some loose dirt and whip it around – it can cause a little bit of damage to the paint during each wash.
Now then, I doubt if very many …
Tag: aircraft
Industrial Aircraft Washing Systems and Aircraft Cleaning Discussion
For those in the industrial cleaning business, the work is never done. Over the years the company I founded washed everything from railcars and trucks to aircraft and ships. Now and then, when it comes to industrial cleaning and washing of this type, the key is; efficiency. Sometimes the systems used are more important than the crew or team running them.
Take a car wash for instance, something everyone is familiar with – some car washes use automated systems without human labor, some are half-and-half, and a few do it the old fashioned way; hand washing.
Last month I was having a dialogue with a creative genius innovator, inventor, and computer hardware engineering type, Troy Laclaire, who had considered a better type Electrician Apprenticeship Nyc of aircraft washing system. He asks me; “From your experience/pilot’s point of view, what would you say is the hardest/worst issue with trying to get a plane clean?”
It depends on the type of aircraft. On small light general aviation reciprocating engines, it’s hardest to clean the belly of the aircraft. If you’re dealing with jet aircraft doing the bright work it is often very difficult in trying to polish out the hot sections. On military aircraft, it’s amazing how much grease get in the wheel wells from the leaky hydraulic fluid. It just depends on the type of aircraft. I’ve even had to scrape barnacles off of seaplane floats, and caked on fire retardant off of C-130 aircraft after their firebombing runs, and cleaning the phoschek is harder than hell to get off once it cakes on.
And many high-performance aircraft really smash the hell out of the bugs, and it’s hard to get them off the leading edge after they baked on in the sun, and the paint tends to want to come with them when you take them off. Yes, cleaning aircraft by hand is a real choir, and there has to be an easier way, an automated system would be grand. Troy also asks; “Is it always “clean” water that is used?
Yes, reverse osmosis works the best, and I don’t recommend using de-ionized water because it is actually corrosive, as the water is so clean it looks for Minerals to collect, including metal. “Does the water have to be purified?” asks Troy.
Well, the water should be clean if you want to collect the salt as your rinsing, remember, in this scenario were talking about the reason that you are rinsing off the aircraft before flying is generally to get the salt air off and the corrosiveness from petroleum distillates which have been deposited onto the paint. When you are talking about deicing an aircraft there is an alcohol-like solution which is used.
Any automated system designed to clean aircraft, boats, trucks, or railcars, or really any industrial type washing How To Start A Business Plan system, must take these types of issues into consideration. Indeed, I hope you will please think on this.…