Laser technology successfully trialled by History and Heritage - Air Force's (HH-AF) Restorations Support Section - could revolutionise the removal of hazardous paint from Air Force equipment requiring maintenance or restoration.
Warrant Officer in charge of restorations, Warrant Officer Paul Wendt, researched and oversaw the trial of laser resurfacing to remove paint and corrosion from a 74-year-old Winjeel aircraft in May.
Warrant Officer Wendt said the process reduced months of labour-intensive sanding and grinding in full personal protective equipment to an environmentally friendly procedure that only took a few days.
"Because the laser removed only paint, grime and corrosion without scouring the underlying metal, the process revealed long-obscured original equipment manufacturer's serial and part numbers and restored the bare metal to factory condition," he said.
"It was amazing. We'd normally have 10 personnel working for a couple of months sanding around rivets to remove the paint.
"It's difficult and repetitive work for volunteers in their 70s and 80s, and hazardous as well because the paint contains carcinogenic chemicals that make it difficult to work on, and time-consuming to clean up and safely dispose of.
"The laser did it in a few days and because it uses a HEPA filter that completely removes all the hazardous dust, clean-up time was reduced to zero."
'Using the laser resurfacer turned what would have been a week's-plus work disrupting flying schedules into a two-hour job that reduced the safety hazard to zero.'
Warrant Officer Wendt said the laser's parallel use to maintain RAAF Base Amberley's arrestor system illustrated its potential for wider Air Force use.
Todd Harford, from Curtiss-Wright Arresting Systems, said Babcock, the Defence industry partner that manages arresting systems, had been looking into methods to reduce exposure to hazardous paints for several years. They ultimately found laser cleaning to be an excellent option.
"When I heard that Queensland Laser Cleaning would already be at Amberley from May 15 to 17, I contracted them to remove paint from the base's arrestor so we could maintain it," Mr Harford said.
"Using the laser resurfacer turned what would have been a week's-plus work disrupting flying schedules into a two-hour job that reduced the safety hazard to zero."
Mr Harford said the Amberley trial was so successful that Curtiss-Wright and Babcock would be using the process on seven more air bases across Australia in the coming months.
HH-AF's Director of Heritage Projects, Group Captain Andrew Tatnell, praised the use of the process as "a great initiative to effectively manage a nasty hazard".
