Aircraft repainting and airline liveries

Singapore Airlines has put its livery on what soon will be the first Airbus A380. Airbus Industrie (Toulouse, France) reported on May 10 that the freshly painted plane rolled out of the in Hamburg, Germany, hangar on May 2.

The plane features the blue and gold logo and the name “Singapore Airlines” across 33 meters of the aircraft fuselage.

Airbus says the entire surface area of the aircraft fuselage was “polished” by hand by some 100 painters working four shifts.

The whole paint process took 21 days to complete. More than 2,200 litres of chromate-free paint was used for painting the aircraft that has a surface area of 3100m2. The paint coat measures just 0.12 mm.

Airbus said in a statement that it is applying the most modern and environmentally friendly techniques for the A380 painting process. Electrostatic pistols are used to minimize paint mist. Used air is cleaned and washed through a multi-stage cleaning process to ensure that paint particles are disposed separately.

Singapore Airlines is the launch customer for the A380 aircraft and is scheduled to take delivery of this aircraft in October 2007.

The external livery of an aircraft can certainly influence the way that passengers feel about flying with the airline.

The application of aircraft colour schemes is therefore a demanding task, to be undertaken only by highly qualified operators using the best materials and equipment. It must be done efficiently to minimize the time that the aircraft is out of service, cost effectively and always with full regards for the safety of the aircraft.

Complete aircraft exterior preparation can include aircraft stripping to bare metal or heavy sanding, resealing of all production joints, corrosion removal and treatment and complete aircraft repainting.

Aircraft Painting process

When an aircraft arrives for a repaint, the airline will have already decided whether it is to be sanded down to the first top-coat or chemically stripped back to the metal. The latter is the more expensive option but has a number of benefits.

Firstly, it allows the aircraft skin to be inspected for corrosion and secondly will help reduce the weight of the aircraft by removing the old paint. If an aircraft has been stripped, the next process is a steam clean to remove any residue of the stripper.

All the production joints on the aircraft will then be resealed, followed by a wash with solvents as a final preparation. The next stage of the process is to apply either a Filliform Corrosion Resistant primer or alochrome pre-treatment, which is the first layer of protection for the airframe.

Next is the intermediate primer of either polyurethane or epoxy, the latter is a yellowy green colour, which will normally be allowed to dry overnight. After this the aircraft will be rubbed down to remove any imperfections and a tack cloth used to pick up any remnants.

After this extensive preparation the airframe is finally ready for some new paint which will form the airline livery. The base colour top-coat is the first to be applied and once this is dry, the livery will be marked out on the aircraft.

These areas will then be masked off and the colour scheme painted on. The amount of coats required will depend on the opacity of the base colour. For example, a pure white would need a total of three layers, while off-white or grey would only require two.

A gap of one hour is required before the next coat can be applied, though the finished aircraft will need at least 24hr to dry. The whole process generally takes about a week and if it is a complicated design, extra manpower can be drafted in to hasten the preparation process.

The one area which cannot be shortened is the paint drying time. Once an aircraft has been completed, a representative from the customer will check the paint work is to their satisfaction before taking delivery.

The aircraft repainting engineers reproduce from the artwork the airline provides.

With environmental issues in mind most companies doing this work advocate using high-solid paints, as opposed to the conventional solvent-based products as the former produce less VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) emissions.

They also recycle all waste paint to remove and then re-use the solvents. The new generation paints have come a long way over the last few years, and as long as the airlines maintain the paint work and clean it on a regular basis, the airline can expect up to two years of extension to the current life of an aircraft’s paint finish, due to the increased durability of these products....the paints have to withstand baking temperatures one minute and freezing cold at 38,000ft the next, experiencing high levels of ultraviolet attack.

The paint also has to be very chemical resistant and flexible to withstand the damage caused by the aircraft flexing, hydraulic fluid, engine oil and de-icing fluid.

Despite all these factors a freshly painted livery will be able to last on average between six to eight years, though a large number of factors, such as the climate the aircraft is operating in, can affect this.

The ccontractor can also usually produce and affix aircraft decals. These are made of vinyl and then laminated, though they are not suitable for long periods but can be useful for altering markings for a short term lease or putting on a temporary registration. They are also used for technical and mandatory markings such as emergency signs.