A new coating system to paint aircraft and other equipment is, ironically, safer to human health and the environment. The breakthrough comes after two years of research and testing on trivalent chromium-based primers and sealers.
Chromium has long been used in paint to create dense, protective
coatings. This is especially important to the Army which needs to cover its equipment with paint that can resist corrosive chemical agent. However, chromium, in its hexavalent form, is a known carcinogen.
Although the Army has used chromium-6-based paint safely to protect and extend the life of its expensive equipment, it was open to trying something else that wasn't so potentially harmful both to human health and the environment.
So they went with different kind of chromium-based paint that uses
chromium-3 instead of chromium-6. Willingness to find a new paint system turned to resolve in 2006 when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released more stringent regulations for permissible exposure limits of chromium-6. That's when the Connecticut Army National Guard's 1109th Aviation Classification
Repair Activity Depot, which plays a major role in aircraft mintenance for the Army, decided that finding a green alternative to the standard chromium-6 paint system was better than upgrading its air filters to meet the new requirements.
The maintenance team at the 1109th AVCRAD initiated a rigorous hunt for a suitable replacement. What they found was a water-based hemical agent resistant coating system that exceeds the performance of the old system. The replacement coating system leaves a smoother finish coating and is more resistant to fading and chalking, which minimizes the need for cosmetic painting procedures.
The new chromium-3-based coating system is also safer to human health and the environment because it reduces the use of hazardous materials and the release of potentially harmful air emissions. It also significantly reduces the harmful chemicals that are present when disposing of paint stripping waste.
