How Aircraft Are Painted? Part 02 of 03

Commercial Aircraft Painting Process Explained 

Keywords: Aircraft Painting, Aircraft Painting Process, Commercial Aircraft Painting 

We are in the middle of painting an aircraft. As you already know, in the first article (link the first article here) we had some ground on painting process and prepared the aircraft substrate for the paint job. By any chance, if you missed the first part, we urge you to go through it as this part and the following part is based on the part one. 

Applying the Primer Coating 

Once the substrate is ready, the primer should be applied as soon as possible. Primer can protect the substrate from corrosion and allow proper adhesion of paint coats. A separate primer should be used for the parts made with composite materials as well.

Zinc Chromate was used as the anti-corrosive primer, and later it was replaced with alternatives (non-Chromate products) due to its increased health risk. This is what you see in greenish color in brand-new airplanes when rolling out from the assembly line. Composite parts appear in beige as no corrosion primer is applied. Then we can have a filler primer (if required) on top of the corrosion primer. The number of layers may depend on the requirement.

Top Coat as the First Layer of Base Coat 

Next comes the top coat; this is the first layer of the base coat. This coat is normally white, and we may go up to a few layers.

In base coat-clear coat technology, we can use a single coat for one color; in the traditional method, few layers were required even for one color. The base coat contains paint with high pigmentation that makes a single coat looks sharp. Apart from that, the base coat-clear coat method reduces the turnaround times as the drying time is significantly less compared to traditional methods (usually, a paint coat dries out in 2 hrs, where the traditional method took 10 hrs). This method can save money, time, and weight for the airline.

Tools such as High Volume-Low Pressure (HVLP) spraying machines back the superiority of novel painting methods by providing a very thin film of paint.

Other Layers in Base Coat

We use other color layers if we want to have the livery and other designs on the fuselage. In case if we want an all-white airplane, we are good to skip to the final coat. However, all most all the airliners prefer at least their livery and some text on the fuselage.

Let’s assume we wish to have a more colorful design like the design of re-branded American Airlines. (Include an image of American Airlines aircraft) 

Initially, the design that goes on to the fuselage is designed virtually in a computer, and it’s used to create the required stencils. These sticky stencils are placed on the fuselage, creating a canvas for the paint job. With the completion of the painting, these stencils are removed, leaving the painted design on the fuselage. Depending on the design, we may want to have more paint layers. Some airlines use adhesive films (decals) instead of painting with stencils. The adhesive film is more or less a sticker that we can stick to the fuselage, which shows no difference to a painted design.

Here is a detailed overview of painting an A380 (include the painting A380 article here as hyperlink) with some humongous stats.

Final Coat: the Clear Coat

The clear coat can give a factory-new impression making the airline trademark standout. The clear coat is buffable; a fresh and glossy look can be maintained over a long period. A clear coat can reduce the drag by minimizing the skin friction to a certain extent.

Here we have a super glossy aircraft thanks to the carefully crafted paint job. We have covered all the vital steps of a paint job of any size except for some background information to make your knowledge superfine. That will be the final part of the article.