The U.S. Air Force has qualified PPG AEROCRON™ aerospace electrocoat (e-coat) primer to provide corrosion resistance and enhanced topcoat adhesion for aircraft parts. The Air Force initially will coat test parts on a PPG e-coat system that it installed at its Advanced Technology and Training Center in Middle Georgia.
The Air Force has issued Airworthiness Circular AC-19-02 to announce the primer’s qualification for coating parts used on the outer surface of aircraft. The PPG e-coat primer will be added to Air Force Technical Order 1-1-8 – “Application and Removal of Organic Coatings, Aerospace and Non-Aerospace Equipment” – which will provide more detailed guidance when it is published.
“The U.S. Air Force, in collaboration with PPG, is conducting field evaluations at multiple base locations of aircraft parts coated with PPG Aerocron primer,” said Terry Gabbert, U.S. Air Force government lead for the project. “We are seeing firsthand that PPG e-coated parts are performing as well as or better than spray-primed control parts. With that knowledge and our experience, the Air Force made the decision to qualify PPG Aerocron primer and install the first U.S. Department of Defense e-coat system.”
During the e-coat process, aircraft parts are immersed into a PPG Aerocron primer bath after pretreating. An electric charge is applied to attract the non-chrome, water-based primer to the charged parts, which are then rinsed and cured.
