Dry Paint Stripping Facilities - Fighter jets & helicopters at Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) / Lockheed-Martin

One of the world's most modern plastic media blasting (PMB) facilities with cutting edge technologies that protect the environment and reduce costs

• Fully developed technology
• Approved by US military and OEMs
• Safe system for the operators
• Eliminates 20,000 gallons of liquid hazardous waste per airplane stripped
• No VOCs emitted to the atmosphere
• Plastic media is recyclable
• Lower operational costs

F-16 before Stripping

F-16 After Stripping

• Training Approved by US Military
  Pauli Systems not only designs, manufactures and installs your Dry Paint Stripping Facilities, but also trains your Operators to strip aircraft according to strict military technical orders. Pauli Systems understands that the best equipment in the world is not useful without skilled technicians to supervise and operate the system. That is why initial and recurrent training is available world-wide from Pauli Systems.
• Patented FanBlast Nozzle
  Available only from Pauli Systems, doubles the area stripped per minute, and is the only nozzle in the world that provides a stripping path with equal particle energy across the stripping path.
• In-Floor Stripping Media Recovery
  Pauli Systems’ unique media recovery systems don’t plug because they are designed from the ground up for this exact application. Pauli Systems does it right the first time, every time. You can stack a ton of media on top of a Pauli Systems floor recovery section, and there will be no plugging of the pneumatic conveying process–guaranteed.
• Media Reclaim Systems
  Media reclaim is important because the economics of dry media paint stripping lies in using blast media several times before discarding it. Pauli Systems unmatched equipment ensures that owners of its systems receive maximum benefit from every pound of media purchased.

This Pauli facility reclaims media via a rigorous series of processes including:

Centrifugal separation via latest generation high-velocity cyclone. This eliminates much of the “fines,” the unusable small, light particles.

Air wash separation with exclusive dual-adjustment (via independent adjustment of air wash velocity and volume) to fine tune the point at which fines are further separated and removed.

Magnetic separator to remove ferrous particles.

Ionization to prevent particles from agglomerating.

Vibratory screen separation, a mechanical separation using gyrating screens to remove both oversize and under size particles from the working mix.

Correctly sized material leaving the vibratory separator now consists of reusable blast media and dense particle contaminants such as sand and metal.

Removing these contaminants is the job of the final stage of separation.

Dense Particle Separation. This is important because dense contaminants may be harmful to aircraft structure and must be removed to generally, a level no greater than 0.02%. This is the job of the Dense Particle Separator (DPS). Pauli Systems patented DPS works with unparalleled efficiency due to its exclusive fluidized bed, microprocessor control, and operational independence from Operator input, humidity, temperature, altitude and a multitude of variables that affect other systems. The Pauli DPS has documented success over a huge range of aerospace customers and has published its findings. The Pauli DPS is a purpose-designed, supremely reliable engineering marvel that quietly does it job 24/7. This is not an agricultural seed/stone separator, but “the real deal.”

Hellenic Exhaust plenums (in white), supervisor control room
window (center), blast hoses (laid out on floor, parallel to the
media recovery troughs) & portable stripping unit (blue, in the
rear right)

Aircraft stripping facility supervisors control process
parameters (media flow rate and nozzle air pressure)

• Massive Ventilation
  Two large Pauli Systems dust collectors provide ventilation in the working environment, ensuring good Operator visibility in the well lit dust-free environment. Good Operator visibility plus the right tools allow maximum production rates and an aircraft stripped to the highest standard.
• Excellent Lighting
  As with ventilation, a brightly illuminated stripping facility with a light grey reflective floor coating and reflective wall covering gives Operators every advantage in performing their stripping duties.
• Supervisory Control Room
  Overlooking the stripping bay via a large window in the back wall is the Dry Paint Stripping Facility Control Center. From this position, separated from the equipment room and the stripping bay, supervisory personnel can oversee job progress and adjust stripping process parameters (nozzle air pressure and media mass flow rate) to engineering requirements for any aircraft.
• Equipment Room
  This is the “engine” that drives the process. In this area lie the master control panel, floor recovery selector systems, recovered media intermediate storage, media reclaim including DPS, clean media transfer system to clean media hopper, dry stripping blast generators, and delivery hoses from the blast generators back in to the stripping enclosure.
• Compressed Air Nook
  A clever cutout in the building eliminates the need for a forced air ventilation system to keep a compressor room cool.
• Unique All-In-One Compressor
  The compressed air system is unique in that its sound-proofed enclosure contains a 250 HP air compressor, air cooled intercooler and refrigerant dryer in a single package.
• Pauli System Proprietary Dust Collector
  Pauli Systems manufacturers its own dust collectors because standard units can’t do the job as well, or as economically. And these dust collectors are the only units in our industry that allow dust cartridges to be bagged and secured prior to removal, an extra safety benefit for operators.