Prototyping Material Flow for R&D Fabrications

Situation

In aerospace and aviation and defense manufacturing, fabricating prototypes for testing and validation poses unique logistical challenges. This was the case for a North American research and development (R&D) facility of a U.S. based market-leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space, and security systems.

For R&D fabrications at the facility, parts were produced in limited numbers throughout the fabricating shop. The component finishing process involved hand-sanding composite materials and coating applications, which were required on an intermittent basis and performed “in-place” and without an enclosure.

After each sanding operation, composite dust settled throughout the entire facility, requiring periodical cleaning of the entire shop floor at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars per cleaning. In addition, the coating process required a paint arrestor to achieve better results.

Unfortunately, a permanent sanding and coating enclosure was not a viable solution, due to the need to work in-place and the cost-prohibitive requirement for air makeup. A permanent enclosure would also reduce the usable existing floor space of the R&D facility.

This situation called for a unique solution to safely contain sanding and coating processes that could be performed in-place without air makeup.

Solution

Duroair™ designed a surface prep containment system for in-place component finishing. This clean-air solution included the patented, fully portable, non-vented DuroPure™ indoor air purification system, equipped with self-cleaning dust filters and a dust collection system, in combination with a custom-designed DuroRoom™ retractable enclosure.

The hybrid industrial air filtration and dust collection unit now provides both air handling and dust filtration/collection, while the unit’s patented Taper Draft Airflow Technology improves drying times and optimizes overspray control during each coating application.

For in-place portability, the DuroRoom enclosure retracts to 20% of the extended length, maximizing shop floor space when not in use.

Benefits of this unique prep room design include:

• Helps ensure worker safety from harmful dust and fumes without limiting workflow mobility.
• Works as a quick-deploy isolated work environment for stop-and-start R&D processes, including containment of dust particulates and gaseous contaminants.
• Delivers maximum velocity around products during coating to minimize accidental overspray and enclosure wall residue.

Results

The investment in the Duroair prep room was recovered in just a few dust cleaning cycles, and there were no equipment or installation costs for air makeup. The unique Duroair solution has dramatically increased material flow efficiency, thanks to its quick-deploy design that easily contains each workpiece during the various sanding and coating stages. Now, dust is filtered and collected effectively and cost-efficiently, improving coating quality. And thanks to the solution’s portability, the facility is now able to maximize use of its valuable floor space.

Let Duroair Design a Flexible Containment Solution for Your Processes

From manufacturing assemblies to a large mix of R&D processes, containment flexibility and portability are key to cost-effectively containing sanding, coating, and other surface prep processes.

Duroair’s modular enclosures and industrial air filtration systems for aerospace and aviation can be engineered to move with your cellular workflows. Applications include:

• Dust collection systems to effectively capture all particulates.
• Negative- and positive-pressure anterooms to accompany cleanrooms and enclosures for painting and coating operations.
• Hexavalent chromium containment and capture during surface preparation, coating, and painting operations.
• Modular multi-process clean rooms with precise temperature and humidity controls that can be easily moved between locations and stored when not in use.

Contact our industrial clean air experts today for a free consultation on how we can create the most flexible solution possible for quick-deploy containment while staying within your floor plan and space limitations.