Think Outside the Booth

The Challenge
When building the DHC-515, we sometimes need to rivet a piece after it already has a coat of primer. That piece then needs a few touch-ups.

But the fumes are too dangerous to simply pull out a can and spray over the spot or blot it with a brush. We’d need to empty the building or transport an entire DHC-515 wing to a painting facility.

The only other alternative is purchasing a specialized paint booth that is much too large (and expensive) for this small application. 
 

Thinking Outside the Booth
Industry standards don’t provide a workable solution to this problem, so a few of our people got creative. They sourced and adapted a moveable barrier. By pairing it with an extraction unit that sucks in paint fumes and scrubs them into breathable air, they’ve created a small-scale paint booth that will lead to big-time cost savings.

And they did it all safely. Using a monitor that detects airborne pollutants, they determined that no fumes were escaping the barrier.

A special shout out to @Niv Panchendrabose, @Bereket Guyallo, @Bernardo Lopez, and @Alison Taylor for working through the problem and coming up with an innovative and cost effective solution. Well done, team!

Spray touch-up preparation

Niv, Bereket, Bernardo, and Alison posed next to Big Blue,
the Mobile Extraction Unit’s nickname.