Aircraft Painting Solutions and Paint Removal
For commercial airliners or business jets, your processes and equipment in aircraft painting and paint removal can make all the difference in your operation – in speed, efficiency, safety and maintaining your reputation in aerospace and aircraft MRO.
3M provides a tremendous breadth of aircraft painting solutions that make for excellent results, and can also save you time and added expense along the way. They include abrasives and masking, surface prep and adhesion promoters, equipment for specialized paint application and touch-up, personal protection equipment and more.
Protecting Aircraft Interiors/Exteriors
- Protecting Aircraft Interiors
As a long-trusted supplier of surface protection products, 3M provides OEM-specified solutions for protecting aircraft carpets and other interior surfaces.
- Clean and Wash Aircraft Exterior
Our trusted 3M™ Scotch-Brite™ aircraft cleaning products are engineered for a combination of speed and precision, helping reduce stripping time and ensure consistent surfaces.
- Masking
As the inventors of masking tape, 3M provides tapes designed specifically for the challenges of airplane masking and painting. Two of the most common: masking metal and composites, and preventing powerful stripping chemicals from degrading valuable parts and surfaces.
- Apply Paint Stripper
3M delivers a full selection of respiratory and skin protection products – an entire range of personal protection equipment from one source. It includes individual respirator equipment, coveralls designed to resist a range of chemical jets and sprays, and a full painters kit featuring our intrinsically safe TR800 PAPR and related equipment.
- Removing Paint Residue and Sanding Composite Surfaces
3M provides a range of options for the smoothest sanding jobs. Our abrasive discs and hand pads are excellent for fine grade metal or composite sanding, and our premium 3M™ Cubitron™ II 775L cuts 30% faster and lasts 2x as long vs. other premium abrasives.
Aircraft Surface Preparation and Primer Application
- Remasking
3M products for aircraft remasking contain decades of industry knowledge and experience to perform even during harsh deoxidizing procedures. The range features our 3M™ Aluminum Foil Tape 425 , OEM approved as a highly chemical resistant, conformable industrial masking solution.
- De-Oxidizing Aluminium Surface
It’s considered a best practice to use abrasives for deoxidizing the entire aircraft fuselage, and 3M delivers abrasives and personal protective equipment (PPE) that meet the challenge.
- Applying Surface Pre-Treatment
OEM-approved 3M™ Surface Pre-Treatment AC-131 is an excellent option for aircraft surface pretreatment: its water-based and non-chromate formula makes it a great alternative to traditional conversion coatings for aluminum, stainless steel and titanium alloys, and helps reduce process steps such as scrubbing and post-rinsing.
- Applying Primer
3M spray gun and disposable cup systems have become go-to equipment for primer application in aircraft MRO. The well-known 3M™ Accuspray™ ONE Spray Gun features a solid one-piece gun body and reusable, replaceable atomizing heads that virtually eliminate maintenance. And our PPS™ and PPS™ Series 2.0 paint preparation systems feature reusable paint cups with disposable liners that make cleanup a breeze.
Aircraft Base Coats, Painting Stripes and Decorative Livery
- Applying Base Coat
Give your aircraft painting the performance of a new spray gun on demand: the 3M™ Accuspray™ ONE Spray Gun features a system of replaceable, reusable atomizing heads.
- Painting Stripes and Decorative Livery
As a global leader in professional aircraft painting solutions, 3M supplies a world-class selection of OEM-specified paint masking products and paint application equipment for creating sharp stripes, sweeping curves and other eye-catching designs for distinctive aircraft paint schemes and livery.
- Painting Composite Fairings and Access Panels
3M provides the lightweight, low-maintenance 3M™ Accuspray™ ONE Spray Gun System and the 3M™ PPS™ paint preparation system for smooth, fast application of multiple coatings from one gun, combined with the ease and efficiency of disposable paint cup lids and liners.
Aircraft Paint Repair and Detail Finishing
- Painting Touch Ups
3M provides masking tapes and paint application equipment for areas where sharp lines and smooth designs matter most, including business jet fuselages and high-visibility commercial boarding door areas.
- Paint Defect Repairs
3M abrasives and paint finishing tools are excellent for business jets and other applications where refined, defect-free paint applications are mandatory.
- Applying Sealants
Succeed on tighter timelines and budgets with light-weight, high-quality aerospace sealants that have superb shop-handling characteristics, low VOC, fast cure times and numerous OEM approvals.
