"Sanding is more critical than painting and requires much more attention.” 

The paint has to come off!

Several products, materials and equipment are used for aircraft maintenance, and sia abrasives are among these. Why is the sanding procedure so important for an aircraft? Aircraft engineer Metin Özmen know the answer “Incorrect sanding procedure can cause a damage of hundreds of thousands of dollars to engine parts. Therefore, I am telling all my teammates who are involved in sanding procedures: Sanding is more critical than painting and requires much more attention.”

Aircrafts operate under much tougher conditions than cars. They take off at temperatures of +40 to +45 degree Celsius and ascend to outside temperatures of up to -60 degree Celsius in the sky. The aircraft copes with these drastic changes within 15 minutes. Each part of the aircraft stretches in the air, its airframe and wings move. The engine is faced with strong vibration. Aircrafts flying at 10.000 to 12.000 meters altitude are exposed to a significant amount of UV radiation. As a result, the aircraft’s paint wears off, cracks, and loses its protective characteristic over a period of eight to ten years. When maintaining an aircraft’s frame, weight plays a major role. Because it would make the aircraft heavier and heavier, cracked paint cannot simply be recoated. Some components need maintenance that is even more intensive. Particularly, engine components are dissembled, sanded and then painted again every two to three years.

Turkish Technic and sia Abrasives met five years ago. When sia Abrasives decided to enter the aviation sector, Key Account Manager Alper Keskin did a comprehensive analysis of the aviation industry in Turkey. “Although I already gained experience with various abrasives, accessories and machines, I did not know sanding was such a deep, specialized and demanding process. For months, I conducted research on professional users in Turkey. I found out that there lies great potential in the Turkish aviation industry. The Turkish aviation sector comprises of around 150 companies that operate in the MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul),”says Alper Keskin.

To his 21 years of Bosch Power Tools experience, Alper added aviation expertise. Five years ago, he knocked at the door of Turkish Technic. Turkish Technic, the seventh largest aircraft maintenance service and repair company worldwide, is a Turkish Airlines subsidiary. In addition to Turkish Airlines aircrafts, they perform maintenance work on aircrafts of airlines all around the world. Airline companies of several countries, from Indonesia to Russia, Ireland to Africa, cooperate with Turkish Technic. With a hangar and personnel capacity to perform heavy maintenance on 45 aircrafts simultaneously, an average of 50 aircrafts are painted annually and hundreds of aircraft components are repaired daily. Sanding and painting are important parts of these maintenance services.

Turkish Technic has maintenance hangars at four different airports – including Atatürk, Sabiha Gökçen, Istanbul and Esenboğa airports. The new hangars that are under construction at Istanbul airport offer a very high potential for Turkish Technic in the future. Turkish Technic makes use of abrasives from sia for a wide range of applications from airframe painting to cabin interior, composites, engine part and wing maintenance.