News

One of a Kind: Advanced Metal Finishing Facility up and running

  • Published
  • By Jenny Gordon
  • Robins Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  It's the only workload of its kind at Robins and it happens to be one of the newest facilities to be constructed at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex. 

The Advanced Metal Finishing Facility has slowly begun ramping up production over the last few months, with the 402nd Commodities Maintenance Group producing its first chromate conversion coat on F-15 tubing in February. 

It's been a long time coming, but it takes time to test, operate and successfully move from one production facility to the next. There was much testing and inspection work to be done, as well as ensuring the process would be acceptable to its customers. The older AMFF nearby in Bldg. 142 is still in operation. 

"We have been proving out these processes to demonstrate and make sure that the coatings are in compliance with the governing specifications," said James Cunningham, AMFF process engineer. 

What makes the complex's new plating facility distinctive is its attention to reducing worker exposure to hazardous chemicals. When workers need to walk through various assembly lines, 'wet' areas in particular, they're protected by barriers, or clear panels, to their left and right sides. Ventilation systems are also present. 

Increased automation of the plating process also eliminated the need for workers to physically immerse parts into various tanks, both large and small, throughout the building. Everything is remotely controlled from a staging area. 

"With operators behind a wall and roll-up doors, exposure to the tank environment is minimized," said Cunningham. 

The building has been described as 'one big machine,' because if the computer at the front isn't programmed properly at the beginning of the process, things can't continue to happen throughout the rest of the building. It's all interconnected. 

Inside the cavernous space, things begin to transpire at a single computer station. Set apart from plating tanks located about 20 feet away on the other side of a wall, there are eight process lines that each have their own roll-up doors that separate workers from those same tanks. 

Basically what happens is once a workload is programmed into a computer and various aircraft parts are placed into a basket, it's lifted, a door is rolled up, and parts make their way into various chemical baths down an assembly line of sorts. 

Depending on the work, it can take from 45 minutes to several hours to fully perform a chemical surface treatment for various aircraft parts. That chemical treatment can include performing conversion treatments where a surface is converted to a chemically-resistant coating, to coating removal, and cleaning and etching.