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The Spray Technique Analysis and Research for Defense program, STAR4D, works with U.S. military bases across the country, helping them to paint their equipment as efficiently as possible. Developed in 2004 by UNI’s Iowa Waste Reduction Center, STAR4D customizes programs for each individual base by taking into account the amount of time and how many materials the individual base has available. The Air Force Spray Painters Course is just one of the many successful programs STAR4D has helped to create. The STAR4D program attempts to fit everything sprayers need to know into one short, customized course. Painters learn how to mix paint, spray most efficiently, and to test the paint. Many of the courses work like a “train-the-trainer” course, allowing participants to pass along the skills and knowledge that they gain to others on their base. After taking the Air Force Spray Painters Course, one Air Force spray technician said, “STAR4D does more intensive and beneficial training in three days with spray technique than my tech school did in three years.”
It took two years and hundreds of hours of work for the STAR4D-AF program to develop the Air Force Spray Painters Course. The course consists of thirteen units and involves instructional PowerPoints and labs. STAR4D feels this is the perfect combination for providing a comprehensive course to teach Air Force painters.
STAR4D teaches spray technique in a unique, highly technological manner through a system called VirtualPaint. VirtualPaint is a program that uses virtual technology to train military painters and give them practice at painting equipment as efficiently as possible. It uses state-of-the-art computer simulation and virtual reality technologies to provide a highly capable and flexible system to train spray techniques. It allows spray technicians to practice painting without using actual paint; thereby saving resources and avoiding the negative environmental effects of wasted paint.
To ensure painters get the most efficient spray, STAR4D also utilizes a technology called LaserPaint. LaserPaint is a device that attaches to spray guns to improve efficiency during the production process. The device consists of two laser beams that combine into one dot if the spray gun is at the correct painting distance. Efficiency in spray painting is crucial in order to reduce the amount of paint used, save money, and reduce the amount of waste generated by the spray painting process.
Since its inception, STAR4D has trained military paint supervisors and technicians from sixty-five paint facilities in forty-seven states. They have also seen a 19.01 percent change in transfer efficiency from pre-test to post-test and a 13.33 percent savings of coatings from pre-test to post-test.
The STAR4D training program provides a valuable service to our nation’s military, not only by teaching optimal spray painting technique as a preventative measure, but also by reducing the amount of waste in the form of paint solids and air emissions.
Updated 05-Dec-07
