Battelle developing robot to maintain the inside of aircraft fuel tanks

摘要

Several years ago, U.S. Air Force maintenance technicians at Tinker Air Force Base identified a potentially dangerous condition in the fuel tanks of B-52 bombers when they came in for depot maintenance. A new additive designed to remove water from traditional JP8 jet fuel was unexpectedly causing paint to peel off the inside of the tanks. The main concern was that the paint chips could clog the fuel filter and cause an engine flameout. All 96 active and reserve bombers were experiencing the problem, a development that forced the USAF to undertake a laborious and time-consuming process whereby the fuel-tank cells are hand-scraped and touched up. Such a job, however, is tailor-made for automation, particularly industrial robots.