Midwest Express Airlines chooses Sherwin-Williams Aerospace products because of beauty, durability and customer service

Milwaukee, Wis., December 8, 2000 — Midwest Express Airlines has adopted the Sherwin-Williams Aerospace Coatings line of products for several strategic as well as practical reasons, according to company officials. “A primary consideration for upgrading the quality of the company’s choice of coatings products,” said Scott Preiss, paint shop manager, “was the need to enhance the appearance of its fleet of 38 jets so they would better reinforce the image of a top-of-the-line, first-class airline service.”

Based in Milwaukee, Wis., Midwest Express has long positioned itself in the marketplace as the quality choice in airline travel by offering its passengers an experience that has a distinctive ambiance of quality. From the luxurious, wide leather seats to fine china and sterling silver service ware, everything about Midwest Express articulates the look and feel of high-class quality.

“Considering the fact that we are a commercial airline selling ourselves as a first-class airline travel experience, our aircrafts’ appearance is very important to the perception the passenger has of the airline overall,” said Preiss. “It’s the first impression they have of the airline before boarding.”

“We have always known that there are different quality levels of aircraft coatings,” said Preiss. “Most airlines don’t require the high level of gloss and superior image that we do and we were trying to get a high quality image out of products that just weren’t designed to produce that kind of sheen,” he explained.

“We switched to Sherwin-Williams Jet Glo® High Solids and immediately realized that was the answer to getting the kind of image we wanted.”

In the aerospace coatings industry, distinctness of image (DOI) is a major factor in determining the quality of a coatings product. That, combined with how the coating flows, how it dries, and in general, how it works for an operation, all play key roles in the decision about which product is chosen.

“When we put a batch of our company colors Sherwin-Williams made just for Midwest Express through an extensive testing process, we were very impressed with how uniformly Jet Glo® High Solids covered the surface with less material,” said Preiss.

“In addition to the great response from the paint staff, when we brought that first airplane back from the paint facility, it also received a lot of positive comments from management. They were immediately convinced that Jet Glo® High Solids was the product we should be using. That made it unanimous.”

Preiss said his more than 20 years of coatings experience has convinced him that a good product is only half the story. “When it comes to high tech coatings products, having access to experts who can help solve problems and answer questions when they arise is just about as important as the product itself,” said Preiss. When learning to use a new product, Preiss explained, there are always issues that need to be resolved and questions answered.

In the aviation industry, there is a wide range of variables that can affect the outcome of an aircraft’s coating. Seasonal variations, the turnaround time needed, and many other considerations can affect how a technician must approach any given coating job. “With Sherwin-Williams products,” said Preiss, “there is a wide range of solvents and hardeners to help us compensate for the variables.”

If a plane is needed more quickly, Preiss explained, technicians can cut the drying time from 18 hours down to 10 hours with no discernable loss of quality by varying the formula. That is important, he said, because the longer a plane is out of circulation, the more it costs the company in lost revenues. “Being able to compensate for variables is well worth any premium we invest for a better quality product. In the long run, our choice of coatings products positively affects our bottom line.”

Today’s high-tech coatings are far more sophisticated than those used just a few years ago. “As the coatings become more sophisticated,” said Preiss, “the technicians applying them must become more sophisticated. But sometimes we just don’t have the answers, and that’s when we really appreciate the fact that Sherwin-Williams is always just a phone call away with answers and solutions. And if we can’t solve it over the phone, a technical service representative will fly in overnight to help us adjust the product to a situation’s unique idiosyncrasies,” he said.

“One time, we needed assistance immediately and all we had to do was ask, and Sherwin-Williams had a tech. rep. on the next flight. That’s the kind of service that is more than a little important to people like the paint staff and me,” Preiss explained. “We value that kind of service. We know we always have a safety net of technical advice from Sherwin-Williams anytime we need it.”

Preiss said there are several reasons that the colors used by Midwest Express have been registered with Sherwin-Williams Aerospace Coatings. “Registering our colors with Sherwin-Williams means that not only are we guaranteed to receive absolutely accurate colors with each and every order, but it has also reduced the time it takes to fill our orders.”

The color design used on Midwest Express aircraft consists of dark blue on the top half of the aircraft and light gray on the bottom. In the mid-section of the aircraft where the two colors meet, stripes of Acry Glo® gold, white and red run the full length of the plane. Preiss and his staff clear-coat the stripes section for gloss and to assure the longest product life span.

“There is almost no comparison between today’s state-of-the-art primers, corrosion inhibiting epoxy primers, high build epoxy primers, acrylic and polyurethane topcoats, and the coatings products and techniques that were used a decade ago,” said Preiss. “We appreciate both the Sherwin-Williams products that are available today and their people who help us use them.”

Sherwin-Williams Aerospace Coatings offers a number of products for the aerospace industry. JET GLO® is the premium aerospace coating for overall base application on medium and large size aircraft, and ACRY GLO®, is a high-quality aerospace coating generally used for overall base application on smaller aircraft and feature striping on larger aircraft. Sherwin-Williams also offers a new, interior aerospace coating product called JET FLEX TM that is ideal for the finishing and refinishing of plastic, metal, composite and wood surfaces in aircraft cabins and cockpits

The Sherwin-Williams Company, founded in 1866 and incorporated in 1884, is one of the world’s leading companies engaged in the manufacturing, distribution and sale of coatings and related products to professional, industrial, commercial and retail customers. Its primary markets are in North and South America, with selected products manufactured and sold in the United Kingdom.