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        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      Airman 1st Class Eric Martinez, 6th Maintenance Squadron structures technician uses a newly designed wheel workstation to paint a KC-135 Stratotanker wheel, Aug 27, 2013 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. The implementation of the WWS reduced the paint process time by 26 hours per set.Airman 1st Class Eric Martinez uses a newly designed wheel workstation to paint a KC-135 Stratotanker wheel, Aug 27, 2013 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. The implementation of the WWS reduced the paint process time by 26 hours per set. Martinez is a structures technician with the 6th Maintenance Squadron.
                
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        Staff Sgt. Alex Aguayo welds together a rotational plate he designed for a paint work station, Aug 22, 2013 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Aguayo is one of two Airmen who co-engineered a way to centrifugally mount a KC-135’s Stratotanker nose and main landing wheel on a rotating base, which reduces a wheel’s paint process by 50 percent. Aguayo is an aircraft metals technician 6th Maintenance Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brandon Shapiro)Staff Sgt. Alex Aguayo welds together a rotational plate he designed for a paint work station, Aug 22, 2013 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Aguayo is one of two Airmen who co-engineered a way to centrifugally mount a KC-135 Stratotanker's nose and main landing wheel on a rotating base, which reduces a wheel’s paint process by 50 percent. Aguayo is an aircraft metals technician with the 6th Maintenance Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brandon Shapiro)
                
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        Staff Sgt. Alex Aguayo  inspects a newly fabricated wheel workstation, Aug 20, 2013 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Aguayo is an aircraft metals technician with the 6th Maintenance Squadron who co-engineered a stand to hold the wheel, which reduces the man hours needed to paint by 26 man-hours per set.130822-F-JP000-250
                        
                        
                        Staff Sgt. Alex Aguayo  inspects a newly fabricated wheel workstation, Aug 20, 2013 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Aguayo is an aircraft metals technician with the 6th Maintenance Squadron who co-engineered a stand to hold the wheel, which reduces the man hours needed to paint by 26 man-hours per set.
                
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        A rotational plate is welded together, Aug 22, 2013 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Two Airmen from MacDill co-engineered a way to centrifugally mount a KC-135 Stratotanker’s nose and main landing wheel on a rotating base, which reduces a wheel’s paint process by 50 percent.130822-F-JP000-253
                        
                        
                        A rotational plate is welded together, Aug 22, 2013 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Two Airmen from MacDill co-engineered a way to centrifugally mount a KC-135 Stratotanker’s nose and main landing wheel on a rotating base, which reduces a wheel’s paint process by 50 percent.
                
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Technicians coengineer cost-saver with a spinPublished Aug. 28, 2013
                    
                    By Staff Sgt. Brandon Shapiro
                    
                    
                    6th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
            **MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) --**As two aircraft metals technicians pondered the awkward and lengthy four-part paint process of the KC-135 Stratotanker's main landing wheel they said they had a eureka moment.
Staff Sergeants Alex Aguayo and Michael Rogers, aircraftmetals technicians with the 6th Maintenance Squadron, co-engineered a way to centrifugally mount a KC-135's nose and main landing wheel on a rotating base to allow the entire part to be painted in a single step. 
"As we watched how a wheel was painted during a routine corrosion preventative process, we both knew that there had to be a better way," Aguayo said. "Only being able to paint one side at a time, with 13 hours of cure in-between, is just not effective." 
Knowing that the wheel would need a 360-degree plane of rotation for even and efficient paint application, the two started with the construction of a heavy-duty, ball-bearing mounted turntable. 
Once the turntable prototype met their strength and operational standards, they moved on to the second most important part -- the wheel mounting stand. 
"We observed the paint process (of the wheel) and knew then, that the part needed to be up and off the ground," Aguayo said. "A solid, yet functional stand, needed to be implemented." 
The two crafted an angular, tri-point mounting bracket to hold the wheel and welded a base that was sturdy enough so that they could double the proficiency by adding a second wheel workstation, or WWS.
After hours of planning and multiple prototypes, the new WWS was finally complete.
"This is the kind of thing we do all the time,"  Aguayo said and chuckled. "We think up designs that can simplify a process and we build them. I'm just glad that we could do our part to save the Air Force money, by reducing man-hours." 
When the first WWS rolled off the assembly line and over to the paint crew, it was received with arms wide open.
"The stand is amazing, it works great," Staff Sgt. Braden Foley, a aircraft structural technician with the6th MXS. "Before the WWS we were stuck painting one side at a time, now we paint both sides and have cut out 13 hours of cure time. The process has been cut in half."
Because of the success that the WWS is having at MacDill AFB, other KC-135 bases have taken a vested interest in Aguayo and Rogers design. It is quite possible, officials said, that the WWS could become a newly-benchmarked painting aid Air Force-wide.innovation 



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