Spray Depositable, High Temperature Nanoporous Thermal Barrier Coatings for Aircraft Structures

To protect outer wing panels of military aircraft from undesirable mechanical deterioration and fatigue effects from cyclic exposure to high temperature engine exhaust, NanoSonic has designed and qualified innovative spray depositable nanoporous thermal barrier coatings with exceptional thermal insulation and environmental durability within demanding aerospace environments. This coating technology will serve as a replacement for MIL-PRF-85285 paints and has demonstrated compatibility with MIL-PRF-23377 / MIL-PRF-85582 primers. Throughout the design process, the interrelationships between coating porosity / thermal insulation, aerospace environmental durability and spray depositability were continuously optimized to produce thermal barrier coatings that may be used with MIL-PRF-85582 primers to protect aircraft surfaces from high temperature engine exhaust (>350 oC). The principal objectives of the Phase II SBIR program are to demonstrate optimized coatings meet MIL-PRF-85285 durability requirements, protect aircraft structures from mechanical deterioration / fatigue effects resulting from cyclic exposure to high temperature engine exhaust and may be integrated within military aircraft in place of MIL-PRF-85285 paints for greater component lifetimes and lower life cycle costs. NanoSonic has recently scaled up production of related nanocomposite resins to 55-gallon production quantities and may leverage this infrastructure for gracefully transitioning this coating technology to a broad spectrum of DoD platforms.