Affordable, UV-Resistant Composite Materials for Military Shelters

For the past year and a half, WebCore has been applying its "Fiber Reinforced Foam" (FRF) sandwich panel technology toward the development of an 8' by 8' by 20' ISO-container-configured Composite Tactical Shelter (CTS) design. FRF composite panels have been shown to possess superior strength and damage tolerance compared to conventional composite panels. This development has been ongoing under two SBIR projects. This proposal describes the work which will extend efforts begun under Phase I (Air Force Contract F42650-03-2757), which largely focused on thermosets, and expand to include WebCore's "thick skin" hybrid thermoplastic/thermoset technology. The objective of this program is to identify mature and emerging film and coating technologies which can provide ultra-violet (UV) protection, and to demonstrate their processability in shelter panels. Due to the rigorous use that shelters see, the resulting solutions must not only offer UV protection, but also not degrade any other important shelter properties such as impact and flame resistance. This program will also establish procedures to repair accidental damage to shelter panels, including either structural damage, or damage to the UV durability system. In addition, this program will include the development of servicing procedures for renewal of the UV protection if necessary.