DEVELOPMENT OF THE RADCOAT PROCESS FOR THE APPLICATION OF SOLVENT-FREE COATINGS

THERE ARE SEVERE CONCERNS AND INCREASING RESTRICTIONS REGARDING THE CONTENT OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS (VOCS) IN CONVENTIONAL SOLVENT-BASED COATINGS. EXISTING APPROACHES FOR REDUCING VOC EMISSIONS, SUCH AS THE USE OF CUT-BACK SOLVENT TECHNOLOGY AND HIGH TEMPERATURE COATING PROCESSES, HAVE LIMITATIONS AND PROBLEMS. THUS, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO DEVELOP NEW COATING PROCESSES WHICH TOTALLY ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR VOCS. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP SUCH A PROCESS, TERMED THE RADCOAT PROCESS, WHICH USES ULTRAVIOLET (UV) OR ELECTRON BEAM (EB) RADIATION TO RAPIDLY POLYMERIZE SOLVENT-FREE COATINGS OF MONOMER/OLIGOMER MATERIALS (LIQUID ORGANIC MATERIALS OF LOW MOLECULAR WEIGHT) AS THEY ARE APPLIED. MANY RADIATION CURABLE COMPOUNDS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED RECENTLY WHICH ARE NOW BEING USED IN INDUSTRY AS WEAR-RESISTANT COATINGS ON FLAT-SHEET MATERIALS. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THE RADCOAT PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP A NEW AND INNOVATIVE PROCESS, WHICH USES NO VOCS, FOR APPLYING COATINGS TO CONTOURED SURFACES SUCH AS ENCOUNTERED WITH AIRCRAFT AND OTHER MILITARY EQUIPMENT. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS, THE FOLLOWING PHASE I TASKS WILL BE UNDERTAKEN: (1) PERFORM TRADE-OFF STUDIES TO COMPARE UV AND EB APPROACHES AND TO SELECT THE ONE BEST SUITED FOR THE RADCOAT PROCESS; (2) DESIGN AND CONSTRUCT A SMALL-SCALE, PROOF-OF-PRINCIPLE EXPERIMENT TO CHARACTERIZE THE PROCESS; (3) PERFORM EXPERIMENTS TO DEMONSTRATE THE EFFICACY OF THE RADCOAT CONCEPT ON SAMPLE AIRCRAFT SUBSTRATE PANELS AND (4) DEVELOP THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN FOR A FULL-SCALE RADCOAT SYSTEM TO BE DEMONSTRATED IN PHASE II. IF THIS PROJECT IS SUCCESSFUL, A NEW AND INNOVATIVE COATING TECHNOLOGY WILL BE DEMONSTRATED WHICH ENTIRELY ELIMINATES VOCS. THIS WILL SOLVE AN URGENT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM AND PROVIDE A NEW, HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PROCESS FOR APPLYING HIGH QUALITY COATINGS IN NUMEROUS MILITARY APPLICATIONS.