Nanocoated Steel Aircraft Tie-Down Fitting

The Navy seeks an alternate method to extend the life of aircraft deck tie-down fittings in highly corrosive marine environments. The current primer takes damage from the persistent abrasion applied by the tensioner hook, making the underlying steel more susceptible to corrosion and wear. This directly results in an increased maintenance burden on the Navy. Due to the sheer quantity and critical function of these components, it is critical to develop and extended life tie-down to increase U.S. carrier fleet surge-readiness. In Phase I, Mainstream Engineering demonstrated an electroplated, nano-reinforced coating with a 44% reduction in wear rate. The coating was successfully applied to both planar and curved surfaces, and showed equivalent corrosion resistance to the current polyamide epoxy coating. The Phase II Base will focus on optimizing the coating conditions, designing plating systems for coating complex components, and developing a welding procedure for the coated tie-down. In the Phase II Option I, we will increase the plating scale, demonstrate tie-down installation, and determine alternate penetration points for the technology. In the Phase II Option II we will progress toward pilot production scale for the tie-down coating and demonstrate its performance on the previously identified alternate components.