Waterproofing Cargo Airdrop Equipment

The U.S. Army is interested in the development of innovative coating technologies to allow current U.S. Army airdrop related hardware and equipment to survive fresh and salt water operations with increased reliability and without damage and significant maintenance impact. Resodyn Corporation proposes for development a durable, moisture-impermeable, thermoplastic coating material to address the U.S. Army’s need under consideration. The coating will be in essence functionalized polyethylene (FPE) powder coating material capable to strongly adhere to steel, aluminum and textile (nylon) surfaces without causing any degradation to any of the abovementioned substrates. The proposed coating material will be suitable for both retrofitting existent airdrop hardware at the U.S. Army depot-level and coating brand new hardware at the OEM level. Phase I feasibility was demonstrated by successfully formulating and testing several FPE-based material candidates, both in the presence and in the absence of a primer, and then selecting the best performing and most promising material candidate for Phase II developments.