impact on the environment,” said
Griffin. “Every dollar or euro saved by
painting an aircraft faster, delaying
paint operations due to better durability and weathering characteristics, and
reducing hazardous waste disposal contributes to the airline’s success.”
It is no secret that the future of
aerospace coatings is greener products. The market is demanding lower
VOC/HAP levels and a reduction in
toxic constituents with no compromise
in performance.
“Customers demanding greener
products that also reduce cycle times,
improve performance and durability
to help reduce costs is a major challenge for our technical team,” said
Griffin. “We have made significant
advances that will deliver greener,
higher performance products.”
AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings recently launched the Aerowave series of
waterborne structural coatings, which
includes a corrosion inhibiting primer,
topcoat and composite primer, all
approved by Airbus and all with a VOC
content less than 250g/L.
For the general aviation segment,
AkzoNobel has launched Alumigrip
4001 and 4101 chrome-free, high solids
primers. The Alumigrip 4001 is a dual
purpose primer and sanding surfacer,
eliminating one step in the exterior
painting process.
“We are putting significant resources
towards eliminating chrome from all our
products,” said Griffin. “Utilizing magne-sium-based pigments has proven, in laboratory testing, to be as effective as chromates in preventing corrosion on high
strength aluminum alloys. Also, unlike
traditional chrome-free primers, this
new technology is not reliant on chrome
pretreatments to be effective. We expect
the technology to be approved by the military and commercial sectors and commercialized in early 2010.”
Deft has continued its development of
reduced VOC primers and topcoats. It
offers complete chrome-free paint systems, conversion coatings, primers and
improved exterior durability topcoats for
both military and commercial markets.
On the military front, Deft’s current
projects include the F- 15 repaint program at Robins Air Force Base with
Deft 02GN084 chrome-free primer; the
F-35 JSF program for new airplanes
and Boeing’s Apache Helicopter program with Deft 44GN098 chrome-free
primer; Boeing Military has approved
and is using Deft 02GN084 and
44GN098 for their F- 15 program; the A-
10 program at Nellis Air Force Base
with the 02GN84 chrome-free primer;
Nellis is also using the 02GN84 on their
F- 16 program; Lockheed has approved
the use of 44GN098 for the F- 22 Raptor
program; and lastly, Boeing KC-767 has
approved the use of 02GN084 for the
Italian fuel tanker program.
In terms of primer technology, Deft
was the first paint company to develop
new generation fluorinated APC
(advanced performance coating) polyurethane topcoats qualified to MIL-
PRF-85285 specification. “The U.S. Air
Force is exclusively using this material
as the exterior topcoat on all of their airplanes,” said Athanasopoulos. “
Fluorinated topcoats provide five to seven
years of exterior durability where the
conventional polyurethanes provide at
best two to three years of exterior durability. The first airplane to receive the
Deft APC was the C- 17 in 1997-1998.”
Water-based technology for primers
has been around for more than 20 years,
according to Athanasopoulos. “Deft has
been providing commercial and military
primers qualified to the Army, Boeing,
Bombardier, Gulfstream, Lockheed
Martin, the Navy and Northrop
Grumman specifications,” he said. “In
addition, Mapaero, a Deft licensee has
qualified the Deft water-based primer
chemistry and are manufacturing it in
France for Airbus Industries. The advantages of water-based primer technology
has dominated the primer business and
looks like it will eventually replace high-solids solvent-based products.
In terms of topcoat technology, Deft
has been involved in the development
of water-based polyurethane topcoats
and have qualified to MIL-PRF-85285
specification, but according to
Athanasopoulos, use of such product
is limited and does not look like it will
replace the fluorinated technology.
Deft has made a commitment to the
development of a complete chrome-free
system for the military including
chrome-free conversion coating, chrome-free primer and APC fluorinated topcoat.
“Our research effort in the development
of a chrome-free conversion coating is
progressing and we are looking to filed
test our chrome-free system some time
in the third quarter of this year with the
F- 15 program,” said Athanasopoulos.
The Boeing Commercial 787 program
recently qualified Deft to BMS 10-125
exterior decorative topcoat for composite
airplanes using fluorinated chemistry,
and BMS 10-126 exterior primary topcoat for composite structures. All Nippon
Airways’ (ANA) launch for the 787 will
be the first airline to receive the BMS-
125 fluorinated exterior topcoat.
CLEAR SKIES AHEAD
Despite the current recession and its
effect on business, the coatings manufacturers we spoke with are optimistic that business will pick up.
“The aerospace market in general is
cyclical, particularly the commercial
and general aviation segments. While
volumes are down commensurate with
the overall economy, we know that it
will pick up again in the future,” said
Griffin. “AkzoNobel is in this business
for the long haul and we continue to
invest to make sure we can deliver the
products and technologies our customers require in the future. The cyclical nature of this market will cause it to
rebound as the world economy recovers.
Over the long term demand for air travel will continue to grow with the
increase in world populations.”
“The future of the aerospace coatings
market is looking very good due to the
need to provide improved and environmentally-friendly coatings and the need
for new technologies to protect new
exterior surfaces,” said Athanasopoulos.
“This will be a challenge for paint manufacturers and it will be important to
invest in research moving forward.
“Airline industry woes will continue
until we see improvements in the global business environment, improvements in the recession and an increase
in air travel,” said Athanasopoulos. “In
addition, the cost of fuel will need to
stabilize. With these factors under
control we can again start seeing a
healthy airline industry.” CW
