in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
A deal with McGean-Rohco Singapore PTE Ltd. in October 2009
brought ten new Asian and Pacific
Rim agents to Sherwin- Williams
Aerospace’s distribution network,
offering coverage and support in
Brunei, China, India, Indonesia,
Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan,
Philippines and Thailand.
Sherwin-Williams’ European distrib-
utor, Paint Services Group, based in
Surrey, England, is now offering distri-
bution services in the Middle East and
Africa—two new, active global markets
for the aerospace market segment.
CHROME-FREE
TECHNOLOGY TAKES OFF
The aerospace industry today is demanding greener products from their
coatings suppliers that also reduce cycle
times, improve performance and
improve durability—ultimately helping
them to reduce their costs. This is a
major challenge for aircraft coating manufacturers, but significant advancements have been made to deliver green-
Sherwin-Wiliams Aerospace launches SKYscapes coating system
SKYscapes is a new basecoat and
clearcoat exterior paint system
developed by Sherwin-Williams
Aerospace. It is designed to deliver
faster processing time, more color
options and easier maintenance.
This allows aviation MRO (
maintenance, repair and overhaul)
facilities and their paint shops to
augment production schedules and
turnaround more paint jobs.
SKYscapes modified polyester topcoat is applied using a basecoat-clearcoat process in which all colors
are applied as a basecoat. After the
basecoat dries, the entire surface of
the aircraft is sprayed with a
clearcoat finish. Color coat dry time
is approximately two hours, compared to six to 10 hours for other systems. This allows shops to apply
numerous colors in a single shift and
move the aircraft more quickly
through the painting cycle.
The new paint system offers a
longer recoat time of up to 72 hours,
which means no sanding is required
between coats. Also, baking between
topcoat layers is not required.
SKYscapes improved color palette
offers nearly an infinite selection of
consistent colors that hide well and
offer features such as easy-to-apply
pearl and mica finishes.
“Commercial aircraft can now get a
business jet finish with a simpler,
faster-to-apply product,” said J. Marc
Taylor, Sherwin-Williams Aerospace
director of sales. “Livery brand image
is improved because planes look bet-
ter longer; and easier maintenance
and repair means shops can poten-
tially be more profitable and deliver
services more cost effectively.”
Another benefit is that using
SKYscapes coatings can poten-
tially deliver less overall paint
weight. For example, one coat of
this new basecoat with its higher
pigment load—teamed with a
clearcoat finish—weighs less than
two coats of a traditional pig-
mented coating. Less weight can
lead to fuel savings for airlines
and aircraft owners.
Sherwin-Williams’ SKYscapes
basecoat-clearcoat process boasts
two-hour dry time and requires no
sanding between coats.
er, higher performance products.
“The elimination of chrome from
primers and the pretreatment has and
continues to be the challenge that keeps
engineers developing new products,”
said Athanasopoulos. “Regulations like
REACH in Europe has brought another
challenge to both paint suppliers and
airframe manufacturers. Coatings qual-
ified to commercial and military specifi-
cations need to be reviewed and certi-
fied. If they do not meet requirement
reformulation becomes necessary, which
then requires requalification to the spec-
ification. This is a major expenditure for
both OEMs and paint manufacturers.”
New coating development for compos-
ite surfaces has taken place in the com-
mercial segment. Improved exterior
durability topcoats have also found their
place in the commercial market. Deft
with recent qualification to Boeing BMS
10-103, BMS 10-125, BMS 10-126 and
Bombardier 565-14 is becoming an
active player in the commercial market.
However, according to Athanasopoulos, the military has taken the
lead in the qualification of chrome-free
primers and they are looking to replace
the chrome pretreatment.
“Deft, along with other companies, has
developed and is promoting such tech-
nologies,” he said. “Deft is offering a true
self-healing conversion coating, not an
adhesion promoter, as a replacement for
Alodine 1200.”
Currently, Deft’s chrome-free sys-
tem—pretreatment and primer—is
being tested on the U.S. Airforces’ F- 15
and the Norwegian Air Force’s F- 16.
As environmental regulations direct
aerospace coatings technology, Deft has
been successful in qualifying chrome-free primers to MIL-PRF-23377 and
MIL-PRF-85582 military specifications.
“Our cutting edge technology for commercial and military fluorinated topcoats
has been another success story for Deft
with the qualification to Boeing BMS 10-
125 and to MIL-PRF-85285 military
specifications,” said Athanasopoulos.
AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings is putting significant resource towards eliminating chrome from all its products.
“Utilizing magnesium-based pigments
has proven, in laboratory testing, to be as
effective as chromates in preventing cor-
