Aerospace Coatings Market
May 2014 www.coatingsworld.com Coatings World | 27
driven by an emergent middle class in emerging economies and
more and more people being able to travel for leisure. Various
airlines will try to adapt their strategy to tap this demand. This
translates into demand for aircraft and associated services. We
expect this trend to continue.”
“Another driver is the need for coatings with superior, en-
hanced properties which can provide both economic value to
the customers – better throughput times, lower weigh – and
meet sustainability and environmental needs,” Vlad added.
Improved Ef;ciencies/Expanded Color
Options
According to Julie Voisin, Sherwin-Williams global product
manger for aerospace coatings, customers are looking for durability, coatings performance, distinctness of image and unique
color styling options.
“Especially when it comes to privately-owned jets, owners
want to differentiate themselves with a unique paint job so we
need to develop expanded color options,” she said. “In the case
of commercial products, speed of paint process time is also key.”
The aviation industry continues to grow in competitiveness
whether a company builds aircraft components, assembles air-
craft, ;ies them or maintains them.;
“To address the increases in competition, coatings suppliers
can support these segments of the industry with improved prod-
uct application properties, faster product drying times, lighter
weight coating systems, and longer service life,” said Cancilla.
“The coatings are also integral to the aircraft branding.; Airlines
are increasingly taking advantage of improved coatings color
capabilities resulting in fewer simple white aircraft designs with
simple logos.; We are seeing a wider variety of colors and effects
that have now become possible.; PPG has further increased the
ability of airlines and operators to paint aircraft in dark colors
without concern over solar absorption with our development of
solar re;ecting coatings.”
The aerospace coatings industry is also advancing the devel-
opment of more environmentally friendly solutions jointly with
the aviation OEMs and aftermarket segment.; The primary cor-
rosion inhibitor used in the industry is chromium.;“But new
materials have been developed which demonstrate signi;cant
corrosion resistance including PPG’s Desoprime CF/CA7502
primer and our Aerocron electrocoat primer,” Cancilla said.
“There are various types of customers in the value chain:
OEMs and their subcontractors, airlines and service/mainte-
nance providers,” said Vlad. “Each of them have a variety of
needs. For airlines a critical aspect is color. Choices in color se-
lection are often driven by their brand and the message they are
trying to convey. For us, a paint supplier, it means we need to
be able to provide a wide rang of color on a global basis and
with short delivery times. OEMs are often setting standards for
new technologies and some of the drivers here are corrosion
resistance, improved adhesion and compatibility with speci;c
substrates. Our R&D teams often work together with OEMs on
developing speci;c technologies.”
“For maintenance companies paint is only one step in a
process that involves stripping of the aircraft, cleaning, surface
treatment and painting,” she continued. “Therefore our paint
systems have to be geared toward the entire maintenance pro-
cess. It is fair to say that for all of types of customers, productiv-
ity is a key driver too, therefore our paint systems have to be
geared towards enhanced productivity.”
New Products
AkzoNobel’s most recently launched product is a basecoat
clearcoat. It can provide faster drying times and improved adhesion. “We will continue to develop paint and paint systems
with enhanced properties, taking a holistic view across the entire value chain and working with our customers towards better
performance,” Vlad said.
AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings recently announced Boeing
quali;cation of the Aerodur 3001/ 3002 Base Coat/Clear Coat
system. The newly approved Aerodur Base Coat/Clear Coat
system is quali;ed by Boeing to both the BMS 10-72, Type
10 and BMS 10-125, Type 4 speci;cations and is applicable
for use on all Boeing legacy models (777, 747, 737, 767) under BMS 10-72 as well as the Hybrid Laminar Flow areas of
Photos courtesy of AkzoNobel Aerospace
