Under Standing the Navy Fade - Color and Gloss Stability

Currently approved Navy topside coatings, silicone alkyds, have proven to have poor color and gloss stability thereby resulting in ascetically unattractive ships that are difficult to clean. Given that ship appearance is a major component in the rating of a ship, the US Navy needlessly expends significant dollars and time cosmetically coating ship topside areas due to “pinking”, chalking, and staining (running rust).  Painting for cosmetic purposes has resulted in additional topside weight which impacts ship operational stability and fuel expenditure.  Therefore, to assist the Fleet, the Naval Research Laboratory has begun an extensive program based on two efforts funded and supported by the Naval Sea Systems Command’s Capital Investment for Labor (CIL-01) and the Office of Naval Research,  Future Naval Capability (FNC) program,  to identify performance issues and develop High Performance Topside Coatings solutions.  The CIL-01 program incorporates a color and gloss evaluation (CAGE) study to determine the shortcomings in the currently approved qualified products and assessment methods of MIL-PRF-24635.  The Topside FNC is focused on finding coating systems with enhanced color and gloss stability that also incorporate low solar absorption pigments—a proven fuel savings attribute within the Fleet by reducing ship internal thermal loading.  During the CAGE study, it was determined that the qualification requirements within the military specification were insufficient to assess long term performance.   Accelerated and natural testing methods combined with early detection measurement processes were required to shorten the period of time needed to determine color and gloss degradation and mimic the natural environment ships would operate in.  Identification of existing qualified products with poor performance would lead to the identification of problematic formulations and pigment packages which could be addressed and reformulated.  This effort has led to the significant changes in testing and evaluating new technology for exterior use for the Navy.