Ultraviolet Curable Powder Coatings & Robotics for Aerospace Applications

Powder Coatings produce a superior durable coating, while reducing/eliminating hazardous waste and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), and do so at a lower cost than solvent-borne coatings.  Powder coatings are generally classified as non-hazardous waste, and have little if any disposal or compliance costs.  Powder coatings also eliminate the costly recordkeeping burden associated with solvent-borne paint hazardous waste.  Powder coatings eliminate volatile organic compound (VOC) paint emissions.  VOCs are precursors to ground level ozone, a pollutant that is problematic for many regions.

Temperature-sensitive substrates such as aluminum and magnesium are used in the manufacture and sustainment of weapon systems and ground support equipment. This project will demonstrate, validate and implement a VOC/HAP-free, ultraviolet -cure powder coating (UVCPC) on DoD depot production hardware to replace solvent-borne organic coatings. UVCPC significantly reduces energy use by not requiring curing ovens, and it also cuts turnaround times from days to hours. Large, bulky and oversized objects can be powder coated and cured. Only the powder needs to be heated to melting, the substrate is exposed to less heat for shorter periods of time. Lower temperature, shorter heating times reduce both the energy costs and return-to-service times with this process.  Combining reduced process times with high transfer efficiencies of powder coatings results in less expense, to apply powder coatings. This project utilizes improved formulation of an existing UV-curable powder in a side-by-side demonstration with current existing wet paint system (MIL-PRF-23377J & MIL-PRF-85285D). The use of state-of-the-art-robotics is being demonstrated. Robot integration with both Infrared and UV light sources has been completed. A demonstration of the robotic curing system was accomplished with government stakeholders in July 2009. The project has demonstrated robotic curing of the UVCPC on a fiberglass radome. Powder application and robotic UV curing to additional demonstration components began in early 2011.