AEROSPACE COATINGS
PROTECTING THE NEXT FRONTIER
From ancient viking explorers to Columbus’s search for a new trade route to Asia and the United States’ manifest destiny, humans have always sought to explore the unknown. At the beginning of the 20th century, mankind created its most powerful exploratory tool yet: the airplane. Since the Wright brothers first flew in 1903, we’ve been captivated by flight, and went from first leaving the ground to landing on the surface of the moon in only 65 years. Today, the aerospace industry is among the largest manufacturing industries worldwide, realizing marvelous feats of engineering that would be nothing short of magic to people only a little more than a century ago.
Now, with a burgeoning privatized space industry and the rapid growth of air travel, the aerospace industry is bursting with potential and working tirelessly to develop the next generation of air and spacecraft. These new testaments to human ingenuity will operate under more strenuous conditions than ever before, flying higher, farther, longer, and faster, while also being safer, more efficient, and with novel capabilities. Achieving the industry’s ambitious goals requires advanced solutions capable of protecting aircraft while also improving their performance, and polyurea and polyurethane aerospace coatings are two materials technologies that can achieve both objectives simultaneously. For new aerospace vehicles exploring the next frontier across the solar system to previous and current generations of aircraft in need of upgrades or repairs, aerospace coatings are a robust solution for safer and higher perforation aerospace vehicles.
HOW DO AEROSPACE COATINGS BENEFIT
AIR AND SPACECRAFT?
Aerospace vehicles like airplanes, helicopters, drones, and spaceships are far more complex machines than your typical consumer vehicle, and operate under exceedingly strenuous conditions. Extreme weather, low temperatures and pressures, high mechanical stress, punishing radiation, and countless other risk factors threaten catastrophe with only one small engineering mistake or overlooked repair. Moreover, it’s not just the worst case scenario we need to worry about; aerospace vehicles and components can weather and degrade rapidly under their demanding operating conditions to require frequent and costly repairs and causing less efficient air or space travel that can further exacerbate cost concerns.
Aerospace coatings help alleviate the risks of unsafe and financially unsustainable aerospace vehicles, protecting them and their inhabitants from serious accidents and an untimely retirement. They can help resist chemical corrosion, support thermal management, withstand physical impacts, and improve fuel efficiency and aerodynamics. This translates to a longer lifespan, maintenance and operational cost savings, and better performance in almost any environment. So whether you’re the proud owner of a single engine Cessna, responsible for a fleet of airliners, or at the forefront of space innovation, aerospace coatings are an invaluable technology capable of enhancing your aerospace vehicles.
