MATERIALS3.6 New Chemical Free Black Coatings for Aerospace and Space Applications

Wednesday, June 20, 2012: 4:30 PM
212AB (Charlotte Convention Center)
Mr. J. G. Carton , EnBio Nova UCD, Dublin, Ireland
N. Cobbe , EnBio Nova UCD, Dublin, Ireland
J. O'Donoghue , EnBio Nova UCD, Dublin, Ireland
L. Pambaguian , European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, Netherlands
Mr. A. Norman , European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, Netherlands
V. Liedtke , Advanced Aerospace Composites (AAC), Seibersdorf, Austria
T. McCaul , Astrium, Stevenage, United Kingdom
For many spacecraft missions, high emissivity black body coatings are required to help manage the radiative exchange between the external surfaces of the satellite and the space environment. Although a number of thermal coatings have been developed, many suffer from issues relating to adhesion, conductivity, and ease of application. Furthermore, those coatings which contain organic components can exceed current off gassing requirements. For space applications, there is the additional complication that they must survive in a very harsh environment (vacuum, thermo-cycling, UV radiation). There is therefore a requirement for a coating technology which can produce coatings which have good adherence, are conductive, and can survive in space. Such coatings would also be of interest to the aerospace industry. In this presentation a relatively new coating technology, CoBlast, has been used to deposit a powdered material on to a titanium substrate, resulting in a black body surface. CoBlast, replaces the oxide layer of reactive metals with a fused thin surface. Unlike many other coating processes, CoBlast is uniquely non-complex, requiring no thermal input, no wet chemistry and is performed in an ambient temperature and pressure environment. A number of different coatings have been produced on a titanium substrate, and the thermo-optical properties and conductivity have been measured. Microstructural analysis was also performed and the coatings have also been subjected to thermal cycling and thermal shock tests. Subsequent analysis demonstrates that the samples survive the various tests resulting in a coating which is robust, has good adherence, high emissivity and is conductive.