Nanocomposite Thin Film Coatings

Coatings and platings, in general, are widely used in defense and commercial applications to provide a barrier between environment and substrate, improve wear characteristics, or provide novel surface properties. In the past, the term “coating” referred to a wide family of materials from simple paint to electroplating of metals such as hexavalent chromium or advanced post-process surface finishing. Most common coatings and surface finishes used in DoD weapons systems and commercial applications were originally developed decades ago without significant improvements to note.

Nanocomposite functional coatings, however, are fundamentally different in their design and application. Using techniques such as atomic layer deposition, physical vapor deposition and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, extremely thin (10nm – 12 μm) layers can be specially designed to optimize the physical properties of each application (substrate, wear, corrosion, optical emissivity, thermal conductance, hydrophobicity, etc) with multiple orders of magnitude increased performance over conventional coatings.

Brent Barbee, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of United Protective Technologies will discuss nanocomposite functional thin film coatings. A key technology to enabling modernized material properties like wear resistance, hydrophobicity, ablation, thermal management and optical permissivity to production materials with minimal weight.

Light refreshments will be provided.