http://www.asetsdefense.org/Teaming website: www.materialoptions.com

K

Rowan Technolo

Libe

4/2008 Washingto

Greening DoD Surface Finishing O
And, has thou slain the Jabberwoc

We still mostly use the old standbys Vats of Cd and 

hard chrome

 Oceans of 

chromate conversion coatings

 Barrels of 

chromated primer

Alternativeproduction

 Sta

co

 Ele

Zn

 Ch

pri

 Ch

me
Recent workshops

 Surface Finishing and Repair Iss

Sustaining New Military Aircraft, 2008

 Chromate Alternatives for Metal 

Sealing, Ogden, UT, May 2007

 Metal Finishing - Addressing Em

Regulatory Requirements, SERDPartners in Environmental TechnSymposium, Washington, Novem

 DoD Metal Finishing Workshop, 

May 2006

http://www.materialoptions.com under Meet
Chromate conversion alternatives – chromates workshop, May 2007

 DoD/industry collaboration Many commercial alternatives av

3⁄4 Cr3+ and non-Cr3⁄4 Most Cr3+ treatments contain other 

and nanoparticles

3⁄4 See Ogden meeting report

 Some are equivalent to chromate All require much more careful pre

of surface

3⁄4 Better training3⁄4 Better cleaners?3⁄4 Ways of measuring cleanliness?
Surface Finishing and Repair WorksTemp, AZ, Feb 08

Purpose Get answers to question of how t

systems with the various new maand surface treatments

 Provide a forum for engineers to  First of the ASETS Defense follo

HCAT meetings

3⁄4 Advanced Surface Engineering Tec

Sustainable Defense
Major changes and challengesChanges Non Cr primers taking over Cd could be mostly replaced 

today with Al and ZnNi

 HVOF taking over from hard Cr

3⁄4 For externals3⁄4 Electroless Ni for internals

 Quick cure (UV cure) topcoats

3⁄4 Under development

 Low T powder coat primers Alloys to replace CuBe NDI to see everything 

Challenges Not comforta

Cr6+ in the fi

 Non-chroma

much more 

 Replace a s

material with 

 Training  Qual, Qual
Alloys

 All new actuators are high 

strength stainless steel or Ti

3⁄4 No Cd3⁄4 Much better corrosion3⁄4 Still using Cd for galvanic 

compatibility with Al airframes

 CuBe bushings

3⁄4 F-35 has replaced CuBe

with Nitronic 60 throughout aircraft, except weapons bay door where >2.5” diabushings are outside size limits for Nitronic

3⁄4 Biodur (CoCrMo) looks 

better than CuBe in practice, even though Fcy is lower

 S53 hig

steel fo

3⁄4 This 

demspemet

  

3⁄4 Des

but actu

3⁄4 Mat

OE

 
Cd plate alternativesZnNi electroplate Boeing and Dipsol have 

developed LHE ZnNi

3⁄4 Few levelers, brighteners3⁄4 Looks good for many 

applications

 As good as or better than Cd Can be put into standard 

plating line

AlumiPlate Overall best 

alternative

 Becoming u Validation/q

landing gea

 No H embrit Best SO

2 sa

performance

 Requires en Sole source

Both are drop-insAlumiPlate has best performance but highest capital cost
Cd Alternative Coating Corrosion Performance on 4340 Steel*

Coating

Stress 

Corrosion 

Cracking 

(Koscc)

SCC Ranking Air Fatigue 

Ranking

Corrosio

Fatigue 

Ranking

Sputtered Al Not Tested --- --- ---

Electroplated Al

101.0 Best Best Best 

IVD-Al 52.7 Comparable 

to Cd

Best Best 

Cd 49.5 CONTROL CONTROL CONTRO

LHE Zn-Ni 56.2 > Cd Debit Debit 

Zn-6Ni 36.8 OK (less 

data)

Debit Debit 

Method

Æ RSL Method ASTM E 466; 

R=0.1; f=10/s

ASTM E 4R=0.1; f=1

* Steve Brown, Tempe, 08
AlumiPlated connectors
Hard chrome plating alternatives

 HVOF has largely taken over for 

of aircraft components

 All new commercial and military 

programs specify HVOF WC-Co 

3⁄4 Including F-35, A380, B787

 Implementation at Hill AFB

3⁄4 Phase I -Converted 38 components 3⁄4 Phase II-Converting 128 componen3⁄4 Phase III-238 parts identified, work 

Chrome replacement on interiors

 Can HVOF coat 1-1.5 diameters  For deeper holes, complex shap

use of electroless Ni-P

3⁄4 Usually recommend low-P for best h

heat treat

3⁄4 Most airframe alloys cannot take 30

 Nanophase Co-P pulse electropl

for internal chrome replacement

3⁄4 From Integran LLC in Toronto3⁄4 In final stages of testing this year
Wearin’ o’ the green – F-35 primer ch•Approved Deft 44GN098 Cr-free primer as F-35 Structural Primer•NAVAIR Completed Qualification to MilPRF-85582•Lockheed engineers now need special permission to use chromated primers•44GN098 used for Apache Longbow helicopter
Powder coating

 Painting and curing is always slo

turnaround speed in manufacture maintenance

 Powder coating much better perf

too high a cure temperature

 New Low T Cure Powder Coat u

3⁄4 250°F, 30 mins; being reduced to 17

from thermal cure to UV cure

3⁄4 Inhibitor package, eliminates VOCs 

 New UV cured topcoats under de

Foster-Miller

3⁄4 Dry-fly time from days to minutes
Mg gearboxes

 Always a bad corrosion 

problem

 Tagnite now being used in 

place of Dow Cr6+ processes

3⁄4 Better performance, less 

corrosion, less easily damaged

 Beginning to use AlumiPlated

studs and fittings instead of Cd

3⁄4 Can re-Tagnite or re-anodize 

for better performance

 Developing cold spray Al for 

repair (ARL, DSTO)

H-60 Main Tran

areas most s
ASETS Defense

HCAT has segued (Advanced Surface Technologies for a New name reflects clean surface technNew web site undeHCAT.org, now callwww.asetsdefenseNew teaming web steam interactions swww.materialoptionbut runs on differen
Surface Engineering Database

 To implement clean technologies quick

engineers need ready access to engine

surface engineering materials and procmaking engineering decisions

 There are numerous web sites for differ

none contain real engineering data, proas www.materialoptions.com site does

 New ASETS Defense passworded web

based and Database will run off it for no

 Establishment of readily available engin

some material will drive release of comdata for others

3⁄4 If companies want to sell it users need t
•SERDP and ESTCPgenerated data•All other releasable DoDdata we can get our hands on•All commercial data companies are willing to give us•Links to data held by others, e.g. NASF, NMFRC, etc.

Surface Engineering Database 

c
Summary 

 The main challenges are not lack 

but getting alternatives qualified

 Many clean technologies often p

than current methods, BUT

3⁄4 They are lot more sensitive to surfa

process control

3⁄4 They require more care and training

 Clean technologies are moving o

BUT have to move into comfort z

3⁄4 Growing experience helps3⁄4 Access to good engineering data he
More info

http://www.pfonline.com/artic

Chrome-Free Aircra

by Keith O. Legg

March 1, 2008

http://www.finishingtodaymag.com/CDA/A