Advanced Manufacturing Technology for Coatings and Coating Systems

OUSD (R&E) MODERNIZATION PRIORITY: Space TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Materials OBJECTIVE: Increase confidence in the surface treatments industrial base to provide critical coatings when necessary. Increase yield of coating processes and decrease human factors that degrade product quality. DESCRIPTION: The Government utilizes coatings within its systems and for advanced manufacturing processes, however, coating procurement, such as electroplating, has presented risks due to the number of processing variables, the human touch-time factors, and sometimes environmental concerns. The industry struggles to advance in these areas as profit margins are often too small to justify manufacturing technology improvements. The Government is interested in tools, techniques, systems, and/or material replacements to improve coatings manufacturing technology. Ideally, coating systems would be easier to control and environmentally safer than current market options. An example of space relevant coatings would include electroplating of precious metals. The solution would result in a higher availability of high quality coatings, either via coatings providers or as systems to be installed with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM)s. One area of special interest are the dielectric or insulating coatings on tool-pieces used in electro-chemical machining (ECM). ECM appears to be a promising technique for micro-machining a large number of smooth narrow channels in the heat exchangers and injectors used in missile defense power electronic or aerospace systems. Improved coatings should not only improve the ECM precision but should also reduce ECM environmental impact by increasing tool lifetime and minimizing hazardous waste. These coatings should be very thin, uniform (without any breaks), well-adhered to the tool surface, and resistant to both applied voltages and the harsh/corrosive process environment. The Government currently envisions a non-exclusive R&D partnership between ECM suppliers and coating suppliers. ECM suppliers would provide requirements, fabricate the tool substrates, and test the coated tools during representative machining trials. Coating suppliers would prepare the tool surface, apply the coats, characterize the coats, and investigate any coating failures. Other arrangements would be considered. Advanced coatings for other micro-machining techniques that are similar to ECM would also be considered as long as it can be shown that these coatings would improve the technique's performance (for missile-defense applications), increase its commercialization prospects, and reduce its environmental footprint. PHASE I: Establish the technical basis of the solution, with small scale validation and theoretical analysis of the effectiveness. The effort might include small scale design of experiments on test coupons and materials testing. PHASE II: Down select any competing technologies and provide more extensive testing. If the solution purposes new apparatus, prototypes should be developed for technology demonstration. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Demonstrate the solution in relevant test environments, through collaboration with OEMs, or whoever the next higher tier user would be. The technology should be further developed for commercial applicability. REFERENCES: https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1596174. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3928744. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-06/documents/electroplating_comm_info.pdf. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286774967_Study_of_coated_microtools_in_electrochemical_machining_ECM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrochemical_machining. KEYWORDS: Electrochemical Machining, Electro-Chemical Machining, ECM, PECM, Atomic Layer Deposition, ALD, Diamond-like Coatings, DLC, Electroplating, Metal Deposition