Technology Transfer

Launch Pad Coating Protects More Structures

A PROTECTIVE COATING USED FOR THE SPACE Shuttle and expendable launch vehicle (ELV) rocket engines is helping to protect a variety of structures, ranging from industrial plants to bridges to ships at sea. The coating, developed for NASA by Ameron International Corporation of Pasadena, California, to withstand the high temperatures generated by the Shuttle and ELV engines, is incorporated in some general-purpose formulations for the company's commercial customers.

A line of products formulated from this technology, called PSX, can be applied in one coat directly over the inorganic zinc primer with no need for a mid-coat. Therefore, it offers reduced application time and labor for general structural steel applications. Also, the product has long-term durability and is excellent for the most severe environments.

One of these products, PSX-700, designed for exceptional weatherability, corrosion control and long-lasting protection, is intended for such uses as bridges and marine structures, industrial plants, tanks, piping and transportation vehicles, including boats and barges. Early versions of the product were applied and evaluated at Kennedy Space Center's Beach Corrosion Test Site, and the data generated were used in its final version.

Another product, PSX-738, is designed to withstand twice as much continuous heat as conventional heat-resistant coatings (more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit). This product is capable of protecting both carbon steel and stainless steel, even under insulation.

A new application of the PSX technology, which uses a custom-modified silicone intermediate, is a polysiloxane-phenolic resin for firewater piping systems in marine and offshore environments. The pipe can survive fire and deliver pressurized water where it is needed at the critical moment. These noncorrosive pipes replace steel pipes in high-pressure, high-heat and wet and dry deluge systems on ships and oil platforms.

NASA needed coatings that could protect the launch pad structures from the temperatures and acids generated by the blast of the Space Shuttle's rocket engines. The coating had to remain intact and insulate the launch pad so that its steel would not heat above 150 degrees Fahrenheit and buckle. Also, NASA wanted a sprayable coating that would cope for long periods with the heat, humidity and ultraviolet attack of the intense Florida sunlight at Kennedy Space Center.

For the NASA assignment, Ameron created an extra-high-temperature-resistant formulation of its engineered Siloxane® PSX chemistry, employing an inorganic silicon-oxygen structure stronger and more reliable than the carbon-based structure in organic polymers. The coating has been successfully applied to the launch pads for the Boeing Delta rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base and to other launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral complex.

For more information, contact Lewis Parrish at Kennedy Space Center.
Call: 407/867-6373, E-mail:ParriLM@kscgws00.ksc.nasa.gov
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

A protective coating for the high temperatures generated by the Space Shuttle is used for other products in Earth's severe environments.