Thermal and cold spray plastic coating covering vehicle fasteners inside fuel tank for lightning strike and other electromagnetic protection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11767436-B2
Application number	US-201816052015-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 1, 2018
Priority date	Aug 1, 2018
Publication date	Sep 26, 2023
Grant date	Sep 26, 2023

Abstract

Tunable thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock formulations and tunable conductive thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock formulations are disclosed for delivery to a high-velocity sprayer, along with tunable coatings made from the disclosed formulations and methods for coating installed fasteners, and fasteners, fastener/substrate interfaces and substrates coated with the tunable thermoplastic polymer coatings.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An assembly comprising:
a first substrate, said first substrate comprising a first substrate surface;
a second substrate, said second substrate comprising a second substrate surface;
an installed fastener positioned at a fastener/substrate interface, said installed fastener configured to join the first substrate and the second substrate to form a fastener/substrate interface perimeter, said fastener/substrate interface perimeter occurring at at least one of the first substrate surface and the second substrate surface; and
a tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material requiring no curing, said tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material configured to directly contact and coat the installed fastener and further configured to directly contact and coat the fastener/substrate interface perimeter to form an electrically dissipative restricted access coated fastener and an electrically dissipative restricted access coated fastener/substrate interface perimeter, said tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material consisting of:
a thermoplastic polymer consisting of at least one of nylon, polyetheretherketone, polyetherketoneketone, polyamide, polyphenylsulfide, polyphenylsulfone, polysulfone, and polyetherimide;
an amount of conductive material said conductive material comprising an average particle size ranging from about 5 μm to about 80 μm;

wherein the relative percentage by volume of conductive material present in the tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material ranges from about 1% to about 9% by volume;
wherein the tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material density ranges from about 1.0 to about 1.8 g/cc;
wherein the tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material has a resistivity value ranging from about 1×10 5 to about 1×10 11 ohm-m; and
wherein the tuned electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material has an adhesion ranging from about 5 to about 50 lbs./in wide area as determined by ASTM D6862-11(2016) Standard Test Method for 90° Peel Resistance.

2. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the conductive material comprises at least one of titanium, nickel alloy, copper, carbon black, graphene powder, and carbon nanotubes.

3. An object comprising the assembly of claim 1 .

4. The assembly of claim 1 , wherein the tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic coating material has a resistivity value ranging from about 1×10 5 to about 1×10 8 ohm-m.

5. An object comprising the assembly of claim 2 .

6. The object of claim 3 , wherein the object is a vehicle selected from the group consisting of: a manned aircraft, an unmanned aircraft, a manned spacecraft, an unmanned spacecraft, a manned rotorcraft, an unmanned rotorcraft, a manned terrestrial vehicle, a unmanned terrestrial vehicle, a unmanned terrestrial vehicle, a manned hovercraft, an unmanned hovercraft, a manned surface water borne vehicle, an unmanned surface water borne vehicle, a manned sub-surface water borne vehicle, and an unmanned sub-surface water borne vehicle.

7. The object of claim 5 , wherein the object is a vehicle, said vehicle selected from the group consisting of: a manned aircraft, an unmanned aircraft, a manned spacecraft, an unmanned spacecraft, a manned rotorcraft, an unmanned rotorcraft, a manned terrestrial vehicle, a unmanned terrestrial vehicle, a unmanned terrestrial vehicle, a manned surface water borne vehicle, an unmanned surface water borne vehicle a manned sub-surface water borne vehicle, and an unmanned sub-surface water borne vehicle.

8. The assembly of claim 1 , wherein the tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material comprises:
a first thermoplastic polymer material comprising at least one of nylon, polyetheretherketone, polyetherketoneketone, polyamide, polyphenylsulfide, polyphenylsulfone, polysulfone, and polyetheramide; and
a second thermoplastic polymer material comprising at least one of nylon, polyetheretherketone, polyetherketoneketone, polyamide, polyphenylsulfide, polyphenylsulfone, polysulfone, and polyetheramide; and
wherein the first thermoplastic polymer material is different from the second thermoplastic polymer material.

9. The assembly of claim 1 , wherein the tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material further comprises a thermoplastic fluoroelastomer.

10. An electrically dissipative high-velocity spray-deposited thermoplastic fastener coating for coating a fastener and a fastener/substrate interface perimeter, said electrically dissipative high-velocity spray-deposited thermoplastic fastener coating consisting of:
a thermoplastic polymer consisting of at least one of: nylon, polyetheretherketone, polyetherketoneketone, polyamide, polyphenylsulfide, polyphenylsulfone, polysulfone, and polyetheramide;
an amount of conductive material said conductive material comprising an average particle size ranging from about 5 μm to about 80 μm;
wherein the thermoplastic polymer is combined with the amount of conductive material to form a tunable electrically dissipative spay-deposited thermoplastic polymer fastener coating material, said electrically dissipative spay-deposited thermoplastic polymer fastener coating material configured to coat an installed fastener and a fastener/substrate interface perimeter, said tunable electrically dissipative spay-deposited thermoplastic polymer fastener coating material requiring no curing;
wherein the relative percentage by volume of conductive material present in the tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer fastener coating material ranges from about 1% to about 9% by volume;
wherein the tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer fastener coating material density ranges from about 1.0 to about 1.8 g/cc;
wherein the tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer fastener coating material has a resistivity value ranging from about 1×10 5 to about 1×10 11 ohm-m;
wherein the tuned electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material has an adhesion ranging from about 5 to about 50 lbs./in wide area as determined by ASTM D6862-11(2016) Standard Test Method for 90° Peel Resistance; and
wherein the tunable electrically dissipative spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer coating material is configured to directly contact and coat an installed fastener and further is configured to directly contact and coat the fastener/substrate interface a fastener/substrate interface perimeter to form an electrically dissipative restricted access coated fastener.

11. The electrically dissipative high-velocity spray-deposited thermoplastic fastener coating of claim 10 , wherein the conductive material comprises at least one of titanium, nickel alloy, copper, carbon black, graphene powder, and carbon nanotubes.

12. The electrically dissipative high-velocity spray-deposited thermoplastic fastener coating of claim 10 , wherein the tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic polymer fastener coating material has a resistivity value ranging from about 1×10 5 to about 1×10 8 ohm-m.

13. A fastener/substrate interface perimeter comprising the electrically dissipative high-velocity spray-deposited thermoplastic polymer fastener coating of claim 10 .

14. A fastener/substrate interface perimeter comprising the

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Song Weidong

Classifications

• B05B13/0431

  with spray heads moved by robots or articulated arms, e.g. for applying liquid or other fluent material to three-dimensional [3D] surfaces · CPC title

• C09D5/24 Primary

  Electrically-conducting paints {(conductive materials H01B1/00)} · CPC title

• C09D161/16 Primary

  of ketones with phenols · CPC title

• C23C4/02

  Pretreatment of the material to be coated, e.g. for coating on selected surface areas · CPC title

• C23C4/04

  characterised by the coating material · CPC title