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US 11,767,436 B2Granted
Thermal and cold spray plastic coating covering vehicle fasteners inside fuel tank for lightning strike and other electromagnetic protection
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorWeidong Song
Life of this patent
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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.
Claims21
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 1×105 to about 1×1011 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.
9 more elements
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 1×105 to about 1×1011 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.
7 more elements
A method for coating an installed fastener comprising:
- delivering a thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock to a high-velocity cold sprayer, said thermoplastic polymer powder consisting of at least one of
- nylon, polyetheretherketone, polyetherketoneketone, polyamide, polyphenylsulfide, polyphenylsulfone, polysulfone, and polyetheramide;
- delivering an amount of conductive material feedstock to a high-velocity cold sprayer, said conductive material feedstock comprising an average particle size ranging from about 5 μm to about 80 μm;
- forming a tunable electrically conductive thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock, said tunable electrically conductive thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock tunable in real time;
- forming a tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic polymer coating material requiring no curing;
- depositing an amount of the tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic coating material directly onto a substrate surface to directly contact and coat an installed fastener and a fastener/substrate interface perimeter;
- directly coating the installed fastener and the fastener/substrate interface perimeter with the tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic coating material;
- adhering the tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic coating material to at least one of the installed fastener and the fastener/substrate interface at 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 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.
7 more elements
A method for directly coating an installed fastener comprising:
- delivering a tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock mixture to a high-velocity cold sprayer, said tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock mixture comprising:
- a first thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock, said first thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock consisting of at least one of nylon, polyetheretherketone, polyetherketoneketone, polyamide, polyphenylsulfide, polyphenylsulfone, polysulfone, and polyetheramide;
- a second thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock, said second thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock consisting of at least one of:
- nylon, polyetheretherketone, polyetherketoneketone, polyamide, polyphenylsulfide, polyphenylsulfone, polysulfone, and polyetherimide;
- a conductive powder feedstock, said conductive powder feedstock comprising at least one of titanium, nickel alloy, copper, carbon black, graphene powder, and carbon nanotubes;
- forming a tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic polymer coating material requiring no curing;
- directing the tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic polymer coating material from the high-velocity cold sprayer to the installed fastener and the fastener/substrate interface perimeter;
- spray-depositing an amount of the tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic polymer coating material directly onto the installed fastener and the fastener/substrate interface perimeter;
- directly contacting and coating the installed fastener and the fastener/substrate interface
- perimeter with the tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic polymer coating material;
- adhering the tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic polymer coating material to the fastener at 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;
- wherein the relative percentage by volume of conductive powder feedstock present in the tunable electrically dissipative thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock mixture ranges from about 1% to about 9% by volume;
- and
- wherein the first thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock is different from the second thermoplastic polymer powder feedstock.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.