Nonskid Ship Deck Coatings

Creare is currently working to combine novel high-strength materials with cutting edge thermal-spray application processes to form nontraditional nonskid deck coatings for Navy ships. Traditional nonskid deck coatings based on epoxy cannot reliably withstand the impact and wear conditions experienced in the aircraft landing zones of Aircraft Carriers and Wasp-class Amphibious Assault Ships (LHDs). Ship operations involving vertical landing aircraft, such as the existing AV-8B Harrier and the future Joint Strike Fighter, demand even greater performance than currently required, due to the high temperature jet exhaust that such aircraft direct at the deck.

The photo below shows a Creare technician in the early stages of upgrading a subcontractor’s primitive, linear, rail-mounted translation system into an automated x-y coating deposition sprayer that Creare demonstrated in an aircraft runway field trial at the Patuxent River Naval Air Base. The availability of the runway and the schedule for Navy aircraft tests required transition of the nonskid deposition technology from the laboratory to a field setting in roughly four weeks without compromise in the coating quality. The robotic spray system applied the nonskid coating as 8 ft. x 8 ft. test patches in the landing zone.

An actual field trial was required to obtain meaningful nonskid performance data, since no laboratory test currently exists that adequately simulates the aggressive impact and wear conditions near aircraft arresting cable zones on Carriers. Navy jets conducted landing tests on the test patches for approximately one week. Post-test nonskid evaluations showed the overall good performance of the coating and identified materials issues for further optimization.