ENBIO have developed a novel, green, ambient temperature blast coating technique known as CoBlast. It uses a co-incident blast stream of abrasive and coating media to simultaneously remove the metal’s passivating layer while depositing a coating on the newly-exposed reactive metal surface. The process is carried out at room temperature and pressure using dry-compressed air. The process is currently used to apply thermal control coatings for Space for ESA as part of the Solar Orbiter mission. ENBIO are investigating the use of the CoBlast process to apply REACH compliant adhesive primers for the Space sector as part of a H2020 activity - OSMOSIS (757088). To determine the adhesion promotion benefits of the CoBlast coating, a modified lap shear test was conducted and samples were compared against commercial conversion coatings. CoBlast primed surfaces exhibit cohesive failure, for each exposure environment and can achieve equivalent tensile strengths to commercial conversion coatings.

Poster presentation at OZ Materials Workshop 2018, Wenden, Germany