Thermal and Optical Control Coatings

Thermal control coatings are specialized materials applied to surfaces to manage heat by controlling solar reflectance, absorptance, and emittance properties. They're critical in space applications where traditional cooling methods don't work, and components must manage extreme temperature variations through radiation alone.

The right coating ensures sensitive equipment operates within its designed temperature range despite exposure to direct solar radiation or deep space conditions.

Design decisions significantly impact coating performance by affecting application uniformity, adhesion, and long-term reliability. Factors like surface geometry, edge conditions, and material transitions all influence how effectively a coating can be applied and maintained.

Early design considerations can prevent issues like coating thickness variations, edge failures, and processing complications that might compromise thermal control properties.

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You should involve a coating manufacturing partner as early as possible in your design process—ideally during the initial concept phase. Early collaboration provides significant advantages: our engineering team can identify potential manufacturing challenges before they become costly design changes, recommend geometry modifications that maintain thermal performance while improving coating application, and help optimize critical surface transitions.

This collaborative approach has saved our partners months of development time and significant redesign costs. For example, small modifications to edge geometry or masking features can dramatically improve coating uniformity and long-term reliability without compromising thermal performance.

With space applications in particular, where coating performance directly impacts mission success, this early partnership ensures your design balances optimal thermal control with manufacturing feasibility.

Our coating process ensures consistent thermal properties through rigorous control at every step of application. We begin with comprehensive surface preparation including precisely controlled Scotch Brite or bead blasting to create the optimal surface profile for coating adhesion. Our water break free cleaning and solvent treatment removes all contaminants that could affect coating performance.

Our spray application takes place in a controlled environment with precise temperature and humidity regulation. We utilize automated spray equipment with programmed application parameters to ensure uniform coating thickness across all critical surfaces. Between application and cure phases, we maintain strict environmental controls to prevent contamination.

The multi-stage curing process follows carefully developed temperature profiles specific to each coating type, ensuring complete polymerization and optimal thermal performance properties. Every component undergoes comprehensive inspection using calibrated equipment to verify coating thickness, adhesion, and visual quality.

For space and defense applications, we can provide documented verification of solar absorptance and emittance properties to ensure your components will perform as designed in their operational environment.