METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR APPLYING AERODYNAMICALLY FUNCTIONAL COATINGS TO A SURFACE

• Main Authors: BERRY, Douglas H, DAVIS, Scott A
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 28.02.2018
• Subjects: AEROPLANES; AIRCRAFT; APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS; DESIGNING, MANUFACTURING, ASSEMBLING, CLEANING, MAINTAINING ORREPAIRING AIRCRAFT, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GROUND OR AIRCRAFT-CARRIER-DECK INSTALLATIONS SPECIALLYADAPTED FOR USE IN CONNECTION WITH AIRCRAFT; HANDLING, TRANSPORTING, TESTING OR INSPECTING AIRCRAFTCOMPONENTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; HELICOPTERS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PROCESSES FOR APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TOSURFACES, IN GENERAL; SPRAYING OR ATOMISING IN GENERAL; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TRANSPORTING

An aero-contoured coating system is provided. The system has an aerodynamically functional coating having at least one or more color layers, one or more first clearcoat layers over the color layer(s) to obtain a pre-aero-contoured coating, the one or more first clearcoat layers configured for abrasion and aero-contouring to obtain an aero-contoured surface, and one or more additional clearcoat layers over the aero-contoured surface. The system further has a structure having a prepared and primed substrate surface with a primer layer. The system further has an aero-contouring device to abrade a plurality of flow surfaces on a pre-aero-contoured coated surface and to mechanically aero-contour a plurality of coating edges to reduce one or more coating edge peaks and coating edge angles of abutting coating edges between the one or more color layers. The system further has one or more masking elements for masking the one or more color layers.