Ships – Mother ship – floating landing platform – and harbor – Aircraft
Reexamination Certificate
2003-05-23
2004-08-24
Basinger, Sherman (Department: 3617)
Ships
Mother ship, floating landing platform, and harbor
Aircraft
C114S085000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06779476
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to materials suitable for coating surfaces, more particularly to methods, compositions and structures pertaining to high traction or temperature-reducing materials and the utilization thereof for coating surfaces such as flight decks.
The United States Navy is developing, for aircraft carrier flight decks and other ship decks, materials having both “nonskid” (also spelled “non-skid”) and “low solar absorbing” (“LSA”) attributes. It is desirable that materials used for coating flight decks be characterized both by nonslippage and by reduced flight deck temperatures. A high degree of flight deck traction is required for pedestrian and vehicular transportation and especially for takeoff and landing of aircraft. Moreover, the flight deck of an aircraft carrier represents an enormous solar absorber. Reducing flight deck temperatures would reduce the heat loads on the living and working spaces beneath the flight deck, ultimately reducing the air conditioning requirements and associated energy demands and increasing the habitability of these spaces. Rather than upgrade a ship's air conditioning system, it would be preferable to effect a flight deck coating so as to reduce temperatures in the habitation spaces and working electronics spaces.
All bodies at non-zero temperature emit radiation (heat flux) as given by the Stephan-Boltzmann Law, as follows: P=&egr;&sgr;T
4
, where P is the radiated power (heat flux), &egr; is the material's spectral emissivity, &sgr; is the Stephan-Boltzmann constant (5.679*10
−8
W/(m
2
K)), and T is the body's absolute temperature (° K). There are two ways to reduce the amount of radiated power, P, viz., by either reducing the body's temperature, or reducing the body's spectral emissivity. Since it is unfeasible to sufficiently cool the entire flight deck, controlling the flight deck's emissivity in the thermal emission bands is the only viable approach for thermal control. Existing LSA non-skid products have low-emissivity and perform well in the solar (0.9-2.5 &mgr;m) spectral band; however, these existing materials provide an incomplete solution because they fail to address the material's emissivity in the thermal emission (3-5 &mgr;m and 8-12 &mgr;m) spectral bands.
The U.S. Navy has other concerns regarding nonskid flight decks, such as durability of the nonskid formulation. Performance failures and replacement costs for nonskid decking materials are a major problem aboard ships, especially aboard aircraft carriers in high wear, high traffic areas requiring constant maintenance, e.g., landing/approach areas and approaches to elevators. Typically, these aircraft carrier flight deck areas constitute about 60,000 square feet of surface. Navy performance specifications require 10,000 landings; see the U.S. Military's Performancc Specification, incorporated herein by reference, entitled “Coating System, Non-Skid, For Roll or Spray Application (Metric),” MIL-PRF-24667A (Navy), Aug. 14, 1992, superseding MIL-C-24667 (Navy), Sep. 11, 1986. However, in-service experience has seen emergent failure in as little as 3,000 landings. Totally unsatisfactory operational conditions were prevalent during the United States' 1990-1991 Desert Shield/Desert Storm campaigns in association with excessive wear, down to the bare metal, of the flight deck; specifically, the bare metal decking in the cable arrest areas forced loss of launch certification and put the handling aircraft crew at risk. Preliminary indications are that some flight decks performed better during the United States' 2003 war against Iraq. The operational capabilities of aircraft carriers are further degraded because of concomitant weight restrictions.
A nonskid decking material is required to be configured in such a fashion as to allow complete drainage from the flight deck (e.g., of an aircraft carrier) of water (e.g., rainwater or seawater), spilled fuel, detergents and other liquids that will detract from the nonskid qualities of the decking. Existing designs of nonskid decking have practically continuous troughs (grooves) running the entire length of the aircraft carrier deck. These conventional configurations involving longitudinal grooves succeed insofar as “wind-over-the-deck” driving forces bring about drainage of contaminating liquids aftward of such deck. However, such conventional designs, while worthwhile from a drainage standpoint, are less than optimal in other respects. Of special note are considerations regarding the frictional drag of aircraft tires, such as will occur during braking or during rolling over the deck while maneuvering or prior to capture. The forward motion of aircraft, parallel to the grooves, will tend to create a “bow wave” of liquid that moves along with the aircraft tire, thus undesirably reducing the frictional capacity of the nonskid surface.
Incorporated herein by reference are the following United States patents pertaining to coating formulations or methods related thereto, and involving nonskid or electromagnetic absorptive properties: Strait et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,518,911 B2 issued Feb. 11, 2003; Fischer et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,344,246 B1 issued Feb. 5, 2002; Stahovic et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,989,328 issued Nov. 23, 1999; Parks U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,057 issued Sep. 14, 1999; Hermele et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,507 issued Nov. 11, 1997; Cambon U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,522 issued Aug. 22, 1989; Kraft et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,103 issued Jul. 26, 1988; Supcoe et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,959 issued May 12, 1998; Supcoe U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,623 issued Jan. 19, 1982; Supcoe et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,289,677 issued Sep. 15, 1981.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved nonskid and low solar absorbing composition for covering flight decks and other surfaces.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a composition which reduces emissivity in the thermal emission spectral bands.
Further objects of the present invention are to provide a method and a structure for covering flight decks and other surfaces with a nonskid composition, wherein the applied covering is so configured as to avoid or minimize a reduction in frictional quality of the surface.
According to typical inventive embodiments, a structure for situation upon a substrate comprises a coating composition in a cured condition. The inventive structure has formed therein an approximately linear medial groove and plural “herringbone” (“W”-shaped) grooves. Each herringbone groove traverses the medial groove so as to be divided thereby into two “V”-shaped groove sections. Each V-shaped groove section is formed by two approximately linear groove segments. Each groove segment is obliquely oriented with respect to the medial groove. It is frequent inventive practice that each groove segment describe, relative to the medial groove, an obtuse geometric angle in the range between approximately 120° and approximately 150°. According to some inventive embodiments, at least a portion of the inventive structure is approximately characterized by a pyramidal texture.
It may be particularly propitious to practice the present invention in the nautical
aval realm in association with marine decks such as aircraft carrier flight decks. According to such inventive embodiments, the substrate is a marine deck which is approximately characterized by a forward deck end, an aft deck end, a port deck side, a starboard deck side and a deck length (between the forward deck end and the aft deck end). The medial groove extends at least substantially the entire length. Each V-shaped groove section points approximately toward the forward deck end. Each herringbone groove extends at least substantially the entire distance between the port deck side and the starboard deck side. In many of these and other kinds of inventive applications, the coating composition will conditionally have nonskid and low solar absorbing properties.
Although a variety of coat
Fischer Eugene C.
Sarman Peter J.
Sowell Dale A.
Basinger Sherman
Kaiser Howard
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of
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