NCP works with the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, USCG, Navy, Naval Aviation and Air Force with coating technologies and engineering expertise. These strong partnerships, with the individual and collaborative R&D laboratories in each branch, continue to develop next generation coatings.
Consider this example. The single biggest drawback to traditional “user-friendly” (that is, easily applied) coatings was a tradeoff between the deck coating’s long-term durability and its facility in application, particularly by ship’s forces. As a result, the U.S. Navy spent millions of dollars annually in repairs, replacing failing paint coatings systems.
The escalating costs and equipment down times drove the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to enlist the help of NCP Coatings, known for specializing in coatings solutions. In early 2010, NRL invited NCP to share resources to reduce or eliminate the trade-off. Along with their lead chemist Dr. Erick Iezzi, Ph.D., the team was tasked to develop a longer lasting non-skid deck coating that at least meets, and potentially exceeds, the requirements of MIL-PRF-24667. The mission: engineer a topside coating to surpass the performance requirements of MIL-PRF-24635. Both products utilized technologies designed to be user friendly and, in many cases, applied by sailors (known as ship’s forces) themselves.
The results of this collaboration between NRL and NCP Coatings are the firm’s SiloXoShield™ and SiloXoGrip® polysiloxane coatings. These coatings can be applied by ship’s forces and extend by four- and five-fold the life expectancy of the traditional coatings systems they are replacing.
Today, NCP is involved with the application of its SiloXoGrip polysiloxane non-skid coating in the first spray application on a naval LCS platform in San Diego. This fast and flexible type of craft is known for wreaking havoc on traditional epoxy non-skid coatings that are prone to cracking and delamination from the crafts’ decks. NCP SiloXoGrip polysiloxane coating has greater flexibility than traditional non-skid coatings, especially when spray-applied. Upon a successful installation, the platform in San Diego may provide the OEM builders of LCS platforms with a way to prevent cracking and delaminating from ever occurring, as well as address the routine maintenance requirements of the U.S. Navy for existing LCS platforms in their fleet.
While its award-winning participation in the recoating of the USS Essex (LHD2) is noteworthy—a project that helped the U.S. Navy reduce expected material costs by $35,000 and many times that amount in drydock fees—NCP Coatings engages in other high-profile projects.
- St. Joseph, Michigan: North Pier Lighthouse project. As a form of community outreach, NCP provided its high-performance epoxy primers and SiloXoShield polysiloxane coatings along with technical oversight for rehabilitating the historic structure along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
- Wahington D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum. NCP supports the fine arts by providing its unique water-reducible polyurethane military coatings for art installations such as Gwenfritz, an Alexander Calder sculpture found on the grounds front fountain plaza.
- Recently, NCP’s new metal-rich primers and single-component polysiloxane aerospace coatings have been introduced for use on both the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft. The NRL published a notice June 2019 of a “safer and user-friendly topcoat” applied to a Marine Corps AH-1z Viper Helicopter that is easy to apply while being safer for the environment.