Protective and High Temperature Coatings

A wide variety of thermal protection, seal, and ware applications can be addressed using STARFIRE SMP-10 and its variants. Starfire® has developed a material system to produce carbon / ceramic composites and coatings with ultra-high temperature capabilities. The system utilizes STARFIRE SMP-10 as a SiC-forming binder in combination with refractory ceramic and metal powders that form a highly effective thermal and oxygen diffusion barrier. Unlike conventional CVD coating techniques, it is applied like paint and fired using an inert gas furnace at 1100°C. Once densified, these composites have demonstrated the ability to withstand up to 10 minutes of exposure to a MAPP Gas-Oxygen torch with minimal effects. The exposure temperature was in excess of 2800°C. For comparison, a 3 mm thick piece of sintered silicon carbide exhibited burn-through in 30 seconds.

Adhesives

Starfire® is in advanced stages of developing a range of high temperature adhesive formulations specifically designed for bonding a wide range of materials. For example, we have successfully demonstrated that porous and nonporous graphite and SiC parts can be joined with mixtures of STARFIRE SMP-10 and SiC powders and/or other fillers.