Award

Small, unmanned aerial and attritable weapon systems are considered a cost-effective alternative to legacy strategies which risk high-value aircraft, as well as their personnel and expensive support logistics. The target of unmanned designs is to trade operational lifetime for reduced procurement and maintenance costs. The turbine engines used for these vehicles are one of the most expensive components and their lubrication systems can account for up to 30% of overall propulsion system weight, volume, and cost. Thus, technologies that replace legacy lubrication methods can significantly reduce overall vehicle ownership costs.  United Protective Technologies (UPT) has developed two innovative nanocomposite self-lubricating coating technologies for high wear applications common in UAV and attritable engine designs.  The first innovative coating has been designed to be used in dry applications where it has been proven to reduce contact friction from 0.8 to below 0.1 for steel-on-steel interfaces and has reduced wear by several orders of magnitude compared to grease lubricated commercial coatings. The second has been designed for use in fuel lubricated applications where it transforms jet fuel into a highly lubricious film for oil-like friction and wear performance. Applying these corrosion resistant thin film coatings to engine bearings and other critical wear surfaces will provide oil lubricated levels of performance during even high G and oil starved situations as well as potentially eliminating the maintenance necessary for long term storage of attritable aircraft technology