The objective of this topic area was to develop sustainable corrosion mitigation pretreatments, coatings, or other corrosion mitigation solutions that decrease the cost of maintenance of the weapon system and platform.

The following technology focal areas were of interest as well as other classes that directly pertain to U.S. DoD weapons systems and platforms:

• Corrosion resistant sealants
• Improved methodologies to join dissimilar materials
• Improved methodologies to reduce exposure of corrosion susceptible alloys to corrosive environments
• Flexible primers that have shown an ability to reduce corrosion rates.
• Materials with increased corrosion resistance

Because of the over-reliance on coatings and pretreatments for corrosion mitigation on military assets, the following areas were of interest only in combination with the above technology focal areas:

• Pretreatment formulations
• Standard MIL-DTL-53022, MIL-DTL-53030, MIL-PRF-23377, MIL-PRF-85582 protective primers
• Corrosion prevention compounds

The project had to demonstrate that the commercial solution is less impactful to the environment relative to the state-of-the-art technologies used. The project also had to demonstrate that the technology will result in reduced cost to maintain the weapons system or platform while also having reasonable initial acquisition costs.

The materials and processes to be demonstrated/validated should have already been developed to a minimum Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 4, and the proposed project should bring them to TRL 7 or higher. Field testing in military relevant environments on general military weapons systems and platforms components, parts, sub-systems, or sections should have been included in the proposed project. Alternative solutions should be production-level materials rather than laboratory-scale samples. Projects had to demonstrate producibility, defined as the ability to be produced in the near term to meet the current weapons systems and platforms requirements.

Proposals should have included an assessment of the human health and environmental impacts of proposed ingredients, formulations, and byproducts if such testing has not already been completed. Any completed testing on human health and environmental impacts of the corrosion inhibiting formulations components and formulations should be summarized in the proposal. Proposals should also include a plan to conduct an appropriately-scaled Sustainability Analysis¹.

The project team had to include DoD personnel or DoD prime contract companies that manufacture DoD weapons systems and platforms and are considered stakeholders for the intended application. 

¹ https://www.denix.osd.mil/esohacq/home/dod-guidance/dod-sustainability-analysis-guidance/OSD-AS%20SA%20Guidance%20v7%20-%20final%20June%202020.pdf

The benefits of this work are expected to be corrosion mitigating solutions for DoD assets with improved corrosion mitigation performance, increased sustainability, reduced cost, and/or reduced human- and ecotoxicity while potentially enabling additional performance benefits. In particular, we intend for funded efforts to develop more of a systems approach towards corrosion mitigation to make improvements beyond individual material and chemical technology developments.

Hexavalent chromium, cadmium, and other toxic heavy metals work very well in corrosion mitigating solutions but have very harmful health and environmental effects. The DoD is developing and implementing alternatives to these technologies. Zinc-rich and Aluminum-rich primers have shown promise as replacements for hexavalent chromium in protective primers. Trivalent chromium pretreatments have been effective as pretreatment solutions, but growing concerns on the safety of trivalent chromium will likely stymie implementation, reduce their usage, and require alternatives.