Passive thermal control systems onboard spacecraft are often based on the thermo-optical properties of the surfaces, namely emissivity and absorbance. The ratio of both properties defines the equilibrium temperature of the surface. In order to achieve an emissivity versus absorbance ratio close to unity, the aerospace industry is using intensively black-anodizing surface treatment on aluminum surfaces.
The actual black-anodizing process involves expensive dyes, which are far to be environmental friendly, like nickel sulphide based dyes.
Together with the R&D team of Materia Nova, IONICS is developing a new black anodizing process for complex 3D-Aluminum parts for the aerospace industry.
Project Partners:
Materia Nova, IONICS
