Meeting volatile organic content (VOC) compliance regulations imposed by state and local environmental agencies remains a constant challenge to US military facilities and organizations. This becomes especially challenging when painting antenna radomes, since specification control drawings governing their construction call for each paint layer to be thin (typically less than 3 mils dry film thickness) and go on smooth and uniform. These stipulations are necessary to minimize effects on
radio frequency (rf) and boresight characteristics. Due to the zero/very low VOC advantages of thermoplastics, a detailed study was conducted to determine if they could be used in place of paints to provide equivalent or improved environmental protection and yet meet rf and boresight
requirements when applied in minimal thicknesses normally specified by the product manufacturer. Results gained from this study have shown that nylon, flouropolymer (PF) and elastomeric thermoplastic materials significantly affect randome rf characteristics and therefore may not be used in this application. Since Department of Defense (DOD) budgets continue to drastically decline, maximum productivity in removing existing radome coatings is critical. Thus, various coating removal technologies were also examined. Wet blasting with sodium bicarbonate media proved to be too harsh for removing all paint layers, while hand sanding and chemical stripping methods performed the task safely.
Keywords: boresight, paints, paint stripping, radio frequency, radomes, thermoplastics