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Press and Trade Shows: Technical Papers
High Reliability
Surfact Finishing of Critical Components For Smart Weapons
and Safe Aircraft
by Marty Borruso
ETI Introduces Proprietary Gold
Process
In the mid 1970s, the growth of new and
more sophisticated weapons systems, coupled with ETI's growing
reputation as a supplier of consistent, high efficiency infrared
coatings; led the company to downsize and set as its main
goal becoming the leading high-technology job shop in the
country. A contract with another Fortune 500 company's missile
systems group was the beginning of a deep and widening involvement
in production of the United States' most advanced weapon systems.
An anti-tank missile, for example, uses an infrared signal
as part of it's guidance system. The IR reflector, or "tail
light" had been fabricated by a process known as optical
replication. A die cast form, coated with an adhesive was
pressed against a male optically shaped mandrel coated with
a fragile vapor deposited gold film. The cured adhesive would
lift the gold from the mandrel.
ETI proposed plating directly on the die
cast substrate at one quarter the cost. This approach
involved:
- A small die cast aluminum reflector was
fabricated using optically polished spherical die inserts.
- The reflector was lightly polished prior
to the deposition of 25 to 35 microns of a high phosphorous
electroless nickel and color-buffed again after nickel.
- The final finish was.5 microns of a proprietary
process developed by ETI known as Laser Gold®. (The
name was chosen because of the widespread use of the process
on Nd-Yag laser pump cavity reflectors.)
- The reflector required the development
of a unique test instrument using a HeNe laser beam to scan
a rotating sample. The amount of the reflected energy hitting
a detector is indicated bya "pass" or "fail"
lamp. As a result of tight process control and more than
a 10-year learning curve, ETI has remained the sole source
of this vital component for more than 500,000 units.
ETI's gold process is currently specified
on major infrared counter- measures programs, which offer aircraft
protection from infrared heat seeking missile threats. The reflective
efficiency in the functional IR wave- lengths today exceeds
99 percent, while maintaining a hardness greater than 150 Knoop.
This permits physical cleaning of the surface.
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Epner's Laser Gold
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| The helium-neon laser test is used
at ETI's quality control lab to measure both reflectivity
and optical shape of missile guidance beacon reflectors. |
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