Huntsville-based Aerobotix has officially announced an agreement with Minteq International, Inc. to distribute Minteq’s industry altering FIREX™ RX-2390 Thermal Protection System (TPS) coating for hypersonic flight hardware.

Aerobotix will work directly with Minteq’s Pennsylvania-based Pyrogenics Group, the global technological leader in high-temperature coatings for military and aerospace applications.

This comes at a time when the Pentagon is urging America’s largest defense manufacturers to accelerate hypersonic weapon production.

“The system includes ‘never been done before’ adaptations of high MRL technologies,” according to representatives from Aerobotix.

Minteq engaged Aerobotix due to the company’s expertise in robotically spraying parts and test panels within specifically tight tolerances for uniformity and broadness of coverage. Aerobotix also has significant prior experience with primes using the FIREX product.

“Our desire was to assist our customers and the U.S. Government in fielding hypersonic missiles and aircraft as quickly as possible,” said Kent Pfeifer, Aerobotix’s process development manager.

“By making the commitment to keep fresh FIREX™ RX-2390 on our shelves, we can immediately assist the major programs by robotically spraying accurate panels and even prototype parts for flight tests. We’ve been robotically spraying, scanning and sanding shrouds and rockets already, and now – with coating on our shelves – we cut critical weeks in delivery time.”

Aerobotix and the scientists at Minteq collaborated to develop a FIREX RX-2390 recipe and a unique robotic paint dispensing system that is primed for automation and heavy production. The FIREX formulations optimize modified epoxy binders with thermally active materials that form cooling gases when exposed to temperatures in excess of 350°F.

Minteq also notes that Aerobotix’s customized robotics provides all this, plus the ability to automatically spray-taper the paint thickness in various areas of the part, which can reduce weight, manufacturing time and cost.

“Aerobotix is spraying our product so much better than could ever be done by hand,” said Mark Breloff, Minteq technical sales manager. “The robot is mixing the coating perfectly, just in time, and applying it so accurately – we are seeing improved performance across the board.”

The new contract with Minteq is a noticeable enhancement to Aerobotix’s Fully Automated Hypersonic Coating Production System. The facility provides a broad selection of services for preparing and painting hypersonic structures, including automated structured light scanning/projection, automated masking tape application, automated FIREX ™ spraying, automated non-contact Terahertz measurement, automated force controlled sanding and adaptive robotic machining of coatings.