Environmentally Compliant Surface Treatments of Materials for Aerospace Applications (Les techniques de traitement de surface conformes a la reglementationn sur la protection de l'environment pour les materiaux destines aux applications aeroapatiales).

Traditional surface treatments for aerospace materials are becoming unacceptable due to pressures exerted by national and international environmental and health organizations. For example, the applied volatile organic compound VOC content of organic coatings is now limited by law in several countries. Cadmium and chromium compounds that provide excellent corrosion inhibition, as well as desired surface interaction properties, are targeted for reduction to levels that may make them impractical for long term use. Throughout the Workshop it was shown that in recent years, research and development efforts in environmentally compliant surface treatments for cleaning, surface preparation, coating and electroplating have resulted in new or modified materials and processes for the aerospace community. Widespread substitution of this new technology is limited because many of the new materialsprocesses have some characteristics that may not fully meet traditional performance standards. Also, some of the newly developed processes are less controllable or robust and may have problems when production scale-up is required. The conclusions and recommendations of the Workshop stated that continued research and development efforts are required in order to successfully develop and implement new environmentally compliant surface treatments for aerospace applications.