Multilayered coatings for non-stick applications

The main function of a non-stick coating is to facilitate an easy removal of a product from its surface. Examples of applications are pressure sensitive tapes, antifouling paints, repelling surfaces on aircraft wings, coatings on biomedical implants and non-stick bake-ware. A particularly demanding application, of interest in this project is the molding of polyurethane that is heavily used today in the automotive industry. Replacement of the existing surface technology with this type of coatings has thus both industrial and scientific interest.

The purpose of this project is to develop a completely new type of abhesions coatings using innovative multilayer systems. The objective is to evaluate an innovative technique in which a multilayer system is used to create abhesions coatings with enhanced mechanical performances. The coatings must be resistant to wear and eliminate the need for solvent-based waxes for the production of polyurethane foams.

The hypothesis is that the combination of a hard coating with a polymer-based ´top coat´ may provide customized features for wear, friction, adhesion, wettability, and thermal properties. The challenge here is to prevent the PTFE or other fluoropolymer-based coatings to wear out too easily. From industrial perspective the project results are expected to provide a radical change in the production of polyurethane foam products such as car seats, which opens up many new industrial applications. The project is also expected to lead to a better understanding of the abhesion mechanisms as well as to a number of new research areas for such type of coatings.