The Center for Advanced Coatings (CAC) at Florida Institute of Technology is an interdisciplinary center integrating computational and laboratory methodologies for the improvement of the design, engineering, testing and manufacturing of advanced coatings.

News and Announcements

New Capabilities with the ThermoFisher Nicolet iS50 FTIR Spectrometer

The CAC recently acquired a Nicolet iS50 Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) Spectrometer.  The instrument will provide a broad range capability of material analyses. For coatings study, CAC can examine the spectral reflectance and transmittance of coatings to ensure the quality and consistency from the manufacturing processes (APS or EB-PVD).

Frequently Asked Questions

What are advanced coatings?

In simple terms, an advanced coating is a layer of material that, when applied to an object, greatly increases that object's resilience to harsh physical and/or chemical conditions that would typically cause it to wear, warp or corrode. CAC's focus, typically, is on advanced coatings that provide resistance to extreme heat. 

Why advanced coatings?

Advanced coatings have a wide range of industrial applications when a material is required for high temperature resistance, anti-corrosion, enhanced wearing resistance, or any other specialized needs. Coatings can be used in these situations to meet the mechanical, electrical, and/or chemical requirements while minimizing the need of expensive, virgin materials.

CAC has many years of experience in thermal spray coatings and testing for high temperature endurance. A good example is thermal barrier coatings (TBC), which are used to protect the hot components of gas turbine engines to enhance thermal efficiency and component service life.

What can CAC do for me and My Company?

• Be the proving grounds to develop coating technology for your product.
• R&D for using thermal spray coatings for first article testing.
• Advanced laser and furnace thermal testing to prove concepts of application.
• Material characterization, pre- and post-thermal testing, including advanced diagnostics.
• Computational heat transfer studies, including thermal radiation heat transfer, of coatings.
• Consultations for applying thermal spray technology using automation.
• Consultations for applying lasers to thermal testing.
• Laser heating pattern design and implementation for regular and irregular geometry test specimens.
• Assistance in the development of TBC lifting models by a combination of laser thermal gradient testing and finite element analysis.
• Finite element fracture mechanics analysis of coatings.
• Determine thermal conductivity of coatings, thin films, and layer materials at high temperatures (up to 1700^oC).
• A thorough analysis of applying, testing, and modeling advanced coatings from a research staff with a combined 45 years of experience.