Appeal No. 1997-2977
Application No. 08/431,688
Claim 1 is illustrative of the claims on appeal and is
reproduced below:
1. A substrate containing a thermal control
coating having protected optical properties for use
in low earth orbit outer space environments and
which comprises
a non-ferrous metal substrate which does not
have any substantial amount of surface reflectance,
and which would thereby have a higher solar
absorptance than it would otherwise have in absence
of said thermal control coating,
a porous inorganic white paint thermal control
coating on a surface of said substrate, said coating
having low solar absorptance and high infrared
emittance,
a fluoropolymer protective topcoat applied to
said inorganic white paint coating in a high
temperature application while maintaining the
substrate at a relatively cool temperature to avoid
structural damage to the substrate, said topcoat
being at least partially impregnated into the pores
of the porous thermal control coating, said topcoat
being applied with sufficient thickness to protect
the optical properties of the paint coating from
darkening and otherwise being degraded by
contaminants in a low-earth orbit outer space
environment, said topcoat also having substantially
no significant effect on the optical properties of
said thermal control coating other than to protect
same and having substantial adhesion to said
inorganic white coating and being resistant to
darkening under ultraviolet exposure in the outer
space environment, and
said protective topcoat also having properties
so that it is slowly eroded in a low earth orbit
outer space environment thereby reducing
contamination on said substrate and also
withstanding thermal cycles of an outer space
environment, but being sufficiently durable to
2
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