New Defense Coating for British Army Vehicles
The British Army's new fleet of Iveco Panther vehicles is being coated by a brand new paint system specially developed by Akzo Nobel Aerospace Coatings (ANAC). The system comprises two ANAC water-based primers - Intergard 10206 and Intergard 10207 – with Intergard 10212 water based finish coat, which is both chemical agent resistant and infra-red reflective. The new system is approved to Defence Standard 80-208 and Def Stan 00-72 and is currently the only water-based coating in the world approved to the latest chemical agent decontamination test method (Stanag 4360 issue 2). Because it is water based, the paint also meets current strict guidelines on VOC emissions. The 12 month project to develop the paint system was carried out by ANAC in collaboration with BAE Land Systems of Newcastle and Iveco in Bolzano, Italy, where the first batch of 400 Panther Vehicles are being made. Coating the vehicles in NATO green (N285 of the BS 381C color collection) began in July. ANAC received the contract in the face of stiff competition. 'Our system was the only one to meet the strict new test criteria,' explained Rob Walker, ANAC Business Development Manager for the defense sector. ‘'We have been pioneering waterborne coating systems for several years and now have a strong track record which proves that with the right technology they can equal or outperform solvent-based systems, even in this specialized market.' The Iveco Defence division is located in a region of the Italian Alps where environmental concerns are very high and the products the company uses must have as low an environmental impact as possible. For this reason, the selection of ANAC's water-based Intergard system was made not only for military and application reasons, but also as the result of a long and detailed evaluation of the paint systems' components and scrupulous analysis of the related technical and scientific documentation supplied by ANAC. The main evaluation of the ANAC coatings system was carried out by Iveco's own laboratory technicians in Bolzano. Laboratory Manager Mr. Franco Parise and Chemical Laboratory Supervisor Mr. Daniele Dissegna are enthusiastic about the Intergard System. 'It is giving us excellent general performance and we have been particularly impressed with the coverage properties of Intergard 10212 Nato Green,' commented Mr Parise. 'It applies smoothly and does not need too high a thickness to achieve the desired result. The finished appearance is also extremely good'. |
