NEI Announces the Issuance of Multiple Patents on Self-Healing & Superhydrophobic Coatings


Somerset, New Jersey (USA) — NEI Corporation announced today that the US Patent and Trademark Office has issued patents  to  the  company  on  self-healing,  superhydrophobic, and abrasion resistant  coatings. With  the  allowance  of five patents  and the introduction of an array of coating products, NEI's concerted efforts to develop and implement practical, multi-functional coatings are now coming to fruition.



There  is  great  interest  in  functional  coatings,  for  both  industrial  and  consumer applications, when  the  coating  or surface treatment provides functionalities beyond the usual protective and aesthetic  properties.  For example,  selfhealing  coatings  autonomously  repair  damage,  hydrophobic  coatings  are  able  to  vigorously  repel  water  droplets, oleophobic coatings  prevent "oil" molecules from sticking to the surface, and self-cleaning  or easy-to-clean  coatings minimize  or eliminate  the  need for  chemicals  during  washing.  Commercial  products  to  date  have met with  limited success because they are not engineered to meet all of the functional performance requirements that an application may need. NEI's patented and patent-pending technologies address this market need.



In the recent past, NEI has introduced several coatings under the registered  trade name NANOMYTE®.  For example, NANOMYTE®  MEND  is based on US Patent 8,987,352, where a thermally induced  physical self-healing phenomenon leads to gap closing and crack sealing.  The self-healing coating involves a unique phase-separated morphology  that facilitates the delivery of the self-healing agent to the damage site (such as a scratch or crack) thereby restoring the coating  appearance    function.  In  response  to  the  need  for  waterborne,  self-healing  coatings  for  non-metallic substrates, NEI has developed a waterborne, polyurethane-based, self-healing coating  (US Patent 8,664,298).  A more recent patent-pending version of MEND, referred to as MEND-RT, allows self-healing at near ambient temperature. It is used as the inter-layer of a coating stack  and has been shown to enhance the corrosion resistance of traditional coating  systems.  The  MEND  coating  platform  is  based  on  polyurethane,  but  the  principle  can  be  applied  to  other coating systems as well.



Self-healing principles can also be applied to surface treatments of metals, whereby the pretreatments can mimic the performance of chromate conversion coatings. To this end, NEI has developed a series of pretreatments for different metals where a chemical self-healing  mechanism imparts corrosion resistance. For example,  NANOMYTE® PT-60  is a patent-pending conversion coating for use on magnesium alloys. The nanoscale structure of the surface allows ions to diffuse to the damage site, forming a barrier that prevents further corrosion. In addition, PT-60 has been engineered to act as a tie layer that bonds the overlying primer with the metal, resulting in excellent field performance. Similarly, NEI's NANOMYTE® PT-10M provides self-healing protection for aluminum, while patent-pending PT-20 is designed for use on steel, and PT-30 (US Patent 8,741,074) is used on copper alloys.



As  previously  mentioned,  combining  multiple  functionalities  in  a  coating,  such  as  self-healing and superhydrophobicity, presents new opportunities not available until now.  For example, NEI has been issued a patent (US Patent 8,968,459) for a superhydrophobic coating composition that also has a self-healing function similar to that of  plant  leaves.  This  self-healing,  superhydrophobic  coating  mimics  lotus  leaves,  which  maintain  their superhydrophobicity by repairing the damaged surface layer with a continuously-secreting hydrophobic epicuticular wax.  Equipped  with  the ability to repair or renew itself,  the novel NEI coating overcomes  the durability problem of traditional  superhydrophobic  coatings.  Most  recently,  NEI  was  awarded  a  patent  for  a  transparent  and  scratch resistant  coating  (US  Patent  9,006,370)  for  use  on  plastic  substrates,  including  polycarbonate  and  acrylic.



Serving the Advanced Materials Needs of Customers Worldwide

400 Apgar Drive, Unit E 

Somerset, NJ 08873

P: 732-868-3141

F: 732-868-3143

www.neicorporation.com



NANOMYTE® SR-100  is a hardcoat that exhibits significantly better abrasion resistance than commercially available scratch  resistant  coating  products.  Scratch  resistance  is  a  sought-after  property  for  coatings  in  a  variety  of applications, such as 3-D printed objects, ophthalmic and sports-wear lenses, automobile and airplane windows. For  a  more  detailed  discussion  on  the  company's  patented  coating  technologies  and  applications,  please  see  our Patented Coating Technologies Brief.



About NEI Corporation:

NEI Corporation is an application driven company that manufactures and sells Advanced Materials products, provides materials  development  services,  and  performs  contract-based  RD  for  public  and  private  entities.  NEI's  products, which are sold under the registered trademark NANOMYTE®, are backed by a suite of issued and pending patents. NEI has built a strong manufacturing and RD infrastructure that enables rapid transition of concepts to products. The company  has  a  10,000  square  foot,  state-of-the-art  materials  manufacturing  and  testing  facility  in  Somerset,  New Jersey,  equipped  with  high  temperature  furnaces  with  controlled  atmospheres,  mixing,  blending  and drying equipment,  coaters,  particle  characterization  instruments,  corrosion  testing  equipment,  polymer  films  &  coatings characterization, and a Li-ion battery testing laboratory. Since its inception, NEI has partnered with small companies, large  multinational  corporations,  U.S.  Defense  Laboratories,  U.S.  National  Laboratories,  and  Universities.  The relationships take on different forms, ranging from a strategic partnership to joint development efforts targeted at specific applications.



For more information, contact: 

Ms. Krista Martin 

1 732-868-3141

sales@neicorporation.com

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