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Navy Puts Coating to ‘Real World’ Test

Friday, July 8, 2011

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The Naval Surface Warfare Center, in Panama City, plans to award a sole-source contract to Spencer Industries Inc., of Bellevue, NJ, to supply 105 new chain cargo lashings for continued field testing of a coating.

The chains will be shop-coated with ArmorGalv, a proprietary zinc alloy thermo-diffusion coating (ASTM A 1059/A 1059M-08). The Navy says the sole-source contract is needed to maintain the consistency of the materials used in testing. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

The Navy is evaluating use of the coating on chains that are used to secure Marine Corps tanks, Humvees and other vehicles to landing craft. Pull-testing and other evaluations have been completed, and the chains are now to be tested on two deployed landing craft.

ArmorGalv

The coating has been tested twice, including a six-month trial in 2010.

During this period, the cargo lashings will be subjected to repeated use and exposed to the elements to determine the overall effectiveness of the coating under real-world conditions.

Strength Testing

In earlier testing, several different types of cargo lashings were evaluated and pull-tested, validating the required strength to adequately restrain USMC vehicles on the LCAC cargo deck.

Those tests led to an additional six-month evaluation of the ArmorGalv-coated cargo lashings from July to December 2010.

Spencer Industries Inc. is the only manufacturer that has the expertise to manufacture LCAC cargo lashings using all component parts coated with ArmorGalv per ASTM-A1059, the Navy said. The contract is expected to be awarded by the end of July.

Spencer Industries Inc. has served all branches of the military for 40 years. The company describes itself as “engineering oriented in the fields of electronics, electro-mechanical and mechanical military equipment. We encompass not only sophisticated electronic and electro-mechanical items, but also have machine shop and sheet-metal facilities.”

Reported by Paint Bidtracker, a construction reporting service devoted to identifying contracting opportunities for the coatings community. Visit us on Facebook!