Taking the heat

At the Paris Air Show next week, PPG Industries’ aerospace transparencies business will reveal that it is developing a new coating for aircraft cockpit and passenger-cabin windows.

The new coatings will reduce heat transmitted through the windows, reducing the load on the aircraft air-conditioning systems and lowering operating costs.

PPG is developing the solar-reflective coatings with a neutral appearance for glass and plastic windows. Unlike other aerospace solar-reflective window coatings, PPG Aerospace's coatings will not be visibly reflective but will be colour neutral.

'Our tests have shown solar transmittance for a stretched-acrylic cabin window with a solar-reflective coating to be about half that of an uncoated window while maintaining high visible light transmittance. Passengers and crew will experience a noticeable improvement in comfort, especially when the air conditioning is not operating while an aircraft is on the ground,' claimed Anthony Stone, PPG Aerospace global director, new business development for transparencies.

'Because [newer] composite airframes don’t dissipate solar heat as well as [older] aluminium ones, our customers are looking for ways to reduce solar heat transmittance, and applying solar-reflective coatings to windows provides an ideal solution,' he added