The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Technology Transfer Office plays an important role in demonstrating NRL as a leader in technology innovation. Recently, NRL entered into a Limited Government Purpose License (GPL) with The Sherwin-Williams Company.
NRL has developed polysiloxane nonskid coatings with extended durability. Sherwin-Williams requested a Limited Government Purpose License to make, use, and sell the invention directly and solely to shipyards or contractors performing maintenance, repair, or new construction of vessels owned by the U.S. Government.
"The polysiloxane nonskid coating developed by NRL represents a significant advancement in technology over standard products available on the market today," Mark Schultz, Business Development Manager for Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine said. "This novel solution with extended durability and excellent color retention, the polysiloxane nonskid coating doesn't chalk, discolor or fade, and can be rolled or spray-applied - helping minimize waste, increasing efficiencies in the coatings maintenance process, and reducing overcoating for aesthetic purposes. This combination of benefits has been well received by the U.S. Navy."
A key part of NRL's mission is the development and transition of technologies to support the Navy, and more broadly, the warfighter. NRL's intellectual property can be used to support those - and other U.S. Government-specific - efforts. NRL offers no-cost GPLs to any of our over 1,200 patented or patent-pending technologies and protected software.
"NRL's wide breadth of intellectual property are available for use at no cost by the private sector in performance of awarded U.S. Government contracts," Holly Ricks-Laskoski, Ph.D., NRL's Technology Transfer Office senior partnership manager said. "Leveraging NRL's intellectual property in this way is an opportunity for cost savings for our government contractor partners."
NRL partners with a wide variety of organizations including industry, academia and other government organizations to accelerate the development and transition of new and innovative technologies for the warfighter.
"We are very appreciative of our long-standing partnership with NRL. The innovation, testing and evaluation of forward-looking technologies has produced tangible results for our customers in terms of lowering total ownership cost and effectively maintaining ship schedules," Bryan Draga, Global Vice President of Marketing for Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine said. "Sherwin-Williams has been uniquely qualified to bring the MIL-Spec products and technologies to the market thanks to our quality manufacturing processes and MIL-Spec controls."
Sherwin-Williams' formulation was submitted for the Department of Defense Qualified Products Database evaluation and qualified under military specification MIL-PRF-24667 for a Type V non-skid coating.
For those company's looking to work with NRL, Ricks-Laskoski, said, "NRL is open and we are looking forward to working with you."
The polysiloxane non-skid coating is described and claimed in U.S. Patent Nos. 9,006,307 and 9,034,946 issued 14 April, 2015 and 19 May, 2015, respectively.
About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL is located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.
