Technology Description

Despite considerable efforts to minimize its use, cadmium continues to be widely used in many applications within the DoD and NASA. Cadmium is used extensively to protect components, parts, and fasteners. The scope and breadth of cadmium usage and its range of applications is so pervasive that it is extremely difficult for any one acquisition project or Service to implement an alternative coating system. Cadmium is also used in many weapons-critical applications, which require functional performance unique to defense and space systems. One of these performance requirements is longevity. Required life spans for defense systems are measured in decades rather than years. For weapons-critical applications, commercial solutions can not be transitioned to replace cadmium without extensive demonstration and validation of functional performance. To complicate the problem, functional performance requirements for military coating systems are often not well defined.

A cooperative DoD, NASA, and Industry effort to reduce dependence on cadmium has been established with funding from the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, the DoD Joint Group on Pollution Prevention, the military Services, NASA, and Industry. This effort will leverage ongoing cadmium replacement projects by establishing a highly coordinated working group to facilitate community interaction and integrate technical results. The working group will demonstrate and validate a variety of cadmium alternatives with potential to impact a range of applications. The best cadmium alternative for any given application will depend upon technical and cost performance. Defense, space, and industrial facilities will have a range of choices to allow them to implement the alternative technology best suited for their purpose.