General Company Information
 

Engineered Coatings, Inc. (ECI) is a privately held company, founded in 1997 by Frank M. Kustas, Ph.D., with the intention of developing advanced coating technology that can be applied to several critical industries: 1) transportation, 2) energy-generation, 3) metal forming, 4) biomedical, and 5) defense / aerospace. Engineered Coatings initiated its research and development (R&D) efforts with a local University, the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) (Advanced Coating and Surface Engineering Laboratory (ACSEL)), under a Department of Energy (DOE) grant from the Entrepreneurs Technical Assistance Program. Under this program, ECI conducted joint R&D with CSM to investigate a new family of ceramic & metal (or cermet) coatings that offer a unique combination of high hardness, wear resistance, and toughness. Since its inception, ECI has conducted numerous additional coating R&D projects with other U.S. government agencies, including all branches of the Department of Defense (Navy, Army, Air-Force, MDA), NASA (Glenn Research Center) and DOE-Ames Laboratory in the areas of fretting and galling-wear resistant coatings, corrosion-resistant lubricating-coatings, sand-abrasion/erosion-resistant coatings, and low-surface-energy quasicrystalline coatings.. General applications that these coatings are being considered for include: 1) contacting surfaces of oscillating/vibrating parts, 2) sliding-wear surfaces exposed to salt-fog and sand contamination, 3) investigation of low-surface energy, non-wetting and corrosion-resistant coatings for food preparation cookware, 4) interface coatings for brazing/joining applications, 5) coatings for biomedical devices, and 6) coatings to protect electronic parts. Engineered Coatings has been awarded several U.S. Government Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase 1 and 2 programs from all of the branches of the DoD to help solve issues with: 1) fretting wear of proprotor transmission components for the Navy V-22 Osprey, 2) corrosion issues with bearings and gears operating under high temperature conditions for the Air Force F-35 JSF aircraft, 3) sand-erosion of blades and integrated blisks for turbine engines of the F-35 JSF aircraft, 4) sliding wear-components for Army small-arm weapons, and 5) electronic devices in Air Force and MDA systems. Coatings being developed for these applications include nanocomposites consisting of carbide & amorphous carbon, nanostructured crystalline-nitrides surrounded by amorphous nitride “tissue”, and bilayers consisting of thick corrosion-resistant nitrides toped with doped diamondlike carbon (DLC). In addition to these R&D programs directed for specific U.S. Government agency needs, Engineered Coatings also conducts proprietary coating R&D projects for customers, coating toll services, and consultation.

Engineered Coatings has a 1500 ft2 office / laboratory where it conducts its coating depositions and performs coating testing / evaluations. Three coating systems are available for development efforts, including two state-of-the art physical vapor deposition (PVD) systems and a unique atmospheric plasma (AP) deposition system.

In this capacity, ECI is currently developing a number of value-added surface treatments for U.S Government applications and industry needs. The customer base being developed at ECI is very diverse, from all of the U.S. DoD branches to biomedical companies, large coating vendors, and other small R&D companies. Dr. Kustas has been actively involved in the research and development of tribomaterials for over 25 years.  

Dr. Kustas developed management and technical marketing skills while previously serving as the technical lead for Wear Sciences and Coatings (WSC) Group at Technology Assessment & Transfer, Annapolis MD. In this function, Dr. Kustas developed new coatings and helped win programs from both commercial and government customers. Included were industry programs for coating development/evaluation with a major biomedical company, a glass-forming company, and a major diesel-engine manufacturer. Also at TA&T, Dr. Kustas authored 2 SBIR phase I programs (from the Navy and Air Force) and a BAA procurement from DARPA that were awarded for advanced multilayer coating development.

Previous to employment as WSC group leader, Dr. Kustas was President of a small Colorado business, Colorado Engineering Research Laboratory, which performed contract R&D for the U.S. government (SBIR) and industry for new surface modification technologies (e.g., ion implantation and ion beam deposited DLC) and ceramic matrix composite fabrication technology. Dr. Kustas authored 3 SBIR proposals that were awarded and conducted funded surface modification R&D for a major biomedical company and the U.S. Air Force.

Dr. Kustas received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the Colorado School of Mines in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado. Dr. Kustas has authored over 50 technical papers in advanced materials, including tribomaterials, and has received two patents.

Mr. Michael Newton has been with ECI since 2007. His role at ECI has expanded to include laboratory lead scientist, responsible for all coating depositions and maintenance of deposition logs (with specific deposition parameters) in a computer-based datalogger software program. Mr. Newton also coordinates coating screening tests, both at ECI using our in-house wear testers, at Colorado School of Mines for hardness and thickness measurements, and at Rocky Mountain Laboratories for high-magnification examinations of indents and wear-scars and composition analysis.

Mr. Newton’s previous experience includes employment at Raytheon Vision Systems in Goleta CA, where his role was Lead-Engineer for: 1) surface preparation and post growth characterization of Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) grown Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) infrared detector material and 2) development of Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) implant process at RVS in conjunction with Vydy Devices Inc. In addition, Mr. Newton was a Process Engineer for advanced development programs which required critical technical input to develop and fine tune individual process steps to achieve high quality device performance and a Failure Analysis Engineer for various research and production programs.

Mr. Newton received a Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical & Materials Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.