Engineers at Flex Films India have developed a special film for passive thermal control of spacecraft components for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
“ISRO approached us in an endeavor to achieve its vision to self-reliance in the Indian Space Program, which aims at engaging more Indian industries in producing space-worthy products/technologies for its specific applications,” explains Anand Prakash Gupta, specialty films and R&D, Flex Films India. “Their desired specifications were in electro-optical and physical terms like solar transmittance, IR emittance, thickness of coating in nanometers on both sides of the substrate and a wide spectrum working temperature of -150 to +120 degrees Celsius to name a few. The real challenge was to convert these specifications into our measurable norm. For this we sent an A4 sized sample to ISRO to get everything measured and tested in their terms. When ISRO reverted to us with their requirements in the parameters that they recognize, we extrapolated that information to our measurable norm. Performing metallization in conventional metallizer was fraught with high risks of getting scratches and other aberrations, anomalies which were absolutely unacceptable for a high precision job that we were processing for ISRO. Further, we developed some specialized coatings and applied on the substrate to ensure flawless metallization as required by ISRO.”
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