Starfire Systems’ Polymers Out of This World
Published Apr 15, 2006
Lynn Tarnowski operates a vacuum polymer infiltration machine for Starfire Systems.
New York’s most high-flying nanotechnology company is, hands down, Starfire Systems, a high-performance materials company based in Malta’s Saratoga Technology and Energy Park. A Starfire polymer was the key ingredient in a “space caulk” that was tested on the space shuttle Discovery mission in July 2005.
The caulk converts from a paste-like consistency to a ceramic at high temperatures. It is lighter than aluminum and stronger than steel at temperatures up to 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit and is primarily designed to repair small cracks. It performed well on tests inside the shuttle, says Herbert Armstrong, Starfire’s vice president of sales and marketing.
”We engineer the properties of this polymer from the atomic level.
It is truly nanotechnology,” Armstrong says. The company is working on other products that could one day be used to make repairs to avoid such problems as the one that brought down the shuttle Columbia in 2003.
Starfire is a true homegrown technology company that evolved in 1988 out of the work of Dr. Walter Sherwood at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy. In 2001, U.S. Air Force Col. Richard Saburro assumed executive leadership.
Products using the polymers, which increase hardness, durability and temperature resistance and decrease friction wear, are used in aerospace, transportation, energy, microelectronics and filtration systems.
Consumer uses include motorcycle and automobile rotors and brakes.
More than $5 million in venture capital has been pumped into the company since its move to Saratoga Park in 2000. Armstrong, a New Yorker before moving to Virginia, was lured back to Tech Valley by the state’s commitment to cultivating such businesses.
“We find the Tech Valley region very positive for business development, with the universities around us and a business-friendly attitude in New York State that is conducive for us to grow and expand,” he says.
Story by Jeanne A. Naujeck
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