Indestructible Paint announced that its research chemist Dr Violaine Mendez has received national recognition for her work on removing chromium from coatings used in the aerospace industry.

Mendez received the Canning Bi-Centenary Award from the Institute of Materials Finishing at the organization’s annual general meeting in Solihull. The award is presented each year for the best practical paper published in the institute’s official journal Transactions.

Her paper, titled “Anticorrosive chromium-free primers for aluminium alloys: application in the aerospace industry,” highlights progress in developing effective chromium-free coating systems for aerospace applications.

Removing chromium from aerospace coatings remains a complex challenge due to the extreme operating environments and safety-critical requirements associated with aerospace components. Indestructible Paint stated that since publication of the paper, the company has continued to advance chrome-free primers and water-based pretreatments, extending resistance to salt spray exposure by more than 1,000 hours and developing new formulations tailored to different alloys.

Mendez said she was “honoured and grateful” to receive the award from IMF vice-president Paul Holder. Holder said, “The Transactions journal is an important part of our mission to share new knowledge with professional surface engineering and finishing companies, and papers like Violaine’s contribute to developments across our whole industry. It has been an honour to present her with her award.”

The company said the recognition reflects both individual achievement and its ongoing focus on environmentally responsible high-performance aerospace coatings.