Manufacturer markets water-repellent coatings to military.

• Position: BATTLEFIELD TECHNOLOGIES

A new company that manufactures waterproof coatings is hoping to break into the defense market.

DryWired was launched in 2013 at the Consumer Electronics Show and displayed its products at the Association for the U.S. Army Annual Winter Symposium and Exposition in February.

The company has multiple products that could be of use to the military, said Alex Nesic, vice president of business development. But first, they must undergo testing to ensure they hold up to military standards.

DryWired's most mature product is its 101x nanocoating, which is applied at the manufacturing level and yields a hydrophobic coating of about 250 nanometers thick, he said.

The 10lx nanocoating is currently undergoing military standard testing with avionics manufacturers that would use it as a substitute for conformal coatings, he said. The company should know the results by September. Testing will evaluate the coating's performance when confronted with environmental factors such as extreme temperatures, seawater, fog and humidity.

Conformal coatings, such as parylene, are messy to apply, trap heat and are not easy to deal with if a piece of equipment needs to be reworked, Nesic said. DryWired officials believe the 101x coating solves those issues.

"At any point in production, you can dip the electronic components in our product and then cure it, and it's effective. So once you've populated the entire circuit...