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In the late 1980s, satellites were picking up something most building codes still ignore.
Cities were glowing.
Roofs, roads, metal structures and concrete were absorbing solar radiation all day and re-radiating it well into the night. Air conditioning was being made more efficient, but no one was addressing the core issue. The surface itself was the problem.
That was the environment in which Super Therm® was born.
Working alongside engineers connected to the US space sector, researchers were studying the urban heat island effect. The data was clear. Solar radiation does not just warm air. It loads surfaces.
44 percent of incoming solar energy sits in the visible spectrum.
53 percent sits in the near infrared range.
Only 3 percent is ultraviolet.
Most “white roof” thinking focused on visible reflectance. But the majority of the heat load was coming from infrared.
If you do not block infrared, you do not block heat properly.
NASA’s interest at the time was not paint. It was heat management. Spacecraft, satellites and launch systems cannot afford uncontrolled thermal gain or loss. Thermal control coatings were already part of aerospace engineering.
The question was simple. Could similar ceramic science be applied to buildings and infrastructure?
Between 1989 and 1995, J.E. Pritchett at SPI Coatings in Kansas developed what became Super Therm®, collaborating with engineers who had worked on thermal control technologies for aerospace applications.
The objective was not cosmetic reflectivity.
The objective was to block the three radiation heat waves at the surface:
The result was a multi-ceramic compound coating designed to:
That thickness matters. Traditional insulation works by slowing conductive transfer. Super Therm® was engineered to control radiative heat load before it enters the substrate.
Different mechanism. Different performance logic.
Bulk insulation increases R-value by adding mass. It absorbs heat and releases it slowly. That works in some climates. It fails in others, especially on metal roofs and thin steel structures where radiant loading dominates.
A 250-micron ceramic membrane does something different:
The coating manages surface heat behaviour, not just internal temperature.
That distinction is where most energy modelling still falls short.
Technology means nothing without verification.
Over the past three decades, Super Therm® has been tested under multiple ASTM standards including:
It has been validated by agencies such as the Florida Energy Office for energy performance and has documented case studies across:
In the City of Adelaide Cool Roof Trial, internal temperatures were recorded up to 6°C below ambient on coated structures on a 41°C day. That is surface heat management translating into real-world thermal stability in extreme heat.
This is not theoretical radiative cooling modelling. It is field data.
There are three camps in the market today.
One focuses on higher R-values.
One focuses on SRI and conductivity
The other focuses on white reflectance numbers.
They are partial conversations.
The origin of Super Therm® was different. It came from understanding that surface radiation drives heat load, and that blocking radiation at the envelope changes the equation entirely.
No power input.
No mechanical system.
No energy consumption to perform the task.
Just surface science.
As climate conditions intensify, the original problem NASA engineers were analysing is now a mainstream infrastructure issue. Urban heat, asset degradation, energy cost escalation and overheating buildings are not future problems. They are current.
The logic behind Super Therm® has not changed since its development.
Block the heat before it enters.
Everything else becomes easier.
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