Brent Barbee

Founder and Chief Technology Officer United Protective Technologies

Last Reviewed: September 27, 2026

Executive Summary

Brent Barbee is the founder and Chief Technology Officer of United Protective Technologies (UPT), a company in Locust, North Carolina, that develops thin-film coatings to make metal parts last longer in harsh conditions. Its main product is a carbon-based nanocomposite film as hard as diamond but flexible enough to bend without peeling off the part. UPT supplies aerospace, defense, automotive and industrial manufacturers. It was built largely on U.S. Department of Defense research contracts, and Barbee has been the technical lead and spokesman for that work.

Career Highlights

• Founder and Chief Technology Officer of United Protective Technologies, founded in 2002 in Locust, North Carolina.
• Four months after UPT won its first Phase I SBIR, the Defense Logistics Agency fast-tracked it to a Phase III commercialization award, and prototypes were in aircraft testing nine months after the Phase I award.
• Named as one of three executive officers on UPT’s 2011 SEC Form D, alongside CEO Martin L. Efird, Jr.
• Business contact on a 2022 U.S. Air Force SBIR award of $781,929 to develop low-friction coatings for gearbox components.

Professional Journey

United Protective Technologies was founded in 2002. North Carolina’s Department of Commerce identifies Barbee as its founder and Chief Technology Officer, and Marty Efird as its chief executive. The company’s focus is plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition and arc physical vapour deposition coatings, including diamond-like carbon. These are applied in thin films to parts that must survive friction, wear and extreme environments.

UPT’s first large break came through the federal Small Business Innovation Research programme. Four months after it won its first Phase I SBIR grant, the Defense Logistics Agency moved it straight to a Phase III commercialization award because the military had an immediate need for the coating. “Nine months from the award of the Phase I we had prototypes on an aircraft going through testing,” Barbee told the state. “We had to quickly understand the technology and how it was going to work and get manufacturing readiness level up to the point where we could make it.” The military’s needs later changed, and the company had to find a funding model that could last. He gave matching grants from the One North Carolina Small Business Program, which UPT received in 2009, 2010 and 2017, credit for letting him hire staff whom SBIR budgets alone could not pay for.

Barbee has described the coating’s value with a helicopter example. When coated gear interfaces lose oil pressure, friction stays low enough and the coating holds enough oil that the aircraft can keep flying long enough to get back to base. That line of work continued into a 2022 U.S. Air Force SBIR award of $781,929 for super-lubricous interface coatings for gears, meant to cut friction and wear by more than an order of magnitude in Air Force gearboxes. Barbee was named as UPT’s business contact on that award.

The company has since grown beyond its original defense focus. It now serves automotive, medical, firearms, food and beverage, oil and gas, and power generation customers. Its headquarters are in Locust, and it has research operations at UNC Charlotte and in Pittsburgh and a production and R&D site in Niles, Ohio.

Education

No education record was found in any first-party or press source reviewed.