Corrosion Resistant Composite Bearings

Steel bearings are being used on numerous weapon systems currently employed by many organizations of the Department of Defense including the Air Force. Due to continuous exposure to cruel weather environments, corrosion and lack of maintenance, bearings endure pre-mature failures. Composite materials are known to provide the highest levels of corrosion protection with minimal or no requirements for lubrication. When applied as coatings, they create a corrosion barrier for the base steel alloy and the final composite structure has strength characteristics required when supporting large axial and radial loads. The PVD-based technique is developed to apply fully dense, well-adhered uniform composite coatings to surfaces of complex shapes. This deposition process has demonstrated its capacity in applying coatings to spherical surfaces as well as ODs and IDs of tubular substrates. It will be further developed to demonstrate its ability to produce dense corrosion resistant Metal Matrix Composites on surfaces of bearing balls, rollers and races targeting elevated resistance to impacts from superior loads and leveraging it with the economic hurdles associated with designing high-load solid structure composite components. Employment of composite coatings on the DoD-utilized bearings will allow "surface engineering" of durable materials to protect critical surfaces, reduce the overall life-cycle costs and will significantly increase performance characteristics of weapon systems