Barrel Coating and Liners for Extended Barrel Life

The purpose of this Phase I effort is to investigate the effectiveness of using coatings to extend the life of gun barrels. The coatings will be deposited using Alameda Applied Sciences' proprietary Coaxial Energetic Deposition (CED) process, which iscapable of depositing virtually any metal or alloy and many types of ceramics to the insides of tubes, while using no moving parts. One of the major benefits of the CED process is that the deposition ions are much more energetic than those of otherdeposition methods, for example sputtering or CVD. Because of these more energetic ions, CED deposited coatings tend to be denser, with fewer voids and cracks, and to adhere better to the substrate. As a first step in this Phase I, a determination will bemade of the most promising material for coating the tubes. Several tube sections will be coated and an analysis will be performed to assess the ability of the coatings to extend the life of gun barrels. This novel technology provides a means toinexpensively apply high-quality metal or ceramic coatings to the inside surface of gun barrels and other tubes. These coatings have already demonstrated that they extend the lifetime of ethylene cracking tubes used in olefin manufacturing. These coatingshave the potential to extend the life of tubes or cylinders when mechanical wear, caustic chemicals or elevated temperatures are contributing factors to the failure of the system, leading to cost savings in operation and maintenance.