Nano-Scale Particle Coatings for Service Life Extension of Small Arm Components

Wear and erosion limit the service life and degrade the performance of weapons used by U. S. Special Operations Forces. Gun barrel coatings to maintain barrel life, overall weapon performance and reduce sustainment costs are required. These new coatingswill conform to environmental initiatives to reduce hexavalent chrome usage. Luna Innovations will develop a complete coating process and system based on novel nano-particle and thermal treatment technologies. Recent developments in nano-particleproduction will be exploited to formulate stable coatings that can be applied using conventional liquid coating application processes. The process includes, surface cleaning and treatment prior to coating using proven industrial methods. The freshlycoated gun barrels are oven dried in a controlled atmosphere. Finally, densification of the nano-particle coating is achieved without heating the bulk gun barrel substrate beyond the tempering temperature. The resulting dense coatings will be welladhered to the gun barrel. This coating process is designed to be compatible with current gun barrel manufacturing processes. The nano-particle production and coating process is amenable to the use of powder or alloy mixtures to achieve the optimalchemical, thermal and mechanical properties for this application.