Nanocomposite Chromium Plating for Interior Surfaces of Gun Barrels

Science & Engineering International Corporation (SEIC) is proposing to develop a metal plating technology based on nanocompsite chromium for gun barrels and other interior surfaces of military hardware. Use of nanocomposite chromium plating will greatly improve wear, erosion, and corrosion resistance of interior surfaces of gun barrel that are exposed to propellant combustion and other adverse effects of interior ballistics. The proposed technique applied to a number of different surfaces, has been demonstrated to produce coatings that are more than two times harder, have two times better wear resistance and have significantly better adhesion that standard hard chromium plating techniques. It was also demonstrated that the new method does not increase substantially the cost of the plating process. The proposed technology is base on properties of unique material: nanosize diamond powder that is formed by cubic diamond particles. This material has become available only recently. The addition of nanosize diamond to electrolyte allows for the significant decrease in the grain size of the electroplated chromium coating a vast improvement in of the quality of the coated layers.