Solid Lubricant for Weapon System

Currently used semi-fluid lubricants become completely fouled with sand after several days exposure, which causing the weapon malfunction. Telfon-based lubricant can be used in certain low speed applications. However, large quantity of telfon for high firing rate application attract large amount of sand. A new generation of lubricant system is needed. Considering an operation in a sand enviroments for DoD applications, solid lubricants coatings are attractive candidate. Their applications in gas engine, bearing and information storage have been developed with long endurance, low fraction and weaving. In general, they are not able to resupply in situ. We propose a novel solid lubricant firm with ability of in situ resupplying. This concept is based on world wide achievments on lubrication, sol-gel technique and hard coating. A layer of hard coating is firstly deposited on surface. A composite glass-ceramic coating is deposited on top to enhance lubrication. The top layer is able to be resupplied in situ.Sol-gel based process provide a possibility to easily resupply lubricant firm.