Thin film conformal coatings

[shorty]

For a very long time (+5 years) I have been researching electrophoretic coatings and finally found 2 suppliers that can sell in small quantities. Stupid me I was looking in the wrong place this long and finally found it in the jewelry market.

For those that do not know what E coating is, it is like plating with a polymer (not metal). Complete conformal coating even around the most difficult shapes to coat.

Too me, this stuff is amazing. So many possibilities with micro parts with complex shapes. I measured parts today at 10um coating thickness's with a complete coverage over the most difficult geometry.

Of course I don't know what kind of help it can give us in the airgun business but the first thing that comes to mind is a polymer choke. As easy as putting the muzzle end into a solution, hitting it with some current, then baking it at 130c /140c for 30 minutes.
Heck,
Maybe doing the whole barrel.

The greatest thing about the coating is that it can be removed, or selectivity done by masking.
 

[rsterne]

For the choke, if the control is good enough, you could perhaps start with the muzzle immersed 1/8", hit it with some current, immerse it further (1/4"), more time, then again (3/8") etc.etc.... This should build up the polymer in a taper (more at the muzzle because the time was greater) if I understand the process correctly....

Bob

[Motorhead]

Sound like something similar to what AIR ARMS puts on over there blueing   * Such at TX200's which do indeed have some sort of microfilm over the main tubes blued steel.
Interesting to be sure .. be darn handy in a multitude of applications.

[shorty]

Here's a link to what I have been testing out.

https://www.riogrande.com/category/tools-and-equipment/plating/electroplating/solutions?c=b2068eb6-8e16-473e-8682-a7b80157fc68&pageNum=1

For an initial trial in the lab I used a 9 volt battery. When I found out it worked good and what i was looking for, I used a 60 watt DC power supply.

The choke idea does sound interesting but there are just so many more opportunities.

Possibilities:
Valve seat coating or metal poppet coated or both
Triggers
Pellets
Springs
Sealing un-sealed anodized parts
Shrouds/LDC

Pretty neat stuff. Glad someone else besides me thought it was pretty cool.

[rsterne]

I guess the bottom line, for some of those applications, is how durable is it.... which will likely depend on the tensile and compressive strength of the polymer used.... That assumes that the bonding to the substrate is stronger than the polymer, of course.... otherwise that would be the limiting factor (flaking off)….

Bob