UNITED PROTECTIVE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N192-057

Description

The M197 Gatling gun is a useful and highly effective battlefield weapon used on a variety of rotary wing aircraft. Unfortunately, the heat and wear caused by its high rate of fire requires preventative maintenance procedures to ensure combat readiness. Lubricants have been implemented to reduce wear and inhibit corrosion on its steel components, but their application requires more frequent maintenance cycles to remove sand, dust and salt water contamination common in naval operational environments. United Protective Technologies (UPT) has developed a hybrid nano-composite coating (NCC) and manufacturing process which has achieved order of magnitude improvements for wear, friction and corrosion without the need of additional lubrication in several applications. UPT’s in-house designed, production level hybrid plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) reactors can apply the thin yet highly durable coating to a variety of different substrates without needing design changes for additional clearances. The coating also provides increased substrate corrosion protection without environmentally hazardous chemicals.