Tag Archives: Duralar™ coating

Improving firearm performance with Duralar, a diamond-based coating

A metal and diamond-based coating, Duralar,used to give metal better hardness and durability is also good for guns. I checked a few times and the April 1, 2015 news item on Azonano does not appear to be an April Fool’s joke,

ProtoTactical, a Tucson-area manufacturer of firearms and firearm components has discovered a new way to significantly improve their firearm performance — by applying a special nanotechnology coating called Duralar™. Duralar is an advanced, diamond-based coating that is being used in a variety of industries to enhance metal hardness and durability — and to provide other qualities as well.

Confirming the unlikelihood of this news being a joke is a March 31, 2015 Duralar Coatings news release about the coating and guns,

“Our use of Duralar coatings began as an experiment,” said Gary Palese, president of ProTactical. “I coated a few standard AR-15 trigger parts, mainly to check out the increased durability and wear resistance. But I got a nice surprise and an interesting bonus…”

“As soon as we installed a Duralar-coated trigger and dry-fired the weapon we immediately discovered that the trigger action was significantly smoother. Customers who tried it were amazed at the difference between the coated and uncoated triggers. They were certain that we must have changed the springs or reground the edges, or something! But the only difference was Duralar.”

“Because Duralar is a carbon-based material it has a natural, dry lubricity,” explained Andrew Tudhope, president of Duralar North America. “In firearm applications this means smoother action, less friction and no need for liquid lubricants, which can collect dirt and cause jamming. So, when you combine the intrinsic lubricity with Duralar’s hardness and increased wear and scratch resistance, it gives gun manufacturers a very useful suite of performance features.”

Sex appeal

Gary Palese is also pleased with another Duralar feature, which he calls “sex appeal!”  “Duralar coating gives metals a unique pearlescent gray-black surface that is very tactical and ‘stealthy’ looking — which many of our customers find very sexy! So, because of its hardness and attractive appearance, I’m going to start using Duralar to coat our line of custom knife blades, as well.”

Introduced by Duralar Technologies in 2012, Duralar is an advanced, uniquely structured nanocomposite coating that blends metal and diamond-based components to achieve exceptional hardness, toughness, strength and a spectrum of performance qualities. It is comprised of multiple layers that can be configured in multiple ways to address different applications. Because of its many features Duralar is finding use in an ever-widening range of metal-coating applications. In addition to hardness, durability and lubricity the coatings also provide excellent corrosion and erosion resistance, and they are environmentally friendly, as well.

About Duralar Technologies

Duralar Technologies is a global nanotechnology company and developer of the state-of-the-art Duralar family of ultra-hard coatings. The diamond-based next-generation products are designed to replace hard chrome plating, thermal spray and other previous generations of hard coatings in a broad range of industries including oil & gas, automotive, pulp & paper and aerospace. The company sells and supports Duralar’s coating technology as well as the systems, precursors and materials used in the Duralar coating process. In addition, Duralar Technologies provides Duralar coating services for selected customers. The company’s U.S. headquarters are located in Marana, AZ. European headquarters are in Bedizzole, Italy. The company has additional facilities and offices in Brazil, Mexico and the U.S. For more information, visit www.duralar.com.

About ProtoTactical

ProtoTactical LLC, based in Marana, AZ, is a precision machine shop and manufacturer of AR-style firearms and accessories under its own name as well as for other firearms companies across the U.S. and around the world. The company specializes in reliability at an affordable price, delivering unique product solutions as well as tried-and-true designs. With its rapid prototyping, design and manufacturing capabilities ProtoTactical is able to supply virtually any firearm or component in-house and respond quickly to customer needs. ProtoTactical is a division of ProtoTech, a full-service product development and high-precision machine shop. Established in 1995, ProtoTech is a respected member of Tucson’s advanced technology industry, supplying quality precision parts worldwide. For more information, visit www.prototactical.com.

I found this about the coating technology on Duralar Coatings’ Advanced Technology webpage (Note: Links have been removed),

Duralar is a proprietary and uniquely structured new nanocomposite coating that blends metal and diamond-based components to achieve exceptional hardness, toughness, strength and a broad range of performance qualities. It is comprised of multiple layers that can be configured in different ways to address different applications. The multiple layers are also effective for eliminating microcracks in the coating and blocking other problems like corrosion.

Because Duralar is not a sprayed coating it does not have the limitations that are usually associated with line-of-sight application. Instead, Duralar is highly conformal and uniform, which makes it well suited to coating three-dimensional features. It gives very consistent coverage, even on screw threads and intricately shaped features which can be challenging for other coating methods.

Also, Duralar does not require extremely high deposition temperatures, so it does not alter the morphology of substrates and works well on a broad range of substrate materials. At present Duralar technology is primarily designed to coat conductive substrates; in the future it may also be used on plastics and other materials.

Duralar offers this image of diamonds to illustrate their point,

Duralar is a nanocomposite blend of metal and diamond components.

Duralar is a nanocomposite blend of metal and diamond components.