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Frictionless coating for stainless extruder components

I am a manufacturing engineer and have a problem with 304 stainless steel. We extrude monofilament (high tech fishing line) and use 304 bar with many ss pins inserted to keep the filaments separated during the drawing & spooling process.We are getting some polymer left on the bar and pins as well as wear marks on the ss. Are there any coatings that are not sprayed on that would be harder and have less friction that the bare 304?

I appreciate any help.

Jeffrey Phoenix
- Homer, New York
2000

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This is virtually a classic situation where hard chrome plating is normally used -- although it is also possible to electroless nickel plate them or apply a ceramic coating by PVD. Our jobshops directory might be the quickest place to find a shop to do this for you.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2000

Smoothness of this item is the main key. I would make a new one with all of the surfaces that see the monofilament ground to a 6 finish or so. Then I would electropolish it. Preferably as pieces. This will give you a very, very smooth finish. I would EN nickel this with about 0.001" and heat treat for maximum hardness.Require activation with minimum etch! I do not think that teflon impregnated EN will work any better in this case and I think that it might wear faster.

If I visualize this correctly, I do not think chrome will work as well, even tho it is great stuff.

You may see some improvement for a short time by misting the surfaces with a can of spray teflon. This is just a mold release and is not bonded to the metal, so must be used as required. Heavy coating of the spray may cause more problems than they cure.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
2000

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Jeffrey,

we are developing a high-lubricity coating for mold release based on a composite Ni-boron nitride coating. If you are interested, send us a sample which we will plate for you and see if it improves matters at all.

"PlaterB" Berl Stein
NiCoForm, Inc.

Rochester, New York

2000