Durabide®, our own proprietary coating, is our most popular product. It is a unique coating comprised of silicon carbide particles encased in an electroless nickel matrix. Durabide® has proven to provide wear resistance comparable to industrial hard chrome with the added benefit of exceptional corrosion resistance. This unique combination has allowed Durabide® to become a premium product with applications in the aerospace, fluids handling, oilfield, plastics molding, and automobile industry.
What is Durabide®?
What is Durabide® used for?
Is Durabide® corrosion resistance exceptional?
How thick is Durabide® coating?
Do thicker Durabide® coatings require grinding?
Are threads and holes protected when coated?
What effects does Durabide® have on surface finish?
How hard is Durabide®?
What metals mate well with Durabide®?
Is Durabide® expensive?
What is Durabide®?
It is a proprietary coating containing extremely hard non-metallic particles suspended in a hard nickel alloy matrix. A typical coating contains 20-30% silicon carbide particles by volume. Particle sizes range from 1-10 microns.
What is Durabide® used for?
It is particularly useful in applications where both corrosion and abrasion occur simultaneously. The extreme hardness of the silicon-carbide particles coupled with the excellent corrosion resistance of the nickel alloy matrix make this possible.
Is Durabide® corrosion resistance exceptional?
Definitely. First, the process deposits a coating that is amorphous. It has no crystal structure. Second, nickel is essentially inert in most corrosive conditions. Third, the Durabide® coating is applied chemically in a carefully controlled environment. This assures that the coating is free of voids, thus enhancing the corrosion resistance of the coating and base material combination. However, care must be taken to protect the nickel coating from mechanical damage to achieve full base material protection.
How thick is Durabide® coating?
Durabide® coatings are most commonly applied in thickness between .001" and .003". However, in certain applications deposits can be as thin as a few tenths of a thousandth or as thick as 4-5 thousandths of an inch. Different thicknesses are specified depending on the application. We can help with thickness specifications.
Do thicker Durabide® coatings require grinding?
No. Durabide® is deposited so uniformly that is seldom requires grinding or sizing. This is a chemically applied composite which covers any geometric surface uniformly. For example, we coat the I.D. and the O.D. of tubular parts up to 30 feet in length with as much as .003" of material. The coating maintains the consistency of internal dimensions.
Are threads and holes protected when coated?
Yes. Two options are available: either we can mask threads and holes or we can coat them. If they are coated, then the threads and holes must be sized so that the coating will put them into final size applications. There will be a change in pitch diameter of threads of 4 times the coating thickness, so an allowance for the change must be made prior to coating. Requirements for selected areas to be masked should be discussed with Dura-Tech prior to writing any specifications.
What effects does Durabide® have on surface finish?
In its as coated condition, the surface finish will be somewhat rougher than it was on the base metal. However, after a light polish, the surface finish will return to approximately the original base metal condition. Therefore in a given application, the base metal surface finish should be representative of the desired finish after coating.
How hard is Durabide®?
Conventional hardness testing will not answer this question. Durabide® is two distinct and different materials. The nickel alloy matrix material (the allow is 91-93% nickel and 7-9% phosphorous) has an "as plated" hardness of 500 Knoop. Heat treating can raise that hardness to as high as 950 Knoop. Silicon Carbide has a hardness of 2400 Knoop. This is unaffected by heat treating. Hardness is commonly used to indicate resistance to wear. Durabide® will usually wear much better than hardness testing numbers indicate because of the mechanical structure of the coating itself. Consequently, although hardness numbers are generally useful in comparing different materials, Durabide® should be evaluated for the specific environment for which it is being considered.
What metals mate well with Durabide®?
Durabide® coating runs satisfactorily against most other metals. With lubrication, it does not tend to gall even running against itself. It also runs well against steel alloys, cast iron, carbides, chrome, aluminum and copper alloys. Caution should be exercised in running Durabide® against seals and packing, and Dura-Tech will consult you about such combinations.
Is Durabide® expensive?
No! Durabide® is a moderately priced material. This is basically a carbide-type coating with carbide type wear life combined with unusual corrosion resistance. It requires little or no honing, grinding or other after-work to bring it in to size tolerances. It causes no dimensional problems regarding less of the geometry of the part being treated. Based on what it does, it is very reasonably priced.
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