Dry Film Lubricants

Dry film coatings reduce friction and provide lubrication without the need for grease and oil. Certain conditions, such as extreme temperatures, heavy load, or debris can cause liquid lubricants to fail. In such challenging conditions, traditional lubricants undergo physical changes that render them ineffective. In contrast, dry-film lubricants remain stable and continue to offer continuous protection.

High-performance dry film lubricants combine the functionality of fluorocarbons with engineered organic materials, such as polyesters and epoxies, for example. This creates a unique and versatile combinations of properties. The result is ideal for a wide range of uses, especially in domestic, industrial and automotive applications.

Benefits

The most obvious benefit to dry film lubricants is their ability to create lubricity between sliding surfaces. This can lead to improved efficiency, reduced wear, and extended equipment lifespan. They also have good torque control characteristics for fasteners. This is in addition to the ability to reduce surface friction. Another benefit of dry film lubricants is noise reduction, due to the smoother movement or flow of parts together. This can also reduce heat build-up when working at high temperature.

Applications include:

  • gears
  • pistons and valves
  • fasteners
  • shears and scissors
  • couplings
  • bearings
  • switches
  • window channels
  • and many other items

Types

Dry film lubricants (DFL) come in many forms. The most common to the general public is Teflon®, which creates a non-stick surface on cookware. To achieve this, the material contains a loaded concentration of a suitable material such as PTFE. Non-stick should not be confused with low friction coating. The latter is the form used by most industrial applications.

In low friction coatings a polymer such as epoxy or polyester, is combined with a material such as PTFE or Molybdenum Disulphide. The low friction additive will be uniformly dispersed throughout the coating. This gives it the ability to continue to function despite wear. The resultant coating is (once cured) dry to the touch yet very slippery.

Dip Spin – planetary motion / tilts

The dip spin process involves placing the items to be coated by the dry film lubricant into a perforated basket. The basket is then submerged into a tank containing the coating material. It is then removed for the material and then spun at a relatively high rpm to expel excess material. The planetary motion or tilts mechanism is designed to re orientate the parts during the spinning cycle so as to release coating material that would otherwise be trapped in recesses. This then reduces the levels of recess infill that would otherwise be preset in a standard dip spin coating process.

Automatic Spraying

Parts can be processed using automatic CNC programmed robotic equipment. However this may need initial investment in bespoke tooling.

Manual Spraying

Parts processed with manual input, generally means reduced capital outlay on bespoke tooling.

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