DefenseReview.com (DR): An online tactical technology and military defense technology magazine with particular focus on the latest and greatest tactical firearms news (tactical gun news), tactical gear news and tactical shooting news.
By David Crane
defrev (at) gmail (dot) com
April 1, 2011
Last updated on 4/07/11.
Late last year, David Howlett, founder of USTACRA (United States Tactical Rifle Association) and close friend of DefenseReview’s (DR), alerted us to STS Arms, a boutique gun builder/smith and weapons coating (gun coating) outfit specializing in advanced internal and external ceramic coatings (tactical firearm coatings). Defense Review has mentioned Next Generation Arms’ (NGA) advanced ceramic coating tech for firearms in previous articles, including our recent pieces on the NGA X7 direct gas-impingement (DGI) tactical AR carbine.
Well, Ron Downs, STS Arms’ proprietor and resident ceramic coatings application guru, used to coat guns for NGA, and is now applying his skills and knowledge to provide STS Arms customers with some very cool ceramic coatings, including two that are of particular interest to DR:
1) A product-improved/enhanced version of NIC Cerakote Micro Slick super-slick, self-lubricitous/self-lubricating internal ceramic coating that greatly reduces or eliminates the need to run wet lubrication (i.e., gun oil or gun lube) in your weapon and significantly eases your weapon cleaning procedure
2) Anti-night vision (NV)/near Infrared (IR)-signature and anti-rust/corrosion external ceramic coating for military Special Operations (SPECOPS) applications. This coating is also a NIC Cerakote product.
STS can coat rifles, pistols, and shotguns.
The following information on STS Arms ceramic firearms coatings facts and performance comes from the STS Arms website:
“STS Arms utilizes a specific blend of NIC Industries Cerakote ceramic coating system consists of several layers of unique ceramics cured and layered to optimize the performance of your weapon in the harshest of conditions.
Our State of the art coating technology out performs any competitive coating in both laboratory settings and real world applications.
Our unique formulation of ceramics work together to enhance a number of physical performance properties, each of these properties is rigorously tested to guarantee that your weapon does not and will not fail when your life and the lives of other depend on it most.
Below is what you can expect statistically when you coat one of your duty weapons with our proprietary ceramic coating system.
Testing performed by an independent military approved testing facility proved that our ceramic coating is 7.5 times more wear resistant than any other firearm coating.
– Taber abrasion is an approved ASTM method which is used to determine the wear resistance of coatings by rotating an abrasive disk on the surface of a coated substrate.
– Corrosive salt spray testing revealed that our coating system can protect steel and other metals better than competitive firearm coatings. Salt spray testing is performed using a steel substrate to simulate real world application instead of using aluminum or Parkerizing.
– The corrosion resistance of each coating was tested by placing a coated steel panel in an atmosphere with a 5% salt spray at 90 degress F. This test corresponds to ASTM standard B117. (Keep coming back to see our real world test performed by real world operators.)
– Our coatings can undergo a 32% elongation without distortion or coating loss.
– Our coated weapons can withstand 160lbs per sq in impact with no coating loss.”
Photo(s) Credit: STS Arms
Company Contact Info:
Ron Downs
STS Arms Performance Ceramic Systems
625 NW Bay Blvd
Toledo, OR 97391-7900
Phone: 541-336-3006
Fax: 541-336-3007
Mobile: 925-872-2339
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.stsarms.com
David Howlett
United States Tactical Rifle Association (USTACRA)
PO BOX 30885
Bellingham WA 98226
Phone: 360-410-6215
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.ustacra.com
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