Bore Lining Product - Skeptical

[Bioman]

I ran across a product that looks interesting and seems to have a degree of plausibility. It is called Life Liner and is billed as a space age ceramet compound to increase the life of the bore of any rifle. Ceramet’s have been around for a while and I have run across them in cutting bit coatings for metal working machinery in the past. The manufacturer states that the product deposits a micron thin later of ceramet that then fuses from the heat of firing a series of rounds into a RC 80 (that’s very hard) substance that coats the inside of the barrel. They claim that re-applying the treatment every 1000 rounds will allow the barrel to last indefinitely. Has anyone used this or anything of this sort?
The first thing I thought of is “what happens if it actually screws up my rifles?” is there a sort of guarantee. I can’t find one on the website. I have a new firearm coming and was thinking about trying this. However I don’t want to play the role of crash test dummy as this is a fairly expensive rifle. Anyone have any thoughts?

[Alpo]

Show of hands. How many of you, like me, had never heard of Cera Met, and thought that he was misspelling ceramic, and wondered what clay pots had to do with a gun barrel? Come on, 'fess up.

Bioman, I don't have any idea. But if it bonds to the bore, and it's so strong and it's an 80 on the Rockwell C scale, why does it need to keep being reapplied?

[Mark]

I know this sounds terrible, but I'll let someone else try it first.

I'd also like to know how a fellow removes it if he's not 100% satisfied with accuracy, pressures, etc., after the application.

How hot does the firing have to get to fuse the material?

This just doesn't sound like something I want to get in line for.

Mark

[Bioman]

Originally Posted by Alpo

Show of hands. How many of you, like me, had never heard of Cera Met, and thought that he was misspelling ceramic, and wondered what clay pots had to do with a gun barrel? Come on, 'fess up.

Bioman, I don't have any idea. But if it bonds to the bore, and it's so strong and it's an 80 on the Rockwell C scale, why does it need to keep being reapplied?

I’m an engineer, I think I understood what I was reading

A couple of quotes:

Cer-met  /ˈsermɛt/
–noun
a durable, heat-resistant alloy formed by compacting and sintering a metal and a ceramic substance, used under conditions of high temperature and stress.

Also from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramics

Ceramics are used in the manufacture of knives. The blade of a ceramic knife will stay sharp for much longer than that of a steel knife, although it is more brittle and can be snapped by dropping it on a hard surface.

Ceramics such as alumina and boron carbide have been used in ballistic armored vests to repel large-calibre rifle fire. Such plates are known commonly as small-arms protective inserts (SAPI). Similar material is used to protect cockpits of some military airplanes, because of the low weight of the material.
Ceramic balls can be used to replace steel in ball bearings. Their higher hardness means that they are much less susceptible to wear and can offer more than triple lifetimes. They also deform less under load meaning they have less contact with the bearing retainer walls and can roll faster. In very high speed applications, heat from friction during rolling can cause problems for metal bearings; problems which are reduced by the use of ceramics. Ceramics are also more chemically resistant and can be used in wet environments where steel bearings would rust. The major drawback to using ceramics is a significantly higher cost. In many cases their electrically insulating properties may also be valuable in bearings.


Ceramics are some of the hardest substances in the world, the heat shield tiles on the space shuttles are ceramic. There are ceramics that are harder than diamonds. Typically ceramics though they can be very hard are usually brittle so they have a limitation which is one reason this surprised me.

As to why it would need to be re-applied; that makes sense, everything wears eventually.

No idea if this stuff works at all, but I find it interesting that Otis markets it given their good reputation. Here is the link. http://www.otisgun.com/cgistore/stor...tup=1&cart_id=

Heres a link to a manufacturer of cermet tooling, I recalled seeing this stuff a few yearsa ago..so it's for real. If it does or does not work in this application is anyones guess.

http://www.ntkcuttingtools.com/cermet.htm

[Bioman]

Originally Posted by Mark

I know this sounds terrible, but I'll let someone else try it first.

I'd also like to know how a fellow removes it if he's not 100% satisfied with accuracy, pressures, etc., after the application.

How hot does the firing have to get to fuse the material?

This just doesn't sound like something I want to get in line for.

Mark

I agree, I was hoping to find some other brave soul who had tried it first.

[Suwannee Tim]

It is plausable that you could coat the bore with some ceramic and shoot it. When the bullet came along it would pound the ceramic into the steel. Bore life is not an issue with most shooters. When you do wear a bore out, the flame burns out the throat first then burns forward. The real damage is limited to just a few inches at most. I am skeptical. Ceramics are hard but they are not magical.