Back in the early 1970's, Chevrolet produced an ill-fated car called the Vega. One unique feature of this car was the engine. It was a four cylinder made from a silicon/aluminum alloy that had no cylinder liners. Instead, after casting, the cylinder bores were treated with an acid to etch away the aluminum and leave a microporous layer of pure silicon held in place by the underlaying matrix. This left an ultra-hard cylinder bore.

Could this concept be applied to rifle barrels? Think of a silicon/stainless steel alloy barrel with a pure silicon bore. I would imagine it would have to be hammer forged or cut rifled with diamond cutters. Unlike hard coatings(such as titanium nitride) the alloy could flex with the steel and not peel off. Would this be an answer for some of the ultra high velocity calibers that are so tough on barrels?

Hey Bobster, Way back when I'd gotten out of the CORPS and was going to college my lady had a Vega with that same engine. Big problems with it "warping" the Block and the Head if you drove it for a couple of hours at Interstate speeds. Spent some time "truing" the Block and "shaving" the Head at first - waste of time.

Changed enough "Head Gaskets" on it that I installed quick disconnects everywhere, carried a spare Head gasket in the trunk and I believe my record for a change was 1.5hrs, but it has been so long ago that might be skewed by the passage of time.

Point being, if a barrel "warped" as badly with that material as the vega engines did, you probably wouldn't want it.

I've been in the service end of the automitive field since the 70's. That concept never worked in the Vegas. Someone had to invent some sleeves for the engine in order to correct the problems. The problem was that the rings were harder than the cylinders and would wear them out quickly. I don't really see the idea working in a firearm with such high projectile velocity, although gilding metal and jacket material are considerably softer than piston rings.

bowhuntr

Remember seeing a write up from England regarding a ceramic coating that was developed for use on slides of semi-autos to prevent wear. Haven't heard if it actually worked.

I know little about technology except what I get to understand from magazines like Popular Mechanics etc but this company has some wundertech that is being considered for some aerospace projects and when I e-mailed them to ask if they were using it for any firearms projects, they replied that they were working with the US government for possible firearms applications www.liquidmetalgolf.com

I don't know about barrels but to my admittedly amateur mind, it does look like the technology could be used to make some super strong rifle actions and pistol frames.

Good hunting!