Degradation of Vitro-Lube after environmental exposure (Tribology Testing)

Vitro-Lube is a ceramic-bonded dry film lubricant that is used on many flight hardware components (ex: BISTRA ball joint, sliding bellows). Flight hardware may often sit on a test stand or launch pad for extended periods of time while being exposed to a corrosive environment. There is currently no performance data on Vitro-Lube that accounts for these conditions (humidity, sunlight, salt, etc.) during sustained environmental exposure. We propose to remedy this by performing Tribological testing on nickel alloy 718 samples with Vitro-Lube coating applied. The end goal being to create a database of the wear/degradation properties of Vitro-Lube, this database would be created using samples evaluated before and after exposure to some of the aforementioned environmental conditions.

Having a database that catalogs the behavior of the Tribological properties of the Vitro-Lube, summarizing how this dry lubricant degrades after exposure to the test stand environment, is of great interest to the aerospace community. It is well known that this coating does not inhibit corrosion and it is highly recommended by the manufacturer to use corrosion-resistant substrates to mitigate this problem. It is also known that contamination of the wear surfaces will trigger detrimental wear behavior of the coating.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 1) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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