PNNL

Abstract

Tantalum offers a number of attractive properties for gun bore coating applications, including a high melting temperature, high ductility, and an environmentally friendly deposition method. However, vapor-deposited tantalum can appear in both the characteristic bcc phase found in the bulk material, and in a very brittle and less desirable 'beta' phase. Presence of the beta phase in bore coatings is considered undesirable because of its brittleness and resulting failure as the coating is stressed. A high-rate triode sputtering system with a cylindrical coating geometry was used to produce thick tantalum coatings on 4340 steel smooth bore cylindrical substrates.