Barrel Coatings

[Kimber.204]

I was listening to the podcast.....episode somewhere in the mid 90's and @lowlight mentioned that there have been studies where a coated barrel cools faster than an uncoated stainless barrel.

Does anyone have the data or detauls on this testing?

Thanks
Ross

 

[Gunfighter716]

Curious about this as well. On the other end of the spectrum, I have seen black cerakoted barrels get pretty hot sitting out in the sun; especially down here in the Florida heat. If a coated barrel does indeed cool faster, you would need to get it under some shade.

 

[gnochi]

I’ve done experiments with heatsink fins and pins; they work better if they’re painted black. As far as heat transfer is concerned:

• Conduction: a really thin coating (ie cerakote; think coating thicknesses on the order of 1/100 or less of the barrel/pin diameter) really doesn’t do much to how much heat you can transfer to the outside surface
• Convection: if your coating measurably impacts the convection coefficient, it’s way too thick
• Radiation: in general, a darker coating will exchange more heat with the environment through radiation. This can, as noted above, be a good thing (emitting more heat away from the barrel) or a bad thing (absorb and hold more heat from the sun, increasing the steady-state temperature of the barrel).

 

[DanGTG]

It might be that some coatings with a lower coefficient of friction generate less heat, but surface prep also plays a big part in the finish quality so YMMV.

 

[Lowlight]

I have it

 

[Kimber.204]

I have it

View attachment 7148718

Thanks Frank!

 

[Kimber.204]

I find it interesting that the heat transfer rate is not different enough between the steel vs carbon barrels to drastically change the peak temperature or the duration at the peak....even though the total duration is is more than 25% less than with a steel barrel.