How long does Cerakote last?
One of the most common questions we receive is “how long does Cerakote last?” This is understandable since most people don’t regularly deal with high performance coatings. There are a couple of ways to “paint” a slide, from the tried and true spray paint method to the more complicated hydro dipping. What sets Cerakote apart is it’s unmatched durability.
What makes Cerakote so durable?
Cerakote isn’t actually paint in the traditional sense, it’s a thin film ceramic coating. This coating cures to a hard, thin, low friction surface that is corrosion resistant. This sets it apart from typical paints which are simply colored pigments suspended in a plasticizer medium. The primary function of these paints is artistic in nature, they are not meant to be wear resistant or durable.
Cerakote’s primary function as a high performance industrial coating system is durability. That includes not only corrosion resistance, but also abrasion resistance, impact resistance and exceptional adherence to the object that is coated.
Corrosion testing per ASTM B117 standard showed that Cerakote resists corrosion for 2034 hours which is 11.8x longer than it’s closest rival.
How durable is Cerakote?
Cerakote is more abrasion resistant than some OEM finishes. Cerakote is more corrosion resistant than bluing, stainless steel, phosphate and even black nitride! Cerakote, especially the Elite Series, has lubricity that rivals Teflon. Cerakote has excellent chemical resistance across a wide variety of chemical substances. Cerakote received the highest possible score for coating hardness. Impact resistance of Cerakote was scored at 160 in-lbs - the maximum the tester could achieve.
All of these factors mean that properly applied Cerakote will protect your firearm from all of the main dangers to firearms - corrosion, holster wear, drops and sweat. And will sometime
How should you expect your Cerakote slide to wear?
So is Cerakote invincible? No, not at all. You should expect it to wear very similar to aluminum adonizing. One of the most aggressive items to wear a slide are friction fit Kydex holsters. A pistol that is unholster and re-holstered repeatedly will show signs of wear similar to an OEM slide.
Slide showing typical wear after 10,000+ rounds and 1000s of unholstering and re-holstering.
Premature coating failure from another coating company, likely due to improper prep work.
Our Quality Promise
PWMachining is comitted to providing top tier customer service and the highest quality products, including our Cerakoting application. We offer a 100% guarantee against premature coating failure caused by workmanship. If your PWMachining coated slide shows signs of coating failure we will re-coat it at absolutely no cost to you. And rest easy knowing that of the hundreds of slides we’ve coated we’ve only had to re-coat one slide!