When engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center needed to reduce friction and wear of actuators in a 60-foot long robotic arm, they turned to advanced physical vapor deposition (PVD) coatings. These are extremely thin layers of hard materials that are typically applied to metal component parts to provide wear resistance, lubricity, and other enhanced surface properties. Titanium nitride (FiN) is the most commonly known PVD hard coating.

BryCoat Inc. applied PVD coatings to eliminate galling and seizing of the high-precision moving components in the articulating arm of the Space Station simulator. The full-sized training arm, known as the Space Station Robotic Manipulator ...