Can't comment on plans for the future.
As far as nitride, it's not easy to accomplish and in most cases the result is as good as, maybe even slightly better than, a typical forged and chrome lined barrel. The greatest benefit of nitride is the ability to protect and coat every part of the barrel, including the gas port. However, nitride treatment of an assembly is usually not done due to the molten salts getting between parts and continually weeping out over time. If the assembly isn't coated, then the gas port is likely going to be drilled after the nitride treated barrel is mated to an extension, in which case we lose a huge benefit of nitride and we're back to a part that's equivalent to a chrome lined barrel. That's not insignificant though, since chrome plating processes are finding their way ever closer to the center of the EPA's crosshairs and we'll need something to replace chrome when the day comes.
Nitride treatment is also significantly different than the types of treatments the typical materials are given, so it would take some real engineering to ensure that the processes and materials are compatible to truly improve upon the hammer forged and chrome lined barrel, rather than degrade or simply meet the same performance threshold.
TL;DR: There's a lot more to it than just tossing a barrel cluster in a salt tank. There's definitely benefits to be had, but it needs to be done right and even then the result is likely to be equivalent to and not hugely better than a chrome lined barrel, at least while chrome is still viable.



Reply With Quote


Bookmarks