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Impregnation is a process by which a structurally sound casting or fabricated metal part can be made pressure tight with no dimensional changes. This means there is no build up of any material on the part’s surface. This process has been utilized for over 30 years. The majority of work has been for law enforcement. Unless manufacturing engineers have had experience on the projects requiring impregnation, the process is generally not known to exist.
The technology used to impregnate steel can be applied to commercial applications. Commercial applications are now becoming more prevalent due to the high cost of scrapping parts that have been cast and machined but found to be porous. The losses incurred such as machining time, delays in delivery and poor quality can be significantly reduced by impregnation for a fraction of the cost of remake with no guarantee that the same problems will occur again. Impregnation with Teflon can also prevent rust and corrosion but prolong the life of the metal. Impregnation is a cost saving alternative to protecting metal. The Mastershield process impregnates steel with Teflon that does not only prevent rust and corrosion but drastically reduces friction.
To take the mystery out of impregnation I shall describe the process briefly:
1. The parts are cleaned to remove any oils or moisture from the metal.
2. The parts are then submerged in our formula that is Teflon based and then they are placed in a vacuum chamber.
3. A vacuum of at least 29 inches of mercury is drawn in the vacuum chamber, evacuating the air in the pores of the parts and destroying all moisture in the metal.
4. The parts are removed from the vacuum chamber and wiped down. Total processing time is about 2 hours. The result is cleaned pressure tight metal with no dimensional changes.
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