Throughout the industry in the past several years, attempts have been made at “lube less finishes”. A finish that will last forever, won't scratch and basically the holy grail of finishes that make cleaning easy and quick. In the late 1950 to early 1960’s, chrome plating was used on bolt carrier groups on the M16 series rifles. This made easy cleaning and also the chrome plating had limited self lubricating properties, but still required lubricants. The chrome plating was phased out mostly due to cost and also the fact that quality control on the process was not up to snuff and the chrome plating suffered corrosion and flaking.
In early 2000’s a new finish came into the scene. Nickel boron has been dubbed as the ultimate in lube less and protective finish in the industry. My first experience with nickel boron was a UCT finish that was used for a short time by Colt Defense. Colt worked with UCT to provide a nickel boron finish for their SCAR entries in 2003/2004 time period. All three entries into the program were rifles completely coated with nickel boron, including the receivers, bolt carriers, fire control group parts, etc. At that time, nickel boron coatings were not in their prime; Colt did not have the greatest luck with it and discontinued use of it in favor of the mil-spec manganese phosphate.
In early 2000’s a new finish came into the scene. Nickel boron has been dubbed as the ultimate in lube less and protective finish in the industry. My first experience with nickel boron was a UCT finish that was used for a short time by Colt Defense. Colt worked with UCT to provide a nickel boron finish for their SCAR entries in 2003/2004 time period. All three entries into the program were rifles completely coated with nickel boron, including the receivers, bolt carriers, fire control group parts, etc. At that time, nickel boron coatings were not in their prime; Colt did not have the greatest luck with it and discontinued use of it in favor of the mil-spec manganese phosphate.
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