Teflon lined barrel

[Williams]

Hello,

I noticed that teflon and steel have a very low friction constant (0.05), and I was wondering if you could line a barrel with teflon (or make a barrel entirely out of teflon) and reach higher velocities than with a steel barrel (friction steel vs steel is 3x higher than steel vs teflon). Has anyone ever tried this? Or would the effect not be noticable?

[jimmy101]

Lower barrel friction might actually lower cannon performance. For combustion cannons the friction (especially the static friction) contributes a lot to performance by holding the ammo in position long enough for combustion to proceed and pressure to build. Combustion is actually a pretty close process.

For pneumatics, friction will give the valve more time to fully open.