The lubricants evaporate 1 million to 100 million times slower than conventional lubricants and can be found in military and commercial aircraft, spacecraft, and in the medical and computer industries. As Ball whirled into the space age in the 1950s, several technologies emerged as offshoots of satellites and their hardware. One of those technologies was Vac Kote, developed in 1959. Space hardware required moving components to perform for long periods of time and to withstand extreme conditions in the space environment. The Vac Kote systems produce thin films of fluid or dry lubricants as the moving interface.
Unique additives provide antiwear properties, corrosion resistance, and creep resistance.
Dry Vac Kote systems are typically used when temperatures exceed the limits for fluid systems, optical contamination is extremely critical, or radiation exposure is excessive. When necessary, new lubricants are formulated to meet unique performance requirements for specific hardware applications. Lubricants are applied using special vacuum processes that bond thin films in vacuum to clean surfaces. And we're still using it today, over 35 years later. The spacecraft had been orbiting for 20 years.