United States Mint New Chemical Development - RFI

Background
The United States Mint (USM) uses a third-party proprietary compound to protect and lubricate blanks during the coin-stamping process. If production of this proprietary compound was reduced or ceased, it would greatly impact the USM operations. The USM wishes to develop a similar or alternate solution that will perform equally or better than the current mixture. Development of an alternate solution will require in-depth knowledge of corrosion protection, lubrication, and self-assembled monolayers, exploration of relevant chemicals and/or processes, as well as small-scale and large-scale formulation and testing.

Work Details
The key properties of the chemical of interest are: 1. The chemical is a self-assembled monolayer that adheres well to the surface of a blank to survive the subsequent stamping process and is thin enough that it does not leave residue on the stamping tooling. 2. A protective layer impedes corrosive elements over a period of time. 3. The blanks shed rinse water easily to avoid forming water stains. 4. The layer provides a lubrication function during stamping reducing the friction at the die–blank interface and mitigates wear.