I've considered this concept in the past. Besides possibly making the bearing surface of the wheel hub harder & smoother, a coating might also close the diameter of the wheel hub for a speed advantage especially on an overworked axel.
There are polymer based coatings used on plastic eyeglass lenses that are designed to provide scratch resistance. These might prove useful but would require testing.
As in lens treatments, a coating wouldn't make the plastic wheel harder. But it might be harder & more "slippery" in its own right.
http://www.allaboutvision.com/lenses/coatings.htm
Whether these coatings can resist graphite & last an entire race season is debatable. The only way to know might involve destroying a $300 pair of new glasses!
Some rules strictly prohibit coating axels. The same could prove true of inner wheel hubs. I'll have to look at ours to be sure.
Re: Making Plastic Harder
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Stephen's Dad
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