Composite Barrel Materials Research and Development
Abstract
A 17-month program was conducted to advance high performance gun barrel technology by fabricating, testing, and evaluating small caliber insulated composite barrels which consist of lined barrels with an insulator at the liner/jacket interface. Fabrication process development included conventional barrel-making methods as well as development of a hot swaging process for rifling. Materials investigated included iron/nickel base superalloys, cobalt base superalloys, tantalum, columbium, and tungsten refractory alloys and high temperature ceramics. Test firings conducted on nine 7.62mm composite barrels proved the effectiveness of the insulator which lowered the mass average temperatures of the jackets by several hundred degrees during extended bursts without a sacrifice in erosion life. A computer extrapolation of the data to 30mm showed similar predicted results which provide potential for very high performance lightweight barrel designs. The final effort on the program consisted of fabricating eight .220 Swift/M-60 test barrels for delivery to the Air Force.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1972
- Accession Number
- AD0893772
Entities
People
- Richard A. Harlow
- Richard C. Kimball