Novel Idea For Overheating Barrels
“Current machine guns typically use easily removable, quick-change barrels so that the gunner or gun crew can swap a cold barrel for the hot barrel every couple hundred rounds,” said Dindl, a mechanical engineer at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center, located at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey.
“This is fine in training, but not ideal in combat,” he added. “Plus, the spare barrel is a lot of extra weight for the Soldier to carry around. The technical challenge is how to keep the bore surface below the 400 degrees or so that produces cook offs.”
For decades, there has been a search for ways to eliminate the hazardous cook offs, thus reducing the need to change barrels and prolonging barrel life.
Dindl’s solution, for which he has obtained a patent, is a liquid- or powder-filled cartridge to cool and lubricate the bore of gun barrels. A primer is used to rupture the nose of the cartridge and propel the cooling material into the bore. The coolant absorbs heat from the bore of the barrel and is ejected from the muzzle of the weapon.
According to the patent, “the liquid or powder may include lubricants, preservatives, antifreeze, coolants, cleaners, or mixtures thereof, or other materials to enhance barrel performance. The liquid- or powder-filled cartridge is particularly well suited to externally powered weapons. Ammunition may be fed into the weapon using a mix of conventional cartridges and coolant- filled cartridges.”
Read the rest of the article: https://www.army.mil/article/249089/prolific_army_inventor_tackles_problem_of_overheating_gun_barrels_and_their_perils
[…] Novel Idea For Overheating Barrels is written by Aaron Spuler for […]
[…] Novel Idea For Overheating Barrels is written by Aaron Spuler for […]