Explosively Clad Liners for Extended Barrel Life

Gun barrel life is limited by erosion, heat and wear. Barrel steels and failure mechanisms have changed little since the end of World War II. Performance requirements of modern gun systems continue toward higher velocities, greater rates of fire and longer projectile ranges result in greater in-bore pressures, heat and erosion. A critical need exists to increase barrel life, and therefore, sustainability. Coatings are of limited use for over-heating problems. Thicker liners have been tried, but are problematic when they are not bonded to the barrel. Using a proprietary explosive, TPL developed a unique explosive cladding process to metallurgically bond high-temperature, corrosion-resistant liners to steel or lighter weight barrel materials. TPL has demonstrated that solid liners, thicker than coatings and metallurgically bonded to the barrel, extend barrel life by 5-7 times. TPL will adapt this technology to small caliber machine gun barrels. Phase I Objectives include developing bonding parameters, verifying the metallurgical bond and producing test pieces. Barrel blanks will be clad and tested. Option tasks include cladding, machining and test firing a prototype Commercial support is lined up to help develop and market this technology. TPL has experience in barrel cladding and a site to perform the explosive work.