Crystal Growth of Tungsten Alloy and Tungsten Rods for Kinetic Energy Penetrators Using a Plasma Czochralski Technique

Depleted uranium alloys currently used for kinetic energy penetrators have become a major environmental and health concern for the DOD. New materials are required which can replace these alloys. Safe tungsten alloys are being investigated as an alternative to uranium alloys. The problem is that the ballistic performance of the tungsten alloys has not equaled that of the uranium alloys. However, it was recently reported that single-crystal tungsten has a superior penetration performance to tungsten alloys and an equivalent penetration performance to uranium alloys. Current techniques for producing oriented polycrystalline tungsten alloys and single-crystal tungsten are not capable of economically supplying the dimensions and quantity needed by the DOD. We propose to use a plasma Czochralski crystal growth technique to economically manufacture oriented polycrystalline tungsten alloy rods and singled-crystal tungsten rods up to 50 mm in diameter for use as kinetic energy penetrators. This technique could also be used to make single-crystals of other materials which cannot be grown by currently available techniques.