Advanced Materials and Fabrication Processes for Gun Barrels

High rate of fire, high velocity, medium-caliber (20-, 25-, and 30-mm) gun barrels have been used extensively by U.S. armed forces over the past 20 years. A major problem with such systems is that the barrel must be replaced far too often due to excessive wear and corrosion at the breech end, which limits weapons system accuracy adn dramatically accelerates with extended high-rate-of-fire bursts and/or higher energy propellants. In this Phase I program, Ultramet proposes a baseline sloution to this generic problem through the use of rhenuim inserts. Refractory metals and alloys and fabrication process eill be evaluated for cost, performance, and compatibility improvements over the baseline rhenium and tantalum/tungsten (Ta-10W) alloys. A rhenium insert will be fabricated for actual gun performance validation to provide a baseline high coatings will be fabricated and subjected to wear and erosion testing using verified methods for comparison to current stellite and chrome-plated steel barrels and the baseline rhenium and Ta-10W materials.