Vat polymerization materials for AM of gun propellants

The US Army and Department of Defense (DoD) have been investing in the development of energetic materials for use in additive manufacturing (AM) for propellants.  Nalas Engineering Services, Inc. (Nalas) is partnering with Dr. Lori Groven at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) to develop revolutionary liquid resin systems for use in AM, specifically Vat polymerization, a UV light-based curing technology.  The focus of Nalas’ work will be to scale up novel liquid energetic monomers which offer the ability to reduce the amount of energetic solid ingredients (or fill) that typically would be required to achieve a final printed part with desired propellant performance.  Dr. Groven’s team will incorporate the novel monomers into vat resins, then build 3D printed test pieces to be evaluated for performance and final mechanical and combustion properties. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop scalable, affordable vat polymerization resins that can be used in additive manufacturing to build propellants with impetus of at least 950 J/g but more closely targeting 1100 J/g.  These impetus targets are necessary for the printed propellants to compete with traditional propellants such as JA2 and M31A2.