Domestic Manufacturing of Isostatically Molded Graphite

PJB Consulting along with its collaborators, Amsted Graphite Materials, LLC and HKM Consulting LLC will reestablish domestic production capability of legacy ATJ isostatically molded graphite using a US supply chain and US manufacturing facility.  ATJ, the performance standard in solid fuel rocket nozzles and ablative technologies employed by the US Department of Defense, was last produced in 2010. The void has been filled by foreign-owned suppliers, leaving the US military without a source of US-owned, domestically-produced fine-grain graphite that would enable performance, range, and precision for rockets and missiles. The project seeks to qualify a new domestic source of raw materials and produce a qualification batch of 8 tons of ATJ graphite. After qualification testing and acceptance by customers, there will be a source of ATJ at a capacity level of up to 3,000 tons per year of isostatically molded graphite as a drop-in replacement for the legacy ATJ material. At the end of this program, the US will again have a domestic source of strategically important large isostatically molded graphite billets used for rocket nozzles and ablative materials produced by a US-owned company.