Environmentally-Friendly Method for Cleaning Sealed Suppressors

Sealed suppressors are routinely used by the U.S. Marines, both in the field and on practice ranges. Suppressors are critical, not only to help obscure the location of a sniper, but also to protect the shooter from hearing damage. Sealed suppressors are susceptible to significant fouling that degrades their accuracy and that can lead to failure of the suppressor, particularly when they are used at high firing rates. Unfortunately, because the units do not disassemble, it is currently impractical to clean them to return them to a state that is suitable for use. For this reason, suppressors must be replaced frequently. Because suppressors are expensive, a reliable and high-volume method of cleaning them is required.TDA is developing an inexpensive and environmentally friendly method of cleaning rifle suppressors that will not only work for the M40 sniper rifle suppressors but that will also be compatible with other ammunition calibers. The TDA cleaning kit will be made from COTS items, and it will restore the performance of heavily fouled suppressors without physically damaging them or causing corrosion. Our method also reduces the environmental impact of the cleaning process, and does not generate large volumes of lead or copper contaminated aqueous waste.