Composite bullets for trenning ammunition
Andrzej Dębski, Jacek Janiszewski, Robert Paszkowski
Quarterly No. 2, 2009 pages 192-196
DOI:
keywords: frangible ammunition, metal-ceramic sinters, powder metallurgy
abstract With the advent of modern hostage rescue tactics and new training shooting methods, the military and police agencies of many countries began to look for technical ways to minimize overpenetration risks and to reduce lead contamination hazards on firing ranges. One widely-accepted solution is pistol ammunition containing frangible bullets. Frangible rounds usually made from free lead matrix composite are designed to break apart into small pieces when they hit walls or other hard surfaces to prevent ricochets during close-quarters combat or training shooting. This behavior of frangible bullets maximizes the round’s transfer of energy to the object and minimizes the chances that pieces of the bullet will exit the object at dangerous velocities. In this paper, we propose to use the metal-ceramic composite made from the 90% Cu + 5% WO3 + 5% Al powder mixture as a material on 9 mm frangible round. The preliminary technological process of frangible bullets material manufacturing was developed to obtain metal-ceramic composite containing an Al2O3 matrix. The developed technological process is based on the powder metallurgy in which the phenomenon of ceramic matrix separation is used during the sintering operation. The results of technological and ballistic investigations with frangible metal-ceramic bullets are reported in our work. Besides with a view to exothermal character of chemical reactions during sintering operation, the results of influence of reaction heat on sintering temperature is presented. Generally it was found that metal-ceramic bullets have sufficient strength to withstand the firing operation without breaking up in the barrel of the gun or in flight up to the target. Furthermore, thanks to ceramic phase, developed bullets break up into very small pieces upon impact with a hard steel plate.