Ammunition Components

As to the dollar-value of the Arsenal, its facilities are valued at over 500,000,000. The nature of these facilities varies, from the conventional to the nuclear. Conventional ammunition production lines, control laboratories and inspection systems are maintained in stand-by and are occasionally used in experimental or pilot-lot production. Nuclear weapons ammunition, components and devices are developed and produced in the. necessarily special research laboratories, proof-testing facilities and production and pilot assembly lines... 

If the total elapsed time between original acceptance of any detonator (or primer) lot and assembly of that lot into the ammunition component with which it is issued exceeds two months or if the detonators (or primers) have been subjected to adverse conditions at any time since previous tests, the lot shall be subjected to, and must satisfactorily pass, the check test for sensitivity and waterproofness as described above. Should any lot fail the retests it shall be rejected... 

Gun Ammunition Components. Historical discussion giving mechanical and chemical details on development of these components is In Ref... 

It is known that expls contg AN possess the undesirable property of changing their vol if there are large variations i n temp. If this expansion occurs in thin-walled ammunition components, considerable damage may result. This abnormal expansion is due to the fact that AN exists in five cryst modifications and great... 

Ammunition Component. Any part of a complete round of ammunition, such as a primer, cartridge, shell, etc. It is called "live when loaded and "inactive when inert Ref Anon, "Ammunition Inspection Guide, War Dept Tech Manual TM 9-1904(1944),... 

Two US military specifications currently exist for U alloys Uranium Alloy for Body Section Center of Ammunition Components , MIL-U-46126 (28 June 1968), and Uranium Alloy, Wrought, Bars, Billets and Tubular Shapes , MIL-U-46045C (24 June 1974)... 

Methods of testing of artillery ammunition components are described in the No 8 series of the Ordnance Proof Manual (Refs 1 to 7) and in military specifications listed in Ref 8... 

Refs l)Anon, "Artillery Ammunition Component Tests, General , OPM8-10 (1947)... 

Other military applications continue to account for a large fraction of all types of advanced composites produced today. Such materials are used, for example, in the construction of missile systems, their ammunition components, and their launch systems. Missile-related components that use composites include launcher tubes, armor-piercing penetrators, and stanchion and torpedo tubes used in submarines. 

Primers are not used exclusively for firearm ammunition, but have other uses which include blank cartridges, flares, flare trip wires, mortars, pyrotechnic cartridges, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades, ejector seat mechanisms, jettison devices, and other larger ammunition components. 

Information obtained from visits to various munitions factories suggests that manufacturers will use whatever is available at the time, from whatever source, to complete an order, provided that it meets the required ballistics performance and produces no residues that are injurious to the gun. During the war years, shortage of material meant many variations in materials used in manufacture. For these reasons it is unwise to make assumptions about ammunition components and composition, even for the same caliber and manufacturer, as they could vary from batch to batch. The differences between ammunition with the same head stamp can be seen in Table 21.3 for Winchester Western in. 38 Special and. 357 Magnum calibers and in Figure 21.2 for. 30 Ml caliber VE 54 FI and VE 2-61 S. 

This supports the proposition that anything present in a round of ammunition can make a contribution to the composition of the discharge residue particles. The presence of tin in any of the discharge particles is an indication that the primer contains mercury, the tin originating from the tinfoil disc used to seal mercury fulminate. (Tin is also present in some modern ammunition components, for example, Sellier Bellot, and it is present in some propellants.)... 

Vacuum Stability at 120°— 11+cc Velocity of Detonation — 7340m/sec for 1 inch diam cast unconfined chges. Used in shells, bombs and special ammunition components as an alternate explosive... 

Anvil of a Percussion Primer is a metallic Item of a special shape, which is pressed into the open end of a metallic cup contg primer compn(such as one consisting of MF, K chlorate, Sb sulfide ground glass). A paper disc is placed over the compn, prior to inser-ion of anvil, to provide a moisture seal. The ensemble is pressed into an ammunition component(such as a cartridge) and fired by... 

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