Manufacture cyclonite

The production of hexamethylenetetramine consumes about 6% of the U.S. formaldehyde supply (115). Its principal use is as a thermosetting catalyst for phenoHc resins. Other significant uses are for the manufacture of RDX (cyclonite) high explosives, in mol ding compounds, and for mbber vulcanisation accelerators. Some hexamethylenetetramine is made as an unisolated intermediate in the manufacture of nitfilotriacetic acid. 

Other attempts to improve nitrodiglycol powders were based on the introduction of substances such as penthrite (German Nipolit Pulver) and cyclonite. In both cases a powder with a high calorific value was obtained. The manufacture of these powders never went beyond the pilot plant scale ... 

HDN is one of the intermediate products obtained during preparation of Cyclonite from hexamine. It has also been proposed for use in the manufacture of an explosive, tentatively considered to be 1,3,5-trinitrohexahydro-s- triazine (Ref 7). Its use in an AN-slurry expl has been patented (Ref 12)... 

Cyclonite was first prepared by Lenze [1], The method of manufacture by the nitration of hexamethylenetetramine nitrate with nitric acid is described in Henning s patent [2] of 1899. 

The author did not cite the product as an explosive — he recommended its use in medicine — but in later patents [3] he proposed the use of cyclonite in the manufacture of smokeless propellant. In 1921 Herz [4] modified Henning s method by nitrating hexamethylenetetramine itself, not its nitrate. Hale [5] described in detail the preparation of cyclonite by nitrating hexamethylenetetramine, and reported its explosive properties. 

During World War II Germany produced 7000 tons of cyclonite a month by the end of the war the United States was manufacturing about 15,000 tons a month. 

CYCLONITE MANUFACTURE 1. THE ACTION OF NITRIC ACID ON HEXAMINE General information... 

Manufacture at Bobingen [38,61] was on the following lines. A reactor of aluminium or stainless steel (capacity 1.2 m3) is filled with acetic anhydride and then 0.4% of BF3 is added. Acetic anhydride is warmed to 60-65°C and at this temperature ammonium nitrate and paraformaldehyde are added gradually. Due to the high temperature and the presence of boron fluoride the reaction starts at once and heat is evolved. The heating is then turned off and the temperature maintained by cooling, within the range 60-65°C. The addition of the reactants requires approximately 6 hr, after which the contents of the reactor are cooled to 20°C. The precipitated cyclonite is separated from the solution on a vacuum filter. The by-products remain in the spent liquor. 

During World War II W. E. Bachmann et al. [62, 63, 64] worked out a process of cyclonite manufacture identical in principle to the above. Bachmann s idea was to combine Ross s E-method with hexamine nitration. A semi-plant scale equipment based upon the new combined Bachmann process came into operation at the end of 1941. After the procedure for cyclonite production had been worked out, the problem of the regeneration of acetic acid was solved in the United States cyclonite was produced mainly by this method. 

Melamine is now a very important chemical product since it is a starting substance for the manufacture of plastics. The presence in melamine of a triazine ring, as in cyclonite, and of three amino groups induced attempts to nitrate this substance in order to obtain an explosive nitramine. 

When nitric acid alone is used for nitration and the product and acid are drowned in hot water or hot dilute nitric acid as in the case of cyclonite manufacture, where no organic substances remain in the acid (all being decomposed), the spent acid is readily recovered by feeding it to an absorption tower in place of part of the water normally added. The arid should be fed in at a point in the tower where the concentration of acid is approximately the same as that of the acid being added. 

The methanal and ammonia that split off the cage structure during the reaction with nitric acid need not be wasted. In the large-scale manufacture of cyclonite, a combination of nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, and ethanoic anhydride is used, which results in full utilization of the methanal and ammonia ... 

Hexamethylenediamine is used in the production of nylon 6,6 and mainly in making phenol-formaldehyde resins, where it is known as hexa. It is also used as a urinary antiseptic (Urotropine) as well as in the rubber industry and for the manufacture of the explosive cyclonite. 

In view of the practical application of solutions of ammonium nitrate in nitric acid in the Koffler-Bachman process for the manufacture of Cyclonite (Vol. III.)... 

Phlegmatized and pressed Cyclonite is used as a highly brisant material for the manufacture of -> Booster and -> Hollow Charges. Non-phlegmatized Cyclonite in combination with TNT is also used as a pourable mixture for hollow charges and brisant explosive charges (-> Compositions fi) mixtures of Cyclonite with aluminum powder are used as torpedo charges (Hexotonal, Torpex, Trialen). Cyclonite may also be used as an additive in the manufacture of smokeless powders. 

In manufacturing explosive charges which are required to have a certain mechanical strength or rubber-elastic toughness, Cyclonite is incorporated into curable plastic materials such as polyurethanes, polybutadiene or polysulfide and is poured into molds (-> Plastic Explosives). 

Hexamethylenetetramine dinitrate can be prepared from hexamethylenetetramine and nitric acid of medium concentration it is an important precursor of RDX (-< Cyclonite) manufactured by the Sachmann method. 

The compound is formed as a by-product from the manufacture of Cyclonite by the Bachmann process (from hexamethylenetetramine, ammonium nitrate, nitric acid, and acetic anhydride). It is obtained as the sole product, when 1,5-methylene-3,7-dinitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazacy-clooctane is treated with acetic anhydride, ammonium nitrate, and nitric acid. 

Cyclonite manufacture 1. The action of nitric acid on hexaminc General information British method Nitration Dilution Filtration Purification... 

Manufacture of cyclonite (RDX) according to Mario Biazzi S. A. (Vevey) Specification for cyclonite (Hexogen)... 

Cyclonite or hexogen (RDX) was first prepared in 1899 and was initially recommended for medical use. Later applications (1916) included its use as a smokeless propellant. During World War II, Germany manufactured 7,0001 of RDX per month, whereas the US production was more than twice this rate. 

Military use of hexamine in the manufacture of cyclonite accounted for most of its rapid growth in the United States in the second half of the 1960s. When nitrated into cyclotri-methylene-trinitramine, hexamine is converted into an ingredient for the production of the powerful cyclonite explosives. The military consumption of hexamine has been severely curtailed since the mid-1970s, except during the Persian Gulf warfare involving the United States in 1991. The principal uses of hexamine in a peacetime economy are ... 

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