Rocket propellants manufacture

The composition of German rocket propellants manufactured during World War II are given in Table 193. 

Dimeihylamine, C2H7N, (CH3)2NH. Colourless, inflammable liquid with an ammoniacal odour, mp -96" C, b.p. 7°C. Occurs naturally in herring brine. Prepared in the laboratory by treating nitrosodimetbyl-aniline with a hot solution of sodium hydroxide. Dimethylamine is largely used in the manufacture of other chemicals. These include the solvents dimethylacetamide and dimethyl-formamide, the rocket propellant unsym-metrical dimethylhydrazine, surface-active agents, herbicides, fungicides and rubber accelerators. 

Solventless Extrusion Process. The solvendess process for making double-base propellants has been used ia the United States primarily for the manufacture of rocket propellant grains having web thickness from ca 1.35 to 15 cm and for thin-sheet mortar (M8) propellant. The process offers such advantages as minimal dimensional changes after extmsion, the elimination of the drying process, and better long-term baUistic uniformity because there is no loss of volatile solvent. The composition and properties of typical double-base solvent extmded rocket and mortar propellant are Hsted ia Table... 

R. A. McKay,M Study of Selected Parameters in S olid Propellant Processing,]et Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, Calif., Aug. 1986 J. L. Brown and co-workers. Manufacturing Technologyfor SolidPropellantIngredients/Preparation Reclamation, Morton Thiokol, Inc., Brigham City, Utah, Apt. 1985 W. P. Sampson, Eow Cost Continuous Processing of Solid Rocket Propellant, Al-TR-90-008, Astronautics Laboiatoiy/TSTR, Edwards AEB, Oct. 1990. 

A.luminum Hydride. Aluminum hydride is a relatively unstable polymeric covalent hydride that received considerable attention in the mid-1960s because of its potential as a high energy additive to soHd rocket propellants. The projected uses, including aluminum plating, never materialized, and in spite of intense research and development, commercial manufacture has not been undertaken. The synthetic methods developed were cosdy, eg. 

Keating, J. W. and R. D. Geckler, Propellant Manufacturing Methods For Large Solid Rockets, presented at Atlanta meeting AIGhE, Feb. 1960. 

Nitropropanes are good solvents for vinyl and epoxy resins. They are also used to manufacture rocket propellants. Nitromethane is a fuel additive for racing cars. 

Uses Metallurgy (e.g., making steel), metal fabrication, chemical manufacture, medical and life-support applications, sewage treatment, rocket propellant, paper bleaching. 

Used industrially in the manufacture of fluorocarbons as a chemical intermediate in the manufacture of sulfur hexafluoride, chlorine trifluoride, bromine trifluoride uranium hexafluoride, molybdenum hexafluoride, perchloryl fluoride, and oxygen difluoride and as a rocket propellant. 

Ammonium thiocyanate is used as an ingredient in antibiotic fermentations, pesticides, liquid rocket propellants, adhesives, and matches in photographic processes to improve the strength of silks in the manufacture of transparent artificial resins and as a weed killer and defoliant (Sax and Lewis 1987 Windholz 1983). 

The compound cerium oxide (either Ce Oj or CeO ) is used to coat the inside of ovens because it was discovered that food cannot stick to oven walls that are coated with cerium oxide. Cerium compounds are used as electrodes in high-intensity lamps and film projectors used by the motion picture industry. Cerium is also used in the manufacturing and polishing of high-refraction lenses for cameras and telescopes and in the manufacture of incandescent lantern mantles. It additionally acts as a chemical reagent, a misch metal, and a chemical catalyst. Cerium halides are an important component of the textile and photographic industries, as an additive to other metals, and in automobile catalytic converters. Cerium is also used as an alloy to make special steel for jet engines, solid-state instruments, and rocket propellants. 

Uses. Manufacture of dynamite, gun powder and rocket propellants, and as a therapeutic agent primarily to alleviate angina pectoris. Note Workers engaged in the production or use of dynamite are potentially exposed to mixed vapors of nitroglycerin (NG) and ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN). 

Bottaro, J.C., Schmitt, R.J., Penwell, P.E., and Ross, D.S. (1991) Manufacture of dinitramide salts for rocket propellants, US Patent Appl. PCT/US91/04277 Inti. Publ., No. WO91/19670 Chem. Abstr., (1992), 116, 217512s. 

The disadvantages of smokeless powder as a rocket propellant, the difficulty in manufacturing very large charges and the high operating expenses led to a search for explosives based upon another principle plastomers or elastomers with an oxygen carrier. 

There are many other ingredients that are added to explosive compositions which in themselves are not explosive but can enhance the power of explosives, reduce the sensitivity, and aid processing. Aluminium powder is frequently added to explosive and propellant compositions to improve their efficiency. Ammonium nitrate (NH4N03) is used extensively in commercial explosives and propellants. It is the most important raw material in the manufacture of commercial explosives and it also provides oxygen in rocket propellant compositions. Some of the properties of ammonium nitrate are presented in Table 2.22. 

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