Right-side-up stereolithography for 3D printing of gun propellants
conference paper
This paper presents a new additive manufacturing technique for printing energetic materials: right-side-up stereolithography (RSU SLA). This technique allows for highly viscous compositions to be printed at high resolution. A prototype RSU SLA printer was designed and constructed at TNO, and used to demonstrate the production principle. A number of initial print trials were performed, initially with an inert composition, and later with an energetic composition, containing 70 wt% RDX. The trials showed that a stereolithography like resolution can indeed be achieved with a composition that could hitherto only be printed using extrusion based techniques. A potential application of RSU SLA is a complex geometry, high force constant gun propellant that can deliver a higher muzzle velocity and/or a reduction in muzzle wear. Other potential uses are fully tunable rocket motors or warheads with fully defined fragmentation patterns. (C) Proceedings - 33rd International Symposium on Ballistics, BALLISTICS 2023. All rights reserved
Topics
TNO Identifier
991935
ISBN
9781605956923
Publisher
DEStech Publications
Source title
33rd International Symposium on Ballistics 2023, Bruges, Belgium, 16-20 October 2023
Editor(s)
Coghe F.
Collation
7 p.
Pages
1263-1269
Files
To receive the publication files, please send an e-mail request to TNO Repository.