Processing of Composite Gun Tubes with GLEEM and Hammer Forging

Abstract

Refractory metal liners have been shown to extend the service life of gun tubes a considerable amount. The major technical hurdle to date has been keeping the liners in place during firing. To address this problem, composite gun tubes made of steel and pure niobium have been fabricated through a combination of the GLEEM (gun liner emplacement with an elastomeric material) and the hammer forging. The three barrels made by this approach were test fired in single-shot and burst-fire mode. One of the barrels whose liner had been cold-sprayed with tungsten carbide particles before the GLEEM process showed no liner movement in any of the tests. The success of this new liner processing technology to prevent liner movement offers the potential for further investigations of refractory metals that are more suitable as liner materials.