Ceramic rifling

M

MDman

New member
I was wondering if any work has been done in making ceramic barrels and rifling. The purpose of this would be to drastically improve barrel life. Ceramics are the only thing I can think of tough enough.
 
ceramic?

Sir:
Not that I know of and if they did develop it I'd have nothing to do with it!
Barrel life, with acceptable handloads is mostly around 20,000 to 30,000 rounds except for the very hot rounds, and even then you must slow your shots down and clean regularly - I want steel!
Harry B.
 
Don't know about that. Have to consider that the bullet impacts the origin of the rifling pretty hard when the rifling is starting to engrave into the bullet. I could see it in maybe soft lead bullets in something like a 22 LR maybe? I think steel has some resiliancy where as ceramic is often pretty brittle and a hard jacketed bullet would maybe erode or crack it? Can see it working in low pressure soft lead bullet scenario but think it would be a fairly thick barrel? I would suspect it has been tried, as if there was any advantage to the material, like light weight etc. some lab might have done it. If there is nothing like that out there by now, there must be some obvious drawback that only a materials engineer could explain to us. Maybe some kind of clandestine weapon, with a very limited usage lifespan. Not something I would care to mess with.
 
There have been experiments with ceramic lined barrels, but like a lot of other ideas for ceramics, the brittleness of ceramic has not been solved.

Along with a ceramic lined gun bore, a ceramic automotive engine is greatly desired.
The problem is, ceramic is just too fragile and can't withstand shock.
So, until someone figures out how to make ceramic tough enough not to shatter, it's a non-starter.
 
No, Stellite is a cobalt alloy, very hard and heat resistant.

There has been some work with zircon ceramic gun barrels. Made up as ceramic liners in metal or carbon fibre composite barrels, they are reasonably sturdy against handling knocks and the bore is much more resistant to erosion than steel. I have not read anything on accuracy, it seems like it would be hard to hold bore dimensions on ceramic shaped green and then fired. And, of course, they are hugely expensive with no obvious route to mass production.
 
You can fiber reenforce ceramic, but the problem remains that most ceramic materials are brittle and do not cope will with shock loading.
Ceramic also tends to shatter when overloaded instead of plastic deformation like steel.
The ceramic armor is not plain ceramic.
Think metal filled.
 
I read this in a technical article from Thomas Net. Not totally relevant , But there are flexible ceramics.

Flexible Ceramic is No Oxymoron
Credit the R&D department of Degussa GmbH for counter-intuitive thinking. The company's ccflex product begins with a flexible, nonwoven polymer substrate. The ceramic material, "a mix of different metal oxides," is then applied. It can be colored, stained, or stamped for decorative purposes. A transparent topcoat seals the surface. This press release makes the case for the product's use as a "hard-wearing, easy-care wall covering."
 
There's a LOT of money going into ceramic experimentation by the automotive industry.

The first company that can successfully field a ceramic car or truck engine will OWN the market.
A ceramic engine would be lighter weight, never wear out, and most important of all, it'd need NO cooling system, so the entire car would be lighter and cheaper.

As with ceramic lined gun barrels, the sticking point is ceramics brittle nature.
Until that's solved nothings going to happen.
 
D, Smokey Yanuck spent several years trying to come up with a practical ceramic engine block, finally walked away scratching his head and kicking a beer can.
There is just not a satisfactory material available, at least not yet.:(
 
My Grandfather worked for Garret AirResearch back in the 70's and they were hard at work trying to make all-ceramic components for turboprops and turbochargers.
 
ceramic rifling

Sirs:
Give me good old 4140 and 4130 carbon steel and I don't even think about ceramic rifling.
Even the series steels that others use is fine with me
Harry B.

There's too much aluminum and plactic used anyway today on guns.
Harry B.
 
The ceramic tiles used on the space shuttle are very good at resisting heat, but a piece of foam cracks them. Any more questions?

Jim
 
Keep in mind there is foam, and then there is FOAM. The foam that poked a hole in the carbon-carbon leading edge of Columbia is something like 25 lb density, which is about the equivalent of basswood, IIRC. Plus it was going something like 400 mph when it struck the LE.

The tiles on the space shutle are so delicate that an astronaut attempting to repair one could easilt destroy another one if he bumped into it, though they now train to repair them.

The space shuttle is pretty amazing considering the era it was designed in. If you ever want to do some interesting reading, google the space shuttle, and start following links. Its really is a bit of an abortion, with cross range capability built in to pull some sort of polar-orbit hijinks after being launched from Vandenberg.

I gotta get down to Edwards the next time they land there, before the program ends.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top