Method for producing a highly heat-resistant weapon barrel provided with a twist profile

US11814694B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Rheinmetall Waffe Munition GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Gert Schlenkert · Mülheim an der Ruhr, DE
• Ulrich Keller · Aachen, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 22, 2021
• Grant date: Nov 14, 2023
• Expiry date: Jun 6, 2041

Classification

• Technology area (CPC C): Chemistry; Metallurgy
• CPC primary: C25D3/04
• WIPO field: Materials, metallurgy
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

In order to provide an economical method for producing a weapon barrel, in which a considerable plasticisation of the barrel inner wall and thus of the twist profile is avoided when armour-piercing ammunition is shot, in particular in the case of an intense firing sequence, it is proposed not to introduce the twist profile of the weapon barrel into a barrel blank, the material of which has its end strength already as a result of hardening and tempering, but has a lower strength level (approximately 800-1000 MPa). Only once the twist profile has been formed by extrusion or hammering is the steel hardened and tempered to a predefined strength value >1000 MPa, and is the barrel blank that is provided with the twist profile mechanically processed further.