Development report: ball milling of boron/calcium chromate pyrotechnic blends

Technical Report · Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1986

OSTI ID:5325198

Rogers, Jr, J W

The development of an automated blending procedure for the production of 20/80 weight percent boron/calcium chromate (B/CaCrO/sub 4/) pyrotechnic is summarized chronologically in this report. The development included: (1) a blending study to assess the physical and chemical effects that various steps from previous and new blending procedures had on boron and CaCrO/sub 4/; (2) ball milling small quantities of older blends to improve firing performance and subsequent scale up to kilogram-size batches; (3) optimization of drying conditions; and, (4) blending B/CaCrO/sub 4/ from its individual constituents in a ball mill followed by drying in a Ross mixer. Extensive high and low current all-fire sensitivity testing along with electrostatic sensitivity testing indicate that compositions which are blended in a ball mill have equal or superior performance to compositions produced by previous methods; in addition, the blended compositions can be produced in a more reliable manner. These results have led to a new specification for B/CaCrO/sub 4/ production based upon the ball milling procedure. 28 refs., 9 tabs.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5325198
• Report Number(s): SAND-85-1459; ON: DE86015114
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
BORON
MILLING
MIXING
CALCIUM COMPOUNDS
CHROMATES
PYROTECHNIC DEVICES
AUTOMATION
PRODUCTION
TESTING
CHEMICAL EXPLOSIVES
DRYING
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
SENSITIVITY
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
CHROMIUM COMPOUNDS
DATA
ELEMENTS
EXPLOSIVES
INFORMATION
MACHINING
NUMERICAL DATA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SEMIMETALS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
450100* - Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense- Chemical Explosions & Explosives