Tungsten Alloy Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot

Tungsten Alloy Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot

What is Tungsten Alloy APFSDS?

Tungsten alloy armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) is a type of ammunition which, like a bullet, does not contain explosives and uses kinetic energy to penetrate the target. The term can apply to any type of armor-piercing shot but typically refers to a modern type of armor piercing weapon, the tungsten alloy armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot, a type of long-rod penetrator (LRP), and not to small arms bullets.

The principle of tungsten alloy armor piercing is that it uses tungsten alloy armor piercing kinetic energy, which is a function of mass and velocity, to force its way through armor. The modern KE weapon maximizes KE and minimizes the area over which it is delivered by: maximizing the mass of whatever (albeit small) volume is occupied by the projectile—that is, using the densest metals practical, which is one of the reasons depleted uranium is often used, being fired with a very high muzzle velocity, concentrating the force in a small impact area while still retaining a relatively large mass.

Tungsten Alloy in Military Weapons:

Tungsten alloy has so many advantages: high density with small volume, high radiation resistance, non-toxic and environmentally friendly, excellent hardness, high melting point, etc. So it is widely used as the materials of military weapons such as tungsten alloy bullet, tungsten alloy armor and shells, tungsten alloy shrapnel head, tungsten alloy grenade, tungsten alloy hunting gun, tungsten alloy bullet warheads, tungsten alloy bulletproof vehicles, tungsten alloy tank panzers, tungsten alloy cannons, tungsten alloy armor piercing, firearms, etc. Tungsten alloy can be used as the component in the kinetic energy penetrator.

Chinatungsten Online can provide tungsten alloy armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot used in kinetic energy penetrator. Apart form, we can also offer other tungsten alloy military components in strictly according to your requirements.

Tungsten Alloy Head Shrapnel

Tungsten Alloy Head Shrapnel

Tungsten Alloy Properties:

Tungsten alloy has so many properties such as: high density (60% higher than lead and much higher than steel), high radiation resistance, high temperature resistance, small volume, etc. As these properties, tungsten alloy is progressively adopted since the raw substance to create components of army products, which include bullet, armor and shells, shrapnel head, grenade, hunting gun, bullet warheads, bulletproof vehicles, tank panzers, cannons, firearms, tungsten alloy head shrapnel, etc. Head shrapnel relied almost entirely on the shrapnel velocity for head shrapnel lethality. The munition of head shrapnel has been obsolete since the end of World War I for anti-personnel use, when head shrapnel was superseded by high-explosive shells for that role. The functioning and principles behind head shrapnel shells are fundamentally different from high-explosive shell fragmentation.

Tungsten alloy head shrapnel is anti-personnel artillery munitions which carried a large number of individual bullets close to the target and then ejected them to allow head shrapnel to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually.

The high density of tungsten alloy ball makes it possible to significantly reduce the physical size of tungsten alloy head shrapnel components. This in turn, gives the benefit of greater control of weight distribution and increases the sensitivity of controlling mechanisms.

Tungsten Alloy Hand Grenade

Tungsten Alloy Hand Grenade

Tungsten Alloy Hand Grenade

With the development of economic and military industry, tungsten heavy alloy is increasingly adopted as the raw material for military defense products in recent years, because people find tungsten alloy has so many good advantages in military areas: high density, high melting point, high corrosion resistance and low vapor pressure, so nowadays military weapons is widely uses tungsten alloy as materials: tungsten alloy hand grenade, tungsten alloy bullet, tungsten alloy armor and shells, tungsten alloy rockets components, etc.

Hand grenade is made up of three parts: filler, body and fuze assembly.

Filler: the filler is composed of a chemical or explosive substance, which determines the type of it for employment factors. All fillers in they are mixed with silica aerogel for increased dissemination efficiency.

Body: the body of tungsten alloy grenade contains filler and fragmentation. The body of hand grenade contains a primer, first fire mixture, pyrotechnic delay column, and ignition mixture. Assembled to the body are a striker, striker spring, safety lever, and safety pin with pull ring. The split end of the safety pin has an angular spread.

Fuze assembly: fuze assembly in hand grenade causes the hand grenade to ignite or explode by detonating the filler.

Speciation of Tungsten Alloy Hand Grenade:

Diameter: 53mm
Length: 104 mm
Weight: 130g
Throwing Distance: 30 ~ 50 m
Exclusive Feature: hand grenade is the safe and environmentally friendly weapon so that it is widely used in army.

The most important point is tungsten alloy is friendly to the environment, instead of lead and depleted uranium tungsten alloy is the best material to make into hand grenade. When using it, the environment and our body can not be harmed by it. We have more than 20 years of producing tungsten alloy products experience, all kinds of high quality hand grenade and other tungsten alloy products can be offered by us.

Tungsten Alloy Flying Carrier

Tungsten Alloy Flying Carrier

Tungsten Alloy Properties

Tungsten alloy has so many good properties such as: high density (much higher than steel and 60% higher than lead), small volume, high temperature resistance, high corrosion resistance, low vapor pressure perfect hardness (even harder than steel), non-toxic and environmentally friendly.

As the properties of tungsten alloy, tungsten alloy is widely used in making tungsten alloy flying carrier. Because of its great hardness and resistance to high temperature, usage of tungsten alloy applications has been steadily increasing since the 1940's. Tungsten alloy has high density with small capacity, so it is the best material to be used as counterweight; tungsten heavy alloy is the best choice to be used as counterweight. Compared with lead, tungsten has smaller volume, so tungsten's resistance is smaller than lead, which will make the carrier move ahead more quickly. Tungsten alloy carrier counterweights vary in size and shape.

Tungsten Alloy Flying Carrier

Tungsten alloy has the properties of wear resistance, excellent hardness, so the foot of flying carrier made of tungsten alloy material, when flying carrier flying and falling.

Good corrosion resistance is one advantage for tungsten alloy to make flying carrier shoes, when the flying carrier emergency landing, it does have the choice of the ground, the tungsten flying carrier shoes can not be corrosion when the environment is bad.

When the flying carrier landing and sliding, the speed is so fast that the friction is so big and it can produce a lot of heat, flying carrier shoes can resistant this problems and keep the flying carrier land safely.

We can provide various kinds of tungsten heavy alloy materials used in flying carrier, besides, Chinatungsten who has more than 20 years experience of tungsten alloy can also offered other tungsten alloy products according to your requirements.

Tungsten Alloy for Tank System

Tungsten Alloy for Tank System

What is MBT-70 in Tank?

The MBT-70 (German: KPz 70) was a 1960s German-U.S. joint project to develop a new main battle tank, which was to be equipped with a number of advanced features. It utilized a newly developed hydropneumatic "kneeling" suspension and housed the entire crew in the large turret. The MBT-70 NBC system was armed with a 152 mm XM-150 gun/launcher, which could use conventional ammunition and the Shillelagh missile for long range combat.

In 1969 the project was well over budget and the Germans withdrew from the effort, developing a new main battle tank on their own instead (the Leopard 2). In the US the development continued for a short time, until in 1971 the Congress cancelled the program. The MBT-70 is the "grandfather" of the Leopard 2 and the M1 Abrams, the current main battle tanks of both countries.

History of Tank System

During the 1960s the US Army continued to improve the M60 tank. However, unless a new tank was fielded there would be a large gap between US and Soviet tanks when the Soviets fielded their next generation tank system. The first try at the Super tank concept, the MBT 70 NBC system was a failure due to high costs. An early example of a codevelopment initiative is the MBT-70 [Main Battle Tank 1970s] program between West Germany and the United States. Thanks largely to the support of then Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, agreement was reached in 1963 between the two nations to jointly develop a main battle tank. With cast homogeneous steel layered armor, the inner shell was overlaid with spaced high hardness homogeneous rolled armor steel.

The US prototype was equipped with a 152mm gun launcher with an auto loader. Main battle tank was capable of firing AP/HE/WP rounds and the Shillelagh Missile. The main battle tank was to be a long-barreled improved XM-150 variant of the XM-81 gun/launcher mounted on the M551 Sheridan and the M60a2 Patton. Main battle tank was a much more reliable weapon than the earlier variant, firing Sabot, HE, and Canister rounds in addition to the Shillelagh A/T Missile, but the earlier weapon's reputation was such that it was a lost cause from the start. Main battle tank had a coax 7.62 machinegun and a 20mm AA remote control gun in a separate part of the turret. Main battle tank would pop up out of twin hatches and fire at the target. The German version had a 120mm auto cannon, instead of the 152mm gun launcher.

In some respects, the tank was fairly conventional. Main battle tank had a diesel engine, and the armor, whilst strong was not of the composite type on the Abrams. The silhouette was low. The main battle tank had a three-man crew, each in his own compartment. Probably the most intriguing aspect was that all the crewmen were located in the turret. The driver was in the turret, in a capsule that rotated to keep him orientated to the front of the vehicle. This had the effect of raising the silhouette a little, and if the contra-rotating mechanism was knocked out, it would effectively immobilize the tank. Main battle tank was to include hydro pneumatic suspension, stabilization system, and a NBC system. The hydro pneumatic suspension allowed the vehicle to crouch or raise one end of the tank to better take advantage of hull-down positions.

Tungsten Alloy for Tank System

Problems, however, plagued the MBT-70 NBC system program from the beginning. Difficulties with English-German translations, metric to English measurement conversions, and differences between German and American manufacturing and designing practices caused considerable headaches before the first tanks were even designed. Most of the new systems were still experimental and this led to massive cost overruns and delays. Also the joint nature of the program led to disagreements about design features.

From 1965 to 1972, the US Army conducted a parallel development program for the 152mm XM578 cartridge, which was co-developed with the prototype MBT-70 Main Battle Tank. The XM578 cartridge used a tungsten alloy that was slightly denser than the British alloy, consisting of 97.5 percent tungsten and 2.5 percent binder, which had a density of 18.5 gm/cc. In response to the new operational requirements, military developers evaluated a succession of metal alloys. Initially, the British government developed a higher density tungsten alloy consisting of 93 percent tungsten and 7 percent binder tungsten alloy (WA). The new WA alloy had a density of 17 gm/cc -- versus 13 gm/cc for tungsten carbide.

Unfortunately, rising costs and technical problems caused the partners to go their separate ways. Trials began in 1968 and problems resulted in further delays and cost overruns. By 1969 the vehicle cost 5 times what was projected and as a result Germany backed out of the project. The MBT-70 NBC system was finally halted in January 1970. The same fiscal year (1971-72) witnessed the termination of two major weapons procurement programs, one for the Cheyenne advanced attack helicopter and the other for the MBT-70 NBC system. Although Army leaders saw both weapons systems as critical to the Army's long overdue modernization program, they were unable to convince the Department of Defense and Congress of a need for these weapons commensurate with their costs. The joint effort with the Federal Republic of Germany, under which the MBT-70 NBC system had been developed, was modified to a co-operative program in the middle of Fiscal Year 1970.

The US chose to give the MBT70 another chance, but this time as an austere vehicle with toned-down technological gizmos. This project was dubbed XM803, and it featured a less powerful engine, lacked the complex hydro pneumatic suspension, and was protected by a simpler armor array than MBT-70 NBC system. Changes in the US design were recommended to decrease production costs and increase the reliability of the vehicle; sacrifices in combat effectiveness were minimal. In December 1969, the new program was reviewed in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and in the following month the recommended changes were approved. With the modification of the program and of the co-operative features of the engineering effort, the tank received a new designation, XM803; the composite nomenclature MBT-70 / XM-803 was used until February 1971.

The XM803, the successor to the abortive MBT-70 project, was intended to modernize the armored force. Concerned about expense, Congress withdrew funding for the XM803 in December 1971, thereby canceling the program, but agreed to leave the remaining surplus of $20 million in Army hands to continue conceptual studies. This resulted in the German Leopard II and the US M1 Abrams. The Leopard 2's power pack was originally designed for the German prototype of the MBT-70 NBC system. In 1973, cooperation between these two projects led to the adoption of the German 120mm smoothbore gun by the US.

Tungsten Alloy Hunting Shot

Tungsten Alloy Hunting Shot

What Is Tungsten Alloy Hunting Shot?

Tungsten alloy hunting shot is used as the shot of shotgun. A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder. The shot pellets from a shotgun spread upon leaving the barrel and the power of the burning charge is divided among the pellets, which means that the energy of any one ball of shot is fairly low. In a hunting context, tungsten alloy hunting shot makes shotguns useful primarily for hunting birds and other small games.

Why Use Tungsten Alloy Hunting Shot?

High density, great hardness and resistance to high temperature make tungsten alloy to be one of the most sought-after materials for shotgun pellets in history. The density of tungsten is about 18g/cm3, only gold, platinum, and a few other rare metals have a similar density. It is denser than any other shot material, including lead, steel or bismuth.

Tungsten Alloy Military Spheres

Tungsten Alloy Military Spheres

What Are Tungsten Alloy Military Spheres?

Tungsten alloy military sphere is widely used for military purposes. It is usually consisted of W-Ni- Fe or W-Ni- Cu or even W-Ni-Cu-Fe; some tungsten alloys also contain Co, Mo, Cr, etc. The product can be manufactured in many sizes.

Advantages of Tungsten Alloy Military Sphere

Very dense, 1.7 times heavier than lead, tungsten is the ideal metal for military purposes. Tungsten is non-toxic and safe material, so military sphere made of tungsten alloy is often used to replace lead. Owing to its great hardness and resistance to high temperature, it is increasingly adopted for military purposes and defense.

Applications of Tungsten Alloy Military Sphere

Tungsten alloy can be used for bullets or pellets in various military applications such as pellets used inside a shotgun shell. Lead shot and bullets have been banned in many areas because of the environmental concerns. The main substitute materials are steel, bismuth and tungsten. The main advantage of tungsten military sphere is used as pellet is that it is very dense, and very hard. The density allows the pellets to travel longer distances without loosing energy, while the hardness allows the pellets to keep their shape while being accelerated by the powder charge, which increases the muzzle velocity.

Tungsten alloy spheres are also used in hand grenade, armor piercing projectile, prefabricated fragments. Tungsten military sphere is small in volume and very dense. Allowing them to penetrate armor and damage targets. Tungsten alloy has been used in missile weapons, armor piercing ammunition, tungsten alloy bullet, shrapnel head, and core for armor-piercing bullet measurement, kinetic energy penetrators, armor and shells.

Tungsten Alloy Fragment

Tungsten Alloy Fragment

What Is Tungsten Alloy Fragment?

Tungsten alloy fragment can be used for military purposes. It control has included providing grooves on either the external or the internal surfaces of the wall of the case or a liner inserted into the case. The grooves create stress concentrations that cause the case to fracture along the grooves forming fragments. While these devices have demonstrated the ability to create it, they are not completely satisfactory for several reasons. It can be widely used in military defense.

One prior approach to inducing tungsten alloy fragmentation control to an integral warhead and missile structure has been to include grooves on either the external or internal wall surfaces of the structure to delineate fragments or projectiles in a combined warhead and missile structure. Explosives are installed in proximity to the grooves. When the explosives are detonated, the grooves create stress concentrations that cause the structure to fracture along the grooves, forming tungsten fragments.

Still another approach is the dual-wall naturally fragmenting (and combination natural fragmenting and scored wall) warhead. While these types of warheads have provided somewhat of an improvement over single-wall naturally fragmenting warheads, current dual-wall designs generally require thermal conditioning manufacturing methods to mate walls together with tight circumferential tolerances. We can provide different size tungsten alloy fragment according to your requirement, tungsten fragment is one of our leading products.

Tungsten Alloy Prefabricated Fragments

Tungsten Alloy Prefabricated Fragments

What is Fragmentation Warhead?

Fragmentation warhead is one of the main types of warheads, mainly by the role of high-energy explosives, the formation of a large number of high-speed fragments, using high-speed hitting the fragments, the role of ignition and detonation damage targets, and can be used for anti-effectives (human, animal), no armor or light armored vehicles, aircraft, radar and missiles and other weapons and equipment. According to the generation of fragments channels, fragmentation warhead can be divided into natural, pre-control and pre-fragmented warhead three types.

Tungsten Cubes/Balls Used as Prefabricated Fragments

Primary fragments are formed as a result of the shattering of the casing of conventional munitions. Tungsten alloy prefabricated fragments usually are small and travel initially at velocities of the order of thousands of feet per second. Secondary tungsten alloy prefabricated fragments are formed as a result of high blast pressures on structural components and items in close proximity to the explosion. These prefabricated fragments are somewhat larger than primary fragments and travel initially at velocities in the order of hundreds of feet per second. A hazardous prefabricated fragment is one having an impact energy of 58 ft-lb (79 joules) or greater. Tungsten alloy prefabricated fragments forming a pre-processing will be the shape and quality of pre-designed steel ball, steel arrows, tungsten ball/tungsten sphere, and tungsten prefabricated column fragments produced prefabricated sets of body fragments, and installed in the grenade projectile outer surface or inner surface. These prefabricated projectile fragmentation grenade explosion with the formation of fragments together constitute the natural fragmentation field, due to resistance of prefabricated fragments flying characteristic consistency, with tungsten alloy prefabricated fragments of the grenade will be set within the framework of the lethal effect of a relatively dense, full-bombs a greater degree of lethality increase.

Tungsten heavy alloys usually consist of W-Ni- Fe or W-Ni- Cu or even W-Ni-Cu-Fe, some tungsten alloy also contain added cobalt (Co), etc. The most important property for tungsten alloy cube is its small volume and high density. The most important property for tungsten alloy cube is its small volume and high density. This allows it to be used whenever small but heavy parts are necessary, such as prefabricated fragments for military purposes.

Because prefabricated fragments will affect the negative effects of missile body structures, usually only in low-pressure chamber which uses artillery and ammunition, such as the forced large-caliber bullets and grenades. Applications also are the most common aircraft shells, grenades, mines and so on. The current high chamber pressure tungsten alloy prefabricated fragments artillery, are used in canister form, such as Switzerland, L70-type 40 mm grenade where overhead is filled with tungsten carbide ball. Tungsten alloy prefabricated fragments technology has been widely used on all types of warheads. Cylindrical fragments (tungsten column) are also often used as a type of tungsten alloy prefabricated fragments. Due to high density, armor-piercing capability tungsten alloy prefabricated fragments are widely used for military purposes.

Tungsten Alloy Cubes for Military Defense

Tungsten Alloy Cubes for Military Defense

The Advantages of Tungsten Alloy Cubes for Military Defense

With its high density, tungsten alloy is the ideal metal for military defense. Tungsten is non-toxic and environmentally friendly material. Tungsten alloy cubes for military defense can easily replace lead in most cases.

Having more concentrated weight means having more control to achieve the center of mass that you are targeting. Owing to its great hardness and resistance to high temperature, tungsten has been increasingly adopted in military defense increasingly today. We can offer tungsten alloy cubes for military defense in various sizes. We offer the tungsten cubes, rod, ball, cylinder, block, etc. for military usage, such as bombs, armor-piercing bullet, etc. We welcome the opportunity to cooperate with our customers in the design of individual specifications. Our mission is to meet individual customer requirements. Flexibility is our strength and we pride ourselves on being able to find the right solution for every customer.

Advantage of Tungsten Alloy Cubes for Military Defense:

1, High-density
2, High absorption capacity against X-rays and gamma rays
3, Good modulus of elasticity
4, High hardness
5, Environment protection standard

Tungsten Alloy Cubes Product Physical Properties

Grade	Physical and Mechanical Properties
	Density(g/cm3)	Hardness(HRC)	Tensile Strengh(MPa)	Elongation(%)	Toughness(MJ/m2)
W273	17.10±0.15	≥23	≥900	≥24	≥1.30
W263	17.25±0.15	≥23	≥900	≥23	≥1.20
W253	17.40±0.15	≥24	≥900	≥22	≥1.10
W243	17.60±0.15	≥24	≥920	≥20	≥0.90
W232	18.10±0.15	≥25	≥920	≥14	≥0.45
W231	18.30±0.15	≥26	≥920	≥12	≥0.30
W221	18.50±0.15	≥27	≥920	≥10	≥0.22
WNiCu	16.10-18.50	≥22	≥450	2-8	-

Tungsten Prefabricated Fragments

Tungsten Prefabricated Fragments

Fragmentation Damage Warhead's Mechanism and Characteristic

Fragmentation warhead is one of the main types of warheads, mainly by the role of high-energy explosives, the formation of a large number of high-speed fragments, using high-speed hitting the tungsten prefabricated fragments, the role of ignition and detonation damage targets, and can be used for anti-effectives (human, animal), no armor or light armored vehicles, aircraft, radar and missiles and other weapons and equipment. According to the generation of fragments channels, fragmentation warhead can be divided into natural, pre-control and pre-fragmented warhead three types.

Tungsten prefabricated fragments are natural under detonation. Tungsten alloy ball, the shell expansion, fracture broken of such warheads is characterized not only as a container shell to form another anti-elements, fragments the size of the uneven, irregular shape in the air fast decay in flight speed, so that the effective anti-personnel grenade is limited in scope. Usually, tungsten prefabricated fragments made from tungsten alloy ball. We can provide different sizes of tungsten alloy balls in accordance with your requirements.

Pre-control use of shell fragments groove, groove or increase the lining of explosives and other technical measures to make the shell partial reduction of the intensity to control the explosion of the broken parts to form fragments. Such warheads are characterized by the formation of uniform fragment size and shape. Tungsten alloy ball is one among our leading products.

Tungsten prefabricated fragments forming pre-processing will be the shape and quality of pre-designed tungsten alloy ball, steel arrows, tungsten alloy ball, tungsten alloy ball and other prefabricated column fragments produced prefabricated sets of body fragments and installed in the grenade projectile outer surface or inner surface. Tungsten alloy ball prefabricated projectile fragmentation grenade explosion with the formation of fragments together constitute the natural fragmentation field, due to resistance of tungsten prefabricated fragments flying characteristic consistency, with tungsten prefabricated fragments of the grenade will be set within the framework of the lethal effect of a relatively dense, full-bombs a greater degree of lethality increase.

Because there is a tungsten prefabricated fragments will affect the negative effects of missile body structures, usually only in low-pressure chamber which uses artillery and ammunition, such as the forced large-caliber bullets and grenades. Applications also are the most common aircraft shells, grenades, mines and so on. The current high chamber pressure prefabricated artillery fragments, are used in canister form, such as Switzerland, L70-type 40 mm grenade where overhead is filled with tungsten alloy ball. Tungsten prefabricated fragments technology has been widely used on all types of warheads. Cylindrical fragments (Tungsten column) as a type of tungsten prefabricated fragments, due to high density, armor-piercing capability, as air defense, anti-radiation, anti-surface, one of the main anti-elements, and widely used.

Tungsten Alloy Ball for Prefabricated Fragments

Tungsten Alloy Ball
Specification: Φ2mm-Φ100mm
Density: ≤18.5g/cm³
Application: High density tungsten alloy ball usually use as prefabricated fragment in ammunition.

Tungsten Prefabricated Fragments Physical and Mechanical Properties

Brands	Physical and Mechanical Properties
	Density g/cm³	Hardness HRC	Tensile strength	Elongation %	Toughness MJ/m²
W263H	17.25±0.15	≥35	≥1050 MPa	≥8	≥0.3
W253H	17.40±0.15	≥35	≥1050 MPa	≥8	≥0.3
W243H	17.60±0.15	≥35	≥1050 MPa	≥7	≥0.3
W232H	18.10±0.15	≥37	≥1050 MPa	≥6	≥0.1
W231H	18.30±0.15	≥37	≥1050 MPa	≥3	≥0.1
W221H	18.50±0.15	≥37	≥1050 MPa	≥2	≥0.07
W243H	17.60±0.15	≥40	≥1300 MPa	≥6	≥0.15
W232E	18.10±0.15	≥40	≥1300 MPa	≥6	≥0.15
W273	17.10±0.15	≥23	≥900 MPa	≥24	≥1.30
W263	17.25±0.15	≥23	≥900 MPa	≥23	≥1.20
W253	17.40±0.15	≥24	≥900 MPa	≥22	≥1.10
W243	17.60±0.15	≥24	≥920 MPa	≥20	≥0.90
W232	18.10±0.15	≥25	≥920 MPa	≥14	≥0.45
W231	18.30±0.15	≥26	≥920 MPa	≥12	≥0.30
W221	18.50±0.15	≥27	≥920 MPa	≥10	≥0.22
WNiCu	16.00-18.50	≥22	≥450 MPa	2-8	/

Tungsten Kinetic Energy Penetrator

Tungsten Kinetic Energy Penetrator

What is Tungsten Kinetic Energy Penetrator?

Tungsten kinetic energy penetrator (also known as a KE weapon) is a type of ammunition that, like a bullet, does not contain explosives and uses kinetic energy to penetrate the target.

The opposite technique to tungsten kinetic energy penetrator uses chemical energy penetrators. There are two types of these shells in use: high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) and high explosive squash head (HESH). They have been widely used against armor in the past and still have a role but are less effective against modern composite armor such as Chobham as used on main battle tanks today.

The principle of the tungsten kinetic energy penetrator is that it uses its kinetic energy, which is a function of mass and velocity, to force its way through armor. The modern KE weapon maximizes KE and minimizes the area over which it is delivered by:
being fired with a very high muzzle velocity
concentrating the force in a small impact area while still retaining a relatively large mass
maximizing the mass of whatever (albeit small) volume is occupied by the projectile—that is, using the densest metals practical, which is one of the reasons depleted uranium is often used.

Tungsten kinetic energy penetrator has led to the current designs that resemble a long metal arrow.

Concentration of force into a smaller area was attained by replacing the single metal (usually steel) shot with a composite shot using two metals, a heavy core (based on tungsten) inside a lighter metal outer shell. These designs were known as Armor Piercing Composite Rigid (APCR). On impact, the core had a much more concentrated effect than plain metal shot of the same weight and size.

To maximize the amount of kinetic energy released on the target, the penetrator must be made of a dense material, such as tungsten carbide or depleted uranium (DU) alloy (Stab alloy). The hardness of the penetrator is of less importance, but is still a factor as abrasion is a major component of the penetrator defeat mechanism. A common misconception is that, during impact, fractures along these bands cause the tip of the penetrator to continuously shed material, maintaining the tip's conical shape, whereas other materials such as unjacketed tungsten tend to deform into a less effective rounded profile, an effect called "mushrooming". Actually, the formation of adiabatic shear bands means that the sides of the "mushroom" tend to break away earlier, leading to a smaller head on impact, though it will still be significantly "mushroomed". Tests have shown that the hole bored by a DU projectile is of a narrower diameter than for a similar tungsten projectile. That is one of the reasons why tungsten kinetic energy penetrator is better than the DU it is.

Tungsten Armor Piercing History

Tungsten Armor Piercing History

First World War Era

Tungsten armor piercing shells for tank guns, although used by most forces of this period, were not used by the British. The only British APHE projectile was the AP, Mk1 for the 2 pdr anti-tank gun and this was dropped as the product was found that the fuse tended to separate from the body during penetration. Even when the fuse didn't separate and the system functioned correctly, damage to the interior was little different from the solid shot, and so did not warrant the additional time and cost of producing a shell version. APHE projectiles of this period used a bursting charge of about 1-3% of the weight of the complete projectile, the filling detonated by a rear mounted delay fuse. The explosive used in APHE projectiles needs to be highly insensitive to shock to prevent premature detonation. The US forces normally used the Explosive D, otherwise known as ammonium pirate, for this purpose. Other combatant forces of the period used various explosives, suitability desensitized (usually by the use of waxes mixed with the explosive).

Shot and shell used prior to and during World War I were generally cast from special chromium (stainless) steel that was melted in pots. They were forged into shape afterward and then thoroughly annealed, the core bored at the rear and the exterior turned up in a lathe. The projectiles were finished in a similar manner to others described above. The final, or tempering treatment, which gave the required hardness/toughness profile (differential hardening) to the projectile body, was a closely guarded secret.

The rear cavity of these projectiles was capable of receiving a small bursting charge of about 2% of the weight of the complete projectile; when this is used, the projectile is called a product, not a tungsten armor piercing shot. The HE filling of the product, whether fused or unfused, had a tendency to explode on striking armor in excess of its ability to perforate.

Second World War

During WWII, projectiles used highly alloyed steels containing nickel-chromium-molybdenum, although in Germany, this had to be changed to a silicon-manganese-chromium-based alloy when those grades became scarce. The latter alloy, although able to be hardened to the same level, was more brittle and had a tendency to shatter on striking highly sloped armor. The shattered shot lowered penetration, or resulted in total penetration failure; for tungsten armor piercing high-explosive (APHE) projectiles, this could result in premature detonation of the HE filling. Highly advanced and precise methods of differentially hardening the projectile were developed during this period, especially by the German armament industry. The resulting projectiles gradually change from high hardness (low toughness) at the head to high toughness (low hardness) at the rear and were much less likely to fail on impact.

British Naval 15-inch Capped Tungsten Armor Piercing Shell, 1943

"Armor-Piercing Capped (APC)" and "Armor-Piercing Capped Ballistic Capped (APCBC)".

Early WWII-era uncapped AP projectiles fired from high-velocity guns were able to penetrate about twice their caliber at close range (100 m). At longer ranges (500-1,000 m), this dropped 1.5-1.1 calibers due to the poor ballistic shape and higher drag of the smaller-diameter early projectiles. Later in the conflict, APCBC fired at close range (100 m) from large-caliber, high-velocity guns (75-128 mm) were able to penetrate a much greater thickness of armor in relation to their caliber (2.5 times) and also a greater thickness (2-1.75 times) at longer ranges (1,500-2,000 m).

Modern Day

Tungsten Armor Piercing Shot

Tungsten armor piercing "shot" for cannons tend to combine some form of incendiary capability with that of armor-penetration. The incendiary compound is normally contained between the cap and penetrating nose, within a hollow at the rear, or a combination of both. If the projectile also uses a tracer, the rear cavity is often used to house the tracer compound. For larger-caliber projectiles, the tracer may instead be contained within an extension of the rear sealing plug. Common abbreviations for solid (non-composite/hardcore) cannon-fired shot are; AP, AP-T, API and API-T; where T stands for "tracer" and I for "incendiary".

Tungsten Armor Piercing Shells

Tungsten armor piercing shells in the classic form are not common in modern guns, though they may be found in the larger (40-57 mm) weapons, especially it of Russian or Soviet-era descent. Modern guns instead fire semi-armor-piercing high-explosive (SAPHE) shells, which have less anti-armor capability, but far greater anti-materiel/personnel effects. The modern SAPHE projectiles still have a ballistic cap; hardened body and base fuse, but tend to have a far thinner body material and higher explosive content (4-15%). Common abbreviations for modern AP and SAP shells are: HEI (BF), SAPHE, SAPHEI and SAPHEI-T.

Most modern active protection systems (APS) are unlikely to be able to defeat full-caliber AP rounds fired from a large-caliber tank gun. The APS can defeat the two most common anti-armor projectiles in use today: HEAT and APFSDS. The defeat of HEAT projectiles is accomplished through damage/detonation of the HE filling or damage to the shaped charge liner and/or fusing system, and defeat of APFSDS projectiles is accomplished by inducing yaw/pitch and/or fracturing of the rod. Due to the AP shot/shell's high mass, rigidity, short overall length, and thick body, tungsten armor piercing are hardly affected by the defeat methods employed by APS systems (fragmentation warheads or projected plates).

Tungsten Alloy Swaging Rod for Armor Piercing

Tungsten Alloy Swaging Rod for Armor Piercing

Tungsten Alloy Swaging Rod Grades under Transient High Heat Loads

Transient high heat loads simulations by using the electron beam facility have been performed on two tungsten heavy alloy swaging rod grades at several power loads with a pulse duration of 5 ms. The cracking patterns of the two tungsten heavy alloy swaging rod grades are quite similar. All cracks occurred along the grain boundary and located across the loaded area. The cracks can be distinguished with two levels, major cracks with larger crack width but lower crack density and microcracks with smaller crack width but higher crack density. The higher the deformation level of tungsten alloy swaging rod for armor piercing and heat loading power density, the smaller the major crack density will be, but there is no obvious difference in the microcracks pattern. No melting occurred for both tungsten alloy swaging rod grades after transient heat loading at power density of 0.88 GW m−2.

Types of Tungsten Alloy Swaging Rod for Armor Piercing Projectile Introduction

Tungsten alloy swaging rod for armor piercing projectile which is made of tungsten alloy comprising a high density penetrator core with a tapered front end and a multi-part outer case in partial contact with the core. This kind of armor piercing projectile will not penetrate because the multi-part jointed case is not as strong as a single-piece, monolithic case. Also, since the hard core is loose and not bonded to the case, then the core can not provide additional structural support. In addition, tungsten alloy swaging rod for armor piercing projectile does not have the ability to either explosively damage the target after penetration, or take data from an instrumentation package during or after penetration.

"Hollow-point" design results in radial expansion of the jacket into "petals" as the tungsten alloy swaging rod travels through the target. Such "flowering" of the case upon impact severely limits the depth of penetration into hardened targets.

Tungsten alloy swaging rod for armor piercing projectile comprising a heavy metal core and a segmented sabot with both right-handed and left-handed threads that separates from the core after exiting the gun's nozzle. It will not penetrate deeply because the nose end is made of a brittle heavy metal alloy, rather than high-strength steel. Also, it requires the use of a discarding sabot carrier.

Tungsten alloy swaging rod for armor piercing projectile with a speculating core comprising an elongated arrow style it is of a core surrounded by a body, where the hardness of the core is greater than twice the hardness of the body. The outer case is made out of tungsten alloy swaging rod. The brittle behavior of these alloys will prevent this from achieving deep penetration in hardened targets, when compared to cases made of high-strength and high-toughness steel alloys. Tungsten alloy swaging rod for armor piercing is our leader products. We can provide different sizes of it according as your requirements.

Armor Piercing Bullets for Military

Armor Piercing Bullets for Military

Introduction of Tungsten Alloy Armor Piercing Bullet

Tungsten alloy armor piercing bullet relying on the kinetic energy of the projectile, penetrates armor and destroys the target. Its characteristic is high velocity, long hitting the distance and good accuracy. It used for mutilate tanks, self-propelled guns, armored vehicles, ships, aircraft, or any other armored target.

Tungsten alloy armor piercing shell is a type of ammunition designed to penetrate armor and detonate. They are generally used against body armor, vehicle armor, tanks and other defenses, depending on the caliber of the firearms.

Shells of bullets designed for this purpose have a greatly strengthened case with a specially hardened and shaped nose and a much smaller bursting charge. Some smaller caliber tungsten alloy armor piercing shells have an inert filling, or incendiary charge in place of the HE bursting charge.

The Theory of Tungsten Alloy Armor Piercing Bullets

Tungsten alloy armor piercing bullets are famous for their ability to penetrate target. It is mostly because large kinetic energy and their high tensile strength focused on the target. The bullets are made from the high-density tungsten alloy that is much harder than most armor. All have very hard warheads. Tungsten alloy armor piercing bullets can be used against tanks, armored vehicles and concrete fortifications. When fired, bullets are under the high-temperature, high-pressure gas. Reach the target; it will make a pit in the surface of the armor, red out the armor and the pit bottom at the same time. At this time, although the head has been broken, missile force the powerful impact of inertia, it will continue onrush. When the impact force reaches a certain value, the fuse is triggered; it caused the explosion of the projectile charge. At this time, exploding charge will create tons of pressure per square centimeter in area, killing the crew inside the tank or destroying armored weapons.

How does Tungsten Alloy Armor Piercing Bullets Work?

The most widely used tungsten alloy armor piercing bullets in the world are made of a hardened steel, tungsten alloy, tungsten-carbide, or depleted uranium penetrator enclosed within a softer material, such as copper or aluminum. Tungsten alloy rounds, for instance, take advantage of their high-density material, designed to retain its shape and carry the maximum possible amount of energy as deep as possible into the target.

The tungsten alloy armor piercing bullets fired from rifles are strengthened with a copper or cuprous-nickel jacket, much like the jacket that surrounds lead in a conventional projectile, a jacket which is destroyed upon impact to allow the penetrating charge to continue its movement through the targeted substance.

One of the most famous types of tungsten alloy armor piercing bullets used in the past was the Teflon-coated bullets. Contrary to popular belief, the Teflon coating did not in itself help the bullet penetrate deeper, instead it was meant to help reduce the wear on the barrel after firing hardened projectiles. The strange fact is that this misconception even produced laws that lead to the restricted use of these bullets, eventually leading to their extinction.

The famous example of such a blunder was the assassination attempt on US President Ronald Reagan that took place on March 30, 1981. Then, the shooter used a bullet with a normal revolver, which actually deprived the bullet of its ability, contributing to the bullet missing the heart by less than one inch and piercing his left lung instead, which likely spared his life.

What most people do not realize, is that it is not enough to use tungsten alloy for armor piercing, you must use modified barrel, in order to take advantage of the bullet's piercing abilities.