Flow Formed Cobalt Barrels. The Latest Greatest Thing?

[twyacht]

Flow-Formed Cobalt Barrels Allow All-Day Machine Gunning
Posted on March 4, 2011 by Robert Farago

I’m not a metallurgist. Nor do I play one on the Internet. But I know how to cut and paste electronic data. So . . . “If you look at steel in a machine gun environment, it gets very hot at a high rate of fire,” Vinny Leto told army.mil. The Systems Project Engineer at the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (Weapons System Technology Directorate) knows the answer to that problem: cobalt. “The benefit of the cobalt alloy is that it is designed to operate in high-temperature, high-stress environments. It has the added benefits of corrosion and erosion resistance.” Unfortunately, “the material, for all of its phenomenal properties, is very difficult to manufacture and machine.” Especially the rifling part of the program. Until now . . .

    In flow forming, a cylinder of metal has a hard, preformed mandrel inserted inside it. Then, ultra-powerful rollers squash the cylinder onto the mandrel, so causing the inside to take on the desired shape. The rifling is pressed into the bore, rather than being cut as with a steel barrel.

    Leto and his colleagues have apparently made a barrel from 50+ per cent cobalt alloy using flow-forming and test-fired 24,000 rounds through it, causing it to reach temperatures of 1,100 degrees. A steel barrel would have failed under such treatment.

If the manufacturing method proves efficient and cost-effective—a strange concept for the military but there it is–cobalt barrels could eliminate the need to swap out big ass machine gun barrels in combat. A useful time saver I’d say. Just did, in fact. Well, wrote. Soldiers could also shoot their light arms on full auto longer without fear of failure. Although I’m not entirely convinced that that would be such a good thing . . .

http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/03/robert-farago/flow-formed-cobalt-barrels-allow-all-day-machine-gunning/#more-36179

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Kinda makes you go Hmmm....

[Timothy]

So, what this means is that when my hip implant gives out (cobalt chromium), I can make a new barrel for my futuristic rifle with the old parts?

Cool!

Actually, I've had four (4) hip replacements so I can equip half the squad...

 

[tombogan03884]

Not really a new process, "Cold forging" has been around for a long time.
H&K and Rheinmetal have also been using mandrels to form "rifled smoothbore" barrels for rifles and Tanks for 30 years or more.

[TAB]

Not really a new process, "Cold forging" has been around for a long time.
H&K and Rheinmetal have also been using mandrels to form "rifled smoothbore" barrels for rifles and Tanks for 30 years or more.

mandrels were how they 1st started to make barrels.

its alot easier to forge something around a mandrel then it is to drill it out, when you have zero power tools.

[twyacht]

Not really a new process, "Cold forging" has been around for a long time.
H&K and Rheinmetal have also been using mandrels to form "rifled smoothbore" barrels for rifles and Tanks for 30 years or more.

OK, but now it seems they have bumped the colbalt levels up, to 50%.
    Leto and his colleagues have apparently made a barrel from 50+ per cent cobalt alloy using flow-forming and test-fired 24,000 rounds through it, causing it to reach temperatures of 1,100 degrees. A steel barrel would have failed under such treatment.

assuming it was 24,000 rds. non stop, to get the barrel toasty 1100 degrees, seems like it passed it's durability test.

[Sponsor]

[fullautovalmet76]

Imagine the marketing for these new "flow formed, tactical, match-grade, fluted, free-floating, bull" barrels when they finally get to the consumer market....

[tombogan03884]

Imagine the price .

[billt]

Actually, I've had four (4) hip replacements so I can equip half the squad.

Not to Hi-Jack, but how painful were they to heal from?  Bill T.

[Timothy]

Not to Hi-Jack, but how painful were they to heal from?  Bill T.

Long story....

Most people that need a hip replacement due to arthritis or bone loss feel better immediately because they were in so much pain to begin with.  When it's due to a severe trauma, there is more that needs to heal and generally other ailments that take priority as was my case.  I had so much injury, the hip wasn't a priority.  Being laid up for months, I lost a huge amount of muscle mass so recovery was long, painful and ongoing five years later.  The better shape you're in to begin with, the quicker the healing.

New techniques are being used that no one used when I had mine that allow the doc to go in from the back of the hip which allows them better access and doesn't dislodge the butt muscles too badly and recovery isn't too bad.  I, unfortunately, didn't have that type of surgery.

Talk to a few surgeons and check their references.

[billt]

I don't know if U.S. Ordnance employs Cobalt, but a solid minute and 45 seconds, and 850 rounds of .308 sure says something about good barrels! Especially when they are air cooled!  Bill T.