The “professional engineers working with professional machines for professional clients” at Solid Concepts have 3D-printed a 1911-style pistol — using laser sintering:
The “professional engineers working with professional machines for professional clients” at Solid Concepts have 3D-printed a 1911-style pistol — using laser sintering:
Posted in Technology, Weapons | 6 Comments »
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The question, of course, is durability. However, many people would not fire a gun more than a few hundred times, and a criminal might only fire it once. I expect that the process will be developed to the point that the guns are as durable as any. Also that the technology will become widespread and even sustain a black market.
Bob, the parts produced by SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) are equal in strength to forged parts. For more info, I wrote this white paper for my company on the topic of metallic additive manufacturing:
http://prokalkeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Prokalkeo_2013_3d_Metal_Manufacturing.pdf
Very nice white paper, Scipio Americanus.
It seems to me Gyrojet went out of business because manufacturing rocket-pistol ammo took more precision than they could affordably price. Rocket rounds only have to last one shot. Sintering good enough for a GI .45 barrel is an order of magnitude better.
Speaking of Scipio Americanus, I recommend his Why Giant Robots Are Silly blog post and the linked Why mechas are stupid article.
Thank you, Rod and Slovenian Guest.
The other problem with the gyrojet was the low initial velocity of the rounds. This can be corrected by using an initial, relatively small “kicker” cartridge that bumps the round’s muzzle velocity high enough that it can kill someone less than 5 m away. The pressure is still low enough that you still get most of the gyrojet’s advantage of low weapon weight.
I don’t remember the name of the project off the top of my head, but I read something a while back that indicated there was research being done on that basis and that they were doing pretty well.