Ultrasonic Cleaning of Weapon Components: State of the Art Technology

Abstract

Life of any mechanical components depends upon the way of its utility and maintenance apart from the design and material aspect. Weapon/gun components are subjected to deposition of various by products of propellant burning during firing. Proof ranges are engaged for firing with heavy load, hence thorough cleaning of weapon components especially cavities, holes and recesses manually, is time consuming as well inefficient. Ultrasonic cleaning is a state of art technology and can be used for high quality cleaning of the weapon components with less time. In this paper some of the components of high calibre gun which are subjects to deposition of high contamination of propellant by products are cleaned by using ultrasonic cleaning machine. Different frequency and chemicals are used for the experiments and the best cleaning result has been identified. The maintainability and enhancement of weapon components life as well as reduction of its malfunction during firing observed.