Smokeless Powder Types and Burn Rates (Smokeless Powder)

Smokeless Powder

There are many different smokeless powders available in a wide variety of burning rates. Powders are available in two types of composition; Single base and Double base. Single base powders are made from a straight nitro-cellulose composition. Double base powders contain both nitro-cellulose and a percentage of nitroglycerin. Powders most commonly used by the reloader are available in three types.

1. Extruded or Tubular
This type of smokeless powder is most commonly used in rifle cartridges, and is usually single base. However, there are a few which are double base. Burning rate is controlled by composition, grain diameter and length, web thickness, and deterrent coating. Extruded powder can vary greatly in appearance and grain size.

2. Spherical or Ball Powder
Spherical powder can look like tiny round balls or the grains can be flattened. The grains can vary in size, shape, and color. The burning rate of spherical powders can range from a fast pistol powder to very slow rifle powder. All spherical powder is double base and burning rate is determined by chemical composition, grain size, and deterrent coating. Spherical powder, in general, is harder to ignite than extruded powder, therefore magnum primers are recommended in certain loads.

3. Flake
This type of smokeless powder is usually double base fast burning, suitable for pistol, shotgun, and light sub-velocity loads in rifles. Flake powders in slower burning rates suitable for rifles are not available in this country, but have been used in Europe.

Smokeless Powder

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Difference between Black Powder and Smokeless Powder (Smokeless Powder)

Smokeless Powder

There are some diffrences between black powder and smokeless powder that will be describe shortly in this article.

Black powder (the "original propellant") is very pressure sensitive, produces a lot of smoke when ignited, and is not very efficient (meaning it takes a lot more to produce the gas to propel a slug). Black powder is the old charcoal, sulfur, saltpeter mix that the Chinese invented a thousand years ago. It's common "gunpowder". It burns badly and creates huge amounts of smoke. Black powder, when burned, only produces propellant gases with approx 35% of it's mass. 65% of the mass of black powder, when burned, becomes useless solid byproducts in the gun barrel and in the air. If that's not "burns badly" in your opinion, perhaps you need to go back to the third grade again, bud? Your comprehensive skills are obviously lacking.

Smokeless powder is composed of two basic materials. One is nitrocellulose and the other is nitroglycerine. Some smokeless powders are made of only one of these materials and is called a single base powder. Others are composed of a mixture of both components and are called double based powders. The reasosn for using mixtures of the two components is to control their burning rates. Faster burning powders are used for shotguns and handguns. The slower burning powders are used for rifle powders.

Smokeless powders are all progressive burning powders. That means that as the pressure within the cartridge increases, so does the burning rate. It produces a more gentle acceleration than does black powder and achieved much greater final pressures and higher total velocities than will blackpowder. Blackpowder burns at the same rate regardless of the increasing pressure. The maximum pressure is reached more quickly but is significalntly less than smokeless powder. These lower total pressures of black powder are the reason that you cannot use smokeless powder in a gun designed for black powder. You will blow it up and yourself along with it.

Smokeless powder

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History of Smokeless Powder (Smokeless Powder)

Smokeless Powder

Military commanders had been complaining since the Napoleonic Wars about the problems of giving orders on a battlefield that was covered in thick smoke from the gunpowder used by the guns. A major step forward was introduced when guncotton, a nitrocellulose-based propellant, was widely introduced in 1846. Guncotton was more powerful than gunpowder, but at the same time was somewhat more volatile. This made it unsuitable as a propellant for small firearms, not only was it dangerous under field conditions, but guns that could fire thousands of rounds using gunpowder would be "used up" after only a few hundred with the more powerful guncotton. It did find wide use with artillery however.

In 1886 Paul Vieille invented a smokeless gunpowder called Poudre B, made from gelatinized guncotton mixed with ether and alcohol. It was passed through rollers to form thin sheets, which were cut into flakes of the desired size. The resulting propellant, today known as pyrocellulose, contains somewhat less nitrogen than guncotton and is less volatile. A particularly nice feature of the propellant is that it would not burn unless it was compressed, making it very safe to handle under normal conditions.

Vieille's powder revolutionized the effectiveness of small guns, for the following reasons:

• It gave off almost no smoke. After a few shots, a soldier with black powder ammunition would have his view obscured by a huge pall of smoke unless there was a strong wind.
• It was three times more powerful than black powder. This gave two advantages:
  - The higher muzzle velocity meant a flatter trajectory and therefore more accurate long range fire, out to perhaps 1000 metres in the first smokeless powder rifles.
  - A round of ammunition needed less powder, so its calibre could be reduced, making it lighter. This allowed troops to carry more ammunition for the same weight.
• It would detonate even when wet. This was less of a problem in the mid-19th century though, when black powder ammunition was contained in watertight cartridges.

Vielle's powder was used in the Lebel rifle that was immediately introduced by the French Army to exploit its huge benefits over black powder. Other European countries swiftly followed and started using their own versions of Poudre B, the first being Germany and Austria which introduced new weapons in 1888.

Meanwhile, in 1887 Alfred Nobel developed a smokeless gunpowder called ballistite. A modified form of this was devised by Sir Frederick Abel and James Dewar which eventually became known as cordite, leading to a lengthy court battle between Nobel and the other two inventors over patent infringement. Both explosives were more stable and thus safer to handle than Poudre B, and also more powerful. Today propellants based on nitrocellulose alone are known as single-base, whereas cordite-like mixtures are known as double-base. A triple-base flashless cordite was also developed, primarily for large naval guns.

Smokeless powder allowed the development of modern semi- and fully automatic firearms. Burned blackpowder leaves a thick, heavy fouling which is both hygroscopic and corrosive. Smokeless powder fouling exhibits none of these properties. This makes feasible an autoloading firearm with many moving parts (which would jam or seize under heavy blackpowder fouling).

Single and double-base smokeless powders now make up the vast majority of propellants used in firearms. They are so common that most modern references to "gunpowder" refer to a smokeless powder, particularly when referring to small arms ammunition.

Source: chemistrydaily.com

Smokeless Powder

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