3D Printing Method of Gun Propellants Based on Vat Photopolymerization

Due to the limitation of traditional manufacturing technologies for manuscript complex gun propellants, 3D vat photopolymerization technology was used to print gun propellant composed of hexogen(RDX) and photosensitive resin binder. Rotational viscometer, infrared thermal imager and universal material testing machine were used to test the viscosity, light curing exothermic reaction, mechanical properties of printed propellant. The rotational viscometer test results show that the 3D light curing polymerization printing technology is feasible. The photosensitive resin viscosity can be reduced from 42 to 1.5Pa•s by adding the diluent. Meanwhile, the viscosity can be reduced to a minimum at a very small shear rate. Infrared thermal imager results show that the curing process of photopolymerization is exothermic, and the highest curing temperature is 51.1℃, which satisfied the safety requirements of energy materials such as RDX. The mechanical properties results show that the tensile strength, compressive strength and bending strength of the 3D printed propellant are 6.46, 36.1 and 10.2MPa, respectively. The mechanical strength at room temperature is comparable to that of conventional gun propellant. The results indicate that the 3D printing method based on vat photopolymerization is feasible. © 2020, Editorial Board of Journal of Explosives & Propellants. All right reserved.