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Ready, aim, print: China’s rail gun gets an edge with 3D-printed part

  • Military researchers use the technology to improve speed, durability of coveted army weapon
  • New part is about half the weight of those made with traditional methods

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Military researchers have used a 3D-printed part to improve the speed and durability of a specialised army weapon, the rail gun. Photo: handout
Stephen Chenin Beijing
A team of Chinese military engineers say they have found a way to boost the performance of a weapon known as a rail gun with the aid of 3D printing technology – an achievement previously thought to be unfeasible.

“The obvious benefits point to an important road to the future,” said senior military engineer Zhang Qingxia and her colleagues in a paper published in the domestic peer-reviewed journal Ordnance Material Science and Engineering on January 11.

Zhang, who led the research team at an army weapon research institute based in Beijing, said they 3D-printed one of the most critical components of the rail gun system.

Through a series of tests, it was proved that smart manufacturing technology could effectively increase the performance of a rail gun even in the most demanding conditions, the researchers said in the paper.

A rail gun is a kinetic energy weapon that uses electromagnetic force to fire a non-explosive projectile at seven times the speed of sound. A ship-mounted Chinese version of the weapon is being developed to hit a target more than 200km (125 miles) away, far greater than the range of conventional artillery.

3D printing uses autonomous machinery to add raw materials layer by layer to manufacture a part. The technique enables the creation of components that have shapes which are difficult to achieve with traditional methods, such as irregular metal parts with a honeycomb-like structure inside to reduce weight.

But compared to traditional methods such as casting or forging, 3D-printed parts can be weaker and therefore unsuitable for the demands of something like a rail gun, which operates under extreme physical stress and powerful electric currents.

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