Potential Advantages
Polymer-bonded explosives have several potential advantages:
- If the polymer matrix is an elastomer (rubbery material), it tends to absorb shocks, making the PBX very insensitive to accidental detonation, and thus ideal for insensitive munitions.
- Hard polymers can produce PBX that is very rigid and maintains a precise engineering shape even under severe stress.
- PBX powders can be pressed into a particular shape at room temperature, when casting normally requires hazardous melting of the explosive. High pressure pressing can achieve density for the material very close to the theoretical crystal density of the base explosive material.
- Many PBXes are safe to machine — to turn solid blocks into complex three-dimensional shapes. For example, a billet of PBX can, if necessary, be precisely shaped on a lathe. This technique is used to machine explosive lenses necessary for modern nuclear weapons.
Read more about this topic: Polymer-bonded Explosive
Famous quotes containing the words potential and/or advantages:
“While each child is born with his or her own distinct genetic potential for physical, social, emotional and cognitive development, the possibilities for reaching that potential remain tied to early life experiences and the parent-child relationship within the family.”
—Bernice Weissbourd (20th century)
“If we help an educated man’s daughter to go to Cambridge are we not forcing her to think not about education but about war?—not how she can learn, but how she can fight in order that she might win the same advantages as her brothers?”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)