Process and material for warhead casings

Abstract

The present invention is a process and material for forming warhead casin The material itself consists of tightly wound carbon fiber bonded by a low temperature (room temperature) resin. This process of formation gives several advantages, including the ease of manufacturing and the elimination of the need to do inside threading as the interior of the casing can be totally formed during winding of the carbon thread. This also increases the speed of the formation process. The use of carbon thread and low temperature resins also gives several key advantages. First, the low temperature aspect of the resin allows the resulting casing to break down at temperatures significantly less than the ignition point of the munitions held within it. Because the fibers tend to separate as the ambient temperature increases, the casing will auto-ventilate at high temperatures. Additionally, since the casing is formed from carbon fibers, it maintains a high tensile strength while minimizing the weight of the casing.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent of the United States is: 
     
       1. A process for manufacturing a warhead casing comprising the steps of: machining a mandrel such that an exterior mandrel surface is formed replicating a finished interior surface of a desired warhead casing including internal screw threads;   coating continuous carbon fiber threads with a low viscosity resin to yield resin coated threads;   winding said continuous resin coated threads onto a mandrel to form a warhead casing having finished interior screw threads; and   curing and finishing said warhead casing.   
     
     
       2. A process for manufacturing a warhead casing as in claim 1 wherein said step of winding further comprises winding a plurality of threads onto a mandrel in a plurality of separate layers. 
     
     
       3. A process for manufacturing a warhead casing as in claim 1 wherein said low viscosity resin has a glass transition temperature after curing of less than 250 degrees Fahrenheit. 
     
     
       4. A process for manufacturing a warhead casing as in claim 2 wherein said threads have a high level of filament content. 
     
     
       5. A process for manufacturing a warhead casing as in claim 1 wherein said step of curing and finishing further comprises: allowing the resin to harden;   removing the hardened resin case from the mandrel; and   machining the outer surface of said hardened resin case.