Influence of coating techniques and organic solvents on the quality of granulated PBX based on HMX
Slavica Terziæ, BSc (Eng)
Granulated plastic bonded explosives (PBX) prepared from octogen (HMX) and thermoplastic polymer (Viton A) were obtained using the two solvent-slurry techniques. Four organic solvents were used for dissolving the produced solution of thermoplastic phlegmatizer (acetone, ethyl acetate, methylisobuthyl ketone and methylethyl ketone), and two solvents (ethyl alcohol and n-hexane) for its precipitation from the solvent phlegmatizer and coating crystals of HMX. The phlegmatization results (quality of coating layer on HMX crystals) were realized by microscopic analysis.
Key words: PBX explosives, granulated explosives, phlegmatization, phlegmatizer, HMX, organic solvent, qualitative analysis.