Megabar Explosives Corporation

Ormand F Lavery

John A Peterson

Harvey A Jessop

M Taylor Abegg

Ronald F McCormick

Jay W Butler

A new arrangement of matter is developed which can be formulated to be a high explosive, a propellant or a gas generator. The new arrangement of matter in its explosive embodiment is known as a microknit composite explosive (MCX) in which an essentially anhydrous mixture of perchlorate based oxidizer salts, surfactants and organic fuels is prepared while the oxidizer is molten, and a microcrystalline property is created which imparts a hard, machinable characteristic to the arrangement of matter. The invention includes three processes for making MCX compositions: (1) dissolving surfactants, crystal-habit modifiers, thickeners or combinations into the molten oxidizer in a manner which permits supercooling with subsequent solidification; (2) forming an unstable oil-continuous emulsion as a preliminary step, followed by a controlled disruption of the oil-phase continuum which causes the composition to solidify after supercooling, and (3) retarding crystal nucleation in salt-continuous emulsions by introducing surfactants, thickeners, crystal-habit modifiers or combinations, along with immiscible fuels, resulting in supercooling and subsequent solidification to a hard composition.

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Ormand F Lavery