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280 Alloy

B

Bonnex

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Just tripped over this photograph which some of you might like for reference.


SAA280Alloy.JPG
 
Pleasingly the blue one was restored to shiny aluminium by the use of wire wool and a bead blaster :)
 
Tony Williams said:
The light-alloy cased .280 rounds were made in various different colours.
Click to expand...

Like this Tony?

Sorry about the overprint but it was originally sent to someone I did not entirely trust.

Regards
TonyE
 

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It appears to have been anodised before the extractor groove was turned.

The alloy 30mm ADEN cases are like this, but that is because the electrical firing circuit would not function properly if the case head was lacquered.

Regards
TonyE
 
TonyE said:
It appears to have been anodised before the extractor groove was turned.

The alloy 30mm ADEN cases are like this, but that is because the electrical firing circuit would not function properly if the case head was lacquered.

Regards
TonyE
Click to expand...

They never heard of conductive laquers?
 
Perhaps not, it was over sixty years ago. Alternatively it may be that any conductive lacquers available then could not stand the stress of firing in a hot gun.

There was a great deal of effort made to find a finish for these cases that was durable. Phenolic lacquers were tried among many others, but many failed in the durability trials which were held both in the Atlantic and in tropical Africa.

Eventually development reached a stage where it was considered that satisfactory 20mm and 30mm cases could be made but by then the power of jet aircraft had also improved to the point where the weight saving was not worth the additional expense of alloy cases and the whole project was cancellled. Some final work was carried out with small arms ammunition into the early fifties but this was mainly for research rather than in anticipation of bringing alloy cases into service.

Picture shows failed .303 and 20mm Hispano cases.

Regards
TonyE
 

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Might be worth pointing out Tony that when you say "the whole project was cancelled" you're referring to the UK. The US did of course introduce light-alloy cases in the 1970s in 30x173 calibre for the GAU-8/A gun in the A-10 attack plane, and subsequently in 30x113B for the M230 gun in the AH-64 Apache helicopter. In both cases, the ammo capacity is huge so the weight saving is very much worthwhile.
 
Sorry, I thought as the thread was headed ".280 Alloy" it was implicit we were talking about British service.

Regards
TonyE
 
TonyE said:
Perhaps not, it was over sixty years ago. Alternatively it may be that any conductive lacquers available then could not stand the stress of firing in a hot gun.

Regards
TonyE
Click to expand...


Tony, anyhow they must have known about these laquers since Germany used them for their electric primed aircraft gun ammo (MG131, MG151, MK108).
... as Tony Williams says, it always ends with aircraft guns - or starts there. :)
 
I am sure you are right, but all I can say is what the official report of the alloy case trials says!

Regards
TonyE
 
Must admit I got a bit lost with this one and did think the thread was about British alloy anodised cases,not lacquered steel cases or indeed what the U.S. did with them as it is well known that they still manufacture alloy anodised cases:eek:oh:

Cheers
Tony
 
I found one orange coloured round on Merv's table on Calgary Alberta Canada spring gunshow a few years ago.
headstamp : 280/30 RG 49

There is a small chip in the coating on the neck that happened in the time before I bought it -this round was on the table for a few years with everyone looking at it .
That coating is quite durable.

I am looking for more examples of these .280/30 alloy cases.

Glenn
 
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