I'm sure the folks here who have experience with German artillery in 50mm, 75mm, 88mm,105mm and several other heavy weapon calibers DID use powdered iron (FES) driver bands to save their copper for submarine & ship wiring, radio and electronic uses and long lists of priority applications. Heat sintered iron powder substituted for copper driving bands was a brilliant switch, but did the changeover to powdered iron driver bands occur prior to the wartime manufacture, or did the armament industry change over during the war from copper driving bands to sintered iron (FES) driver bands?
If they did resort to powdered metal sintering ( which was a stroke of genius modern metallurgy understands is sophisticated science ) to save copper for more critical uses, what dates did the German weapons manufacturers begin the switch to (FES) iron powdered metal driver bands? My own feeling is they began to switch to iron pre-1938, but that is just a guess, based on the expected need for tens of millions of 88mm Flak shells, just using powdered iron bands for 88mm shells alone would save hundreds of tons of copper alone most likely!!
I suspect the heaviest demand ammunition would have recieved (FES) iron driver bands first, followed by the demands possibly for 75mm Anti-tank Pak40 and KWK40 shells, and then others per demand would have molds and tooling developed for other less heavy demand calibers as time went on.
I have done a fast search for in depth info on the web for the history of sintered iron technology (FES) as used in Germany during WWII, and find nothing very specific, yet I know it was a large engineering challenge to make the necessary jump from copper to powdered iron, but there is not much info available in a quick search. Does anyone have good historical records dealing with this aspect of German engineering during WWII?
That substitution was in the most part an excellent exchange, because Tiger I and II tanks with iron driver bands were still able to make highly accurate 2 & 3 km kills on Russian tanks and American and British tanks with spot on accuracy even with the substituted metal driver bands.
Thanks in advance for your comments.
Walt
If they did resort to powdered metal sintering ( which was a stroke of genius modern metallurgy understands is sophisticated science ) to save copper for more critical uses, what dates did the German weapons manufacturers begin the switch to (FES) iron powdered metal driver bands? My own feeling is they began to switch to iron pre-1938, but that is just a guess, based on the expected need for tens of millions of 88mm Flak shells, just using powdered iron bands for 88mm shells alone would save hundreds of tons of copper alone most likely!!
I suspect the heaviest demand ammunition would have recieved (FES) iron driver bands first, followed by the demands possibly for 75mm Anti-tank Pak40 and KWK40 shells, and then others per demand would have molds and tooling developed for other less heavy demand calibers as time went on.
I have done a fast search for in depth info on the web for the history of sintered iron technology (FES) as used in Germany during WWII, and find nothing very specific, yet I know it was a large engineering challenge to make the necessary jump from copper to powdered iron, but there is not much info available in a quick search. Does anyone have good historical records dealing with this aspect of German engineering during WWII?
That substitution was in the most part an excellent exchange, because Tiger I and II tanks with iron driver bands were still able to make highly accurate 2 & 3 km kills on Russian tanks and American and British tanks with spot on accuracy even with the substituted metal driver bands.
Thanks in advance for your comments.
Walt