Material is the material basis on which human beings depend. The continuous development of human society is that human beings can use materials to make tools and use them to transform the world. As the so-called "generation material, generation equipment". The birth and development of new materials will promote major changes in weaponry and combat styles. So, how has the application of materials in war changed since ancient times?
I don't know when it will start. The war of mankind has been almost completely separated from natural metals and animal and plant materials, and entered a new era of purified minerals such as mixed metals, plastics and single crystal silicon.
Things are rare: rare earth alloys
Represented by "stainless steel", the modern metallurgical industry has touched the so-called "basic iron" for thousands of years: putting chromium, vanadium, nickel and other metal elements in ordinary steel, or controlling the content of phosphorus and sulfur, It can greatly enhance its mechanical or chemical properties, and at the same time can eliminate the corresponding side effects through mechanical or thermal processing means.
But with the exponential increase in the performance requirements of metal materials, these methods of adding common elements are beginning to be less useful. The solution is readily available: there are a large number of metal elements behind the periodic table that can be used to "try and error" one by one, whether it is electricity or magnetism or chemical machinery, or the rarer luminescence, catalysis and energy storage performance, in short, try one by one. correct.
Of course, we all know now that, for example, gallium in radar, neodymium in lasers and magnets, rhenium in turbofan engine blades, and tantalum in high-temperature coatings, these rare earth elements are of great value in their respective subdivisions, as long as "add a little", The performance of ordinary steel, aluminum alloy and titanium alloy can be reborn, showing a completely different performance.
Yes, it is not difficult to add rare earth elements to metal materials, but the premise is how to smelt the rare earth elements out of the stone and at the same time eliminate the impurities-if you ca n’t do this, it is to hold ten thousand tons of rare earth ore Also in vain.
From simple to extreme: the leading carbon fiber composite material
The Kawasaki Heavy Industries fuselage production line, which uses carbon composite material integrated molding technology, is an OEM for Boeing 787 passenger aircraft.
For the first time, carbon is presented to the world from the perspective of "fibers", which is actually more than a hundred years ago. At that time, the carbon wire was still under the protection of inert gas and was displayed in the glass lampshade, which was used to turn on the power and emit light.
Then, tungsten wire with lower cost and longer life appeared. Carbon filament was quickly excluded from the filament field, and it has been silent for decades. Until the United States and the Soviet Union began a new round of competition around nuclear warheads, missiles and rockets, carbon fiber was discovered again from the cold palace and entered the mainstream science field.
In short, the warhead nose cone of the intercontinental ballistic missile will return to the atmosphere, and it will undergo intense friction "without deceleration" with the dense air, which can generate high temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius. The melting point of tungsten, which used to replace carbon wire, is more than 3,000 Celsius is simply not enough.
what is it now? Advanced carbon fiber has once again stood out. After being compounded with heat-resistant ceramics, carbon fiber has been widely used in the intercontinental ballistic missile body, nose cone, and wing fields. By the 1980s, there were more solid ballistic missiles made entirely of carbon fiber, and its manufacturing cost And performance are comparable to non-metallic elastomers.
With the end of the Cold War, such advanced technologies have gradually been devolved into the military field outside of aerospace: the fifth-generation fighters have begun to widely use individual components made of carbon fiber, and large aircraft such as Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 have also begun to use carbon fiber. Wings made of integral winding, or even large sections of the fuselage … Except for the temporary lack of repairability, laboratory simulations and practical applications have proven that carbon fiber composite materials will only increase in the future. Seeing and being powerful, even if it is predicted that it will replace steel, it is not too much.
Additive molding technology and polymer materials
FGC-9 submachine gun manufactured using 3D printing technology.
Imagine that if there is such a machine, you only need to enter commands and have enough resources to manufacture long guns, short guns, spare parts and ammunition on the spot. Then the logistics problems that plague almost all military forces will undoubtedly be solved-know A modern heavy-loaded force often carries up to hundreds of spare parts, dozens of oils with different uses and labels, and at least a dozen types of ammunition. Without one link, the entire combat system is in danger of collapse.
However, this idea of some sci-fi has gradually become a reality: the emergence and rise of additive molding technology, commonly known as "3D printer", not only allows manufacturing companies to choose industrial-grade printers, but also to replace complex traditional processing production lines. The price of desktop printers facing consumers has dropped one after another, almost to the point of "slippage"; similarly, the price of supporting molding materials has also dropped sharply as production capacity has increased. At least now, molding resin is used to "proof" replacement parts. It is a profitable business.
And the evolution of technology is often quite unexpected: before the armed forces of various countries widely used the 3D printer "printing weapons", there were already civil organizations who racked their brains and used desktop 3D printers and ordinary polymers to create guns.