Twin Screw Mixer/Fine Grind Facility

The 40-mm Twin-Screw Mixer/Extruder (TSE) pilot plant is a continuous, remotely operated, flexible facility that can significantly enhance safety and environmental considerations during the processing of energetic materials. Personnel exposure to hazardous operations is substantially reduced, and equipment is in-place to recover solvents utilized during material processing. The facility is available to support a broad spectrum of mission-related Research and Development including new propellant, explosive and pyrotechnic formulation development, and insensitive munitions. The pilot scale TSE is co-rotating with fully intermeshing screw elements acting as a continuous mixer and compounder capable of continuously producing up to 50 lb/hr of energetic material. The facility is currently being operated to support a Life Cycle Pilot Process effort to demonstrate and validate a safe and reproducible process for the manufacture of black powder. Future work includes continuous processing of fast-core (GEN-2) propellants in support of the Future Combat System (FCS).