by Kelly Koltun
Firearm
sales have increased exponentially over the past few years, and
forecasts are continuing to escalate, reflecting an increase in the
popularity of hunting, a rise in the desire for personal protection, and
a variety of other socio-economic factors. As manufacturers seek to
meet demand while decreasing costs, reducing weight, and increasing
durability, the spotlight is turning to engineering and design
capabilities in the industry. Engineered metal solutions, including
expertise in such technologies as precision CNC machining, metal
injection molding (MIM), laser welding, and stamping, are key to meeting
the challenges of this booming industry.
Demand is fueling boom
In
2011 and 2012, firearms had strong, record-setting sales. According to
the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), there have been 24
straight monthly increases in the number of the National Instant
Criminal Background Check System (NICS) background checks, when compared
to the same period of the previous year. The FBI checks are required by
all licensed firearms dealers to ensure that a customer does not have a
criminal record or isn’t otherwise ineligible to make a purchase.
[1]
The NICS statistics are not actual sales data, but since one cannot
purchase a firearm without getting one, it is likely that most people
getting a NICS check are buying a firearm.
Check the history of
NICS checks, as adjusted by NSSF. There were 840,412 checks in May 2012,
an increase of 20.6 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of
696,947 in May 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted May 2012 NICS figure
of 1,305,392 reflects a 7 percent increase from the unadjusted NICS
figure of 1,219,872 in May 2011.
In addition to background-check
statistics, the NSSF notes that firearms production and importation,
firearm-retailer surveys and on-the-ground reports from retailers
nationwide reveal that interest in firearm ownership is high.
In
fact, the increased demand has had major firearms manufacturers
struggling to keep up, with some even having to stop taking orders. For
example, Sturm, Ruger & Co. resumed taking new orders from its
independent wholesale distributors in late May 2012, after temporarily
suspending the acceptance of new orders in March. [3]
Ruger had received orders for more than one million firearms in the
first quarter; the company said its production and shipments in the
first quarter of 2012 increased more than 50 percent from the first
quarter of 2011.
What’s fueling the boom? Experts
cite several reasons for the increase, including uncertainty in a
presidential election year, warriors returning from the battlefields,
the comeback of the hunter, and economic uncertainty.
[1] Personal defense is also seen as a large and growing trend, resulting in a marked increase in compact pistols.
Expanding engineering to accommodate the boom in the firearms market
Engineering
firms are rapidly expanding to provide the engineering and design
capabilities necessary to accommodate the boom in the firearms market.
In guns and other projectiles, most branches of mechanical engineering
are applied, including wear-properties (tribology) of the moving parts,
manufacturing of highly precise machining processes, and system design. A
high degree of design collaboration with top gun manufacturers is
imperative to meet the needs of today’s firearms purchasers, whether
they are for personal protection, hunting, or for the military.
For
example, Tracy MacNeal, ATW Company’s director of business development,
notes the importance of engineering expertise for helping firearms
manufacturers hit tight tolerances, and resolve complex issues.
“Identifying prototyping needs, turning around a prototype quickly,
developing the best materials for the application, and providing advice
on appropriate designs and tolerances, are services that are essential
to supporting today’s firearms industry,” says MacNeal. Warwick,
RI-based ATW Companies is a provider of highly engineered metal
solutions to the metal component marketplace.
According
to Chris Schirmer, quality control manager at STI International, a
Texas-based company that manufactures complete M1911 pistols and parts
for competition, duty and self-defense, designers must pay careful
attention to the application of the firearm. He asks, “What is the
intent of the firearm – Is it concealed carry, competition, or law
enforcement? Each area of firearm use will have specific requirements
that need to be met, which requires decisions on size, material, weight,
length, and caliber.”
Since most people have very
limited budgets, consumers like to buy inexpensive firearms, and most
manufacturers are responding by looking for ways to reduce costs. This
is why many firearm manufacturers are using molded plastics, aluminum
extrusions, and die cast zinc parts in their new designs. All of these
processes can be used to make inexpensive, strong, and durable
components.
High tolerances and precision function is key to every
component in gun manufacturing. For example, Metalform Magazines, a
division of A.T. Wall, produces firearms magazines, a relatively simple
device that feeds the rounds into the pistol’s chamber via a
spring-loaded follower mechanism. Although standard magazines tend to
cost only $15-75 depending on design/size, this small component can
determine how well a $2000 pistol works.
Kevin Collins, a senior
design engineer at Savage Arms, a Westfield, Massachusetts-based
manufacturer of rifles and shotguns, explains that designing weapons for
today’s firearms purchasers depends not only on precision, but also
weight. “Lighter and stronger has been a goal for a long time, and the
design mantra has been to look to polymers, aluminum, titanium, and
carbon fiber to get just the right combination of durability and
weight.” He notes that today’s hunters are looking for lightweight
rifles, and designers are responding to the demand by looking at
aluminum frames and receivers. This can save as much as 30 to 50 percent
of the weight of the firearm and shipping of the raw material, and also
saves on machining costs.
The application of the firearms
determines much of the desired weight requirements. Collins notes that
in hunting applications, in which the hunter might be making only a few
shots in a given day, a lighter gun is easier to carry and the extra
recoil is not much of a problem. By contrast, in a shooting range
application, in which the shooter might be firing many rounds, the
recoil associated with a very lightweight rifle will cause fatigue
fairly quickly. Engineering design seeks to resolve these polarized
requirements.
Reinforced plastic with steel ribbing is another
design innovation being pursued, though Collins acknowledged the
downside of polymers, especially where the weapon may be used in areas
with a large temperature fluctuation, as steel components may expand
when plastic does not. The variation in these temperature coefficients
will eventually cause loosening of the gun’s components, which is not
desirable.
Metal injection molding for firearms manufacturing
Metal
injection molding (MIM) is a popular choice for relatively high
precision at a low cost. MIM combines powder metal with a low melt
polymer to create a feedstock that is molded using conventional
injection molding equipment and molds. After molding, the plastic, which
is known as the binder, must be removed in a step called debinding.
After debinding, the parts are placed into high temperature sintering
furnaces and sintered. The result is a solid metal part created from
powder metal to near net shape at 96 percent density of wrought metal.
There
is little waste in the MIM process compared to other competing
technologies, making MIM a green technology. MIM is a low cost, high
volume manufacturing process that produces geometrically complex metal
parts that are difficult or near impossible to produce using other
conventional metal fabrication technologies. This means MIM can be used
to produce complex shapes that can cost 20 to 50 percent of a machined
part, producing far less material waste, with high production rates.
Key
major firearms manufacturers have adopted MIM widely, and new projects
are likely to include MIM parts, due to the cost and consistency of the
process. Depending on volume requirements and part complexity, MIM can
significantly reduce the component cost and in some instances yield
parts that could not be made using any other method. Manufacturing of
metal components using MIM technology has enabled U.S. companies to stay
within the U.S. for sourcing components, due to MIM’s high
manufacturing capability and competitive pricing.
John Lewinski,
director of supplier management at Springfield, MA-based Smith &
Wesson, notes that any of the company’s new projects are likely to
include MIM parts, due to the cost and consistency of the process. “MIM
has allowed us to take cost out of the product while maintaining quality
and therefore pass the savings on to the consumer,” says Lewinski.
Collins
agrees, calling MIM the modern replacement to investment casting,
especially for small parts. He says that MIM is a fairly new technology
that is being used more and more for making firearm components. The
parts are dimensionally consistent, fairly inexpensive, and the surface
finish is smoother than machined or investment cast (IC) components. To
save on costs, especially for entry level guns, designers are looking to
save on costs by designing guns with less than smooth mirror finish on
mating parts, or where parts are not super close fitting, but which are
utilitarian and result in a perfectly functional firearm.
In his
view, the main drawback of current MIM technology is the material
designation and selection. Most engineers are not familiar with the
materials used for MIM parts. He explains, “Most MIM parts are not made
from common AISI materials such as 4340 and 8620 alloy steels, and this
is certainly a drawback for anyone wanting to make parts for existing
military rifles such as the M14 and M16.” According to Collins, the
rifles purchased by the U.S. military use lots of parts made from AISI
8620 alloy steel, and they don’t have options for similar or equivalent
materials. “Getting new materials approved for military use can be a
hassle.”
Also, he notes that at this point, IC still has a
distinct advantage over MIM in that the cast parts can be bigger or
heavier than the MIM parts. Next to stocks and barrels, receivers are
the largest and most complex components for firearms. “Making a receiver
with the MIM process would be a good test to validate the strength and
durability of MIM components and materials,” said Collins.
Basically,
Collins believes that creative designs and manufacturing methods will
be key, similar to the way firearm manufacturers during WWII found the
most economical and least time consuming ways of manufacturing firearms.
In his view, there is no reason to make a firearm component any
stronger or more complicated than it needs to be. This would drive up
its manufacturing cost, but it wouldn’t necessarily improve its quality.
Chris
Schirmer of STI International, also believes that that the introduction
of MIM components to the firearms industry has had a significant
impact. “MIM allowed the manufacturers to create a ready to use, high
detail metal part in high volume at low cost,” said
Schirmer. “Unfortunately the early MIM process left a lot to be desired
and the manufacturers using these parts experienced failures.” Schirmer
explains that, over time, the process has improved to the point that it
is a perfectly acceptable method of manufacture for most manufacturers,
including STI. He does acknowledge that there is still concern in the
public about the early failures and its use may never be accepted by
some consumers or 100 percent by manufacturers.
According to ATW’s
Tracy MacNeal, designers must also pay careful attention to the
identification and management of complex secondary operations that are
performed on the MIM part, which may include laser marking,
sub-assemblies, post machining operations, and coating and plating
requirements. Tooling design expertise and use of the latest analytical
tools, for example SolidWorks and MoldFlow software, are the final piece
of the design puzzle. Companies with consolidated and broad
capabilities are often a good solution for firearms manufacturers
seeking to meet demand in today’s boom, while ensuring the best balance
of design and production are satisfying the market.
References
[1] Peter Suciu, Special to CNBC.com, Firearms Sales Ring in 2012 With a Bang,
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45858302/Firearms_Sales_Ring_in_2012_With_a_Bang, retrieved August 6, 2012
[2] January 18, 2012, NSSF® Says 2012 Firearms Sales Outlook Promising after Record-setting Year,
http://nssf.org/newsroom/releases/show.cfm?PR=011812.cfm&path=2012, retrieved August 6, 2012
[3] Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Resumes Normal Acceptance of Orders, May 29, 2012, http://www.ruger.com/corporate/news/2012-05-29a.html, retrieved August 6, 2012
[4] Smiths Metal Centres Ltd, Maraging Steels,
http://www.smithshp.com/metals/maraging-steels.htm, retrieved August 6, 2012
