Promoting Peace and Security

Improving the efficiency of small arms demilitarization for the United States Armed Forces

Historically, the process for demilitarization of small arms consisted of the use of a large industrial shredder in which weapons requiring demilitarization were processed. After the weapons were processed by the shredder, the material output was scanned by personnel to determine which material output did not meet the specifications for demilitarization and, therefore, required additional processing. The personnel then physically collected those particular pieces and placed them through the demilitarization process (i.e., the large industrial shredder) again to further process the material to ensure it met the specifications for demilitarization. In many cases, openings between the ‘teeth’ of the shredder allowed certain-shaped weapons and/or weapon-components to easily pass through unscathed; and, in other cases, the shredder was unable to demilitarize the more-robust weapons due to the durable and hard material characteristics of the weapons. These issues resulted in an inefficient process that required the operating personnel to, once again, physically collect many types of weapons and/or or weapon-components in buckets and, instead of further relying on the shredder, demilitarize the weapons by tediously cutting the weapons into many pieces by using a cutting torch.

Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Northeast Alabama, Anniston Army Depot (“ANAD”) is a United States Army maintenance center and munitions storage site occupying more than 25 square miles of land. From its origin in 1941 as a storage depot, ANAD has transformed into a start-of-the-market maintenance facility and is most often recognized for its heavy combat vehicle, small arms weaponry, and locomotive expertise.

Project Details

David Boland, Inc. (“Boland”) was awarded a contract by the USACE to provide the design and construction of a new small arms demilitarization system at ANAD. Boland’s responsibilities were to design, engineer, fabricate, furnish, deliver, assemble, install, program, start up, test, and maintain (for a period of one year) a new demilitarization system that would be fully-automatic once the weapons to be demilitarized were loaded onto a conveyor feed for the initial demilitarization process, with the final output of material meeting the specifications for demilitarization and conveyed to a recycle container.

The new demilitarization system was required to be designed and constructed to maintain a minimum working cycle—or throughput—of between five-hundred (500) and seven-hundred-fifty (750) weapons per hour. The new system was to be able to process, at a minimum, to completion, the fully-assembled weapons to include M60 machine guns, M9 handguns, various pistols, AK-47 assault rifles, shotguns, M4 carbines, M16 rifles, and M700 rifles. Additionally, the new system was to be designed to eliminate excessive degradation due to processing of the barrels of M60 machine guns—the M60’s barrel is constructed of a carbon steel alloy with a chromium plated bore and sometimes contains a liner of Stellite® 21, a corrosion-resistant alloy, in the breech end. Safety measures, to resist accidental ordnance discharge, were incorporated into the design, along with considerations of physical space requirements for the equipment, operation and maintenance, operator safety, noise levels, reliability, and operating cost.

The new demilitarization system is comprised of four (4) 230-ton hydraulic press stations, each operating as an independent process. Each hydraulic press is fitted with a six-inch-long tool that crushes one section of the weapon per cycle, incrementally crushing the entire length of the weapon, completely distorting each weapon to preclude restoration to a usable condition. All four hydraulic press stations are fed by individual infeed conveyance systems, loaded at a single process initiation location. A container lift with a tilt-assist mechanism is located at the process initiation location and holds weapon dunnage for ease of operator-ergonomics. All four hydraulic press stations output weapons that meet or exceed the ‘degree of demilitarization’ onto a common outfeed conveyance system that delivers the demilitarized weapons to a single recycle container.

In addition to the container lift, other stations within the new demilitarization system include two (2) transfer conveyers that move the weapons laterally into the ballistic box infeed conveyer loading position and allow for queuing of additional weapons; four (4) weapon feed systems that include five (5) main components: infeed conveyers, ballistic boxes, feed actuator systems, infeed elevator assemblies, and inner press infeed shuttle assemblies; crush boxes—three-sided solid, heavy-duty, wear-and impact-resistant steel-surfaced containment areas for the weapons; four (4) 230-ton hydraulic press assemblies; four (4) weapon back-gauge systems that include two (2) main components: the servomechanism back-gauge actuators and the air-powered escapement doors, which allow demilitarized material to drop onto the recycle conveyer; and the recycle conveyer that transfers the demilitarized material from the exit chutes below the weapon back-gauge systems to the recycle container.

System safety for the operators and other personnel is accomplished by the use of hard guarding (i.e., physical fence guarding) and emergency-stop (“E-Stop”) circuits. Dust levels within and around the system are controlled by the strategic positioning of dust collection hoods over areas of the system in which demilitarized material is displaced, creating the opportunity for dust particulates to become airborne. Operator position of the system is located at a single point of weapon initiation into the system and is positioned so that the operator is not required to twist at the waist.

Since performance of the contract, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Boland two patents for the Weapon Demilitarization System and Process, Patent No.: US 11,780,191 B2 and US 11,999,125 B2.