What is RDX? Due to the fact that different names are used for this substance in different countries, the answer to this question is not as simple as it seems at first glance. TNT-hexogen is an explosive in an S-4 plastic explosive bag. RDX is storage stable and is considered one of the most energetic and powerful military explosives.
Other names and history
RDX is also known, but less commonly, as cyclonite, RDX (especially in English, French, German), T4 and chemically as cyclotrimethylene trinitramine. In the 1930s, the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, began research on cyclonite for use against German submarines, which were built with thicker hulls. The goal was to develop explosives more energetic than TNT. For safety reasons, Britain has called the Institute for Cyclone Research an Explosion Research Department (RDX). The term RDX appeared in the United States in 1946. They don’t know what RDX is, because this word for RDX is used almost exclusively in Russian. The first public link in the United Kingdom to the name RDX or RDX for the use of the official name appeared in 1948; its authors were the managing chemist, ROF Bridgewater, chemical research and development department, Woolwich and director of the Royal Ammunition, explosives; again, this substance was simply called RDX.
Application
The interior parts of the bomber bomb used in the Daidusters Raid contained 6,600 pounds (3,000 kg) of Torpex. The Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs developed by Wallis also used Torpex.
It is believed that RDX was used on many bombs, including terrorist ones.
RDX was used by both parties in World War II. The United States produced about 15,000 tons per month during World War II and Germany about 7,000 tons per month. RDX had great advantages - possessing more explosive power than the TNT used in the First World War, and it did not require additional raw materials for manufacturing.
Opening
Hexogen was created in 1898 by Georg Friedrich Henning, who received a German patent (patent No. 104280) for its manufacture by nitrolysis of hexamine (hexamethylenetetramine) with concentrated nitric acid. This patent refers to the medical properties of a substance; however, three more German patents, obtained by Henning in 1916, described hexogen as a substance suitable for use in smokeless propellants. The German military began researching its use in 1920, citing it as RDX. The results of research and development were not published until Edmund von Hertz, described as an Austrian and then a German citizen, received a British patent in 1921 and a United States patent in 1922. Both patent applications were pending in Austria. British patent applications included the production of RDX explosive by nitration, its use with or without other explosives, as an explosive charge and as a detonator. The US patent application was intended for use with a hollow explosive device containing RDX and a detonator cap containing RDX. In the 1930s, Germany developed advanced methods for the production of RDX.
Third Reich
During World War II, Germany used the names W Salt, SH Salt, K-method, E-method and KA-method for different types of RDX. These names represented the identifiers of the developers of various chemical routes for RDX. Tungsten developed the W-method in 1934 and gave the RDX the code name “W-Salz”. He used sulfamic acid, formaldehyde and nitric acid. SH-Salz (SH salt) was obtained from Schnurr, who developed a batch process for the synthesis of RDX in 1937-1938. based on hexamine nitrolysis. Kaffler's K-method included the addition of ammonium nitrate to the process of creating explosives. The E-method developed by Ebel turned out to be identical to the methods described above.
Explosive shells fired by the MK-108 cannon and R4M missile warhead, used as offensive weapons in the Luftwaffe fighter, used RDX as their explosive base. The reader can see the RDX formula in the picture below.
Great Britain
In the United Kingdom (Great Britain), the RDX was manufactured by the research department in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich (London) since 1933, and in the larger pilot plant built at RGPF Waltham Abbey near London in 1939. In 1939, a two-component industrial plant was designed for installation on a new 700-acre (280 ha) site, ROF Bridgwater, away from London, and RDX production began in Bridgewater at a single facility in August 1941.
ROF Bridgwater used ammonia and methanol as raw materials: methanol turned into formaldehyde, and part of the ammonia turned into nitric acid, which was concentrated on the production of RDX. The rest of the ammonia was reacted with formaldehyde to give hexamine. The hexamine plant was built by Imperial Chemical Industries. It included some features based on data obtained in the USA (USA). RDX was obtained by continuously adding hexamine and concentrated nitric acid to a cooled mixture of hexamine and nitric acid in a nitrator. The composition of RDX did not change. RDX was purified and processed as intended; recovery and reuse of methanol and nitric acid was also carried out. Hexamine nitration and RDX treatment plants were duplicated to provide some insurance against product loss due to fire, explosion, or air attack.
The United Kingdom and the British Empire fought without allies against Nazi Germany until mid-1941 and were to be self-sufficient. At that time (1941), Great Britain had the ability to produce 70 tons (71 tons - 160,000 pounds) of RDX per week; both Canada and the US were seen as customers for the supply of ammunition and explosives, including RDX. By 1942, it is estimated that the Royal Air Force had an annual requirement of 52,000 tons (53,000 tons) of RDX, most of which came from North America (Canada and the United States). The hexogen formula model is in the picture below.
Canada
Canada has long known what RDX is. In this country, another method of producing this explosive was found and used, possibly in the chemistry department of McGill University. This method was based on the reaction of paraformaldehyde and ammonium nitrate in acetic anhydride. A UK patent application was filed by Robert Walter Schissler (Pennsylvania State University) and James Hamilton Ross (McGill, Canada) in May 1942; A British patent was issued in December 1947. Gilman argues that the same production method was independently discovered by Ebel in Germany before Schissler and Ross, but this was not known to the Allies. Urban provides detailed information on the five production methods, and he refers to this method as a (German) E-method. Now there are not only more effective methods for its production, but, in fact, substances are much more powerful than RDX.
USA
In the early 1940s, the largest US explosive device manufacturers, EI Pont de Nemours & Company and Hercules, had years of experience in the production of trinitrotoluene (TNT) and did not want to experiment with new explosives. The US Army used the same view and wanted to continue using TNT. The RDX was tested by the Picatin Arsenal in 1929, and it was considered too expensive and too sensitive. The Navy has proposed continued use of ammonium picrate. On the contrary, the National Defense Research Committee (NKRR), who visited the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, believed that new explosives were needed. James B. Conant, Chair of Division B, wished to continue research in this area. Conant thus created an experimental explosives research laboratory at the Bureau of Mines, Brussels, PA, using tools from the Office of Research and Development (OSRD). The use of RDX was mainly military.
In 1941, the British Tizard mission visited the US Army and Navy departments, and part of the information provided included details of the Woolwich RDX (RDX) production method and its stabilization by mixing it with beeswax. The United Kingdom requested that the United States and Canada collectively supply 220 tons (440,000 pounds) of RDX per day. The decision was made by William P. P. Blendy, chief of the Ammunition Bureau, and it was decided to adopt the RDX for use in mines and torpedoes. Given the immediate need for RDX, the US military unit at the request of Blandy built a plant that immediately copied the equipment and process used in Woolwich. The result of this was the work on the protection of Wabash ammunition under the control of EI du Pont de Nemours & Company. At that time, the largest nitric acid plant in the world was involved in these works. The Woolwich process was expensive; for every pound of RDX, 11 pounds (5.0 kg) of strong nitric acid was needed.
Problematic method
By the beginning of 1941, the NKRR was studying new processes. The Woolwich process or direct nitration process has at least two serious drawbacks: it used a large amount of nitric acid and dissolved at least half of the formaldehyde. One mole of hexamethylenetetramine could produce no more than one mole of RDX. At least three laboratories without prior explosive experience were tasked with developing more advanced manufacturing methods for RDX; they were founded at the state universities of Cornell, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Werner Emmanuel Bachmann of Michigan has successfully developed the “blended process” by combining the Canadian process with direct nitration. The combination process required large quantities of acetic anhydride instead of nitric acid in the old British "vulvistic process." Ideally, the combination process can produce two moles of RDX from each mole of hexamethylenetetramine.
The huge production of RDX cannot continue to rely on the use of natural beeswax for desensitization. An oil-based stabilizer substitute has been developed at the Bruceton Explosives research lab.
Further production
NKRR instructed three companies to develop pilot plants. These were: Western Cartridge, EI du Pont de Nemours & Company, and Tennessee Eastman, part of Eastman Kodak. At Eastman Chemical Company (TEC), a leading manufacturer of acetic anhydride, Werner Emmanuel Bachmann has developed a continuous process to create RDX. RDX was critical to military operations, and the then-manufacturing process was too slow. In February 1942, TEC began producing small volumes of RDX at its Wexler Bend pilot plant, which led the U.S. government to allow TEC to design and build Works of Holston Ordnance Works (HOW) in June 1942. By April 1943, RDX was being produced there. At the end of 1944, the Holston plant and the Wabash ammunition plant, which used the Woolwich process, produced 25,000 short tons (23,000 tons - 50 million pounds) of composition B per month.
Alternative process
It was found that the Bachmann process for the synthesis of RDX was more efficient in terms of productivity than the method used in the United Kingdom. This later led to the production of RDX using the Bachmann process.
Total
The goal of the United Kingdom in World War II was to use a “desensitized” RDX. In the original Woolwich RDX process, RDX was phlegmatized with beeswax, but later paraffin wax was used based on work done by Bruceton. In the event that the UK was not able to get enough RDX to meet its needs, some of the shortcomings in production methods were corrected by replacing amatole, a mixture of ammonium nitrate and TNT. This information will be useful to everyone who still does not know what RDX is.