Why China’s ammunition factories are being turned over to robots

SCMP ^ | 01 January, 2018 | Stephen Chen

[Beagle8U]

Bricks of .22 cal LR have come down to the point of being cheap again in the lower 48.

https://www.targetsportsusa.com/aguila-super-maximum-22-long-rifle-ammo-hyper-velocity-30-grain-plated-lead-round-nose-1b222298-p-3888.aspx

These are what I use...and they kick ash at 1750 fps. Only $40 a brick with free shipping!

They have cheaper stuff for less than $20 a brick!!

[Beagle8U]

https://www.targetsportsusa.com/aguila-super-maximum-22-long-rifle-ammo-hyper-velocity-30-grain-plated-lead-round-nose-1b222298-p-3888.aspx

[BeauBo]

Ammunition factories periodically blow up - often for seemingly no reason.

A few percent drop in humidity allows a static electric spark to occur, and the only thing ever found of old Joe on the line is his belt buckle, a mile away.

There has always been an effort to minimize human exposure through mechanization/automation.

[marktwain]

Vista Outdoors (Owners of Federal and CCI ammunition brands) just upgraded both product line facilities, increasing production by 20% and modernizing the plants.

[prophetic]

Wow, I bought 2 bricks of those Aguila super maximum about 4 yrs ago for about $65/ brick and never thought I’d ever see them again or at those prices.

[Beagle8U]

The Aguila SuperExtra 22 Long Rifle Ammo 40 Grain High Velocity Plated Lead Round Nose are good deal too at...

only $23 a brick!

They are standard high vel at about 1250 fps.

[TigerLikesRooster]

This has to be moved up to higher end weapons such as missiles which military heavily relies on these days. Sophisticated weapons takes much longer time to manufacture.

[Dalberg-Acton]

I can. 7.62x39.

[familyop]

"No, never in a million years. If that happens, there will be no communist regime. The regime will quickly lose control of their country. You are talking about their single most terrifying nightmare."

So as long as most Americans are armed, China will not control the U.S.A.

Granted, there are incidents involving firearms that affect an extremely small portion of our population, but that problem can be remedied for the most part. Drug addicts should not have firearms, and police could help with that. We also need a program of public service announcements to keep firearms out of the hands of other incompetents (one example: mentally retarded individuals).

But having a large population of well informed and well trained Americans with firearms should be regarded as a necessary part of U.S. defense.

But yes, ongoing improvements in automation for arms production for U.S. Defense is a good idea. Thank you!

[Hootowl99]

“Back in the mid-’80s, I had a tour of a new munitions plant which manufactured 155mm artillery shells and cluster bomblets. It was probably 90% robotic or otherwise automated, from the production lines to the storage bunkers - including the transport shuttles that moved completed explosives into storage. Even then, it looked like a sci-fi movie set. There were relatively few people on-site to run the machines, all of whom worked behind blast barriers and viewed everything by CCTV.”

About 10 years ago, I spent a couple of days at a privately operated munitions manufacturing facility located on a federal government property. It was a time capsule from WWII in terms of the facility infrastructure but fully modernized with automated equipment.

It was really a bunker within a bunker for explosion containment. The building itself, the outer bunker, was long and narrow. Feedstocks went in one end and product out the other. Within the building was a line of individual bunker rooms, small and massively built. Each room did their steps then passed its material forward to the next room.

What got me though is that each room was setup to completely and automatically flood floor to ceiling in less than one minute. Prior to 100% automation sometime after WWII, there would have been a few workers in each room doing their tasks. They had only seconds to escape before being locked in when the room was flooded.

[NonValueAdded]

So were the Terminator movies action thrillers or documentaries?