L-006 Ed1 The NIMIC coordinated characterization programme
This document is the first product of a programme to collate data on the physical and chemical properties of new explosive ingredients that is normally dispersed throughout many papers, journals and laboratory notebooks. It has been undertaken at the request of NIMIC users and the NIMIC Steering Committee.
There has been an obvious need for such a programme for some time, but few organisations at present can afford to invest the resources required to collect, organise and present up-todate data on the properties of new energetic molecules. However, NIMIC has been set up to attempt to meet such needs and prevent the duplication of effort of separate establishments, departments and individuals constructing their own databases. This document is perhaps especially required now, as there has been a surfeit of publications announcing the synthesis and virtues of new explosives, plasticisers and binders. Because of the ongoing nature of research and the continual discovery of new potentially useful compounds, methods for keeping this document as up-to-date as possible have been devised and are a central part of the programme.
The ingredients covered in the data sheets are either those that are known to be under consideration for transition from laboratory synthesis to pilot scale production or materials that NIMIC users have specifically requested to be included. As further additions to this compendium are made, additional compounds may be included.
The characteristics covered are those that are relevant to users and potential users of these ingredients. Particularly important to the aim of this programme is the references to all of the sources of the data used, as the source documents often contain necessary interpretation of the raw data that is not always possible in a data sheet.
The value of this document is clearly dependent on the data that is available. In the interest of making this first edition available for use and comment, the editor is aware that some data has been overlooked or omitted. In particular, studies of molecular structures have been referred to but no data has been included in this edition. However, for future editions of this compendium to be of greater value, more data is required. In particular data from documents that include ingredient characteristics, but from which no data has been made available because the document includes other information making it classified or commercially sensitive. The editor is also aware that ingredient characteristics are often measured but never subsequently published. To minimise the effort needed by contributors to this programme, data can be received in any format (including phone conversations). All sources of data will be attributed and referenced in the data sheets. Supplying data for this document is of course an opportunity for manufacturers and suppliers to publicise the benefits of their materials to potential users.
The data that is necessary for these data sheets to be useful is not data which can normally be considered classified (unless there are undesirable properties that producers may want to remain hidden). It is hoped that the energetic materials community see the value of cooperating in this programme and thus mutually benefiting from as complete characterization as possible of materials that may be used.
NIMIC has received requests for information on formulations for IM. It has been decided however that it will be more useful to have a separate compendium of recent formulations. This compendium is in preparation and will be published shortly. Some data from explosive and propellant formulations has been included in this volume, but only where particular properties of the formulation can be attributed to an ingredient e.g. the high burning rate of GAP containing formulations.
