CONTOURED THICKNESS BLANK FOR AMMUNITION CARTRIDGES

摘要

An austenitic stainless steel ammunition cartridge (12) includes an outer region (16) and a base, wherein the outer region (16) is about 50% - 80% of the thickness of the base, which serves to minimize the sidewall ironing required to form the cartridge. The cartridge blank (10) can be formed by spin forming, compression forming, grinding, or a combination thereof. Tooling (76) to form the blank (10) can include at least a pair of blocks (80) and inserts (78), at least one insert defining a centrally positioned aperture (82).