US Army Invents New Heavy Barrel for M4

[xdman]

I don't know if invent would be the proper way to describe this, since plenty of manufactures flute their barrels.

"
As reported by TechLink two small arms engineers at the U.S. Army’s CCDC Armaments Center have invented a new M4A1 barrel for extended cyclical fires.
On July 7th 2020 the Army was granted a 15-year design patent, which is now available for license to companies that are interested in manufacturing the barrel.
The new AR barrel features spiral fluting to aid in cooling and decrease weight. The designers state that the new barrel dramatically reduces the risk of ammunition cook-off by cooling faster than the current M4A1 barrel.
“(The M4A1) allows us to fire a better suppressing fire,” Lt. Col. Terry Russell told the Army Times in 2015. “At some point, a barrel is going to bend. It could be solid steel, but as soon as you reach a certain heat point it’s going to do some damage to the barrel. … But (the improved barrel) would have helped out to a certain degree.”
In April, a 20-year utility patent was granted for the new barrel."

 

[BangBang]

Nice. Some very close spiral fluting.

 

[ACIinventor]

Interesting that after the Rutherford County, TN government extorted me to the point of forcing an auction of my property in a storage unit, including digital files containing proprietary information, that I see another of my inventions being produced by others. Yes, the design patent (spiral flutes) works with the proprietary manufacturing process awarded in the utility patent. How would I know that a novel manufacturing process is involved? Simple. I'm the actual inventor. Under Republican governments at the local, state, and national levels patent theft has run f_cking wild! Ward W. Brien at Sniper Tools Design and Ronnie Barrett at Barrett Firearms are going to pay for their insolence.

 

[ACIinventor]

Everybody take a close look and see if the exterior spiral fluting corresponds to the internal rifling. There is a reason for this arrangement. The Army hasn't disclosed the specifics about the utility patent and I'm not going reveal my concept either. I will say this. They are correct that this new barrel can handle more cyclical fire than older versions. Heat dissipation does play a role but that's not the only thing going on, I can assure you!

 

[bigx5murf]

I've wondered why more haven't adopted POF's barrel nut heatsink approach.

 

[TacticalPirate]

My understanding is that a typical M4 barrel will overheat at around the 700 round mark in continuous full auto belt fed fire, what's the approximate threshold of this supposed upgrade?

 

[Annihilator]

I don't know if invent would be the proper way to describe this, since plenty of manufactures flute their barrels.

View attachment 8096

"
As reported by TechLink two small arms engineers at the U.S. Army’s CCDC Armaments Center have invented a new M4A1 barrel for extended cyclical fires.
On July 7th 2020 the Army was granted a 15-year design patent, which is now available for license to companies that are interested in manufacturing the barrel.
The new AR barrel features spiral fluting to aid in cooling and decrease weight. The designers state that the new barrel dramatically reduces the risk of ammunition cook-off by cooling faster than the current M4A1 barrel.
“(The M4A1) allows us to fire a better suppressing fire,” Lt. Col. Terry Russell told the Army Times in 2015. “At some point, a barrel is going to bend. It could be solid steel, but as soon as you reach a certain heat point it’s going to do some damage to the barrel. … But (the improved barrel) would have helped out to a certain degree.”
In April, a 20-year utility patent was granted for the new barrel."

View attachment 8097

View attachment 8098

My brother has an older Bushmaster AR, M4, but it’s barrel has the flutes going from front to back, we were told it was a Navy AR, not sure what this meant, but I never have seen another Bushmaster like this, yes, it came from factory like this.

 

[TacticalPirate]

My brother has an older Bushmaster AR, M4, but it’s barrel has the flutes going from front to back, we were told it was a Navy AR, not sure what this meant, but I never have seen another Bushmaster like this, yes, it came from factory like this.

Maybe I'm over thinking it, but I would think out at sea you need a more corrosive resistant barrel, and have the added benefit of sea breeze helping to cool the barrel.

 

[Annihilator]

Maybe I'm over thinking it, but I would think out at sea you need a more corrosive resistant barrel, and have the added benefit of sea breeze helping to cool the barrel.

Got me, it was bought new, its been really hard for us to find information on it, Bushmaster was no help at all.