FYI guys

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2.../cobalt_gun_barrels/

That is interesting.

Sure would have been nice to have been able to try one of these out back when I was a Grunt! I was an Anti-Tank Assault Man, but shot M60's almost as much as our 0331's. Shot the M240G's quite a bit also, later on. Oh, the good ole days...

The forming method is not new , it's how they make seamless tubing. It is however, a challenge with high temperature tough alloys ! I'd like to see the specs on the metal.

The process sounds a lot like hammer forging with the hammers being replaced with rollers.

Nice idea, but cobalt is damn expensive. At 50%, that is one spendy barrel. Nice application of exotic materials.

As Mete noted, the process is the same/similar to a standard extrusion process for seamless tubing. I worked at Western Zirconium in Utah for a couple of years and we used a 4500 ton press to make zirconium tubing for nuclear fuel rods.

The press that we had was previously used to extrude tank barrels for Nazi Germany. It still had the Nazi markings in the cast housing.

I think thats a very big typo. Cobalt would not lend itself very well to being 50% of the metals make up. I'd say more like 5%.
{Edit} No that correct 50% Cobalt alloy Holly crap!!

In cutting tools 5% cobalt changes the wear properties dramatically. We had a project a few years ago to make titanium part for a company and in production on the cnc lathe Nothing could beat a 5% cobalt screw machine length drill. It went four times longer then HSS before we had to change the tool. Carbide just would not hold up either.

Yeah, this is super-secret stuff!! We did this about 5 years ago in our shed in SD. As the article says, cut rifling hard alloys isn't really doable. C350 can be cut first and then heat treated after since shrinkage isn't an issue with smaller sections.

So...

How does one avoid the almost inevitable "cook offs" if used in current design rifles?