This invention relates to a combustible substitute for previously formulated gunpowder based compositions and other combustible formulations useful for propellent and other pyro-technic, explosive and the like kinds of applications.
The previous need for various formulations for use as gunpowder or propellents or explosive compositions has produced a wide variety of compositions, often utilizing basic well known gunpowder constituents as well as many materials of a more exotic nature. Even with the extensive work done over the years in the area of ammunition, explosives and propellents, few compositions have successfully achieved utility for several applications and none has successfully replaced the basic ingredients of well known gunpowder formulations for general ammunition use.
Many combustible compositions having utility as gunpowders, explosives, propellents or other pyrotechnic uses, employ inorganic nitrates, including ammonium nitrate, as the oxidizer portion of the composition singly or sometimes in combination with other oxidizers. In particular ammonium and potassium nitrates are employed as preferred oxidizers in many pyrotechnic formulations due to their low cost and the widespread availability of the materials. Great care however, must be exercised in compounding formulations containing inorganic nitrates to avoid contact with organic or other easily oxidizable materials since the flamability and potential explosive characteristic of the resultant materials has to be carefully evaluated for safety reasons. It has, however, always been desirable to obtain pyrotechnic compositions that are safe handling and yet tend to burn predictably and yet completely and therefore efficiently with little ash or residue. This objective has been difficult to obtain in combination with safe handling due to the powerful and often unpredictable oxidizer activity of the inorganic nitrates.