Terry wrote;
"Side note: the cost of AP has skyrocketed; RCS is selling barrel quantities
for $20/lb or a 20 lb container for about $500. "Sugar"
propellants are beginning to look rather attractive..."
You can blame that on a couple of factors. The current US manufacturer of AP
has a monopoly and a strong lobby presence in Washington. They are running a
power intensive, electrolytic production process with a fixed overhead and the
big cash cow contracts have all dried up. That also means the surplus stream
for amateurs to access has also dried up. There is actually one other producer
of AP in North America but is only accessible by their immediate supplier base.
It's very tightly controlled.
The US AP manufacturer is attempting to lobby Washington to legislate mandatory
use of their product in any US government contracts. There are several
manufacturers of AP globally and the US manufacturer is basically attempting to
block their access to the US market. Our Canadian operation has not been
impacted by this but we manufacture most of our US commercial and military SRMs
here in the US.
Before I moved to the US, I commissioned a study with the University of Toronto
to design and determine the feasibility of building an AP plant in Canada to
supply AP to ourselves and another Canadian rocket motor manufacturer
initially. There is an abundance of surplus electrolytic capacity and precursor
material there. In fact, that's the major source of US precursor supply.
Anthony J. Cesaroni
President/CEO
Cesaroni Technology/Cesaroni Aerospace
http://www.cesaronitech.com/
(941) 360-3100 x101 Sarasota
(905) 887-2370 x222 Toronto
-----Original Message-----
From: arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of
Terry McCreary
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2020 8:32 AM
To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AR] Re: Introduction / getting started with APCP
I don't recall offhand whether there are any non-isocyanate curatives for HTPB
but even if there are, availability to amateurs is likely to be low or
nonexistent.
Chris Short carries something called ACME curative -- I've never used it and
don't know squat about it -- and PAPI 94; I have used the latter with good
results.
RCS sells E744; it's quite inexpensive, good pot life, and cures in a couple of
days at room temperature. For an overnight cure it can be allowed to gel at
room temp, then warmed in a heated curing container at about 100-110F. NOT
indoors!
https://www.rocketmotorparts.com/Modified_MDI_Isocyanate_Curative/p1577809_7835874.aspx
Regardless of what you buy, don't get more curative than you can use within a
few months, as isocyanates don't age well.
Side note: the cost of AP has skyrocketed; RCS is selling barrel quantities for
$20/lb or a 20 lb container for about $500. "Sugar"
propellants are beginning to look rather attractive...
Best -- Terry
