Original Date: 09/15/1997
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Tooele Army Depot (TEAD) was faced with a contract for the Marine Corps which required X-Ray screening of 40mm linked round (belted) cartridges. The plan required screening of one million rounds of ammunition per year with the capability to maintain sufficient quantities to facilitate training needs. This screening was necessary to check each round for proper propellant fill and closure cap installation.

In the past, TEAD performed X-Ray imaging on a single round basis, but never with the round still connected in the belt and never to the volume expected of the new contract. The ammunition had to be manually fed into the fixed placement imaging receiver. The new process allows automated feeding of linked cartridges with improved imaging and the added advantage of recording images on video cassette tape. The new system is an APE 2223, Low/High Energy Real Time X-Ray Imaging System, APE 2248, 320kV Mobile Industrial X-Ray System, APE 2263, Integrated Robot and Conveyor System, and APE 2264, Transportable Walk-in X-Ray Enclosure. This equipment is also supplied with a Test Kit which consists of 40mm cartridges with known failing devices belted into the kit to be used as a correlation standard. The system allows the automated X-Ray imaging of linked belts of M430 or M383 cartridges on a continuous basis without de-linking individual rounds.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.