How many powder manufactures are located in the US?
- Thread starter Cassidy
- Start date
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
No fireworks made here either.
St marks in florida is the only current one i know of
St marks in florida is the only current one i know of
St, Marks Florida. It's the onetime Olin Corp plant, now part of General Dynamics. It makes double-based ball powders only or those (Such as Hodgdon Hybrid 100V and some Alliant types) using the same slurry / distillation based process.
All Winchester and Hodgdon ball / 'spherical' grades are supplied by St. Marks as are nearly all propellants used in US military smallarms ammo, the US government having decided way back in the 1950s with 7.62 adoption that this type would be the norm, sniper and special purpose ammo aside.
Ramshot / Accurate ball powder comes from PB Clermont in Belgium. Hodgdon extruded grades and IMR-8208 XBR from Thales / ADI in Mulwala, NSW, Australia. Other than 8208 XBR, IMR extruded rifle powders are also made by a General Dynamics Corp owned plant in Valleyfield, Ontario, Canada. (Hodgdon owns the IMR brand name and marketing rights IIRC.) This plant also makes some Accurate brand extruded numbers. All Vihtavuori powders come from the town of that name in Finland.
Alliant 'Reloder' extruded grades were all made by Bofors in Sweden until a few years ago, but some recent additions such as Re17 and Re33 are sourced from Nitrochemie Wimmins AG in Switzerland. Alliant has also started using spherical grades from St. Marks.
Health & Safety and the EPA is the primary reason that all extruded powders are made outside of the USA. Ball types manufacture uses non-inflammable / explosive slurries with material piped between processes until the little balls are distilled out at a late stage for chemical treatments and grading. This method also allows old out of date propellants to be recycled alongside fresh ingredients reducing costs.
Extruded powders start by dissolving cellulose in powerful acids, a dangerous exothermic process and whose products are immediately highly explosive and inflammable, then further inherently dangerous processes and solvents are used to convert 'guncotton' into usable propellants. Many of the materials used are corrosive and toxic, likewise creating waste and pollution issues that have to be dealt with nowadays, not just dumped into waste ground or rivers as would once have been done.
All this makes the manufacture of this type inherently riskier which in this day and age is also much more expensive. A guy in the handloading powder business told me years ago that the EPA hadn't banned extruded powder manufacture, but its regulations were so onerous that any such produced in the country would be so expensive, nobody would buy them.
All Winchester and Hodgdon ball / 'spherical' grades are supplied by St. Marks as are nearly all propellants used in US military smallarms ammo, the US government having decided way back in the 1950s with 7.62 adoption that this type would be the norm, sniper and special purpose ammo aside.
Ramshot / Accurate ball powder comes from PB Clermont in Belgium. Hodgdon extruded grades and IMR-8208 XBR from Thales / ADI in Mulwala, NSW, Australia. Other than 8208 XBR, IMR extruded rifle powders are also made by a General Dynamics Corp owned plant in Valleyfield, Ontario, Canada. (Hodgdon owns the IMR brand name and marketing rights IIRC.) This plant also makes some Accurate brand extruded numbers. All Vihtavuori powders come from the town of that name in Finland.
Alliant 'Reloder' extruded grades were all made by Bofors in Sweden until a few years ago, but some recent additions such as Re17 and Re33 are sourced from Nitrochemie Wimmins AG in Switzerland. Alliant has also started using spherical grades from St. Marks.
Health & Safety and the EPA is the primary reason that all extruded powders are made outside of the USA. Ball types manufacture uses non-inflammable / explosive slurries with material piped between processes until the little balls are distilled out at a late stage for chemical treatments and grading. This method also allows old out of date propellants to be recycled alongside fresh ingredients reducing costs.
Extruded powders start by dissolving cellulose in powerful acids, a dangerous exothermic process and whose products are immediately highly explosive and inflammable, then further inherently dangerous processes and solvents are used to convert 'guncotton' into usable propellants. Many of the materials used are corrosive and toxic, likewise creating waste and pollution issues that have to be dealt with nowadays, not just dumped into waste ground or rivers as would once have been done.
All this makes the manufacture of this type inherently riskier which in this day and age is also much more expensive. A guy in the handloading powder business told me years ago that the EPA hadn't banned extruded powder manufacture, but its regulations were so onerous that any such produced in the country would be so expensive, nobody would buy them.
Look for the MSDS on the powder at Alliant, Hodgdon and others for the manufacturer. http://www.hodgdon.com/msds.html
Hmm Health & Safety and the EPA in US? is any worse than regulations in Switzerland , Sweden ,Finland,Norway,Germany ? I wouldn't bet on it. Health , Safety an enviromental regulations in much of EU are extremely high.
There are other reasons revolving around 'outsourcing production', that make US even tough it largest firearms market, manufacture less guns,optics,ammo,powder than Europe ,that many here believe is gun free zone like UK.
There are other reasons revolving around 'outsourcing production', that make US even tough it largest firearms market, manufacture less guns,optics,ammo,powder than Europe ,that many here believe is gun free zone like UK.
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I'd say the facts speak for themselves. Extruded propellants are widely manufactured in Europe still, although many older plants have closed over the last 20-30 years. None at all are manufactured in the USA since the DuPont Corporation firstly moved propellant production to Canada then later sold that operation. No doubt, the American military's decision to switch to ball propellants was a major influence here as military demand is the largest single component of many explosive manufacturers' business. Nevertheless, the US market for sporting ammunition and her industry's manufacturing outputs probably exceeds all of that of Europe combined.
Yes, I know Europe has high safety and environmental standards - I live in it, and here in the UK we have not manufactured propellants since the ICI Nobel plant in Scotland closed in the late 1980s or early 1990s. However, there is a big difference between having exacting regulations and having such that are so onerous that there might as well be a complete ban which is what my contacts in the American handloading powders business have told me about the EPA's attitudes to manufacturing this (extruded) form.
One area where the EC is becoming more restrictive than the US is fast appearing though. That is the EC REACH programme which is steadily evaluating every chemical used and identifying risks to human health, then legally forcing their replacements with safer alternatives.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_en.htm
I'm told that some traditional chemical burning rate deterrents and other such behaviour modifiers long used in smallarms propellants are deemed to be in the dangerous category, so many long established powders are now living on borrowed time. A little commented on element of the blurb about the new IMR Enduron powders is that they are 'environmentally friendly'. It actually goes a bit further than that as many existing powders will not be allowed to be sold in EC countries in a very few years time, nor will ammunition loaded with them. General Dynamics / IMR is getting itself geared up to this challenge with its new products. Once the new regulations start to apply no older long established IMR grades will be compliant, that also applying to many other makes. I don't know how this affects many existing European manufacturers other than Nitrochemie whose powders are already compliant, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if this doesn't sound the death knell for some as there is substantially more capacity than demand for powders, given the lack of wartime requirements, but western governments have long since stopped worrying about that.
So far at any rate, there seems to be no US equivalent to REACH in this field, so many older propellants will continue to be sold in this market, likewise loaded ammunition.
One thing people overlook countries with strong ammo and powder manufacture are more often than not 'Neutral'(as not aligned with NATO or others) and ammo&powder plants are are objects to national security , and are often state owned(Nammo -Norway Finland) at least to large degree. I have been to some plants and they actually have machines ready for war time production that are standing idle now. So its far from Health and Safety dictated issue. UK doesn't count as it sent much of its industry in to scrapheap thanks to Thatcher on much the same path as US sent its manufacturing to far east.
Here in Seattle, you can't get the FFL to manufacture ammo components within the city limits.
While the Finnish government has retained a majority stake in the Patria armaments group which includes Nammo, it was willing to see Vihtavuori Oy sold to the private sector French owned Eurenco group some years ago. There was obviously no government 'golden share' or other guarantee of continued operation as a strategic industry as Eurenco set about closing the facility in 2013 having put it up for sale and failed to find a buyer.
I'm intrigued about the real story behind Nammo stepping at the last moment to rescue Vihtavuori and if any Finnish government pressure was applied, or whether it was just too good a deal for Nammo to buy back its old partner presumably at a huge discount over what it had been sold for a few years earlier (at a time when the western world's consumption of smallarms ammunition was running at high levels thanks to the Middle East conflicts).
Same in most of Europe .even for small ammo manufacturing 300 and 500m are often used as distances to nearest home etc.
Lapua plant for example is somewhere in the woods and powder storage considerable distance away , reloading machines only have minute amounts of powder in the hopper and air tube like that one used in banks and post offices supplys powder kilo at the time.
Nammo is largest owners are Norway & Finnland . VV powders were not the only ones used in Lapua ammo ,Bofors being used a lot. From what i was told while visiting the factory reloading powders and factory ammo powders are more often than not different as ammo manufacturing has some requirements not relevant to reloaders.
By the way did you know that Finnish army 7.62x39 brass is reloaded for the militiary.
'Western' armies are shrinking at break neck speed aside from US military, their ammo consumption is not that great. Everyone else in middle east is using eastern block surplus and production .
Lapua plant for example is somewhere in the woods and powder storage considerable distance away , reloading machines only have minute amounts of powder in the hopper and air tube like that one used in banks and post offices supplys powder kilo at the time.
Nammo is largest owners are Norway & Finnland . VV powders were not the only ones used in Lapua ammo ,Bofors being used a lot. From what i was told while visiting the factory reloading powders and factory ammo powders are more often than not different as ammo manufacturing has some requirements not relevant to reloaders.
By the way did you know that Finnish army 7.62x39 brass is reloaded for the militiary.
'Western' armies are shrinking at break neck speed aside from US military, their ammo consumption is not that great. Everyone else in middle east is using eastern block surplus and production .
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Bartolotta makes fireworks in Wales WI. they have blow up every now and then too.
Just to point out Norway and Switzerland are not in the EU so EU regs might not apply
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