Explosive hydroforming of spherical tanks - video

[Toolmaker51]

I have a picture somewhere of set up to form big domes of 1/2" or so steel, 6' or 8' diameter. There is a female depression in large concrete block, the sheet laid over, and explosive charge suspended barely over it. Simple as that.

[Jon]

[WmRMeyers]

Used to do an explosive forming activity in my Industrial Technology classes. Until we had to stop because they would not allow .22 caliber blanks at school.

I read about it in the book they had for my machine shop class, but they didn't do any of that at my school. Darn it!


Gotta admit I'm pretty fond of explosions. That was one of the fun things about being a photographer for the USAF in my late teens and early 20's. It's hard to do stuff like we did when I was at Eglin AFB on your own dime. :[

Bill

[marksbug]

Im at elgin afb( shalimar)....lotsa neet stuff still going on there.. I remember when I was a kid(teen there) dad was flying black birds outa hurlburt, our neibor was the camera guy on them.he said I could put a penny in the drive way ata spicific time for 5 min or so with the day aimed up and I would never see the plane he was on when he looked at it and he told me the date on it....I never saw the plane..and yes the date was right. and yet we cant find Indonesia/mlasian plane in the ocean...40 years lator hey I wonder if this is how my vw was made!!

[Hoosiersmoker]

I love that the plates were dull until the explosion then they're all shiny!

[marksbug]

yup, blows all the dust & weld slag right off.

[WmRMeyers]

yup, blows all the dust & weld slag right off.

Bet it removes quite a bit of the mill scale, too. Naturally, I will not be allowed to do this in my home shop.

[WmRMeyers]

Im at elgin afb( shalimar)....lotsa neet stuff still going on there.. I remember when I was a kid(teen there) dad was flying black birds outa hurlburt, our neibor was the camera guy on them.he said I could put a penny in the drive way ata spicific time for 5 min or so with the day aimed up and I would never see the plane he was on when he looked at it and he told me the date on it....I never saw the plane..and yes the date was right. and yet we cant find Indonesia/mlasian plane in the ocean...40 years lator hey I wonder if this is how my vw was made!!

The plane in Malaysia wound up underwater, and may not have been visible to one of our satellites when it went down. Could be a number of reasons for that. They might have been tasked to look at something else, might not have been positioned to see the event, might have been downloading photos they'd already gotten. and probably others I can't think of off-hand. I didn't do that kind of work myself, but for a time worked right next door to folks who did with RF-4C recon aircraft. Back then, they had to load film in a camera, put it on the plane, fly the plane to the area where they wanted photos, make a run over the area (sometimes getting shot at while doing so) then fly back to base. Land, unload the camera, unload the film, and process it, then have the analysts look at the film, and see what they saw, and report on it. The newer stuff is better and faster, but still, you have to have a platform where you need it, looking at the right spot when you need it. That isn't always possible. And not all of it that is there has the resolution needed to read the date off a penny. You can get satellite imagery from a French company, name of which escapes me, with 1-meter resolution fairly cheaply. If you want to be able to read that penny, you need a much more expensive class of satellite. I don't have any real good idea of what's available now, as I've been retired for nearly 25 years, and I was out of the photo field for a dozen years before I retired, though I was working satellites that dozen years. They were communications satellites, not reconnaissance. I know that the satellites we were using when I was active duty had been replaced once while I was still in the field, and I expect they've been replaced at least once since then. Also digital photography has grown and matured quite a bit since then, too. When I got out of the photo field in 1985, about the cheapest digital camera you could get would cost about $10,000. Currently you can buy a better digital camera than that for about $10, now. What you can get for $10,000 now is fantastic! And way out of my budget range.

Bill

[Toolmaker51]

WmRMeyers; that background tells me you may have familiarity with orbital digital recorders [inc photography] via magnetic tape.
Very best, a reel to reel running 1" materials from TEAC or BASF. One reel literally ran inside the other taking up, then ran in reverse over a download station. Surveillance, in-flight, satellites, Space Shuttle etc for NASA and at least one French company. Chassis, motors, electronics all finished one by one in Anaheim CA. Nicest factory ever; formerly home of JBL Speakers, adding a fabulous cafeteria [lol almost everyone ate in-plant], linoleum floors, lots of clean rooms, large indoor pool, gym, even sufficient parking, zero liberal nonsense Security up the wazoo. A very modest HMTer worked there, rumor has it, loving every minute.
One series of public photos is known worldwide, the 100's of burning oil wells set by Iraqi Republican Guard fleeing Kuwait.

[kickinback]

I love that the plates were dull until the explosion then they're all shiny!

That’s the water displaced from the blast running down the sides