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NATO EPVAT testing is one of the three recognized classes of procedures used in the world to control the safety and quality of firearms ammunition. Beside this, there are also the ''
Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of another ...
'' (C.I.P.) class of procedures and the
Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI, pronounced "Sammy") is an association of American manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and components. SAAMI is an accredited standards developer that publishes several Amer ...
(SAAMI) class of procedures. EPVAT Testing is described in
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documents by
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...
, more precisely by the AC/225 Army Armaments Group (NAAG). EPVAT is an abbreviation for "Electronic Pressure Velocity and Action Time". Action Time here means the (short amount of) time required between the ignition of the primer and the projectile leaving the barrel. This is a comprehensive procedure for testing ammunition using state-of-the-art instruments and computers. The procedure itself is described in NATO document AC/225 (Com. III/SC.1)D/200. Unlike the C.I.P. procedures aiming only at the user's safety, the NATO procedures for ammunition testing also includes comprehensive functional quality testing in relation with the intended use. That is, not only the soldier's safety is looked at, but also his capacity to incapacitate the enemy. As a result, for every ammunition order by NATO, a complete acceptance approval on both safety and functionality is performed by both NATO and the relevant ammunition manufacturers in a contradictory fashion. For this, a highly accurate and indisputable protocol has been defined by NATO experts using a system of reference cartridges. The civilian organisations C.I.P. and SAAMI use less comprehensive test procedures than NATO, but NATO test centres have the advantage that only a few chamberings are in military use. The C.I.P. and SAAMI proof houses must be capable of testing hundreds of different chamberings requiring many different test barrels, etc..


NATO Reference cartridges system

In this system, the ammunition manufacturers, in close cooperation with NATO, have set aside a batch (also termed "lot") of ammunition they consider to be of very good quality and representative of ammunition that should be delivered to the armies in the following years. This batch is maintained at approved NATO test centres and distributed to the manufacturers involved. When a new batch (lot) is delivered, a set of 20 reference cartridges are fired to see how they behave with the local equipment and with the current atmospheric conditions. Results are then compared to the reference values, as maintained by NATO and correctors (delta values) are computed. Then, the current batch (lot) of ammunition is fired and the correctors are applied on the measured value giving a result "comparable" to the reference itself. This test is performed under normal conditions at , but also by simulating cold polar or hot
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conditions using special cooling equipment and
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s to cool or heat the ammunition under test to the appropriate levels of humidity and temperatures required.


Proofing

The minimum proof and performance requirements for small arms ammunition of NATO calibres are covered in
STANAG In NATO, a standardization agreement (STANAG, redundantly: STANAG agreement) defines processes, procedures, terms, and conditions for common military or technical procedures or equipment between the member countries of the alliance. Each NATO st ...
s as follows: * 5.56 mm. STANAG 4172 and NATO Manual of Proof and Inspection AC/225 (LG/3-SG/1) D/8. * 7.62 mm. STANAG 2310 and NATO Manual of Proof and Inspection AC/225 (LG/3-SG/1) D/9. * 9 mm. STANAG 4090 and NATO Manual of Proof and Inspection AC/225 (P111-SP1) D/170(REV). * 12.7 mm. STANAG 4383 and NATO Manual of Proof and Inspection AC/225 (LG/3-SG/1) D/11. Each weapon and component considered vulnerable to the effects of a rapid change in pressure, for example barrels, breech blocks and bolts, will be tested by firing one dry round at a corrected minimum of 25% over pressure and one oiled round at a corrected minimum of 25% over pressure. 25% over pressure means 25% in excess of the Service Pressure (Pmax). The Service Pressure is defined as the mean pressure generated by the Service Cartridge at a temperature of . Such a high pressure proof is conducted with both the weapon and ammunition conditioned to an ambient temperature of . Each weapon will be individually tested, from an ammunition lot that produces a minimum corrected mean chamber pressure in accordance with the table below: ''The above proof round pressure requirements for the 9 mm and 12.7 mm rounds established by the
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are higher than the current (2008) C.I.P. proof round pressure requirement legislation for the civilian equivalent 9mm Parabellum (C.I.P. Pmax rating 235 MPA / (34,083 psi) and
.50 Browning The .50 Browning Machine Gun (.50 BMG, 12.7×99mm NATO and designated as the 50 Browning by the C.I.P.) is a caliber cartridge developed for the M2 Browning heavy machine gun in the late 1910s, entering official service in 1921. Under STANA ...
(C.I.P. Pmax rating 370 MPA / (53,663 psi) rounds. The 9×19mm NATO and 12.7×99mm NATO rounds can be regarded as overpressure ammunition'' Unlike the civilian C.I.P. test procedures NATO EPVAT testing procedures for the "NATO chamberings" require the pressure sensor or transducer to be mounted ahead of the case mouth. The advantage of this mounting position is that there is no need to drill the cartridge case to mount the transducer. Drilling prior to firing is always a time-consuming process (fast quality control and feedback to production is essential during the ammunition manufacturing process). The disadvantage of this mount is that the pressure rises much faster than in a drilled cartridge case. This causes high frequency oscillations of the pressure sensor (approx 200 kHz for a Kistler 6215 transducer) and this requires electronic filtering with the drawback that filtering also affects the lower harmonics where a peak is found causing a slight error in the measurement. This slight error is not always well mastered and this causes a lot of discussion about the filter order, cutoff frequency and its type ( Bessel or
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). Since NATO EPVAT uses technically differing proof test standards than SAAMI and C.I.P. do, EPVAT pressures cannot be directly compared with SAAMI and C.I.P. pressures.


See also

*
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...
* NATO cartridge *
Small arms ammunition pressure testing Small arms ammunition pressure testing is used to establish standards for maximum average peak pressures of chamberings, as well as determining the safety of particular loads for the purposes of new load development. In metallic cartridges, peak ...
* Overpressure ammunition * CIP, a European standardization organization for firearm cartridges *
SAAMI The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI, pronounced "Sammy") is an association of American manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and components. SAAMI is an accredited standards developer that publishes several America ...
, an American standardization organization for firearm cartridges *
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, a German firearms test institute *
Wildcat cartridge A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom cartridge for which ammunition and/or firearms are not mass-produced. These cartridges are often created in order to optimize a certain performance characteristic (such as the power, si ...


References

;Notes {{Reflist ;Bibliography
Proof of Ordnance, Munitions, Armour and Explosives, Ministry of Defence Defence Standard 05-101 Part 1 – Requirements (Archived)Proof of Ordnance, Munitions, Armour and Explosives, Ministry of Defence Defence Standard 05-101 Part 2 – Guidance (Archived)

Proof of Ordnance, Munitions, Armour and Explosives, Ministry of Defence Defence Standard 05-101 Part 3 – Statistical Methods for Proof (Archived)

NATO Small Arms Ammunition Interchangeability via Direct Evidence Testing (Archived)

C.I.P. decisions, texts and tables CD-ROM version download (ZIP and RAR format)
(Archived)
NATO STANDARD AEP-97 MULTI-CALIBRE MANUAL OF PROOF AND INSPECTION (M-CMOPI) FOR NATO SMALL ARMS AMMUNITION VOLUME 8 NATO REFERENCE AMMUNITION Edition A Version 1 (from page 261)Archived


External links



(Archived)
Thales brochure on 5.56mm F1 ball ammunition conforming to the design parameters of the NATO STANAG 4172 and tested with Kistler 6215 transducers at different temperatures
(Archived)
THE ANALYSIS OF APPLICATION AND REQUIREMENTS SMALL CALIBER REFERENCE AMMUNITION AND POLISH ACHIEVEMENT IN THE FIELD OF WORKING OUT NATIONAL REFERENCE AMMUNITIONArchivedNATO Small Arms Ammunition Interchangeability via Direct Evidence Testing 25 May 2011 (Archived)Pressure and accuracy test barrels for ammunition testing to SAAMI, CIP or NATO standardArchived
Ammunition Firearms Firearm safety NATO standardisation