It was collectively developed by aerospace engineers in Nanjing, Shanghai and Shenyang and unveiled final month within the peer-reviewed Chinese journal Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica.
Unlike typical weapons that may produce blinding flashes, intense vibrations and clouds of particles, the new gadget creates no smoke, no gentle and little vibration when fired, in keeping with the paper.
This is achieved by way of a closed-gas, energy-absorbing mechanism.
That means a capsule – containing a internet for capturing particles – can be exactly launched in direction of its goal with none dangerous jolt to the launch platform, mentioned the staff led by Yue Shuai, affiliate professor of mechanical engineering at Nanjing University of Science and Technology.
When the launcher is fired, a small cost ignites that generates high-pressure fuel which drives a piston ahead. A specifically designed weak part then breaks at a predetermined stress, releasing the projectile.
A hoop angled at 35 levels meets the projectile close to the muzzle, taking many of the kinetic vitality and vibration to bend like a flower collapsing inwards.