European defense industry takes note of Canadian technology

In a conference room in the front office of Paradigm Shift Technologies' north Toronto factory, chief operating officer Eugene Jamsztyk opens a small case and pulls out two heavy metal objects.

The item is a cross-sectional view of the Bushmaster gun barrel. Each one is round on one side and flat on the other, with a long groove running through the center where bullets once flew.

The outside of the gun barrel is the same. However, the contents are different. One section of her, labeled “CHROME,” is burnt and deeply scarred, with cracks showing wear caused by thousands of shots.

The other one is marked EPVD and shows only signs of wear, but it was still able to handle nearly twice as many bullets, Yamszyk said.

EPVD stands for Electromagnetic Enhanced Physical Vapor Deposition and is a patented process for coating the inside of gun barrels. It was invented by Gennady Yumshtyk, Eugene's father and Paradigm Shift's chief executive officer, sitting across from him in the company's boardroom, to replace traditional chrome plating.

“We've got a longer barrel life, better accuracy and, of course, better performance,” the CEO said.

Inventing technology and testing it are two different things. But navigating the Byzantine maze of defense procurement was another matter. And while European militaries and weapons manufacturers have expressed interest in the technology, there has so far been little attention from Ottawa, so the elder Jamsztyk said his company will remain in Canada as it wishes. He said he did not know if he would be able to do so.

Mr. Yamshtyk was born in Ukraine and received his PhD in mechanical engineering from the State Technical University in Minsk, Belarus. He immigrated to Canada in his 1980s and found work in the oil and gas industry in Alberta, where he worked on ways to increase the durability of metal tubing used in high-temperature, high-pressure environments.

While speaking at a conference in Montreal in 2001, he was approached by members of the U.S. Air Force who told him the technology could have military applications.

Thus began his transition into the defense industry. Yamshtyk moved to Toronto and filed a series of patents in Canada and the United States (some of which include his former colleague Dmitri Ivanov's name).

The inside of the gun barrel must be coated to withstand the high temperatures and pressures of the fired projectile. Not only does the coating increase the gun's durability and lifespan, but it also improves accuracy, as small cracks that accumulate over time can alter the bullet's trajectory.

“When the gun barrel fires, it's like a living, breathing organism,” he said. “Once it ignites, it expands and contracts continuously.”

It is difficult to coat the inside of any tube, including gun barrels. Traditional chrome plating involves immersing the barrel in a bath of hexavalent chromium solution, which can generate large amounts of hazardous waste. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency monitors hexavalent chromium as a pollutant, and poisoning by the chemical was the subject of a 2000 film. Erin Brockovich.

The paradigm-shifting technique involves sticking a rod of coating into the barrel, capping the end of the tube, filling it with an inert gas, and applying an electric current. The metal on the rod evaporates, coating the inside of the barrel evenly and leaving very little chemical waste.

Yamszyk said it was from this environmental perspective that the U.S. Air Force first became interested in him. However, when the Canadian and U.S. militaries jointly tested the technology, they found it lasted longer as well.

In 2016 tests using Bushmaster vehicle-mounted gun barrels, the chrome-plated cannon wore out after firing 4,500 rounds, while the EPVD-coated barrel fired 7,000 rounds, according to Yamszyk. , it was said that it only stopped when it ran out of ammunition.

Paradigm Shift has received millions of dollars in public funding over the years to develop its technology. For example, government records show the company received $1.3 million from the Department of Defense for testing in 2017, as well as two $30,000 export grants from the National Research Council to find foreign buyers. received. The company also received support through the U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovation Research Program.

But “it's been difficult to get the North American military interested in adopting new technology because it's a very conservative industry,” Yamsztyk said.

DND spokesperson Alex Tetreault confirmed that the Royal Canadian Navy had tested EPVD-coated gun barrels, but declined to comment further.

U.S. Air Force spokesman Michael Tackitt confirmed the experiment and initially said he would make someone available for an interview, but as of press time, he had not yet done so.

Yamszyk said interest in the technology is highest in Europe. In December, a committee of the European Chemicals Agency officially approved EPVD coatings as a more environmentally friendly alternative to chrome plating.

Paradigm Shift is currently working with two major European arms manufacturers and national militaries to deploy the technology. (Yamszyk declined to name the companies or countries.) Paradigm Shift could license the technology and train employees at those companies how to use it.

But what they really want to do is build a full production facility in Canada that can create jobs, Yamszyk said. To do so, he said, they need the support of the Canadian government as a buyer.

He said he could have sold the rights to the technology years ago, but “I don't want to because the purpose is different.”

He added, “Canadian gun barrel manufacturers are sending barrels to the United States for chrome plating. I want to reverse not just the barrels, but the revenue stream as well.”