I'd be interested if you could find out anything. I remember reading a magazine article on their AR design years ago (I think I still have it somewhere), and I was always curious if the gun could live up to their claims.
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this might be interesting
Because there is no gas port like a conventional DI barrel. Armstech uses a muzzle-mounted gas trap to collect gas and send it back to the carrier. No gas port -- no erosion. Think zero dwell time but larger trap volume to collect the required amount of gas. From this point on, they are DI in operation, this is not a piston system.
I would suspect that these may be a bit more ammo sensitive. I would guess they would run fine with NATO-spec and upper end SAAMI-spec ammo, but would probably suffer shortstroking with low powered SAAMI ammo, but that's just conjecture on my part.
I do share your skepticism about the throat area, but Armstech attributes their longevity to the special SS alloy used in their barrels. They claim it's much better against erosion than regular chromed CM steel. I've never seen them publish the alloy specs, but they aren't the first manufacturer to withold mfg/design info.
The other interesting thing is, since the gas is trapped at the muzzle, the timing of bolt unlocking is delayed compared to similar length conventional barrels, i.e., their SBR, which features a 9.5" barrel would have the same gas trap pressure as a conventional mid-length and their UBR 14.5" has less pressure than a conventional rifle system. The benefit of this is it's supposedly much easier on bolts and the extraction cycle than conventional SBRs and 14.5" carbines.
Regarding their business, I have no idea who their customer base is, but looking at what they offer, it makes the mind wonder. Maybe it's mostly FMS, but they have been around for many years, this isn't some recent fly-by-night fad. That's not saying their claims are all legit, but they've had this design for years and they've been selling it for years.
The only thing I recall about these guys is the claim that their system "cools the bullet" and their gun is in use with SF.
I'd like to see their claim of their system "cooling the bullet". Please post it.
My recollection was that with the gas trap being located at the muzzle, less carbon was delivered through the tube to the carrier. Rather it was ejected out the muzzle. Their claim wasn't that the gun ran clean, but that it ran cleaner than conventional DI systems. Their may have been claims that the agsses were cooler at this point, but I can't recollect for sure, and even if this claim were true, I'm not sure what difference it would make. Maybe if you run a can this matters, I don't know.
Here you go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq3_VWohtOU
While I can make no claims about their quality, ArmsTech has been around since at least the early '90s. I remember articles about their Interdiction rifle, a sniper conversion of the Browning BAR semi-auto in .300 Win Mag. These certainly looked like they had more thought put into them than the recent FNAR.