It’s What’s Inside the Gun that Counts
OutdoorHub 04.02.14
American Built Arms Company, the firearm’s industry’s best kept secret, builds American-made weapon components for today’s leading performance weapon systems
For several leading firearm companies, their success lies not in the brand name, the photogenic weapon or the marketing dollars spent on publicizing their products, but on a behind-the-scene company specializing in producing unparalleled firearms components. American Built Arms Company (A*B Arms) is that company, founded on the principle that a firearm’s true success lies in its ability to perform perfectly at all times, in all conditions. One failed function, one jam, one snapped pin can mean the end of a day of family fun on the range, a missed game shot, the end of a serious competition or a hard fought battle to stay alive.
Many machine companies, small and large, produce the internal parts for mainstream firearm manufacturers in America today. These companies provide not only the firearm industry with CNC parts, but also for the aerospace, automotive and medical industries. Keeping their machines running keeps Americans employed. That’s a great concept and one that American Built Arms Company takes a step further. Combining the prolific manufacturing resources and work ethics of the south-eastern Pennsylvania area, A*B Arms uses precision, aerospace capable, Swiss CNC machines to produce a variety of internal firearm components to exacting measurements and held to the highest standards of excellence.
Most firearms manufacturers today employ CNC machines to produce the internal metal parts. Traditionally, the Swiss CNC machining process is used only to produce long straight parts with extremely tight tolerances such as firing and cam pins. Bolts are manufactured on conventional CNC machines in a complex multi-step process. Parts and the bolts need to be fitted by hand, polished, heat treated, finished and QC’d before being put into a weapon system or sold separately. Not so at A*B Arms.
At A*B Arms a potential or existing client brings their concept, prints and specifications for a part. For example, the client is looking to have a bolt made; a complex, labor intensive and critical element to the success or failure of a firearm. A*B Arms starts the entire process by procuring the very best material possible even before a single cut is made. For this bolt, A*B Arms uses a magnetic particle inspected (MPI) steel bar stock from Carpenter. It is sent to the A*B Arms grinding house to be precision ground, straightened and stress relieved.
An important step, often overlooked by other machine shops, due to the time and dedication it demands, is a process that A*B Arms engineers have developed and incorporated into every part they manufacture. Each part produced will fall very close to the nominal dimensions for all measurements of that part’s original specification. A*B Arms cuts the tolerances in half and stays within those set parameters. Just staying within the specification’s tolerances is not acceptable to A*B Arms; the idea of “it’s good enough” is not in their vocabulary.
Another area of focus for the A*B Arms manufacturing team is the heat treat process. This step tends to make the measurement of parts shift in areas during the case hardening process. A*B Arms has removed the guess work out of the heat treating process and every part comes out near nominal, guaranteed.
There is zero need for polishing or grinding of any parts which often result in thin spots with little-to-no case hardening. As an added benefit, this A*B Arms heat treat process keeps the products moving through the system on schedule to the client.
The end result for A*B Arms’ clients is that delivered parts are truly near perfect with the highest quality surface finishes available. Many quality control departments confidently regard all A*B Arms parts to have already received the stamp of approval and therefore the A*B Arms parts are quickly disseminated to their awaiting firearms assemblies. The rest is just package and ship to distributors and dealers.
A*B Arms weapon components are found in some of the most popular firearms systems on the market today. Manufacturers that are in the know count on this Pennsylvania-headquartered, Veteran-owned company to produce the performance and power internals for which their brands stand for. When it comes to a firearm designed to delight the eye, and perform flawlessly, it’s really what lies inside, Made-in-America by American Built Arms Company that matters.
For more information on American Built Arms, their products or programs for manufacturers, distributors and dealers visit, www.abarms.com. Follow A*B Arms on Facebook
