We've seen silencers made from all manner of materials, with assorted effects and durability. We've seen 3D printed silencers before many, many times. We've even seen one-off plastic silencers. What we have yet to see yet is a commercially available polymer 3D-printed silencer. Mute aims to change that. When we first heard “3D printed plastic silencer” our first thoughts were with 22LR. The relatively low-pressure (albeit dirty) caliber makes some sort of sense. While we've seen advancements in home-built rimfire silencers largely based around resin printing and lamination of epoxy to critical parts, the folks behind the Mute Suppressor are aiming higher–as in aiming for higher pressures. 5.56mm pressures. The Mute will initially be available in 5.56, 9mm, and 22LR.
They claim their proprietary polymer, D28, combined with the low-pressure operation of the silencer, is up to the task.
Here's the information currently available on Mute's webpage:
The Mute integrates self-thermal regulation via the Thermal Shroud function that regulates heat for less mirage and reduced muzzle rise, recoil, and sound compared to an unsuppressed weapon. Our proprietary D28 material and next-gen unibody construction methods deliver the highest level in all details and ensure best-in-class performance. The baffle-less design creates a Venturi Effect. The more rounds you fire, the more air flows through The Mute.
Something we noticed while watching some renderings is that the Mute appears to be reverse-threaded ala' Area 419 while the device itself features standard threads. This means that you won't inadvertently remove your muzzle device while detaching the silencer.
For pricing, we're starting at the affordable $599. Other details currently remain murky–but no worries, we have a pair on the way. We'll be testing their 5.56 silencer with a short-barreled rifle and see how she performs. Will this be worth gracing your safe once you add on the $200 tax stamp? Stay tuned.
In the interim, you can visit Mute Suppressor online here and watch their video below:
https://vimeo.com/516742069
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If you're purchasing it from the manufacturer, why make it 3D and polymer? The attraction to 3D and Polymer is a DIY application to avoid the $200 tax stamp and go a Form 1 direction. I'll consider this a gimmick until I'm hopefully proven wrong. For now, a 3D Printed Polymer Silencer is just slick marketing for attention's sake.
3D printing allows you to manufacture geometries that are not possible with traditional subtractive manufacturing techniques.
The single piece multi layer spirals are likely impossible, or at least much more expensive to manufacture using traditional techniques.
If I understand your point, I doubt you could use the advanced materials at home that they are using.
I hope they have, in fact, done something worth spent the many thousnds of dollars on patents. Maybe they've come up with a new polymer process and shape that accomplished the tough task of making reliable, lighter, cheaper and (eventually) home printable suppressors.
There's a lot of come and go in the gun industry that brings understandable cynicism along with it. But creating a product is freaking hard, let alone one that's truly groundbreaking. Stuff doesn't fall onto consumers plates. Someone has to push and invent. I wish these folks luck and hope they've done it.
And I bet it melts after one 30 round magazine of 5.56 on full auto.
You can Form 1 a 5.56 suppressor for about $100. I did. The "infamous" MagLite suppressor, carbon steel tube and stainless steel expansion plug baffles.
You must have some REALLY beefy cross sections to make a muffler out of nothing but knit-lines and then subject it to 70ksi. Did you know that polymers fail as brittle from volume strains? So, is you expand them with a load of 70ksi in 5-10ms, you aren't exactly applying a static load. I'm sure it's all safe because there's a youtube video and you charge $600 but I think I'll wait a few years to see what law suits emerge and how badly people get hurt.