For years, Paul Kim was the creative force at SureFire, responsible for the design of several of their lights. A few years ago, PK struck on his own, standing up the aptly named, PK Designs Lab. We’ve showcased several of his lights over the years, but now he’s working on a Suppressor design.
Apperently, this is his second generation, disclosing on a Facebook post, “My previous Gen 1 suppressor was never analyzed to this level of scrutiny. This time we are doing it right.”
He went to offer four images, stating, “Here is a sneak preview of the finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics analysis of our Gen 2 VORTEX suppressor design.”
Tags: PK Design Lab
Um, this is good, right? Sorry, without some explanatory comments for these slides, “I feel like a pig looking at a wristwatch”, as one old commander would say.
long answer:
The first picture is the velocity and direction of the gasses inside the suppressor (red is faster and blue is slower).
The 2nd and 4th picture show the pressure inside the suppressor. Red is the highest pressure and you can see a pressure drop accross the baffles. I’m not a suppressor designer, but i assume the lower the pressure in the last stage the quiter.
The 3rd image is also a velocity plot, but i think it was mostly to show tge external profile since you cant see many of the vectors.
Short answer:
The images show the velocity and pressure inside the suppressor.
Thank you. Do the 3rd and 4th image show gases jetting out at 90 degrees from the muzzle end? And also gases jetting back 180 degrees (toward the shooter!?!) from the aft end of the suppressor? Or am I missing something?
I was thinking the front was ported like tge sico omega, not sure about tge back. Didnt notice that until you pointed it out.
Paul Kim is an engineering genius– you can tell the difference in the product lines that Surefire had when he was still there (especially the lights from early-mid 2000’s) and now. What do we have now? Wrist-watch lights.
Paul Kim is mostly known for his flashlights, of course, but it was under his watch Surefire launched all of their truly legendary designs. I have no doubt he will apply himself just as well to suppressors.