Phlegmatized is a term applied to an
explosive that has had an agent added to stabilize or desensitize it. Sometimes this is desirable either to improve the handling properties of an explosive (e.g. when munitions are filled in factories) or to reduce its sensitivity,
brisance or
detonation velocity.
TNT explosive can itself be used to phlegmatize more sensitive explosives such as
RDX (to form
Cyclotol),
HMX (to form
Octol) or
PETN (to form
Pentolite). Other typical phlegmatizing agents include
paraffin wax (5% used in
OKFOL and
Composition H6),
paper or even
water (used in
water gel explosives). Such agents are nearly always flammable themselves (therefore adding fuel to the blast) or will at least boil off easily. Typically, a small amount of phlegmatizing agent is used e.g.
Composition B, which has 1% paraffin wax added, or the Russian
RGO hand grenade which contains 90 grams of "A-IX-1" explosive, comprising 96%
RDX and 4% paraffin wax by weight. Another example of use is the
VS-50 antipersonnel mine, which contains an explosive filling of 43 grams of
RDX, again phlegmatized by combining it with 10%
paraffin wax by weight.
