What does the National Firearms Test Bench do? Let's find out together the activities carried out by this body, internationally recognized for the high quality standards of the work it does.
In the early 1900s, the arms manufacturers of the Province of Brescia understood that the quality and reliability of their products was the key to success. For this reason they created a Consortium with the Municipalities of Brescia and Gardone VT, the Brescia Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry of the then Kingdom of Italy.
The Test Bench was born with headquarters in Brescia and laboratories in the most important arms production centers: Gardone VT and Brescia, recognized by the Royal Decree n ° 20 of 13/01/1910. Initially, the consortium financed itself with a "one-off" contribution, paid by the founding members. Due to the First World War, the consortium had to interrupt its activity and only on 1 September 1920 the section of Gardone VT began to operate, while that of Brescia began its activity the following year. In 1923 the law n ° 3152 made it compulsory to test weapons at the test bench, thus obtaining greater consideration also from the institutions. With Royal Decree of November 15, 1925, the Test Bench took on the name of "National Test Bench for portable firearms", and in 1928 Italy decided to adhere to the Brussels Convention, with which some European countries recognized mutually the tests on the weapons carried out by the respective Test Benches. The economic crisis, however, which affected the Italian economy of the 20s, forced the closure of the section of the Banco di Prova di Brescia, leaving only the section of Gardone VT which was increasingly establishing itself.
Today, the Banco Nazionale di Prova in its almost century of history has undergone various regulatory and organizational adaptations, in order to make it more appropriate to the new technical and administrative needs promoted by the State. In particular, the law n ° 186 of 23 February 1960 replaces the RDL n ° 3152 of 1923 on the compulsory punching of portable firearms; or the law n ° 993 of 12 December 1973 ratifying the second Brussels Convention on the mutual recognition of test marks between some European countries currently Austria, Belgium, Russian Federation, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Spain, Hungary and with the Republic of Chile, as well as the establishment of a Permanent International Commission (CIP) which will establish the test criteria for the safety of the final user of the weapon; again, the law n ° 110 of 18 April 1975 which perfects and disciplines the rules for the control of weapons and ammunition, introducing the obligation of cataloging rifled weapons, assigns to the BNP the task of examining the conformity of the weapons to the Catalog National; the law n ° 509 of 6 December 1993 which, establishing the Regulations for the control of Commercial Ammunition, considers the BNP the Competent National Body for the testing of ammunition so the BNP assumes the current name of "Banco Nazionale di Prova per le portable firearms and for commercial ammunition "; finally, Ministerial Decree No. 362 of 9 August 2001 which regulates compressed air weapons and replicas of single-shot muzzle-loading weapons.
The BNP has therefore officially become the "technical controller" of the compliance of weapons and ammunition with technical and legal standards and can be considered the "registry office" of all weapons produced in Italy and most of those imported. The BNP affixes the punches, shown in a table, on the weapons that have passed the test, and carries out other relevant complementary activities, such as the ballistic resistance tests of jackets, helmets, bulletproof glass, windows and armor in general, both for Police Forces and for manufacturing companies, as well as for Supervisory Institutions. The BNP is today the only body that carries out ballistic testing of shooting ranges for the Armed and Police Forces, and also carries out special tests on weapons and ammunition in terms of accuracy, reliability and resistance.
The Test Bench, being a "Public Law Body", is directed by a "Board of Directors" appointed by the "Ministry of Economic Development", to which it reports as regards the determination of the test rates for weapons and ammunition. The Board of Directors is made up of 12 members, remains in office for 4 years and elects its President. The Director of the Bank is appointed by the Ministry of Economic Development, having heard the opinion of the Ministry of Defense and participates in the Board of Directors with an advisory vote and with the functions of Secretary. The Bank's organization chart is composed as follows: a Head of "Weapons Testing" who directs and supervises the testing of the weapons presented, a Head of the Ballistic Laboratory for testing commercial ammunition and special ballistic tests, a Head of Administration, employees technicians and administrators, workers and technical testers. By choosing the formula "to improve the quality and reliability of Italian gun production", the BNP has intentionally submitted its quality management system to certification according to UNI EN ISO 9001/2000, obtained in 2005 by the oldest certification body the Italian Naval Registry (RINA).
The measurement and certification activities of the Test Bench are divided into three families:
-Test of weapons
-Control of commercial ammunition
-Special ballistic tests (internal, external and terminal ballistics).
For the testing of weapons, the Test Bench has control systems, equipment and instruments, such as: “pass and fail” verifiers; electronic instruments for measuring the internal diameter of the barrel; electronic scales; firing booths with pneumatic servomechanisms that allow you to test every type of gun and barrel, in conditions of maximum safety; IT system for the management, recording and storage in real time of the data acquired in the tests of each single weapon. The latter allows to detect the possible re-presentation of a weapon having a serial number already used by the manufacturer (for weapons presented after 1999).
As regards the control and test procedure, to which each single weapon must be subjected, it is carried out in compliance with the CIP regulations, and consists in the control of the distinctive marks, which allow the identification of the weapon; control of compliance with the catalog (Law 110/775): the firearm must correspond to the National Catalog by verifying that the characteristics of the firearm correspond to those reported in the sheet published in the Official Gazette; visual and functional check in white, dimensional check of the characteristics that affect the safety of the user; test shot of two cartridges, for each barrel, which develop a pressure of at least 25% higher than the maximum pressure of commercial cartridges. For firearms tested for the use of steel shot cartridges, 3 rounds are fired per barrel. For revolvers, one cartridge is fired per chamber; control after firing: after firing, the weapons are carefully examined by means of a visual check and with “does not pass” verifiers; punching and recording of data: if a weapon has passed all the previous tests, the Dealer affixes the punches in compliance with the CIP regulations.The data are also reported in the test certificate, which the Dealer issues to the presenter, keeping a copy. The data archive of the Test Bench contains the data relating to the approximately 40 million weapons tested from 1920 to today.
As regards the control of commercial ammunition, the latter must comply with the requirements established by law no. 6 of 1993 December 509, which implemented the CIP legislation which verifies the existence of distinctive marks on the elementary packaging unit; verifies the existence of the distinctive marks on each cartridge; verifies compliance with dimensional characteristics; test the average pressure of the cartridges; finally, it checks the safety of operation.
The following checks are performed on commercial ammunition, such as type approval; the enabling of the Installations to perform the manufacturing control of each batch produced; the manufacturing control of each batch produced and the inspection control. The control of the Commercial Ammunition both in the “type approval” phase, and during the “manufacturing control” and the “inspection control”, is carried out on a sample taken at random from the lot. For type approval, the sample analyzed is double. The checks on ammunition, in essence, consist in the visual inspection of the cartridge and packaging, which involves checking the integrity of the cartridge and the existence of all the required indications. The dimensional control which involves the verification of the "safety dimensions" and is carried out using the appropriate control tools. the measurement of the maximum pressure in the cartridge chamber which is detected by means of particular barrels. Finally, the safety and function test is performed by firing the sample into a firearm with maximum locking space. The Ballistic Laboratory conducted by specialized personnel of the National Test Bench for weapons and ammunition has been carrying out, since 1970, an activity to check and experimentally test weapons, ammunition and all materials that require particular resistance to the impact of bullets. The special tests of this laboratory are the internal ballistics tests, with which all the parameters concerning the combustion of the primer and the powder, the pressure developed as a function of time and space and the residence time of the bullet in the barrel are measured. : everything that happens inside a barrel of a gun during the shot. The second special test is the one concerning external ballistics, with which it is possible to determine the speed and energy of a bullet in one or more points of the trajectory, calculating the ballistic coefficient, verifying accuracy and correctness, checking the distribution of a shot pattern. shot and photographing it during the trajectory. The latest specialization of the laboratory is terminal ballistics tests. The latter allow you to control the effects of the projectile when it hits the target. The service is particularly used to test various protection systems by performing ballistic resistance tests: jackets and helmets, armored cars or panels intended for the armor of vehicles, bulletproof windows and glass and equipment used for unloading weapons. Tests with bullets of various caliber can be performed, from. .22 to 14.5 mm, also using fragments (i.e. splinter simulators, having a diameter from 5.56 mm up to 20 mm), and of various types, with a tombac or steel jacket, lead, steel or tungsten core. Obviously the Ballistic Laboratory makes use of instruments specially made by specialized and certified companies.
The National Test Bench serves the IVECO DVD, the Italian and Swiss State Police, the Penitentiary Police, the Italian Army, the General Command of the Carabinieri, the Guardia di Finanza, the Pietro Beretta Weapons Factory, the Fiocchi Munizioni , OTO MELARA SpA, Industrie BItossi SpA, Elet.ca SrL of the MARCEGAGLIA Saint Gobain Group, Isoclima, BMW Italia, Marconi Industrial Services and the Military Administration of the American Army. The National Test Bench for Weapons and Ammunition, recognized and respected internationally, in order to increase its professionalism, will bring new equipment updates and purchase new ones. The Banco di Prova Nazionale represents a source of pride for Italy, considering the utmost professionalism of those who work and manage it.
Black and white photos taken from the official website "National test bench"