Where is the silencer industry headed? This is something that I get asked fairly often. I have thought about it from time to time, and the real answer is not so cut and dried.
First of all ,we have to look at the silencer industry as a whole first and foremost. The industry is strong with growth in many sectors like new companies are coming into the space and even large brands like Smith and Wesson and Ruger have even gotten on the band wagon.
What I see with most of this though is that people still feel that there is room for new ideas and want to share those ideas with the world. This is good as this means that innovation is not stagnate and that there will be newer and better designs come to market. This means there will be new technology used in the making of the suppressor and this leads to designs not previously feasible due to manufacturing costs. The easy one here is powdered metal 3D printing. This technology has evolved rapidly and even Daniel Defense is on this train. Another neat technology is the new idea of using a mig welder to build in 3D like they are using to make the Space X rocket tanks. This is possibly a type of manufacturing that would work well in the silencer world. Time will tell, but this seems like a perfect way to make complex silencer designs.
As for Liberty, we dont have a metal 3D printer at this time, but that is not to say we won’t get something in this space. We are intrigued with the idea of 3D printing as it “takes the gloves off” of traditional silencer making. We have drawn concepts that were only possible in the past through complex setup processes and were completely non-feasible to produce. This is why we make very specific designs and have to stick to those design parameters, cost to change manufacturing techniques is very high and usually involved a lot of time as well.
What does the future look like for Liberty Suppressors specifically? Well for now we will still be making some of the worlds best silencer designs. The next thing we will be looking at is 3D printing as well as more advanced stack baffle designs as we feel there is room in both of these arenas to improve and we want to try some ideas we have there… this will probably take a few years to produce something that is ready for the masses, but you dont get to the point of releasing something unless you start your prototyping now… I hope you enjoyed my view into the abyss of the US silencer scene and hope to see you soon!
Until next time, keep your powder dry.