GB510065A - Improvements in fuzes for ordnance projectiles or bombs - Google Patents

Abstract

510,065. Projectile fuzes. MEFINA SOC. ANON. Oct. 31, 1938, No. 31464. Convention date; Nov. 6, 1937. [Class 9 (i)] A projectile fuze comprises in combination a movable striking member, a movable locking member adapted to prevent actuation of the striking member, a reversible escapement controlling the movement of the locking member, and a spring-loaded bolt which normally prevents movement of the locking member from the locking position and is retracted against the action of its spring by the effect of inertia when the fuze is in flight, the locking member and bolt having coacting surfaces whereby the locking member is restored to the locking position by the bolt when the latter, after partial retraction, is restored to normal position by its spring. Fig. 1 shows a construction of projectile fuze in which the striker 10 is normally restrained. from moving towards the detonating pellet 11 by a rack 12, the teeth of which engage one of the wheels of the gear train of a reversible escapement 13 holding the rack in the position shown. The holder 14 of the pellet 11 is like. wise prevented by the rack from moving towards the striker 10. When the projectile is fired, the rack under the action of centrifugal force or of a spring tends to slide radially outwards with a movement retarded by the escapement, but such radial outward movement cannot take. place until a bolt formed by a tongue on an annular weight 15 has by inertia been removed from the path of the rack against the action of a spring 16. When the tongue has been fully withdrawn from the path of the rack, the weight 15 is automatically retained. in its retracted position by the expansion of a split elastic ring 17 and the fuze is armed. Should the projectile, in the course of handling receive an accidental blow or shock, the weight 15 with its tongue may be partially retracted and as the rack has an inclined face 18 abutting against an inclined face 19 on the tongue, the rack may move a short distance outwards. Owing to the action of the escapement, this outward movement will be much slower than the movement of the weight so that when the impulse which has moved the weight is spent, the spring 16 will push the weight back before the rack has moved across the path of the tongue. The action of the tongue surface 19 against the rack surface 18 then forces the rack back to the safety position, the escapement spring being by this means rewound. Figs. 5 and 7 show a modification in which the rack 12 is replaced by a wheel 20 of the escapement 13. This wheel, which is rotatable about a stud 23 under the influence of a spring 24, is held, in the unarmed condition of the fuze, by an inclined tongue on a weight 21, corresponding to the weight 15, Fig. 1, and is provided with an aperture adapted when the fuze is armed to be brought into register with an aperture 26 to allow of a free passage for the striker.