GB742120A - Improvements relating to apparatus for the generation of high-pressure gas by the burning of a combustible charge - Google Patents

Abstract

742,120. Generating combustion products under pressure. SPERRY GYROSCOPE CO., Ltd. Jan. 27, 1954 [Feb. 17, 1953], No. 4379/53. Class 51 (1). In a method of producing a gaseous working medium at an elevated pressure, a combustible material, the rate of burning of which increases with increases in ambient pressure, is sealed in a chamber, the material is ignited and the products of combustion are retained in the chamber by means of a thin bursting disc until a pre-determined pressure prevails therein. The material may be cordite and the gases may be utilized in a gas-operated hydraulic pump. The apparatus comprises a chamber 10 closed at the end 11 and containing a charge of cordite 9 which is ignited electrically at its end remote from the end 11 of the chamber. The other end of the chamber is provided with a member 16 secured by means of a screwed ring 15. The member 16 has an internal shoulder 18, and four parts viz. a perforated disc 21, a thin plain metal disc 23, a ring 24 and a second perforated disc 25, are clamped therein by means of a screwed ferrule 20. The disc 23 which may be of pure aluminium bursts when the pressure of the gas generated by firing of the cordite charge attains a pre-determined value, and the gases escape through the outlet 27 to a cylinder 28 containing a working piston 29. The gas may alternatively pass to a gas storage chamber for subsequent use.