FR3090084A1 - PROJECTILE FOR FIREARMS OR COMPRESSED AIR FOR LIQUID OR POWDER CARRYING - Google Patents

Abstract

Projectile for small or medium caliber ammunition diffusing on impact a product in a liquid or pulverulent form. This invention allows the use of an active load of liquid or pulverulent chemical, whatever its effect after impact and which comes at the same time to use the diffusion of the active product as a hydraulic damping by pressure drop in order to produce a kinetic effect spread over time and which therefore limits the maximum value of the stress or force produced on the target during impact. This reduces the consequences of damage to the impact and extends the possibility of using ammunition from the output of the weapon to its maximum range while reducing the risk of injury or damage induced by the impact . This kinetic effect is also associated with the effect of the diffused product which can be chosen according to the desired effect.

Description

Description

Title of the invention: Projectile for firearms or compressed air for carrying liquid or powder.

The present application relates to non-lethal weapons and in particular that can be used in pyrotechnic launchers with cannon (s) smooth (s), or electric or pneumatic launchers. It is intended for close-range or short-range defense for shooting conditions where the target is less than 20 m away. We will constantly seek to increase this distance of action, knowing that it will be a compromise between the speed of fire and the thickness or resistance of the walls of the container of the liquid or powdered product carried.

WO1998LR0194519980911 to Richard Guillot describes a projectile for smooth barrel, consisting of a highly deformable elastic envelope containing a finely divided solid, this projectile uses the diffusion of the product at impact but does not authorize its diffusion, it is not capable of causing a dispersion of incapacitating product; on the contrary if the envelope ruptures, this projectile becomes ineffective.

The patent US2018164084 describes a rotationally stabilized projectile containing a liquid or viscous fluid in the static state contained at the head in an entirely non-metallic fragmentable envelope, it does not describe how to make the diffusion of the liquid into finer droplets nor how avoid contacting the target with fragmented parts; it is limited to use in projectiles stabilized at least partially by their rotation; and therefore intended for striped weapons, in particular weapons of war. It is intended for training or marking the intended target.

WO2016EP62278 patent of Cyrille Raquin describes a non-lethal projectile with high impact damping for smooth barrel weapons in particular which allows impact damping due to the destruction of the central part composed of rigid rigid foam in dynamic conditions by shear. It also allows the carriage of a liquid container, rigid or not, fragmentable or not, but does not mention the optimization of the diffusion of the product nor the way in which it must be conditioned so that the diffusion of the product allows additional absorption of the impact shock on the target in order to increase its effects and reduce the potential damage produced during the impact.

The problem posed can be summarized in three points: First, how to take a liquid and / or powdery charge in a projectile for a smooth barrel with a container while retaining dynamic stability on the trajectory and a capacity for diffusion on impact , without increasing the risk of injury to the receiver. We could summarize the problem in a rough and schematic way by saying: how to launch an egg with a compressed air device or a pyrotechnic launcher. Second, how to maintain aerodynamic integrity, of the body and the front of the projectile during the launching phases and flight without harming add to the impact of additional effort likely to significantly increase the dynamic force applied to the target, or to produce a sharp effect, for example of the cookie cutter type, or injurious by cutting, for example an embarrassment type lesion.

Third, once this projectile and its product container adequately accelerated, how to optimize the diffusion of the product on impact on the target, so that its diffusion produces a damping of the rear of the projectile and that said diffusion is mainly annular or central and thus avoid returns to the shooter.

The use of an egg as a non-lethal projectile is well known, the production of a product capable of delivering a similar level of attrition or damage, therefore very low for a man, while charging it with a product adapted for its effect linked to its chemical composition and / or its physico-chemical formulation associated with a dispersion in mist or fine droplets, makes it possible to propose a defense which is available with less restriction of use than a weapon classic due to its non-lethality which will remain almost constant in the speed range corresponding to use both at very short distance and at normal distance.

The present patent application discloses a kinetic projectile stabilized by aerodynamic effect intended for launchers with smooth barrels, whatever the mode of propulsion used if it mainly uses the expansion of gaseous products. It is able to carry any kinetic load, to remain stable by its aerodynamic balance and to preserve its integrity during the initial ballistic phase or acceleration, flight or trajectory. In addition, if the charge is liquid or powdery, it makes it possible to carry out damping on the target, which corresponds to a limitation of the stress applied to the target or even an extension of the duration of the impact; and an effective dispersion of the products contained, perpendicular to the velocity vector of the projectile at the time of impact. The diffusion effect is thus produced according to the same principle as that of a mechanical injector in an engine.

The disclosed projectile is a small or medium caliber ballistic projectile for a smooth barrel, stable due to the result of aerodynamic forces on the trajectory which lies behind its center of gravity. It is intended to be loaded into pyrotechnic launchers, or to be used in a pneumatic or electric launcher. It consists of at least: firstly a rear part consisting of a tail, skirt or tail (l) ensuring the resumption of thrust of the propellant gases from inside the rear part (7) as well as the stabilization screen and a lift during the external ba list flight by an appropriate form, for example a form of diabolo as it is already known in the state of the art for smooth-barreled projectiles, and which may advantageously be hollow, and this in order to remain light and in particular so that the center of thrust of the aerodynamic forces remaining in front of the center of gravity of the projectile in order to avoid a violent aerodynamic destabilization, this rear part must nevertheless be flexible and deformable dynamically without breaking in order to support a swelling during acceleration which allows it to seal the thrust gases.

These characteristics of flexibility and low hardness are also advantageous for limiting the injuries of the people affected; it will also be possible to produce, on the front part of the body (1), primers for ruptures or lines of brittleness on impact intended to dampen the impact of this part and thus avoid a cookie cutter effect;

Secondly a container or kinetic charge (2) which can be a homogeneous charge, for example hard foam as described in the previous patents of the same authors on projectiles with controlled force and high expansion, the chosen characteristics of rupture by shearing the cells allowing powder to be obtained on impact. The load can be a container filled with chemicals in liquid or powder form, having a specific action or any container allowing to deliver a marking, emetic, incapacitating, irritant or any other remote action that is desired produce, for example an insecticide to shoot into a wasp or hornet's nest; said load may be weakened or have fragile fracture primers produced according to the manufacturing process chosen;

Third, a cap (3) made of flexible material which does not burst and does not break on impact. Said cap (3) having perforations (6a, b) in the form of holes (6b) or slots (6a) or alternatively fracture primers produced for example by a local decrease in material and which yield upon impact by unmasking one or more openings which have the function of ensuring participation in the damping and expansion of the projectile upon impact due to the pressure drop as the material passes through said openings and on the other hand the leakage, ejection or diffusion of the product perpendicular to said openings. In the case of a kinetic load of hard foam fragile vis-à-vis a dynamic impact, the present application can be considered as an improvement of the previous patents according to the inventors. However, it brings other innovations which make it possible to produce different projectiles and in particular if these comprise an active charge at the biochemical level, in particular by acting on sensory receptors. Said cap (3) can be made integral with the main part forming body and empennage (1) by any means, for example by welding, gluing, or elastic band, adhesive band or making a necking, such as for example a heat shrink band, of which different models exist with different material characteristics, with or without adhesive . The goal being its good dispersion operation until all the product contained in said charge is correctly dispersed. The purpose of this fixation is also to prevent fragments of the container of said charge (2) from being thrown outside.

According to a preferred version of the inventors, the cap (3) is made integral with the rear part by an outer ply (9) heat shrinkable which can be weakened along a line perpendicular to the shooting axis, for example by dotted lines obtained in any suitable way to obtain a more fragile state of said sheet locally, for example and in a nonlimiting manner by neutron bombardment, by thinning, by local ablation, local heating or even by perforations or micro perforations, the effect of embrittlement having the effect, upon impact, of causing a rupture along a curve over at least part of the height of said charge, but without altering its functional qualities of resistance to the acceleration from the start of a shot when the projectile is surrounded by the tube, nor its participation in the maintenance of aerodynamic integrity in flight, but allows a gradual rupture at impact participating in the damping and spreading of the pr ojectile during impact in order to improve the control of the force delivered to the target and to increase the duration of the latter.

So that this embodiment remains compatible with its industrial assembly by heat shrinkage, it is necessary to keep holes less than 0.2 mm.

In a version of the projectile according to the invention, the charge (2) consists of a flexible or rigid container which bursts or breaks on impact under appropriate dynamic conditions: it may be a flexible bag with a fragile part, for example a thermoplastic bag such as polyethylene or polypropylene which is closed by welding and which uses this welding as a zone of weakness; it is also possible to produce a fragile fragile container during dynamic stresses and with a thin wall, for example based on thermosetting, or hard thermoplastics such as for example plastics based on nitrocellulose, styrene or other thermosetting polymer fragile on impact in the conditions provided. It is also possible to use materials of natural origin such as starch and albumin which can be combined with chemicals. It is of course necessary that the container can be handled and loaded in the ammunition without breaking.

Depending on the plastic chosen, the container may break on impact with or without prior embrittlement, the production of perforations or primer (s) of rupture will be necessary if a harder or resilient material such as celluloid is retained, for example . This container which will be dislocated on impact inside the cavity formed by the cornination of the cap and the rear part or tail, while allowing the diffusion of the product through the holes or slots in the cap of the 'all of the content under the compression action of said rear part.

According to an improvement of a projectile produced according to the invention, the main part or body (1) is made of thermoplastic compound, highly deformable, preferably hardness less than 70 Shore A and whose maximum wall thickness is less than 1.5 mm for all projectiles of caliber less than or equal to 60 millimeters.

According to a preferred version of the inventors, the ballistic projectile is produced with a rear skirt or body (1), the inner rear portion (7) of which receives the thrust of the gases and which also forms support or housing (8) in its front part to accommodate said flexible or rigid container (2).

According to a preferred improvement of the inventors, a layer or piece of thermoplastic elastomer (5) of very low hardness, highly deformable and / or absorbent is placed between said cap and the filler in order to improve the expansion and to delay the rupture of the container so that the bursting of said load occurs after a first crushing or expansion.

According to a preferred version of the inventors, the ballistic projectile is characterized in that one comes to interpose between the container or load (2) and the body forming the empennage or skirt (1), a damping part (4), by example made of thermoplastic foam or fragile thermosetting foam or even metallic foam of low relative density, typically less than 150 kg per cubic meter. This can be done in several layers of different hardnesses or relative densities in order to ensure a progression of the acceleration communicated to the projectile and therefore to the container by the gases, and thus to avoid its rupture during the acceleration phase .

According to an alternative embodiment according to the inventors, the projectile carries a charge (2) which contains a chemical with a proportion of alcohol or any other non-toxic product which prevents the contents of the charge from freezing at temperatures. negative greater than at most -20 ° C.

The advantage of alcohol here is not only its temperature resistance characteristics, but also its solvent properties and its biological compatibility. The term alcohol covers here products which have an alcohol chemical function and which meet the criteria of resistance in liquid form at low temperature, of non-toxicity and of low viscosity compatible with a diffusion in fine droplets, ie typically less than 1 mm .

According to another alternative embodiment, said charge (2) contains chemicals in several immiscible phases in the form of particles, emulsion, microemulsion or mini-emulsion. This process makes it possible to disperse an active product in a solid filler of the thermosetting foam type, but also to isolate an active product in a liquid phase in the form of immiscible droplets, this latter embodiment making it possible, for example, to dissolve at least one active product in a immiscible droplet but more difficult to vaporize because of its physicochemical characteristics, contact is thus obtained with a product at higher concentration after evaporation of the aqueous parts or containing alcohol. The active product can for example be in solution in oil.

According to this latter variant, the inventors prefer to use for this embodiment a very fine emulsion and preferably with average droplet sizes of less than 5 μm. Such a formulation thus makes it possible to optimize the diffusion of the product and to improve its effectiveness by skin contact while reducing the volume concentration of said product.

FIG. 1 describes an exemplary embodiment according to the invention, with a projectile consisting of a diabolo-shaped body (l), which comprises a rear housing (7) intended for the recovery of propellant gases for pyrotechnic or compressed gas launchers and a front housing (8) which receives a damping layer ^), and a charge (2) containing for example an irritant or incapacitating liquid; said damping layer (4) thus protects the container and its integrity during launch and the acceleration peak that this load (2) undergoes. This integrity is decisive if we want ballistic behavior external to the standardized launcher in relation to the initial conditions and the aerodynamics of the projectile. Deformation or bursting of the load (2) which can lead to strong instability on the trajectory. The front part of the projectile is here closed by a cape or radome (3), which ensures an aerodynamic shape and determines its penetration into the air of said projectile. This cap or cap (3) can be fixed in different ways on the body of the projectile (1), the representation chosen by the fixing made by an outer sheet (9) heat shrinkable, for example in polyvinyl chloride or in PTEE or Polytetrafluoroethylene. Said ply (9) can advantageously be weakened along at least one dotted line, for example constituted by a series of local micro-perforations or thinning of less than 0.2 mm which describes a curve in a plane which contains the axis of the body main (1). The cap or radome (3) is here shown with two openings (6a, 6b), shown in the plane of the section and which can be slots (6a) or holes (6b). Given the speed of the projectiles and the volume of load (2), the dimensions of the holes will be adapted to achieve the finest possible diffusion or on a surface allowing the content to be spread over at least one meter. Typically for a 44 mm munition at 50 meters per second, it will be possible to make slots with a diffusion opening surface of less than 5 square millimeters.

If the load (2) is fragile on impact, it also has a certain capacity for deformation and therefore for enlarging its impact surface before it breaks. This elastic deformation is here favored by the addition of an elastomer layer (5) of low hardness and which is known for qualities of speed of elastic deformation and / or absorption of shocks or low or very sound waves. low frequency. We can for example cite the use of materials developed by the brand "Sorbothane" and also certain thermoplastic elastomers or TPE.

Thus, at the start of the shot or launch phase, the body of the projectile (1) is pushed forward by the pressurized gases acting in its hollow part (7), this part which is produced in a surprising manner made of low density thermoplastic elastomer, for example low density polyethylene which can be mixed with other more resilient polymers, accelerates the entire projectile. The inertia of the load (2) being much greater than that of the other parts of said projectile, the acceleration produced comes to be exerted on said load (2) through the damping piece (4) which can be elastic in the case of a thermoplastic foam or deformable in the case of a thermosetting resin foam.

We have shown here a homogeneous foam but several layers of different hardness and relative density are possible in order to combine the advantages for example of thermosetting resin foams with another part of elastic foam of thermoplastic polymer. The ply (9) ensures during this launching phase a global coherence of the projectile, and can associate with it a sliding function if one chooses for example a sleeve (9) of PTFE which comes to join the cape (3) and the body (l) around the load (2) and the damping layers (4,5).

This ply also ensures, as could do a simple bonding of the cape (3) on the body (1), integrity and stability of the aerodynamic shape of the projectile on its ballistic trajectory. During the impact, the front damping layer (5) spreads laterally with respect to the direction of impact by finishing between the cap (1) and the load (2), introducing a certain elastic deformation capacity of the load (2) which thus takes a larger diameter than that of the caliber of the launcher. Following the thinning by finishing of the layer (5), the load (2) is then suddenly subjected to a much higher stress which exceeds its elastic limit and induces a rupture of the walls of said load (2) in pieces. Given the relative size of the holes or openings for the passage of the liquid (6a, 6b), the pieces of said wall of the load (2) remain trapped inside and cannot produce attrition or damage on the target or outside by projection. At this instant, a capacity is obtained constituted by the interior volume of the cape (3) and of the front of the body (8) containing a liquid and pressurized by the kinetic energy supplied by the body (1) which comes to push from the rear after having compressed or destroyed the cushioning foam (4). A fine droplet distribution is then obtained which is distributed perpendicular to the openings (6a, 6b) and which adds to the effect of the kinetic impact, an incapacitating or other effect depending on the product contained in said charge (2), the effect would be the same with a content made powdery upon impact, but in this case the damping by pressure drop during diffusion would be less.

This embodiment thus makes it possible to project a liquid body and to use it as a hydraulic shock absorber in order to attenuate the effects of damage produced on the target while adding thereto other effects linked to the chemical nature of the liquid product or powder contained in the load (2).

The three problems posed are thus resolved, and in particular one obtains an extension of the duration of the impact by making a dimensioning of the openings through which the active product diffuses so that said diffusion has the highest possible duration without breaking. of the ply (9) and according to the extreme speeds of use, that is to say between the speed leaving the weapon and the speed at the maximum useful range fixed.

All of the products mentioned for manufacturing the projectile according to the invention are described without limitation as to their selection, it may be wise to select materials which are on the one hand from an eco-responsible manufacturing process and moreover from agricultural production, such as plastics made from algae or natural starch.

Claims (1)

Claims [Claim 1] Small or medium caliber ballistic projectile for smooth barrel, stable due to the result of aerodynamic forces on trajectory, intended to be loaded in pyrotechnic launchers, or to be used in a pneumatic or electric launcher consisting of at least: rear part (1) forming a tail unit, ensuring the resumption of thrust of the propellant gases and the stabilization screen during external ballistic flight by an appropriate form, preferably hollow; at least one load (2) consisting of a flexible or rigid container which bursts or breaks on impact under appropriate dynamic conditions in the form of powder or atomized liquid; a cap (3) having perforations in the form of holes or slits (6a, 6b) or alternatively fracture primers which yield upon impact, the openings thus produced having the function of ensuring participation in damping and expansion of the projectile upon impact due to the pressure drop when the material passes through said openings and on the other hand the diffusion of the product perpendicular to said openings. Said cap (2) being linked before and during the impact to the rear part by any suitable means or device such as in particular by welding, gluing, or simple connection by elastic band, adhesive, necking band, for example heat shrink. [Claim 2] Ballistic projectile according to claim 1, characterized in that the cap is linked to the rear part by an outer heat-shrinkable sheet (9) which is perforated or precut by micro-holes or dotted lines arranged along at least one preferential rupture line on part of the height of said load (2). [Claim 3] Projectile according to claim 1, such that the charge (2) consists of a rigid container which bursts or breaks on impact. [Claim 4] Projectile according to claim 1, such that a thermoplastic elastomer (5) of very low hardness, highly deformable and / or absorbent is placed between said cap and the filler. [Claim 5] Ballistic projectile according to claim 1, characterized in that the skirt (1) which collects the thrust of the gases during launching, also forms support or housing in its front part (8) for said flexible or rigid container. [Claim 6] Ballistic projectile according to claim 1, characterized in that interpose between the container and the skirt, a damping part ^), for example made of elastic, deformable foam, for example thermoplastic, thermo hard or metallic in order to preserve said load or to absorb the stresses which it undergoes when it is launched. . [Claim 7] Projectile according to Claim 1, characterized in that the charge (2) contains a chemical comprising an alcohol or any other non-toxic product which prevents the contents of the charge from freezing at negative temperatures. * [Claim 8] Projectile according to claim 1, characterized in that the charge (2) contains chemicals according to several immiscible phases in the form of an emulsion, microemulsion or mini-emulsion. [Claim 9] Projectile according to claims 1 and 8, characterized in that the emulsion formulation used in said charge has average droplet sizes of less than 5 µm. 1/1