GB198353A - Improvements in and relating to fuses for projectiles - Google Patents

Abstract

198,353. Bethlehem Steel Co., (Assignees of Barker, J. S.). May 25, 1922, [Convention date]. Projectile fuzes. - Relates to fuzes having a momentum pellet for delay-action and a directaction striker for instant action adapted to be locked out of action when delay-action is desired. According to the invention, the direct-action striker 17 is so formed as to be rigidly connectible with or disconnectible from the fuze body by direct engagement or disengagement therefrom, without the use of a separate locking or connecting member, for example by means of screwthreads 16, 16<1>, and can be so connected or disconnected to put it out of action or in operative condition by means of a portion 13 thereof extending beyond the fuze. The direct-action striker 17 is normally held forward by a spring 13' which yields to the shock of discharge and allows the rear end of the striker to set back into a recess 39 in a flash passage obturator and detonator carrier 32, but returns the striker forward when acceleration is over. During flight, centrifugal force causes radial bolts 27, 34 to move out against springs 28, 35 and release the momentum pellet 20 and the flash passage obturator 32, and this latter swings about a pivot 33 from the position shown in Fig. 1 to the position shown in Fig. 4, where it is stopped by a stud 42 and locked by a radial bolt 40 moving out into a recess 41. In this position of the obturator 32, a detonator 38 in it is in line with central passages 23, 44, and is ignited by the blow of the striker 17 or the flash from a slow-burning column 25 and transmits the ignition to a "booster" charge 45 in the base of the fuze body. For instantaneous action the parts are initially as shown in Fig. 1. and the fuze is fired by the contact of the projecting part 13 of the direct-action striker with the target. When delay-action is desired, the direct-action striker is screwed up into the fuze body. The striker is then unaffected by acceleration on discharge and is crushed or broken at a weak part 15 on impact but cannot be thrust back against the detonator 38, which, in these circumstances, is fired after a given delay by the flash from the slow-burning powder column 25 ignited by a detonator 24 struck by a firing pin 19 when the momentum pellet 20 shoots forward on impact.