GB2104630A - Armour plating - Google Patents

Abstract

A section of plate armour comprises a main portion (1) of plate armour, first and second strips (3, 7) of plate armour welded to opposite faces of the main portion and overlapping the edge of the longitudinal end faces (6, 10). Two of these actions (1, 1') are shown (Fig. 2) as part of an armoured lining for the wall (19) of a room housing a target range, a steel plate sheet (13) mounted on the wall carrying, by means of studs (14, 15), spacers (17, 17') and locking nuts (18, 18'), the sections (1, 1') with their strips (3, 7') overlapping the edges of adjacent actions (1, 1'). A sheet (not shown) of self-sealing rubber may be mounted in front of the plate, being easily penetrated by a round which then strikes the plate with most of its momentum being absorbed, rebounding fragments not having sufficient momentum to penetrate the sheet and people in the room being thus protected. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Connection for armour plating This invention relates to plate armour, especially plate armour designed to repel small calibre ammunition such as that fired by a hand held firearm.

In order to train personnel in a situation where firearms must be used in a restricted space such as the confines of a room, it is desirable to set up a target range which allows the firing of live ammunition over a wide angie. Ideally, once the marksman has entered the range he should be allowed to fire in any direction throughout 3600.

This requires that all 4 walls of the range must be covered with plate armour.

It is obviously not possible to cover the 4 walls of a range having the dimensions of a large room with a unitary piece of plate armour. Separate sections of armour plating must be used. Any connections between sections should be easily releasable so that damaged or buckled sections of plating may be replaced or moved to a less susceptible position in the range. However the connections must be able to withstand repeated direct hits from live ammunition and must remain secure even when the plating is buckled or warped.

One method by which sections of plate armour have heretofor been connected is by means of a welded butt joint along the longitudinal end faces of 2 adjacent sections. This suffers from the major disadvantage that replacement of a section cannot easily be accomplished. The welded joint must be broken either by reheating the joint or by cutting it, each of which requires specialist skill and equipment.

In an alternative prior art system pins extend laterally from the wall and the plate armour has apertures through which the pins pass in order to support it. The plate may be further secured on the pins by means of nuts and/or spacers. If the pins and the apertures in the plate armour are appropriately positioned adjacent plates may be arranged so that the longitudinal end faces of the 2 plates firmly abut without the need for welding or an adhesive.

A disadvantage of this arrangement is that the apertures in the plate will constitute weak points and if they are regularly struck by live ammunition the pins supporting the plate may become damaged. This may cause the plate to become detached from the wall or may alternatively allow ammunition to pass through the apertures and into the wall.

A further disadvantage of this arrangement is that automatic weapons capable of rapid fire (in excess of 2,000 rounds per minute in some cases) cause the plate armour to become warped and buckled. Adjacent plates may become so distorted that the end faces are out of alignment and a pathway through the joint is opened up. This allows some ammunition to pass through the joint causing damage to the wall behind the plating and constituting a danger to range staff and other persons in the proximity.

The need for a welded joint may also be obviated by overlapping two adjacent sections and securing one to the other through the overlapped portion (eg by means of a pin and nut arrangement as described above). The overlapped section provides the area of the joint with a thicker portion and hence the joint is stronger and more able to withstand direct hits thereon. However, the buckling of the plates due to rapid repeated fire may still open up a diagonal pathway through the overlapped joint. This allows the ammunition to penetrate the joint as described above, rendering the protection given by the armour plating incomplete.

The applicant has previously attempted to overcome the disadvantages of prior art connections for plate armour. One arrangement was to weld a strip of plate armour onto the front face of each plate and adjacent one longitudinal end face such that it overlaps the edge of the plate. When a section of plate armour is adjacent a second plate the strip welded to the first plate overlaps the second plate to protect the butt joint and to prevent ammunition from penetrating therethrough. The welded joint prevents any possibility of a pathway which may allow the passage of one or more rounds developing between the first plate and the overlapping strip.

The only possibility of such a pathway developing is between the overlapping strip and second section of plate armour. However, it has been found in practice that buckling of the second plate due to repeated automatic fire may open up such a pathway diagonally through the joint.

The present invention seeks to provide a plate armour arrangement in which the adjacent edges of sections of plate armour may be mated together in such a manner that they are easily separated one from another and removed, and which provide greatly improved resistance to penetration as compared with the separable prior arrangements described heretofor.

According to the present invention there is provided a section of plate armour capable of mating with one or more other such sections, comprising a main portion of plate armour; a first strip of plate armour attached to a face of the portion and overlapping the edge of one longitudinal end face thereof; and a second strip of plate armour attached to a face of the portion and overlapping the edge of the opposite longitudinal end face.

Preferably the first strip is attached to the front face of the main portion and the second strip is attached to the rear face thereof.

Preferably the first strip is attached to the front face of the main portion by welding.

Additionally the second strip is preferably attached to the rear face of the main portion by welding.

The section of plate armour is conveniently supported by means of one or more pins or screwed studs which pass through corresponding apertures in the plate armour section. Movement of the section with respect to the pins may be further reduced by nuts and/or spacers thereon.

Preferably adjacent pins are spaced apart such that a plurality of sections may be supported thereon with the main portions of adjacent sections in abutment, constituting a joint. In this position the first strip of one section will overlap the joint on the front face of the section and second strip of an adjacent section will overlap the joint at the rear of the section.

The welded strips increase the thickness of the plate armour in the area of the joint and considerably reduce the amount of buckling caused by repeated direct hits around the edges of the plate armour section. This helps prevent the longitudinal end faces of two adjacent sections becoming out of alignment opening up a pathway through the joint for ammunition to pass. Even with very rapid continuous firing, although the central area of each section may become very buckled and warped, the reinforced edges of the section will remain substantially flat. The joints between sections, therefor, will show greater resistance to penetration by rounds striking the joint over a large range of incident angles.

Conveniently each section is supported by 2 pins through 2 apertures located equidistant from the mid point of the main portion of plate armour.

Any section may be easily removed if desired (for example if it has been badly damaged) by the removal of any locking nuts on the pins and casing the section away from the pins. Additionally if the section has the first strip on its inner face and the second strip on its outer face a damaged section may be rotated "end for end" about 180" and replaced "inside out". Thus sections with severe buckling or dents in one direction only (as will normally be the case when the section is being hit by ammunition from one direction only) may be reversed so that both front and rear faces of the section may in turn receive the impact of ammunition.

Preferably the one or more apertures in the section through which the pins pass are located towards the top of the section. This ensures that they are out of the main line of fire and reduces the possibility that the pins or locking nuts may be struck by ammunition. This may damage the pins making removal of the section difficult or even impossible without cutting away the pins.

The pins may be directly attached to a wall or screen behind the plate armour eg by means of rag bolts etc.

Alternatively the pins may be attached to a secondary plate which is in turn attached to the wall. It is to be noted that a wide variety of methods of attaching the sections to the wall will be known to those conversant with the art, any of which may be usefully employed without departing from the scope of the present invention.

The momentum of the ammunition will largely be absorbed when it strikes the armour plating.

However some rounds may fragment upon striking the plate armour, or some or all of the round may rebound from the plate and constitute an unpredictable danger to persons in the vicinity.

This problem may be obviated by the provision of a rubber sheet suspended in front of the plate armour section and separated therefrom. A round fired at the sheet will easily penetrate it and strike the plate armour wherein most of its momentum will be absorbed. Any rebounding fragments will not have sufficient momentum to penetrate the rubber sheet a second time and will be captured in or behind the sheet.

Advantageously the rubber sheet is formed of Linatex (Trade Mark). This is a latex based rubber manufactured by the Wilkinson Rubber Co Ltd and is particularly suitable for this purpose as it is self sealing. This is to say that a round will easily penetrate the sheeting but a permanent hole in the sheet will not be opened up due to the high degree of flexibility of the sheet. The sheet stretches locally when impacted by a round and subsequently contracts to fill the hole formed when the round passes through the sheet.

The spacing of the Linatex sheet from the plate armour must be carefully determined. If the sheet is too close to the armour plating then rebounding fragments may have enough residual momentum to pierce the sheet. Conversely positioning the sheet further from the armour plating reduces the space available in front of the plate armour. A compromise must be arrived at between the need for safety and the desirability of conserving space and a particularly suitable spacing between the sheet and the armour which fulfils these conditions is approximately 300 mm.

For ease of handling and manufacture it is convenient to use sections of Linatex and to provide a second layer of Linatex sheeting immediately behind the first so that joints between sections in the second layer are offset from the joints between sections in the first layer.

This second layer of sheeting is to ensure that fragments of ammunition rebounding from the plate armour may not pass between the joints between adjacent sections of the first layer.

According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a target range including a plurality of sections of plate armour each in accordance with the invention.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which, Figure 1 is a plan view of a section of plate armour according to the invention, Figure 2 is a cross sectional plan view through a joint between the two sections according to the invention, and, Figure 3 is a sectional side view of a target range employing sections of plate armour as shown in Figures 1 and 2.

According to Figure 1 a section of plate armcur comprises a main portion 1 of armour steel to the front face 2 of which is attached a strip 3 of armour steel by means of a welded joint 4. The strips 3 overlaps the edge 5 of one longitudinal end face 6. A second strip 7 of armour steel is attached to the rear face 8 of the main portion 1 by means of a welded joint 11. The strip 7 is positioned such that it overlaps the edge 9 of the opposite longitudinal end face 10.

The main portion 1 and the two strips 3 and 7 constitute a section of armour plating which may be coupled with other similar sections to form assemblies of armour plating. A joint between two adjacent sections is shown in Figure 2. The longitudinal end face 6 of the main portion of one section is in abutment with the opposite longitudinal end face 10' of the main portion 1' of an adjacent section at a joint 1 2. The strip 3 attached to the front face 2 of portion 1 overlaps the front of the joint 1 2 and the strip 7' attached to the rear face 8' of portion 1' overlaps the rear of the joint 12.

A mild steel plate 13 runs longitudinally parallel to and behind the portions 1, 1' to which plate 1 3 is welded studs 14, 15. The studs 14, 1 5 are received in apertures 1 6, 1 6' in portions 1, 1' respectively. Spacers 1 7, 1 7' separate the portions 1, ' from the mild steep plate and locking nuts 1 8,1 8' bear against the opposite face of the portions to lock them against the spaces. The mild steel plate 13 is attached to a wall 19 by rag bolts 20, 20' and secured with nuts 21, 21'. If it is desired to maintain the plate 13 clear of the wall then spacers (not shown) may be present on the shanks of the rag bolts 20, 20'.

Figure 3 shows part of a target range incorporating sections of plate armour as described above. The construction of the sections and their method of attachment to the wall 19 are also as described above with the plate 13 attached to the wall by means of a rag bolt 20 and the armour sections supported by studs welded onto the plate 1 3 which pass through apertures 16 in the main portion 1 of the section.

The front strip 3 is contiguous towards its lower end with a wooden beam 25 attached to a raised portion 26 of the concrete floor by means of bolts 27.

Bolted to the wall 1 9 above the level of the plate armour sections is a wooded frame 28 which is rectangular in cross section. A mild steel plate 29 is secured to the front face of the frame 28.

Depending from the plate 29 are two sheets 30, 31 of Linatex (Trade Mark) rubber, each encased in a wooden surround 32 which is attached to the plate by means of pins 33, 34. The pins 33, 34 are of unequal length such that the two rubber sheets 30, 31 hand adjacent one another. The sheets 30, 31 are constrained at their lowermost edge by a large wooden block 34 firmly secured to the concrete floor 33. The floor is contoured such that the top edge of the block 32 is level with the raised portion of the concrete floor 26.

In use ammunition is fired at the range in the direction of left to right in Figure 3. Rounds of ammunition easily pentrate the sheets 30, 31 of Linatex rubber but do not leave a permanent hole in the sheets as they are self sealing as hereinbefore described. The rounds then strike the plate armour sections where most of their momentum is absorbed. Severe buckling of the main portion 1 of each section may be experienced but the strips 3 and 7 reinforce the edges of each section to limit warping.

Rebounding fragments of ammunition (known as "splash-back") are arrested by the sheets 30, 31 and are either embedded in the sheets or strike the sheets and drop to the floor.

The range provides an environment where rapid automatic weapons may be fired over a considerably wide angle and which is reasonably safe. Both splash-back from fragmented rounds and pentration of the armour plating at the joints between sections of plate armour are prevented even when firearms capable of very rapid fire are used in the range.

Claims (9)

1. A section of plate armour capable of mating with one or more other such sections comprising a main portion of plate armour; a first strip of plate armour attached to a face of the portion and overlapping the edge of one longitudinal end face thereof; and a second strip of plate armour attached to a face of the portion and overlapping the edge of the opposite longitudinal end face.

2. An armour section according to claim 1 wherein the first strip is attached to the front face of the main portion and the second strip is attached to the rear face thereof.

3. An armour section according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the first strip is attached to a face of the main portion by welding.

4. An armour section according to any of claims 1 to 3 wherein the second strip is attached to a face of the main portion by welding.

5. An armour section according to any of claims 1 to 4 including one or more apertures each adapted to receive a pin on which the section is supported.

6. An armour section according to claim 5 having two apertures located equidistant from the mid point of the main section.

7. A plurality of armour sections each according to claim 5 or claim 6 when supported on pins which are spaced apart such that the main portions of adjacent sections abut one another.

8. An armour section substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 3 of the accompanying drawings.

9. A target range incorporating a plurality of armour sections according to any preceding claim.