GB253310A - Improvements in or relating to projectile fuses - Google Patents

Abstract

253,310. White, A. E., (Bethlehem Steel Co.). April 28, 1925. Projectile fuzes. - Relates to fuzes adapted to be cocked on discharge and to fire the fuze on impact after retardation has ceased. According to the invention, the fuze comprises means for cocking the hammer on discharge, means for holding the hammer cocked during flight, and means energized by the impact to release the striker upon cessation of retardation. As shown in Fig. 1, the hammer 36 is held in an inner sleeve O by bolts B locked by an outer sleeve S. The sleeves 0, S and the hammer are held back, and an " anticipator holder " 30 is pressed forward, by a. coiled spring 32. On discharge, a plunger 42 sets back and compresses the hammer spring 40, and segments 45 open out into a recess 46 in the sleeve 0, thereby holding the plunger back and the hammer cocked. The anticipator holder also sets back. there being a small gap 29 between it and the sleeve S: but it is returned forward again by the spring 32 when acceleration is over. On impact, the sleeves S, 0 and the hammer 36 and the plunger 42 all move forward together, except that the sleeve S is arrested before the rest, after which the bolts B remain locked by the wall of the fuze body 13. When acceleration is over, the spring 32 returns sleeve 0 and hammer 36 back; and towards the end of this movement, a ring 47 which has expanded from the sleeve 0 bears on the sleeve S and drives this back also. At the end of this return movement, the bolts B are wedged out into the wider chamber 24 of the fuze body and the striker is driven against a primer 18 which fires a detonator 20, Fig. 5, communicating the explosion to a " booster " charge 15. The detonator 20 is carried by a safety shutter 19. If quick action is desired instead of the delayed action described above, the nose plug 50 is removed from the contour cap 11 and a rod is inserted through this hole and into a socket 31 in the anticipator holder 30. On impact, this rod with the anticipator holder is driven in and holds the sleeve S back, while the hammer and sleeve 0 are still free to move forward ; the bolts B are therefore released immediately. In a modification, Fig. 9, the sleeve S and the anticipator holder of a base fuze are replaced by two sleeves 60, 61. The bolts B<1> can pass through slots 62 in the sleeve 60 but are normally locked by the end of the sleeve 60. On impact, both sleeves move forward, but a ball 70 moves radially out of a recess 71 between them and thereby displaces them longitudinally relatively one to the other; and the bolts B<1> are released by the sleeve 60 but remain locked by the sleeve 61 until acceleration is over, when the sleeves are returned back and the bolts B<1> are released by the sleeve 61 before they can be locked again by the sleeve 60.