GB624798A - Improvements in hydro-pneumatic or pneumatic accumulators with adjustable power for guns - Google Patents

Abstract

624,798. Ordnance mountings. SCHNEIDER & CIE. April 8, 1947, No. 9339. Convention date, April 26, 1946. [Class 92 (i)] A hydro-pneumatic or pneumatic energy accumulator with adjustable power for guns, particularly for use with the recuperating or ramming apparatus, has means for regulating the volume of the compressed air in the air reservoir, the means being such as to allow the air in the reservoir to be divided into two parts having the same pressure, one part being actively variable and its volume adjustable when subjected to compression on recoil, and the complementary part being protected from the effect of the recoil. In the construction shown the hydraulic cylinder 1 is connected to the gun cradle 2 which can turn about horizontal trunnions 3. Within the cylinder is a piston 5 which is coupled to a recoiling part 6 of the gun and which serves to force fluid into the left-hand compartment a of an air reservoir 7 when the gun recoils on firing. The capacity of this compartment is automatically varied when the gun is elevated by means of a piston 9 whose rod 9a has a roller 10 which moves in a fixed cam groove 11. The pressure in the compartment a remains substantially constant during such movements by allowing air to pass from one side of the piston to the other through a valve 13 which is normally kept open by a weak spring 14. The sudden rise in pressure in compartment a upon recoil closes the valve, until the barrel returns to the battery position. In a modification the valve in the piston is replaced by one which is positively opened and closed by a recoiling part of the gun, this valve being located in a passage located in the well of the reservoir and serving to connect compartment a with compartment b. In another modification the piston 9 is dispensed with and the rod 9a passes through holes of a corresponding size in a number of partitions which divide the cylinder 7 into compartments. Cut away portions of the rod enable each compartment to communicate with the next when the rod is suitably positioned and the arrangement is such that the total volume of the effective compartments decreases step by step as the gun is elevated.