GB686049A - Improvements in feed mechanisms for automatic firearms - Google Patents

Abstract

686,049. Automatic firearms. BREVETS AERO-MECANIQUES SOC. ANON. Oct. 31, 1950 [Nov. 18, 1949; May 26, 1950], No. 26594/50. Class 92(ii) The energy developed during the recoil of a firearm is used partly to act on the belt fed mechanism to impart to the belt a portion of the necessary displacement for the feeding of the next round, and partly to charge an energy accumulator which, during the next run-out of the firearm, delivers the stored energy to the mechanism thus imparting to the belt the remainder of the said displacement. In the construction shown, Figs. 3 and 8, the cartridge feed mechanism, which includes a transversely reciprocating member 22 associated with pawls for urging the belt intermittently in the feed direction, is housed in a fixed casing 9. The member 22 is reciprocated by a pivoted lever 13 pivoted in the casing and having a short forward arm which is engaged and rotated by a cam member 17 which is mounted on a part 31 which recoils with the barrel. This cam is pivoted at 32a on a spring- controlled arm 32 which pivots on the part 31 and carries a rolled 17a adapted to engage and depress an energy accumulator 28. In operation the spring 33 of arm 32 normally maintains the heel of cam 17 against the part 31 (see Fig. 3), and when the part 31 recoils on firing a shot the cam and its roller 17a are forced between the accumulator 28 and a roller 16 on the lever 13, thus moving the lever and the accumulator by amounts dependent on their resistances to motion. During runout the roller 16 by engaging behind a projection 17b of the cam, pulls the heel of the cam clear of the part 31, (see Fig. 8), and thus enables the accumulator to complete the operative movements of the lever 13 and member 22, the cam acting as a transmission member. A spring 19 restores the lever to its initial position when the other parts return to the position shown in Fig. 3.