US3241446A - Armour cupola - Google Patents

Description

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 H. WEY

ARMOUR CUPOLA March 22, 1966 Filed May 4, 1964.

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ARMOUR CUPOLA Filed May 4, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 'F F 3/ f "2 J & J 17/! A i t 4 A I I Fi .6 9 315 11 "LL EEE F'Z'ZT 5 :z-n-Bzd 70/- Zhvenfo/ 572 Hermann W fiffo w gs United States Patent Q 3,241,446 ARMOUR CUPOLA Hermann Wey, Wallisellen Zurich, Switzerland, assignor to Verwaltungsgesellschaft der Werkzeugmaschinenfahrik Oerlilron, Zurich-Oerlikon, Switzerland Filed May 4, 1964, Ser. No. 364,723 Claims priority, application Switzerland, May 16, 1963, 6,166/ 63 4 Claims. (CI. 89-36) The invention relates to an armour cupola having a drum shield mounted rotatably about a horizontal axis and an ejector shaft for the cartridge cases connected therewith, behind which a cut-out is provided in the ceiling of the cupola with a closure slide capable of closing said cut-out.

In a known armour cupola of this type a plate is pivotally attached to the drum shield behind the shaft, and, for equilibrium, is slidably mounted in a second plate, the end of which is pivotally attached to the ceiling of the armour cupola. When the barrel of the weapon is positioned horizontally, both plates lie at the level of the ceiling and form part of it. When elevating the barrel, however, the plates are swung into the interior of the armour cupola about the pivot point of the second plate, the plate pivotally attached to the armour cupola being shifted relative to the other plate. Thereby a wedge shaped rough is formed extending downward from the top of the cupolas ceiling, into which the empty cartridge cases ejected through the shaft drop back, where they may hamper or even prevent the movement of the plate and hence the turning of the armour shield and/ or barrel.

A further disadvantageous effect is, that lateral closure jaws are to be provided, which extend into the interior of the armour cupola and seal the cupola outwardly, when the two plates sink into the interior of the cupola upon turning the cradle of the weapon. Owing to the very limited space available anyway inside the cupola, these jaws reduce the access to the weapon even further, and moreover the accumulation of the cartridge cases ejected from the shaft in the wedge-shaped trough is even more accentuated by their impinging on the side walls of the trough immediately after leaving the shaft and by their keeping lying in the trough.

A further disadvantage consists in that the cartridge cases ejected from the shaft fall back into the same, and may cause breakdowns of function of the breech of the weapon by hampering the ejection of subsequent cartridge cases.

The invention has the primary object of overcoming these disadvantages and of providing an armour cupola, which involves a considerably smaller structural expense than the known construction and which, owing to adaptability of the shape of the closure slide to the external shape of the cupola, offers the advantage, that the cartrid'ge cases and other articles do not find any hold but slide off and are incapable of forming an accumulation. It is another object of the invention to provide increased safety thereby that the empty cartridge cases are deflected e.g. so as to fly off sideways, so that for example upon a weak ejection caused by the weapon, at low speed, they can neither fall back into the shaft nor get into the vicinity of the closure slide at all. It is yet another object of the invention to provide an armour cupola, which dispenses with structural elements protruding into the interior of the cupola, where they are in the way, take up space and are generally undesirable.

With this and other objects in view which will become apparent later from this specification and the accompanying drawings, I provide an armour cupola for a combat vehicle, comprising in combination: a cupola ceiling, a drum shield and an ejector shaft for the empty cartridge 3,241,446 Patented Mar. 22, 1966 cases connected therewith mounted pivotally about a horizontal axis relative to said ceiling, wherein a cut-out is provided behind said ejector shaft, a closure slide for said ejector shaft slidably mounted and guided on said ceiling, and a spring biasing said closure slide, so that it abuts said shaft over at least part of its sliding path, which latter is limited in the advanced position of said slide by said drum shield.

Preferably this cupola comprises also a flap hinged to the top of said shaft about a horizontal axis and in the open condition assuming an inclined end position deflecting the empty cartridge cases leaving said shaft from the ejection direction predominant in said shaft.

These and other features of my said invention will be clearly understood from the following description of a preferred embodiment and detail modification thereof, given by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal section through the armour cupola with the barrel elevated;

FIG. 2 corresponds to FIG. 1, but with the barrel in the horizontal position;

FIG. 3 is a section on the line IIIIII of FIG. 1 on a larger scale;

FIG. 4 likewise, but for a second embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a section on the line VV of FIG. 1 on a larger scale;

FIG. 6 is a partial plan view of the cupola ceiling and of the slide in the position according to FIG. 1.

In the armour cupola 3, which is rotatably mounted on the turret 2 of a fighting vehicle about the azimuth aiming axis Z-Z a cradle 4, which carries the automatic firearm 1, is mounted pivotally about the trunnions 6 forming the elevation aiming axis AA.

A drum shield 7 is fixedly connected with the cradle 4, and so is also a second drum shield 8', which according to FIG. 5 is guided in the opening 9 of the ceiling 31 and in the inclined front wall 32 of the armour cupola 3. A shaft 10 is fixed to the cradle 4 and to the shield 7, through which shaft the empty cartridge cases coming from the weapon 1 are ejected into the open. As shown in FIG. 6, the shaft 10 extends into a cut-out denoted 5, which is cut into the ceiling 31 of the cupola. At the left and right of the cut-out 5 the ceiling 31 extends with an inner edge 311 contacting the shield 8. In accordance with FIGS. 1 and 3 this cut-out 5 is covered by a movable slide 11 guided between the two parallel edges 312 and 313 therein and resting on the ceiling 31, which slide is held in its slide track by a cover 12. By helical springs 13 arranged in one of its grooves 14 and abutting the rear wall of the cover 12, the slide 11 is biased towards the rear wall 101 of the shaft 10' and towards the drum shield 8, respectively.

As shown as a modification in FIG. 4, the slide 11 may however, be arranged and guided for example on the underside of the ceiling 31 of the cupola. The slide 11 is supported on the lower side and is held in its slide track by a cover 12a. On the exterior side of the ceiling 31 a corresponding plate 12b takes over the protection against the penetration of foreign bodies.

On the upper edge of a side wall of the shaft 10 projecting beyond the shield 8, an axle 15 is mounted (see FIG. 5), on which a flap 16 is keyed. Moreover a linkage 17 is connected with the axle 15, by means of which the flap 16 may be turned by an adjustment lever 18.

From this construction follows the manner of operation of the arrangement described hereinabove of the armour cupola:

When putting the arrangement into readiness for combat, the gunner opens the flap 16, which previously had been held in the closure position, by actuating the lever 18 until a predetermined end position is reached.

With the shaft 10 thus opened, any empty cartridge cases 19 ejected through the same, impinge the flap 16, which is directed obliquely upwards, and are deflected laterally by the same e.g. transversely of the aiming direction of the weapon, and are thrown off. Thereby the cartridge cases thrown up are prevented from falling back into shaft 10 or on the ceiling 31 of the cupola. Moreover the ejected cartridge cases are prevented from dropping in front of the barrel of the weapon, when the shaft is inclined forward, i.e. when the weapon is pointing horizontally, in which position the cartridges could get into the trajectory of their own protectiles and could be met there by a projectile leaving the barrel. By explosion of such projectile, owing to response of its fuse to the impact of an empty cartridge case, a great danger would be created.

When lowering the weapon, for example from the position illustrated in FIG. 1, to the horizontal as shown in FIG. 2, the shaft 10 moves forward in the cut-out of the ceiling, until its rear wall 101 reaches the position indicated in FIG. 2.

During this movement of the shaft the slide 11 taking part in this movement owing to the bias of the springs 13 abuts the wall 101 of the shaft, whereby the cut-out 5 is kept closed, and when the weapon 1 is lowered further, the slide 11 reaches the limit of its path, abutting the drum shield 8.

While I have herein described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings what may be considered a typical and particularly useful embodiment of my said invention and a detail modification thereof, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself to the particular details and dimensions described or illustrated; for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a tank cupola for a combat vehicle comprising in combination a cupola roof provided with a recess having an interiorly located roof edge, the sides of said recess extending from said edge lying parallel to one another, an axis essentially parallel to said edge, a body swingable forth and back between two final positions around said axis, said body comprising a drum shield contacting said edge, an ejecting flue protruding from said shield and said cupola roof, said ejecting flue in a first of said two final positions being located outside of said recess and in a second position engaging in said recess, plate-like covering means extending along said cupola roof to cover said recess comprising a springloaded slide displaceable on said sides of said recess in the direction towards said edge, whereby said slide in said first position engaging said edge is resiliently urged against said drum shield and in said second mentioned position against said ejecting flue.

2. In a tank cupola as claimed in claim 1 wherein said slide has a protecting plate secured to the outside of said supola roof partially covering said slide.

3. In a tank cupola as claimed in claim 1 wherein a guiding plate is attached to the interior side of said cupola roof partially guiding said slide.

4. In a tank cupola as claimed in claim 1 wherein a flap hinged to the top of said flue about a horizontal axis and in an open condition assuming an inclined end position deflecting empty cartridge cases leaving said flue from the ejection direction predominant in said flue.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/1916 Moore S9-36 1/1957 Molins et a1. 89-33 X OTHER REFERENCES Keller et 211.: German Application No. 1,105,313, Published April 20, 1961.

Claims (1)

1. IN A TANK CUPOLA FOR A COMBAT VEHICLE COMPRISING IN COMBINATION A CUPOLA ROOF PROVIDED WITH A RECESS HAVING AN INTERIORLY LOCATED ROOF EDGE, THE SIDES OF SAID RECESS EXTENDING FROM SAID EDGE LYING PARALLEL TO ONE ANOTHER, AN AXIS ESSENTIALLY PARALLEL TO SAID EDGE, A BODY SWINGABLE FORTH AND BACK BETWEEN TWO FINAL POSITIONS AROUND SAID AXIS, SAID BODY COMPRISING A DRUM SHIELD CONTACTING SAID EDGE, AN EJECTING FLUE PROTRUDING FROM SAID SHIELD AND SAID CUPOLA ROOF, SAID EJECTING FLUE IN A FIRST AND SAID TWO FINAL POSITIONS BEING LOCATED OUTSIDE OF SAID RECESS AND IN A SECOND POSITION ENGAGING IN SAID RECESS, PLATE-LIKE COVERING MEANS EXTENDING ALONG SAID CUPOLA ROOF TO COVER SAID RECESS COMPRISING A SPRINGLOADED SLIDE DISPLACEABALE ON SAID SIDES OF SAID RECESS IN THE DIRECTION TOWARDS SAID EDGE, WHEREBY SAID SLIDE IN SAID FIRST POSITION ENGAGING SAID EDGE IS RESILIENTLY URGED AGAINST SAID DRUM SHIELD AND IN SAID SECOND MENTIONED POSITION AGAINST SAID EJECTING FLUE.

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