Ordnance – Cartridge feeding – With magazine
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-08
2001-12-11
Johnson, Stephen M. (Department: 3641)
Ordnance
Cartridge feeding
With magazine
C089S033020, C089S034000, C042S050000, C124S045000, C124S048000, C124S052000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327953
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In sports weapons with spherical ammunition, so-called paintballs, a magazine container is usually placed onto the weapon above the projectile chamber, the individual balls being fed out of the magazine container to the projectile chamber as a result of the effect of gravity, by means of compressed air or by mechanical conveying means (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,816,232, 5,282,454, 5,794,606, DE-U-83 14 931, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,097,816, 5,511,333, 5,736,720, WO98/13660, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,063,905, 3,788,298, 5,505,188, DE-C-37 21 527, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,771,875, 1,403,719, 1,743,576, 3,695,246, 5,282,454, 1,404,689). In these, the size of the magazine is disadvantageously restricted, because the weapon has to remain easily maneuverable. The object on which the invention is based is to provide a magazine loading device which overcomes this disadvantage. Launching appliances for play balls (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,844,267, 4,207,857, 3,248,008, 3,610,223, 3,867,921, 4,027,646) have a stationary design and therefore cannot give any suggestion as to how the moveability of a sports weapon, despite being equipped with a large magazine, can be improved.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, a ball container forming the magazine is provided, independently of the weapon, and is equipped with a carrying fixture which makes it possible to carry said ball container, for example, on the belt, on the back or in any other desired place. The balls are transported from the ball container to the weapon by means of a long flexible conveying hose which does not obstruct the maneuverability of the weapon.
For conveying the balls from the ball container to the weapon, known techniques may be adopted, for example compressed-air conveyance, if the container is equipped with a compression-air accumulator or the conveyor hose is connected to a compressed-air line which leads compressed gas from the weapon to the magazine. In general, however, it is more expedient to use a mechanical conveyor which obtains its drive energy from an energy accumulator, for example an electric battery, which is independent of the weapon and is arranged near the magazine. This avoids the need, between the weapon and the magazine, for additional connections which make the arrangement complicated and susceptible to faults and also make it more difficult for the magazine and conveying arrangement to be adaptable to different weapon systems.
In order to make a high rate of fire possible, it is necessary to ensure that the projectile chamber of the weapon is filled with a new ball again immediately after a shot has been fired. If this is to be carried out solely by the conveyor remote from the weapon, the conveyor motor must have a very high power rating. It is therefore more expedient, according to the invention, to have an arrangement in which the conveyor is designed to maintain a conveying force which is exerted constantly on the row of balls and which is transmitted via a spring means, the spring excursion of which is at least as great as the diameter of a ball. This ensures that, when the projectile chamber is being emptied and opened, the next ball is pressed into the projectile chamber immediately as a result of the effect of the spring force, without this operation being directly dependent on the power output of the conveyor motor. The spring means may be selected to have a spring excursion such that, in the case of a rapid rate of fire, the projectile chamber can be refilled several times in succession solely by means of the spring effect.
For this purpose, a special spring may be provided in the conveying means. Instead, it is also possible for the elasticity of the hose and/or of the row of balls between the conveyor and the weapon to be utilized in order to form the spring means. The overall spring effect may also be composed of the individual effects of a spring provided in the conveying means, of the hose and of the row of balls.
In order to keep the size of the energy accumulator serving for driving the conveyor motor small, it is expedient to switch off the motor during firing intermissions. This is known (U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,232). In the known arrangement, the row of balls is fed by a positive-drive conveyor to a fall zone, the lower end of which opens out in the projectile chamber of the weapon. As soon as the fall zone is filled, the motor is switched off. When a sensor detects that a gap has occurred in the fall zone due to the consumption of balls, the motor is switched on again, in order to fill this gap by the reconveyance of balls. The need for a sensor provided in the fall zone makes the arrangement more complicated. Moreover, on the assumption that, according to the invention, the magazine is arranged remotely from the weapon, the sensor signal would have to be supplied to the conveying system remote from the weapon. The abovementioned spring effect for refeeding balls into the projectile chamber makes it possible to dispense with this complicated arrangement, in that the switching off and on of the motor is made dependent on the state of the spring force. If the spring force (or the spring travel as a measure of the spring force) falls below a predetermined threshold because balls have been consumed, the motor is switched on again. The latter runs until a predetermined threshold of the spring force or of the spring travel is exceeded.
The measuring means necessary for this purpose are very simple. If a special spring is used in conjunction with the conveying means, it can easily be detected, by the means of two limit switches, when the deflection of the spring exceeds or falls short of a specific value. Likewise, it can easily be detected, by means of pressure sensors, when the spring exceeds or falls short of a specific force threshold. If a spring is not provided, the force threshold can easily be measured on the element which exerts the conveying force on the row of balls. If this is the rotor described further below, it is possible, for example, to evaluate the torque of the rotor shaft. Finally, there is the possibility of using the current consumption of the motor as a signal for the conveying force generated by it. Electronic circuits, which may be used for evaluating the signals mentioned and for switching the motor on and off, are generally known and therefore do not need to be described. So that the spring force does not decrease due to the drive mechanism running in reverse after the motor has been switched off, said drive mechanism is expediently designed to be self-locking. This is normally the case when a gearing is provided between the motor and the member which transmits the conveying force to the row of balls.
Although the ball container of the device according to the invention can have virtually any desired size, it may be desirable, for practical reasons, to have size variability. This may be brought about not only by keeping containers of different size ready, but also by connecting a further or a plurality of further ball containers to an existing container or conveyor or conveying hose. For example, a first ball container may be provided with an inlet orifice, to which the outlet of a second ball container, likewise provided with a conveyor, is connected, so that the second ball container fills up the first, as required. On the other hand, there may be provision for connecting the plurality of ball containers in parallel, that is to say for having the possibility of feeding balls simultaneously.
According to a further feature of the invention, the ball container and/or the conveyor may be provided with a counting and indicating means, in order to indicate the number of consumed balls and/or balls still remaining. Indication is expediently digital. An indication of the charging state of the battery and/or the remaining playing time may also be provided.
It is known (U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,232) to use, for conveying the balls, a conveying rotor which rotates in a cylindrical housing part and which has, on the circumference, a row of projections which form, in each case with adjac
Alix Yale & Ristas, LLP
Armatec GmbH & CIE. KG
Johnson Stephen M.
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