1992-02-03
1993-04-13
Bentley, Stephen C.
Ordnance
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Rammers
F41A 944
Patent
active
052025314
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a rammer for artillery pieces which are separately charged with a shell and propellant charge.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of the rammer is to drive the shell, upon charging of the piece, into its rammed position in the barrel, with at least one of the bourrelets of the shell in such close contact with the lands of the barrel rifling that the shell remains in the rammed position even at the maximum elevation of the piece. This is necessary in order to permit introduction of the propellant powder charge into its position in the charge space situated behind the rammed shell. The normal charging procedure begins by being the shell into the immediate vicinity of the open rear section of the artillery piece, for example on an in-swinging charge cradle, after which a rammer of one type or another drives the shell into its rammed position. Since, as has already been mentioned, there must be space behind the shell for the propellant powder charge itself, the distance by which the rammer must move the shell into the barrel is relatively long.
Moreover, the shell must be driven in with a certain force in order for it to remain there even when the piece is at its maximum elevation. In the case of purely axially displaceable rammers, this results in comparatively long constructions. On the other hand the known more compact rammer constructions have had to rely on a relatively long so-called free flight for the shell, which means that it makes contact with the rammer only during a relatively short part of the ramming distance from the charge position to the rammed position, but that the shell during this relatively short part of the ramming distance is given a sufficient speed so that, after the contact with the rammer has ceased, it can continue, by means of a combination of the acquired speed and the intrinsic gravity, into its rammed position with sufficient force to give the desired engagement in the barrel grooving.
An example of such a rammer with a long free flight for the shell is described in German Offenlegungsschrift 3,607,006. However, a long free flight constitutes a factor of unreliability, since in this case there is poor control of how good the ramming actually is in each particular case.
The purpose of the present invention is primarily to provide a rammer with a short free flight and a very compact construction. In addition, the construction of the rammer according to the invention includes a small number of simple and strong components.
Furthermore, the construction according to the invention has made it possible, in the case of hydraulic operation of the rammer, to limit the number of hydraulic connections to a minimum, and at the same time, due to the special design of the rammer, these connections can be made in the form of fixed connections on the breech casing of the piece, which therefore do not participate in the recoil of the piece, which is also very advantageous as regards both operational reliability and servicing requirements.
These advantageous characteristics of the rammer according to the present invention come fully into play in connection with modernizing older types of armored-turret-protected pieces which were originally charge manually, of which there are a very large number dating from the sixties and the beginning of the seventies and whose value would be increased to a very great extent if they could be provided with wholly automatic or semi-automatic charging systems instead of their previous manually charging systems. Since these pieces are already mounted in armored turrets with limited internal space, the requirement for compact charging systems is very significant. In addition, it must be possible to mount the charging system with place without significant interference in the artillery piece system as such or its possible auxiliary systems.
The rammer according to the present invention is thus primarily intended for those artillery pieces which are separately charged with the shell and propellant powde
REFERENCES:
patent: 2785607 (1957-03-01), Henstrom et al.
M.ang.nsson Lars
M.ang.nsson Stig
Bentley Stephen C.
Swedish Ordnance - FFV/Bofors AB
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