Small caliber shell

Details Small caliber shell Small caliber shell

1999-01-26

2001-09-11

Tudor, Harold J. (Department: 3641)

Ammunition and explosives

Projectiles

Composite

C102S516000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06286433

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a new improved small-caliber shell with a certain armor-piercing capacity. The shell according to the invention is of the basic type which includes an outer casing made of a thinner metal material such as tombac, tombac-plated sheet steel or the like, which defines the outer shape of the shell, and a shell core enclosed therein and made of extremely hard armor-piercing material such as hard metal, heavy metal or equivalent.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Even though the designation small-caliber can be somewhat vague, it is weapon calibers under 20 mm which are refered to here and then chiefly calibers up to and including 50 caliber which are now, of course, also found in modern handheld firearms chiefly intended for sniping at extremely long ranges. In the case of weapon calibers of 20 mm and above, it would probably be more efficient to use so-called dart shells or other more expensive and more effective shell types for combating armored targets than the simpler and cheaper- type of which the present invention is an example.
Previously known so-called armor-piercing small-caliber shells have very generally consisted of an outer casing made of a relatively thin sheet material which in most cases consisted of tombac, tombac-plated sheet steel or equivalent and a core enclosed therein made of an extremely hard material which often consists of hard metal which is actually not a metal or metal alloy but rather various types of metal carbides and mostly tungsten carbides, or heavy metal which in most cases is tungsten alloys.
As a rule, the armor-piercing core in previous types of armor-piercing small-caliber shells was shorter than and sometimes also of smaller caliber than the inside of the casing. The shells therefore as a rule also contained various types of filling material in order to fill out the interior of the casing and hold the armor-piercing core in place until the shell reached its target.
The armor-piercing capacity of the armor-piercing small-caliber shells is or course clearly limited but, as the use of anti-splinter armors has increased to a very great extent in recent years and as the armor-piercing small-caliber ammunition can under favorable circumstances deal with targets of this type, the need for this type of ammunition can be expected to continue to increase. Clearly, the greatest problem with the current generation of armor-piercing small-caliber ammunition, however, is that, quite generally, it has great differences in the ballistic characteristics of the shells as compared to corresponding standard ammunition of the same caliber. As a result precision shooting with mixed ammunition or rapid changing between different ammunition types is made considerably more difficult.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The aim of the present invention is to offer a new type of small-caliber shell with a certain very good, with regard to its own caliber-armor-piercing effect. Probably, the greatest advantage of the present invention, with such an inner construction is that its ballistic data can easily be adapted to be very close to or even be made completely identical with the majority of standard ammunition types with the caliber range concerned. Shells designed in accordance with the invention moreover have such good and uniform precision that they fall into the same class as the so-called sniper or special ammunition for marksmen.
In summary, the present invention thus relates to a small-caliber shell with a certain armor-piercing capacity of the type which comprises an elongate, preferably solid shell core or penetrator which is axially centered inside a hollow shell casing and which has a cylindrical main part and a tip which tapers conically forwards in the intended flight direction of the shell in one or more stages. The tip of the shell core itself can thus have the shape of one or more successive frustoconical parts of ever greater apex angles and a concluding conical part, or alternatively, a single conical tip. The outer shape of the shell on the other hand is defined entirely by the shell casing and is therefore designed from the outset with the conical tip which is appropriate for each specific shell type.
The invention is characterized in the first place in that the shell cores or penetrators are centered around the longitudinal axis of the shell casing, that is of the future finished shell, between a first accurate bearing or support against the inside of the shell casing in the front conically pointed part of the shell and a second bearing in the rear part of the shell by means of a support part or insert which is arranged inside the casing and contains at least the very rearmost part of the shell core and which in turn is held in place in the casing by a ballast material which completely fills the rearmost part of the casing.
The bearing, between the inside of the shell core and the front part of the penetrator, takes place either along one of the frustoconical parts of the shell core tip or along the transition or interruption edge between two parts which may be constituted by the cylindrical part of the shell core and its single-coned tip, or alternatively, by different parts of the coned tip. The edge(s) which form(s) the transition between the tip and the cylindrical part, or alternatively, between different parts of the tip coned in a number of stages is then a natural circumferential bearing line for centering the front part of the penetrator against the inside of the casing well into the part of the same which forms the tip of the shell, providing of course that the penetrator has a smaller diameter than the inside of the shell casing and also a more obtuse apex angle on its own tip than the inner apex angle of the casing.
The possibility of locating the bearing of the shell core against the inside of the casing along an entire frustoconical surface is selected in particular when there is a need for the greater friction contact surface, which is then obtained, in order to ensure that the shell core does not have a tendency to remain still inside the rotationally stabilized casing, that is in ammunition types with extremely high speed of rotation. With this variant, the possibility exists to increase the contact surface between the shell core and the inside of the shell casing to correspond in principle to more than half the tip length of the shell core.
The advantages with the four-part basic construction indicated above are numerous. Firstly, the armor-piercing shell core is very well supported and centered in the shell casing right up to the moment that the shell reaches the target. Secondly, the ballistic data of the shell can easily be modified by adjusting the ratio between the weight of the ballast material and of the support part respectively. This can be done both by varying the material selected in the different parts and by varying their mutual volume ratios. At the same time, the same armor-piercing shell core can be used in a number of different adjacent calibers, of which there is a large number intended mainly for lighter handheld firearms and this will mean considerable cost savings. The support part or insert can be made of any material with sufficiently good strength and moldability. Steel or aluminium, for example, are good materials but the possibility of using certain plastics for this purpose is not inconceivable. The ballast material filling the rearmost part of the casing is required to be plastically deformable so that it can be given the desired final shape while permitting the rearmost part of the shell to be finally shaped in a known manner including folding-in at the rear of the rear outer edge of the casing at the same time as possibly equipping with a so-called boat tail end by upsetting. It is very important that an absolutely gastight connection is obtained between the inside of the casing and the ballast material. Excellent materials for this purpose are lead and various lead alloys.
For the shell according to the invention, the armor-piercing core or penetrator can adv

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Small caliber shell does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Small caliber shell, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Small caliber shell will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2491246