Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F42—AMMUNITION; BLASTING
  • F42B—EXPLOSIVE CHARGES, e.g. FOR BLASTING, FIREWORKS, AMMUNITION
  • F42B14/00—Projectiles or missiles characterised by arrangements for guiding or sealing them inside barrels, or for lubricating or cleaning barrels
  • F42B14/06—Sub-calibre projectiles having sabots; Sabots therefor
  • F42B14/064—Sabots enclosing the rear end of a kinetic energy projectile, i.e. having a closed disk shaped obturator base and petals extending forward from said base
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F42—AMMUNITION; BLASTING
  • F42B—EXPLOSIVE CHARGES, e.g. FOR BLASTING, FIREWORKS, AMMUNITION
  • F42B14/00—Projectiles or missiles characterised by arrangements for guiding or sealing them inside barrels, or for lubricating or cleaning barrels
  • F42B14/06—Sub-calibre projectiles having sabots; Sabots therefor
  • F42B14/068—Sabots characterised by the material

Definitions

• This invention relates to ammunition sabots and particularly to a disintegrating sabot.
• Standard caliber as used herein means 0.50" caliber and below.
• the state of the art in plastic small caliber sabots has basically remained static since the development of the plastic sabot for hunting ammunition shown in U.S. Patent No. 3,164,092, issued January 5, 1965, to D. S. Reed et al and assigned to Remington Arms Co., Inc. and which relates to the well-known Remington "Accelerator” hunting cartridge which uses a lead bullet in a polycarbonate sabot.
• the present invention provides a solution to this problem by providing an ammunition sabot which is strong enough to exit a rifled barrel in one piece at peak chamber pressures in excess of 70,000 copper crusher units of pressure (C.U.P.) while carrying a tungsten or tungsten carbide penetrator and then immediately disintegrate so that it doesn't thereafter slow down the projectile or make the projectile inaccurate.
• this is accomplished by use of a special sabot material (see Claims 1-4) and/or a special sabot design (see Claims 5-12).
• FIGURE 1 is a cross-sectional view taken along the axis of a preferred sabot and projectile of the invention.
• FIGURE 2 is an isometric view of the washer of FIGURE 1.
• a projectile 10 is shown having a major cylindrical rear portion 12 carried with a central recess 14 of a generally cylindrical plastic sabot 16 which has a solid cylindrical rear base portion 18 and a tubular front portion 20.
• Front portion 20 comprises a plurality of arcuate cylindrical portions 22 connected by weakened portions 24 extending axially on portion 20.
• Weakened portions 24 are weakened by suitable means such as spaced axial grooves or notches 26 on the inner periphery of central recess 14. Notches 26 run from the front end of sabot 16 part way back on the inner periphery of front portion 20.
• the outer periphery 28 of sabot 16 is an uninterrupted right cylindrical surface.
• a metallic square washer with rounded corners 34 (also shown in FIGURE 2) which extends radially inward and outward of the inner periphery of central recess 14 so as to distribute the accelerational forces during explosive discharge of sabot 16 and projectile 10 together through a rifled gun barrel (not shown) and to prevent rotational slippage between sabot 16 and washer 34 during spin-up of sabot 16 during such discharge.
• Washer 34 could be of other non-circular symmetrical shapes such as polygonal, (pentagonal, or hexagonal, etc.), oval, or gear-shaped. Washer 34 has rounded corners to reduce stress concentrations at its corners and to allow use of bigger area washers.
• Outer periphery of 28 of sabot 16 is of a substantially constant diameter from base 18 up to an axial point 36 which is located forward of the center of gravity 38 of projectile 10 to minimize balloting of projectile 10 during its passage through a rifled gun barrel, as might occur if point 36 was located back of center of gravity 38.
• a second optional heavy projectile 10a is also shown having a center of gravity 38a, which is also behind point 36.
• Sabot 16 is of 7.62mm caliber and carries a 52 grain tungsten projectile 10 or a 57 grain tungsten projectile 10a.
• Other calibers of sabot 16 such as 5.56mm or 0.50 caliber could also be utilized and other sizes, materials, and shapes of projectiles 10 could be utilized, if desired.
• the plastic for sabot 10 is of a material that has sufficient tensile strength (at least 12,000 psi), compressive strength (at least 15,000 psi), and sufficient shear strength (at least 12,000 psi) to withstand the shock of explosive discharge from a rifled gun barrel while carrying projectile 10 but having insufficient (less than about 12 ft. -1bs. /in.) Izod impact strength to withstand centrifugal and aerodynamic forces following discharge so that sabot 16 disintegrates immediately (i.e., within a yard) after exiting the barrel muzzle, thus immediately freeing the projectile 10 for unimpeded flight to the target.
• plastic material is "ULTEM 1000", an unreinforced amorphous polyetherimide thermoplastic resin marketed by General Electric Company. Some other plastics believed to be suitable are ULTEM 2200, a 20% glass reinforced polyetherimide resin and LEXAN 3412, a 20% glass reinforced polycarbonate resin, both from General Electric Company and TORLON 4203L engineering resin from Amoco Chemicals Corporation. Other plastics with equivalent mechanical properties could be utilized if the mechanical properties of the plastic are not chemically deteriorated by any exposure to propellants with which it is expected to be utilized.

Landscapes

• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Aiming, Guidance, Guns With A Light Source, Armor, Camouflage, And Targets (AREA)
• Investigating Strength Of Materials By Application Of Mechanical Stress (AREA)
• Glass Compositions (AREA)
• Telescopes (AREA)
• Compositions Of Macromolecular Compounds (AREA)
• Hydraulic Turbines (AREA)
• Soft Magnetic Materials (AREA)
• Optical Radar Systems And Details Thereof (AREA)
• Transition And Organic Metals Composition Catalysts For Addition Polymerization (AREA)
• Table Devices Or Equipment (AREA)
• Financial Or Insurance-Related Operations Such As Payment And Settlement (AREA)
• Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)
• Paints Or Removers (AREA)
• Non-Silver Salt Photosensitive Materials And Non-Silver Salt Photography (AREA)
• Processing And Handling Of Plastics And Other Materials For Molding In General (AREA)
• Guides For Winding Or Rewinding, Or Guides For Filamentary Materials (AREA)
• Belt Conveyors (AREA)

Priority Applications (10)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=22195408

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (9)

Cited By (4)

Families Citing this family (1)

Citations (6)

Family Cites Families (3)

• 1986
  • 1986-03-10 BR BR8607108A patent/BR8607108A/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1986-03-10 JP JP61503786A patent/JP2587820B2/ja not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1986-03-10 WO PCT/US1986/000491 patent/WO1987005386A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 1986-03-10 DE DE8686904471T patent/DE3668690D1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1986-03-10 EP EP86904471A patent/EP0264379B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1986-03-10 AT AT86904471T patent/ATE50052T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
• 1987
  • 1987-11-09 FI FI874940A patent/FI91324C/fi not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1987-11-09 NO NO87874659A patent/NO165266C/no unknown
  • 1987-11-09 DK DK585687A patent/DK165523C/da not_active IP Right Cessation

Patent Citations (6)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events