Double-feed sprocket arrangement for munition changing in automatic guns

US4223589A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Rheinmetall GmbH · DE

Inventor

• Lothar Post · Düsseldorf, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 26, 1978
• Grant date: Sep 23, 1980
• Expiry date: Dec 26, 1998

Classification

• Technology area (CPC F): Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
• CPC primary: F41A9/37
• WIPO field: Other special machines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

An improved double-feed arrangement for introducing munition shells into the breech of an automatic weapon such as a machine gun. The double-feed arrangement includes a housing having two munition belt inlet openings and two munition belt outlet openings respectively equidistantly disposed from the longitudinal axis of the automatic weapon. A pair of hollow transport shafts rotatable in said housing and adapted to be selectively driven by a driving mechanism which can be energized by the recoil of the automatic weapon. A sprocket wheel having a plurality of equidistantly spaced shell receiving seats is mounted on each hollow transport shaft. The sprocket wheels are adapted to normally rotate in mutually opposite directions in a stepwise manner except when a selective switching from one feed to the other feed if effected, whereby a rotational step is imparted on both feeds by the driving mechanism via switching mechanisms to effect a rotation in the same direction. The shell of a first type is then moved from a firing chamber introducing position to a waiting position while the shells of a second type are now stepwise fed into the firing chamber introducing position by the other fee…