Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Daniel W Deis

George A Kemeny

Ian R McNab

Joseph L Smith, Jr

Carl J Heyne

David W Scherbarth

Donald T Hackworth

David Marschik

Walter J Carr, Jr

Frederick J Young

William F Hughes

Edward J Shestak

Henry Riemersma

Henry R Schwenk

John W Olsen

An artillery piece which has a gun barrel made up of a parallel rail electromagnetic launcher bore. Current from a source is injected into the rails to propel a bridging armature and projectile. The velocity of the porjectile is measured as it traverses a certain position within the barrel and the measured velocity is compared with a predetermined desired velocity. The velocity of the projectile is modified (if required) toward the muzzle end of the rails as a result of the comparison.

Electromagnetic launcher with muzzle velocity adjustment

An electromagnetic projectile launcher is provided with a firing switch which alternately opens and closes to repeatedly commutate current from a high current supply to a pair of projectile launching rails. A rotor having a transverse conducting element is rotated within and moved axially along a cylindrical stator. Brush members which have widths which decrease in an axial direction along the stator are shorted by the conducting element between shots for varying lengths of time as the rotor travels axially along the stator.

Rotary switch for multiple shot electromagnetic launchers

An electromagnetic launcher system which includes a homopolar generator pulse power supply recovers post-launch rail inductive energy and transfers it to the rotor of the homopolar generator to increase its kinetic energy for use in one or more subsequent launchings.

Electromagnetic launcher with post-firing energy recovery for slow or

An inductor with high inductance to resistance ratio capable of handling megamp currents. Sixteen coil assemblies are radially arranged into four quadrants of four coil assemblies each and jumpers are utilized to connect the quadrants in different configurations for different inductance values. Each coil assembly is made up of a plurality of nested essentially D-shaped copper conductors collectively nested within an aluminum structural support plate in which eddy currents are minimized by a interruption in the plate. The individual conductors of each coil assembly are transposed throughout a quadrant for balanced current flow. Coil bus bars as well as an input and output bus bar are connected to predetermined ones of the coil assemblies with the input and output bus bars being connected to system input and output leads. The unit is operated at cryogenic temperatures by immersion in a liquid nitrogen filled cryostat.

High energy toroidal inductor

An electromagnetic parallel rail launcher with an augmentation winding for post-firing inductive energy recovery. A power supply includes a storage inductor which, in conjunction with the inductance of the augmenting winding, provides the inductive energy storage prior to firing. As the launcher projectile exits, the storage inductor is substantially decoupled from the rail and augmenting winding inductance, so that a high efficiency inductive energy transfer may be accomplished between the rails and augmenting winding.

High efficiency rapid fire augmented electromagnetic projectile launcher

An electromagnetic projectile launcher is provided with a cartridge-type switch for commutating current from a high current source to a pair of generally parallel conductive rails. A conductive cartridge switch in sliding electrical contact with the rails at the breech end includes a pressure chamber and aperture for receiving a projectile. An increase in pressure in the pressure chamber forces the projectile forward while forcing the cartridge rearward. Current is commutated from the cartridge to a conductive armature which subsequently propels a projectile along the conductive rails.

Electromagnetic launcher with high repetition rate switch

An electromagnetic projectile launching system utilizes two cylindrical rail configurations. In one configuration, multiple conductive armatures are electromagnetically accelerated along rails which are located on the inner surface of a cylindrical barrel. The second configuration utilizes armatures located between concentric cylindrical rails. Rifling provides for spin stabilization of the projectile.

Electromagnetic projectile launching system with a concentric rail

An electromagnetic projectile launcher having a pair of conductive rails with a breech and a muzzle end and an impedance electrically connected across the conductive rails adjacent the muzzle end of the conductive rails, and a second impedance in the muzzle end of the rails whereby arcs which commutate the current to the first impedance are confined within the muzzle to substantially suppress any external arc as the projectile exits from the launcher.

Muzzle arc suppressor for electromagnetic projectile launcher

An electromagnetic projectile launching system is provided with a rail configuration in the breech area which increases the electromagnetic field to increase armature acceleration and initiate sliding current transfer at a lower current. Two configurations are disclosed. The first comprises multiple rails disposed parallel to the launcher barrel rails in tne breech region and connected in series such that current in the multiple rails flows in the same direction as current in the closest barrel rail. Connecting shunts are disposed in equal numbers on opposite sides of the barrel rails to balance electromagnetic forces. The second configuration comprises nonparallel barrel rails containing a bend in the breech region.

Electromagnetic projectile launcher with an augmented breech

An electromagnetic projectile launching system is provided with an automatic plasma armature formation device. An arc created when a conductive armature breaks contact with a pair of conductive rails is commutated through an aperture in one of the rails to a second pair of conductive rails where the arc is used as a plasma driving armature to propel a projectile.

Electromagnetic projectile launcher with an automatic plasma formation

A superconductive field winding is provided for the rotor of a dynamoelectric machine. The winding consists of a number of multi-turn coils of a superconductive conductor which are wound about the periphery of the rotor thereby defining at least one pole pair. Selected coils of each pole pair are series-connected in groups of two coils or more and all of the series connected coil groups are connected in parallel one to another. Resistance elements connected in series with the parallel connected coils cause the current density of coil conductors disposed in regions of high field intensity to be reduced in relation to the current density of conductors lying in regions of low field intensity, thereby allowing the use of higher source current. A net increase in the useful external magnetic field is therefore obtained for a given amount of superconductive material.

Superconductive winding

Insulated wire coated with a bonding material is formed into cables and wound in an appropriate chamber. A pressurizing material is utilized to compress the wires in the chamber. The pressurizing material is then hardened to maintain the wires in the compressed state. Heat is then applied to cause the bonding material to bond the wires together and rigidly maintain them in the positions they occupy when compressed.

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Churchill Borough, PA, United States of America

Daniel W Deis