Westinghouse Electric Corporation

David W Scherbarth

Daniel W Deis

George A Kemeny

Jiing-Liang Wu

David Marschik

Samuel J Scuro

Gerald L Ferrentino

John W Olsen

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 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 electrical switch for switching direct current in an inductively driven electromagnetic projectile launching system is provided with a rotor having a generally cylindrical conductive element with a first portion that includes a continuously conductive external surface. A second portion of the conductive element includes a pair of insulating members fixed at angularly spaced locations such that sections of the conductive elements and the insulating members alternate along the generally cylindrical surface of the elememt. One pair of angularly spaced retractable brush members extend radially inward toward and axially along the conductive surface of the first portion of the conductive element to make sliding electrical contact with the conductive element during the inductor charging phase of a launch sequence. A second pair of angularly spaced retractable brush members extend radially toward the segmented portion of the rotor conductive element and serve to commutate current from the switch to a pair of generally parallel projectile launching rails. A switch housing encircles the rotor and supports conductors which are used to electrically connect one brush of each pair to the launcher circuit. The other brushes are electrically shorted. Means is provided for moving the brush members into and out of contact with the rotor conductive element to achieve the desired switching function.

Rotary switch for inductively driven rail gun systems

An armature for use in electromagnetic projectile launchers is provided with a plurality of modular conductive fiber bundles which are arranged in a rectangular array and attached to an insulating armature support structure. The conductive fibers extend across the launcher bore and are sized to provide an interference fit between a pair of generally parallel conductive launcher rails. Each fiber bundle includes a rectangular central sheath and a pair of peripheral rectangular sheets positioned on opposite sides of the central sheath. The axis of each peripheral sheet is positioned at an angle with respect to the axis of the central sheath.

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Wilkinsburg, PA, United States of America

David W Scherbarth