Fmc Corporation

Bae Systems Land & Armaments L.p.

Robert V Mortensen

James A Luoma

Jeffrey V Ireland

James M Anderson

A solid state ignition safety device for rocket assisted projectiles having a piezoelectric generator that charges a capacitor during the initial acceleration of the projectile by the launching propellant charge. The capacitor is then discharged after a delay to ignite an initiator, which ignites the rocket motor of the projectile. A time delay circuit can be integrated into the ignition safety device to further delay the ignition of the initiator until the projectile has reached the ideal point in its trajectory to ignite the rocket motor.

Solid state ignition safety device

The serial arc plasma injectors device disclosed herein enables the formation of a segmented, isolated chain of plasma arcs which are incubated to form a specified energy level of plasma discharge tailored to initiate ignition and establish efficient combustion in a particular segment of a propellant mass. The device includes a capillary in which a conductive path comprising electrodes is maintained. Particularly, specialized electrodes provide geometric and dimensional flexibility to establish plasma arc and plasma discharge characteristics that are compatible with different zones of the propellant mass. The specialized electrodes in combination with discharge vents enable the development of a series of regions in the capillary through which plasma discharge is introduced into the propellant mass to selectively initiate ignition and promote efficient combustion.

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Andover, MN, United States of America

Robert V Mortensen