Kdi Precision Products, Inc.

William Marc Schmidt

Michael F Steele

Ezra Stearns Waller

Donald Robert Helton

Patrick Dwayne McGregor

James Arthur Hewlett

A fuze for a munition adapted to prevent unintended arming thereof. The fuze incorporates an arming screw having a keyed portion and a centrifugal locking mechanism for preventing rotation of the arming screw unless the fuze mechanism is in a rapidly spinning condition such as that experienced when the fuze and its associated munition are deployed from an airborne rocket or artillery shell, and thus spinning at a rate of at least several thousand rpm. The centrifugal locking mechanism includes a pair of locking members which are biased by biasing elements into engagement with the keyed portion of the arming screw. This prevents the arming screw from being accidentally unscrewed from an inertia weight within the fuze, thus placing the fuze in an unintended armed condition. However, when the munition is deployed from an airborne rocket or artillery shell, and thus reaches a spinning rate of several thousand rpm or higher, the centrifugal force acting on the locking members forces them out of engagement with the keyed portion. This allows the arming screw to unscrew from the inertia weight and arm the fuze.

Fuzes having centrifugal arming lock for a munition

A munition incorporating a fuze mechanism adapted to prevent momentary disarming of the mechanism once same is placed in an armed state. The fuze mechanism incorporates a fuze housing having a slide member movable slidably longitudinally between an unarmed position and an armed position. In an unarmed position, a firing pin tip of an arming screw engages a lock post disposed within an opening in the slide member to hold the slide member in the unarmed position. When the arming screw is unscrewed during airborne deployment of the munition, the firing pin tip is withdrawn from the lock post. This enables a spring to urge the slide member into a laterally extended position. As the slide member moves into its laterally extended position, the lock post drops partially out of the slide member into abutting engagement with a bottom cover of the fuze mechanism, thus preventing the slide member from moving back towards its unarmed position. Thus, the lock post prevents momentary movement of the slide member back towards its unarmed position regardless of the orientation at which the munition strikes the ground surface or a target, thus eliminating the possibility of undetonated yet armed munitions remaining on a ground surface or target.

Fuze mechanism for a munition

A high precision electro-mechanical fuze mechanism for a munition such as a hand grenade. The fuze mechanism includes an electromagnetic signal generator having an armature, a permanent magnet, a coil and a magnetic impulse generator (MIG) member. The armature is preloaded during assembly through the use of a spring. Releasing an actuating lever of the grenade allows the armature to begin spinning and to dissipate the energy stored by the spring. This causes a current to be electromagnetically generated in the coil, which is transmitted to an electronic control circuit in the fuze mechanism. The electronic control circuit implements two time delays from two separate timers which each must time out before the control circuit can send an electric firing signal to an electric detonator. Movement of the armature also causes a simultaneous movement of a rotor, which moves a stab detonator into a position closely adjacent the electric detonator. Detonation of the electric detonator immediately causes detonation of the stab detonator, which in turn detonates the primary explosive charge of the munition.

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Batavia, OH, United States of America

William Marc Schmidt