EP0406716A1 - Ammunition-feeder, especially for an armoured vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

A projectile transporter, in particular for a combat vehicle, for detecting a projectile that is stored in a standing position, for pivoting the projectile down and for storing it in a receptacle. A transport arm (2) which is guided on a base frame (1) and can be extended in a horizontal plane has at its outer end a pivotable gripper head provided with gripper jaws. The movements of the gripper head (5) and the gripper jaws (25) are brought about by a drive motor (6) which is arranged fixedly on the base frame (1) and which has a spline shaft (8) mounted in the base frame (1) and a coaxial to the spline shaft (8) in the transport arm (2) mounted hollow shaft (10), which is telescopically displaceable relative to the spline shaft (8), is connected to the drive wheel (13) of a reduction gear (4), which in turn is constantly connected to a first control device for controlling the gripper jaws (25) and is connected via a controllable clutch to a second control device for executing the pivoting movement of the gripper head (5).

Description

The invention relates to a projectile transporter, in particular for a combat vehicle, for detecting a projectile stored in an ammunition magazine, for rotating the projectile about its transverse axis and for storing it in a receiving shell, with a guided on a base frame, in its longitudinal direction parallel to the contact plane of the Projectile extendable transport arm, at the outer end of which is arranged a gripper head provided with two pliers-like gripper jaws and pivotable about an axis parallel to the contact plane of the projectile.

Such projectile transporters are used in particular in combat vehicles, for example armored howitzers, in which a projectile magazine is arranged inside the vehicle in the area of the center of the vehicle, in which the projectiles are stored perpendicular to the vehicle floor, and in which an automatic projectile feed device is provided, through which one Projectile picked up from the projectile magazine and conveyed to the area behind the end of the weapon with rotation and alignment in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and raised there in the loading position with azimuth and elevation alignment to the current direction of the weapon.

A projectile delivery device which makes use of a projectile transporter of the type mentioned at the outset is described, for example, in the older, not previously published German patent application P 38 07 474.5. Since in a projectile transporter of the type mentioned at the outset the transport arm can be moved relative to the base frame, the problem of supplying the electrical energy to the drive devices for the gripper head and the gripper jaws arises here. If the drive motors for the functions required here are arranged on the transport arm, they would have to be supplied with electrical energy due to the displacement of the transport arm via trailing cables or sealed linear slip rings.

The invention has for its object to avoid such a transfer of electrical energy from the base frame to the transport arm.

This object is achieved according to the invention with the features from the characterizing part of patent claim 1. Advantageous embodiments of the projectile transporter according to the invention are described in the subclaims.

The basic idea of the invention is to carry out the movements of the gripper head and the gripper jaws via mechanical transmission elements from a drive motor connected to the base frame, that is to say in a stationary manner, a common drive motor being used for the swiveling movement of the gripper head and the swiveling movements of the gripper jaws required for gripping the projectile is and in a particularly advantageous embodiment it is provided that the projectile before the final clamping in the gripper jaws for carrying out the rotation about its transverse axis is first raised by a predetermined amount for actuating an unlocking device present in the ammunition magazine (claim 3).

The movement of the gripper jaws is expediently controlled by a control slide actuated via a reduction gear, by means of which the gripper jaws, which are guided into the open position under spring force, are initially closed in a forced control to such an extent that the projectile they contain is secured against tipping, but is not yet tightened, so that lifting the floor is still possible. After lifting the projectile, the gripper jaws are closed even further for clamping the projectile. In the clamped state, the gripper head can finally be pivoted in order to pivot the projectile, for example at 90 °, and into a horizontally arranged receptacle to file the memulde. The pivoting movement of the gripper head, which is derived from the same drive device, should not influence the position of the gripper jaws, so that the projectile remains fixed during the pivoting movement and is only released again after the pivoting movement has ended by actuating the control slide again (claim 4).

With the projectile transporter according to the invention, extremely short transport times with high functional reliability can be achieved even with high projectile weights.

In the following an embodiment for a projectile transporter according to the invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

• Fig. 1 in einer teilweise geschnittenen Seitenansicht einen Geschoßtransporter in schematischer Dar­stellung;
• Fig. 2 in einer gegenüber Fig. 1 leicht vergrößerten Darstellung einen Schnitt durch den Greifer­kopf des Geschoßtransporters nach Fig. 1 in einer vertikalen Schnittebene;
• Fig. 3 den Greiferkopf nach Fig. 2 in einer teilweise geschnittenen Ansicht von oben;
• Fig. 4 in einer stark schematisierten Darstellung,teil­weise in Seitenansicht, teilweise in Draufsicht, den Kraftfluß vom Antriebsmotor zum Greiferkopf bei dem Geschoßtransporter nach Fig. 1 bis 3;
• Fig. 5a bis 5d in einer Teildarstellung den Steuer­schieber zur Betätigung der Greifer­backen des Geschoßtransporters nach Fig. 1 bis 4 in verschiedenen Stellun­gen;
• Fig. 6a und 6b die Greiferbacken in einer Ansicht von oben entsprechend den Stellungen gemäß Fig. 5a und 5b des Steuerschie­bers;
• Fig. 7a und 7b die Greiferbacken mit Steuerschieber und Zahnsegment entsprechend der Stellung des Steuerschiebers nach Fig. 5c und 5d.

The drawings show:

• Figure 1 is a partially sectioned side view of a projectile transporter in a schematic representation.
• FIG. 2 shows a section through the gripper head of the projectile transporter according to FIG. 1 in a vertical sectional plane in a representation slightly enlarged compared to FIG. 1;
• 3 shows the gripper head according to FIG. 2 in a partially sectioned view from above;
• 4 shows the flow of force from the drive motor to the gripper head in the projectile transporter according to FIGS. 1 to 3 in a highly schematic representation, partly in side view, partly in plan view;
• 5a to 5d in a partial representation, the control slide for actuating the gripper jaws of the projectile transporter according to FIGS. 1 to 4 in different positions;
• 6a and 6b the gripper jaws in a view from above corresponding to the positions according to FIGS. 5a and 5b of the control slide;
• 7a and 7b the gripper jaws with control slide and toothed segment corresponding to the position of the control slide according to FIGS. 5c and 5d.

The projectile transporter shown schematically in FIG. 1 can be arranged on the vehicle floor of a combat vehicle, which is otherwise not shown, and has a base frame 1 which can be pivoted about a vertical axis A1 and on which a transport arm designed as a carriage is longitudinally oriented in a horizontal plane in FIG. 1 is slidably arranged. The drive devices for displacing the transport arm are not shown. At the right outer end of the transport arm 2 in FIG. 1, a reduction gear 4 and a receiving fork 3 for a pivotable gripper head 5 are arranged. The gripper head 5 is arranged in the receiving fork 3 so as to be pivotable about a horizontal axis A2 and has on its front side a gripping device which is explained in more detail below and which has two pliers-like gripper jaws which are arranged in a gripper fork 25 which pre-center the projectile 35 to be gripped takes over and at the same time represents a certain protection for the gripper kinematics.

The movements of the gripper head and the gripper jaws are driven by an electric motor 6 fixedly arranged on the base frame 1, the driven wheel 6.1 of which is coupled via a toothed belt 7.1 to a toothed belt pulley 7, which at one end of a spline shaft 8 supported in the base frame 1 via a spherical roller bearing 11 is arranged. The spline shaft 8 is coaxially seated in a hollow shaft 10, which is mounted on the transport arm 2 via a bearing 10.1 and which is in rotary connection with the spline shaft 8 via a spline sleeve 9, which is also mounted on the transport arm 2 via a bearing 9.1, but is telescopically displaceable against the latter. A further toothed belt pulley 12 is arranged on the hollow shaft 10, through which the rotational movement of the hollow shaft 10 is transmitted via a toothed belt 13.1 to a toothed belt pulley 13, which represents the drive wheel for the reduction gear 4 arranged on the transport arm 2.

The transmission of the torques from the drive motor 6 to the spline shaft 8 and from the hollow shaft 10 to the drive wheel 13 of the reduction gear 4 by toothed belt drives has the advantage that possible misalignments of the individual components are absorbed by the transmission members.

In the reduction gear 4, the power flow is divided into two ways. This is shown schematically in different views in FIG. 4 for a better overview. 4, the parts shown below and to the right of the solid image division are shown in side view, while the components arranged above this image division are shown in plan view. As can be seen in FIG. 4 and the more detailed representations in FIGS. 2 and 3, this contains Reduction gear two identical worm gears. One way of the power flow goes from the drive wheel 13 via a continuous shaft to a spur gear 15 which meshes with a further spur gear 16 which is connected to the worm 17 of a first worm gear, the worm wheel 18 is connected to a further spur gear 19 which in engages a first ring gear of a first tooth segment 20, which serves to drive the gripping jaws and is therefore referred to below as "gripping segment 20".

The second force path runs from the drive wheel 13 via a controllable electromagnetic clutch 26 to a shift spur gear 27, which meshes with a further spur gear 28, which is connected to the worm 29 of a second worm gear, the worm wheel 30 is connected to a spur gear 31, which is connected to the ring gear of a second toothed segment 32, which serves to drive the swiveling movement of the gripper head 5 and is therefore referred to below as "swivel segment 32".

The gripping segment 20 and the swivel segment 32 are arranged in vertical planes which are parallel to one another and symmetrical to the vertical center plane M of the gripper head. In Fig. 2, therefore, some components of the worm gear are located directly one behind the other. This is indicated by the reference numbers in brackets. Gripping segment 20 and pivot segment 32 can be pivoted about the same horizontal axis A2. Since the two worm gears have the same transmission ratio and the two toothed segments are constructed identically, the pivoting movement of the two toothed segments takes place when the electromagnetic clutch 26 is engaged synchronous and there is no relative movement between them.

When the electromagnetic clutch 26 is disengaged, only the gripping segment 20 is pivoted.

As can be seen clearly from FIGS. 2 and 4, the gripping segment 20 drives a control slide 21. For this purpose, it has two ring gears, namely a first ring gear 20.1 which meshes with the output gear 19 of the reduction gear and a second ring gear 20.2 which meshes with a rack 21.1 arranged on the control slide 21 in its longitudinal direction. The control slide 21 is guided in the gripper head 5 in a direction which runs vertically in the representations according to FIGS. 1, 2 and 4 and corresponds to the direction of a standing projectile when it is received. The control slide 21 is pivoted together with the gripper fork 25, as explained in more detail below, when the projectile is pivoted. The drive of the gripping device by the control slide 21 is shown in FIGS. 5a to 5c and 6a, 6b and 7a, 7b.

The two gripper jaws 23 arranged within the gripper fork 25 are each designed as a two-armed lever which can be pivoted about a pivot axis 24, with a gripper arm 23.1 at the front end and a control arm 23.2 at the rear end. They are supported on the gripper fork 25 via compression springs 23.3 in such a way that the gripper arms 23.1 are pressed into the open position. Support rollers 23.4 are located on the inside of the control arms 23.2. If the gripper fork 25 is brought up to a projectile 35, this presses against the support rollers 23.4 and as a result of The gripping arms 23.1 apply leverage to the outer jacket of the projectile 35 against the force of the springs 23.3.

The control slide 21 is inserted between the two ends of the control arms 23.2, in such a way that support rollers 23.5 arranged on the outer ends of the control arms 23.2 roll on the outer contours of the control slide 23. The functioning of the gripper jaws 23 when picking up a projectile can be read from the various positions shown in FIGS. 5a to 7b. 5a and 6a show the state in which the gripper jaws 23 held open by spring force are closed by the circumference of the projectile during the linear retraction of the gripper head. The control slide 21 initially remains in an initial position, as can be seen from FIGS. 5a and 5b.

The position of the gripper jaws 23 after approaching the projectile 35 is shown in Fig. 6b.

As can be seen from FIG. 5c, the control slide is now moved upwards by corresponding actuation of the gripping segment 20 with the electromagnetic clutch 26 disengaged in the manner described above from the drive motor 6. The guide rollers 23.5 of the gripper jaws 23 come into a contour of the control slide 21, in which the gripper jaws 23 are blocked, so that the projectile 35 is fixed radially and is secured against tipping out during the following axial lifting. At the end of this phase, the gripping segment 20 has a swivel angle of approximately 24 ° (see FIG. 7a) and the control slide 21 has traveled a distance of approximately 20 mm.

A gripper shoe 33 is arranged in the area of the lower end of the control slide 21 and engages under the floor of the floor when the projectile 35 approaches. The projectile 35 is still in this state in the ammunition magazine, in a locked holder which must be unlocked by lifting the projectile 35 and is not shown in detail. This vertical lifting of the projectile 35 by approximately 26 mm takes place by further lifting the control slide 21, which has the consequence that a driver 22 arranged on the control slide 21 and guided in a guide groove 33.1 arranged on the gripper shoe 33 has a frictional connection between the control slide 21 and the gripper shoe 33 and this raises with. Since the projectile 35 is encompassed by the gripper jaws 23 but is not yet clamped, it is pushed through the gripper jaws 23 by the amount raised until finally the position shown in FIGS. 5d and 7b is reached. In this position, the guide rollers 23.5 run onto a run-up slope in the contour of the control slide 21, with the result that the gripper jaws 23 now firmly clamp the projectile 35. In this state, when the gripping segment has reached a swivel angle of approximately 55 °, the projectile can be removed from the ammunition magazine by correspondingly moving the transport arm. After a rotation of the base frame 1 about the vertical axis A1, it is then pivoted forwards by pivoting the entire gripper head 5.

The drive torque required for the pivoting is triggered by engaging the electromagnetic clutch 26, whereby the pivot segment 32 is connected to the drive motor 6 via the second output gear 31 of the reduction gear 4. It is now the two Output gears 19 and 31 coupled to the drive motor 6. These two driven gears 19 and 31 have the same speed, so that a relative movement between the gripping segment 20 and the swivel segment 32 is not permitted. The gripper head 5 firmly connected to the swivel segment 32 with the gripper jaws 23, the control slide 21 and the projectile 35 is pivoted away, with the entrainment of the gripping segment 20 ensuring that the projectile 35 remains in the clamped state during the pivoting process.

The projectile 35 is released in the swiveled-out state by disengaging the electromagnetic clutch 26 and reversing the direction on the drive motor 6, the control slide 21 being guided into the starting position shown in FIG. 5a via the gripping segment 20. After placing the projectile 35 in a receiving trough (not shown) and re-engaging the electromagnetic clutch 26, the gripper head is pivoted back into the receiving position for receiving the next projectile.

Claims (8)

1. Projectile transporter, in particular for a combat vehicle, for detecting a projectile stored standing in an ammunition magazine, for rotating the projectile about its transverse axis and for storing it in a receptacle with a transport arm which is guided on a base frame and can be extended in the longitudinal direction parallel to the contact plane of the projectile , at the outer end of which is provided a gripper head provided with two pliers-like gripper jaws and pivotable about an axis parallel to the contact plane of the projectile, characterized in that the movement of the gripper head (5) and the gripper jaws (23) is carried out by a common fixed to the base frame (1st ) arranged drive motor (6) can be controlled, the driven wheel (6.1) via a spline shaft (8) rotatably mounted in the longitudinal direction of the transport arm (2) in the base frame (1) and a coaxial to the spline shaft (8) rotatable in the longitudinal direction of the transport arm (2 ) mounted in the transport arm, with the spline shaft (8) over egg ne on the spline, the spline sleeve (9) rotatably connected hollow shaft (10) is connected to the drive wheel (13) of a reduction gear (4) which is arranged on the transport arm (2) and has two output gear wheels (19, 31), one of which (19) constantly and the second (31) is connected to the drive wheel (13) via a controllable clutch (26), the first output gear (19) being a first control device (20-21) for controlling the gripper jaws (23) from a projectile ( 35) actuates the comprehensive locking position via an intermediate position which raises the projectile by a predetermined amount into a transport position which clamps the projectile while the second driven gear (31) actuates a second control device (32) for executing the pivoting movement of the gripper head (5). 2. Projectile transporter according to claim 1, characterized in that the first control device has a first toothed segment (20) pivotable about an axis (A2) extending parallel to the contact plane of the projectile (35) and transverse to the longitudinal axis of the transport arm (2), with a in the first output gear (19) engaging ring gear (20.1) and a further ring gear (20.2) which engages in a rack (21.1) which is arranged in the longitudinal direction on a control slide (21) and the two gripper jaws (23) held open under spring force as Two-armed levers are formed, each with a gripper arm (23.1) and a control arm (23.2), and the control slide (21) is guided between the two control arms (23.2), its width and outer contour being designed such that the projectile (35 ) is secured against tipping without clamping, while in the transport position it is firmly clamped between the gripper jaws (23). 3. projectile transporter according to claim 2, characterized in that the parallel to the longitudinal direction of the gripper jaws (23) detected projectile (35) guided slide valve (21) has a driver (22) which is arranged so that in the intermediate position at a Attaching the gripper jaws (23) to the floor (35) engaging under the floor, gripping shoe (33) guided in the longitudinal direction of the floor is raised by a predetermined amount. 4. Projectile transporter according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that the second control device has a second tooth segment pivotable about the axis (A2) of the first tooth segment (20), on which the gripper head (5) is arranged and that one in the second driven gear (31) engaging ring gear (32.1) and the reduction ratios of the reduction gear (4) to the two drive gears (19, 31) and from the driven gears (19, 31) to the two gear segments (20, 32) are the same. 5. projectile transporter according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the controllable clutch is an electromagnetic clutch (26). 6. Projectile transporter according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the reduction gear (4) has two worm gears (17-18 and 29-30), each between the drive wheel (13) and the driven gears (19, 31). 7. Missile transporter according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the coupling between the hollow shaft (10) and the drive wheel (13) of the reduction gear (4) via a toothed belt drive (12-13.1-13). 8. projectile transporter according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the coupling between the drive motor (6) and the spline shaft (8) via a toothed belt drive (6.1-7.1-7).

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