Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A sleeve shuttle air gun is described which can be fired by a solenoid valve without dumping compressed air into the ambient prior to firing, thereby avoiding the generation of premature impulses caused by such dumping and avoiding the heavy duty complex solenoid dump valves and two-stage dump valves of the prior art. The sleeve shuttle is automatically returned to its initial closed and sealed position after each firing of the airgun by the refilling flow of only one level of pressurized air without a separate low level pressure source to control the sleeve shuttle. A long acceleration path is provided so the sleeve shuttle attains velocity prior to opening the discharge ports for producing a sudden, powerful discharge. The end of the sleeve shuttle travels completely beyond the discharge ports, and is then damped by interaction with damper ports located beyond the discharge ports. The trigger chamber for initiating firing is defined by an inner annular lip at one end of the sleeve shuttle engaging the firing seal in the initial closed position and by an outer annular shoulder on the outside of the shuttle engaging an encircling seal. A replaceable stationary piston ring in sliding engagement with the inner wall of the sleeve shuttle and a replaceable stationary cylinder sleeve in sliding engagement with said annular shoulder accommodate wear. The volume of the firing chamber is changed by replacing a chamber on the opposite end of the air gun from the solenoid valve.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim