Importance

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Abstract

An improved construction for a percussion fuse. The fuse function has a firing pin rigidly mounted in an ignition head an adapted to coact with a percussion cap mounted in an impact member. This impact member is securedly maintained in a first position by means of at least one blocking sphere which is partially mounted in an annular groove of the impact member and partially mounted in a bore of the cylindrical forward portion of the percussion fuse body. A movable inertial sphere is disposed in a chamber between the impact member and the ignition head. In order to improve the fail-safety there is mounted in this chamber a housing between the impact member and ignition head which is coaxially movable with respect to the firing pin. When the projectile is accelerated forwardly the housing moves against the impact member and the movable inertial sphere is clamped between the impact member and housing to thereby prevent a further relative motion between firing pin and percussion cap and to thereby prevent detonation of the percussion cap. During normal deceleration prior to target impact, the housing moves back from the impact member and allows the inertial sphere to roll into the annular chamber of the housing. This allows the impact member to move forward and thereby allows the percussion cap to impact the firing pin when the projectile impacts the target.

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First Claim