SHELL GRIPPING DEVICE
The technical field of the invention is that of shell gripping devices for an artillery piece weapon.
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The required firing rates for modern artillery pieces impose either fast firing rhythms over short periods, in the order of several rounds per minute, or spaced but regular firings over long periods beyond twenty minutes. The shells used have significant masses between 42 and 48 kg. Handling such shells at such rates puts a strain on the gun numbers at the limits of their physical abilities. To remedy 10 this problem, it is known to automate the weapon loading, and it is also known to mechanize the feeding of the autoloading of the weapon.
One of the main constraints to which a shell feeding device is subjected is its ability to adapt to the weapon loading angle, both in elevation and in azimuth, especially since this position will change between successive firings which 15 can have different laying angles.
Thus, patent US6591733 A2 describes a shell gripping device comprising a cylindrical casing surrounding the shell body. Such a device makes dropping off and gripping the shell delicate because the casing must be able to pass between the shell body and the support where the shell is dropped off. It is difficult 20 to grip the shell without interfering with this support, at the risk of causing the shell to fall or an unsteady grip.
Patent JP-H03-113296 describes a shell carrying device comprising a cradle receiving the shell, a rear jaw designed to at least partially surround the shell base and a blocking front fork allowing to block the warhead. Such a device 25 requires to horizontally maintain the shell, and the release of the shell is performed by rolling the shell on the right or on the left of the tray. This device requires to previously drop off the shell on the tray. It does not allow to grip a shell placed on a support.
Patent US5965837 describes an arm for carrying a shell comprising a 30 cradle and a pivoting front jaw and partially surrounding the warhead. Here again,
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this device requires to previously drop off the shell in the cradle. It does not allow to grip a shell placed on a support.
Patent GB8878 describes a means for gripping a shell comprising a rail and two jaws linearly movable along the rail and allowing to adjust the spacing of the jaws to the length of the shell. If the adjustment of the jaws allows to grip 5 even a shell placed on the floor, the release of the shell is difficult because it is necessary to move the jaws on which the shell bears against with its entire mass.
Thus, the invention proposes to solve the problem of reliability of gripping and releasing a shell, thereby solving a safety problem.
The invention also allows to adapt to the weapon laying angles. 10
The invention relates to a shell gripping device characterized in that it comprises:
- a means for gripping shells comprising a first and a second jaw, the clamping and opening action of which is ensured by an opening cylinder, said first jaw 15 being designed to at least partially surround the warhead of the shell and said second jaw being designed to at least partially surround the base of the shell,
- a means for adjusting the spacing between the jaws comprising a straight slide, said spacing being adjustable by means of a spacing cylinder, the first jaw comprising a truncated cone-shaped recess designed to receive the front part of 20 a shell, said first jaw comprising an opening oriented downwardly and according to a generatrix of the truncated cone-shaped recess.
Advantageously, the rear jaw comprises a cylindrical cavity designed to match with the base of a shell.
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The invention will be better understood in the light of the following description, description made with reference to the appended drawings in which:
Figures 1 and 2 show an overview of an artillery comprising a gripping device according to the invention and according to two opposite viewing angles. 30
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Figure 3 shows a first step for transferring a shell by a device according to the invention.
Figure 4 shows a second step for transferring a shell by a device according to the invention.
Figure 5 shows a third step for transferring a shell by a device 5 according to the invention.
Figure 6 shows a fourth step for transferring a shell by a device according to the invention.
Figure 7 shows a fifth step for transferring a shell by a device according to the invention. 10
Figure 8 shows a detailed view of a means for gripping shells according to the invention.
According to Figures 1 and 2, and according to an embodiment of the invention, a shell feeding device 1 according to the invention comprises a fixed 15 plate 2 serving as a load-bearing structure for the other components of the device 1. The fixed plate 2 comprises a first slide connection 3. This first slide connection 3 comprises two parallel rails 3a and 3b in the form of circular arcs with a same center, as well as a first rack 3c.
The first slide connection 3 serves to guide the pivoting of a movable 20 plate 4 which meshes with the first rack 3c via a motorization (motorization not visible).
The movable plate 4 also comprises a slide 5. This second slide 5 comprises two curved rails 5a and 5b parallel to each other and parallel to the rails 3a and 3b of the first slide connection 3. The movable plate 4 also comprises a rack 25 5c. This second rack 5c is designed to mesh with the pinion 6a (Figure 2) of a motor 6b of a base 6 of a movable pillar 7. The thus-motorized base 6 allows the movable pillar 7 to move along the second slide 5 with a movement of the portion of a circle centered on the vertical azimuth laying axis 200 of a weapon, said axis being visible in Figures 3 and 5. The movable pillar 7 is supported at its lower end by the 30 motorized base 6 and it comprises, at its lower end, a first pivot connection, in
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elevation, of an axis 31, the movement of which is provided by a cylinder 8 secured to the base 6 at one of its ends and to the movable pillar 7 at its other end. The upper part of the movable pillar 7 comprises a second pivot connection, in elevation, of an axis 32 with the front end of a pivoting arm 9. The relative movement between the movable pillar 7 and the pivoting arm 9 is provided by a 5 cylinder 10 secured to the movable pillar 7 at one of its ends and to the pivoting arm 9 at its other end. The pivoting arm 9 comprises at its rear end a gripping means 11 for gripping shells.
According to the embodiment of the appended figures, the gripping means 11 comprises a shell clamp 11 comprising two jaws 12 and 13. The spacing 10 between the jaws 12 and 13 is adjustable by a third cylinder 15 allowing to translate the front jaw 12 toward the rear jaw 13 by means of a slide 18 substantially aligned with the pivoting arm 9 (see more particularly Figure 8) so as to adjust the spacing between the jaws 12 and 13 depending on the length of the shells to be gripped.
The opening of the gripping means 11 is ensured by a fourth cylinder 15 14 secured to the pivoting arm 9 at a first end and to the rear jaw 13 at its second end. The rear jaw 13 is pivotally mounted with respect to the rear of the pivoting arm 9 (pivoting axis 33), thereby ensuring a clamp movement for catching a shell between the front jaw 12 and the rear jaw 13.
As visible in Figure 8, the jaw 12 comprises a truncated cone-shaped 20 recess designed to match with the warhead of a shell. The jaw 13 is designed to grip the base of the shell (shell not shown).
The truncated cone-shaped recess of the front jaw 12 comprises an opening 12a oriented according to a generatrix of the truncated cone-shaped portion. This opening 12a is downwardly oriented and is sufficiently wide to be able 25 to let a shell fuze pass. The rear jaw 13 comprises a cylindrical cavity 13a adapted to at least partially surround the shell base. The jaw 13a comprises an opening 13b designed to prevent the jaw from interfering with autoloading elements described later and not shown in Figure 8.
According to Figures 3 to 5, the device 1 is secured to a trail 100 of a 30 large calibre artillery piece 20 (weapon with a calibre between 90 and 155 mm) by
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the fixed plate 2. The artillery piece 20 comprises a shell magazine 16 designed to provide a shell gripping area to the gripping means 11 and to store several shells within range of the gripping means 11.
The shell magazine 16 is fed with shells by a conveyor 17. The conveyor 17 comprises a shell receptacle 17a designed to receive a shell in a 5 position substantially horizontal with respect to the ground, and such that the warhead of the shell is oriented toward the front of the piece. A ramp 17b allows to lift the receptacle 17a to a first end of a conveyor belt 16a of the magazine 16 for dropping off a shell in a housing of the conveyor belt 16a. The conveyor belt 16a is adapted to move a shell to a cradle 16b (Figure 5) articulated with respect to the 10 magazine 16 and which is itself adapted to lift the shell above the conveyor belt 16a with a specific cylinder. This lifting of the shell allows to release the ends thereof so as to make them accessible to the gripping means 11.
According to Figure 3, the gripping means 11 is gripping a shell 30 and, to this end, the gripping means 11 is opened by spacing the jaws 12 and 13 15 (jaws visible in Figures 2 and 8) under the action of the opening cylinder 14. The spacing between the jaws 12 and 13 will have been previously set by the spacing cylinder 15 (cylinder visible in Figure 8) so as to adapt to the length of the shell to be gripped.
According to a step intermediate to those illustrated in Figures 3 and 20 4 and not shown, the jaws 12 and 13 are tightened under the action of the opening cylinder 14 so that the base of the shell 30 is placed in the cavity 13a of the rear jaw 13 and that the shell warhead is placed in the front jaw 12. Thus, the shell is firmly gripped by the gripping means 11.
According to Figure 4, the pivoting arm 9 has performed a rotation in 25 elevation P of an axis 32 from the preceding position for gripping the shell 30 to a transfer elevation angle. This movement is obtained by the action of the cylinder 10.
According to Figure 5, the motorized base 6 and the movable pillar 7 have performed a circular movement G1 in the direction of the autoloading 51 on 30
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the second slide 5 of the movable plate 4. To this end, the pinion 6a, driven by its motor, has meshed with the second rack 5c of the movable plate 4.
In the same manner, according to Figure 6, the movable plate 4 has performed a second circular movement G2 in the direction of the autoloading 51 5 thanks to the slide 3 and to the associated rack and its motorization (rack and motorization visible in Figure 1). The gripping means is placed according to an azimuth angle identical to that of the autoloading of the weapon and is located above the loading pod 52 thereof (Figure 7).
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The curved slides 3c and 5c are centered on the azimuth axis 200 of the weapon so as to follow the autoloading and its pod whatever its azimuth angle. In the configuration shown in Figure 6, the autoloading is at its maximum azimuth, requiring the movable plate 4 to slide to the maximum stroke allowed by the first slide 3c. Similarly, the base 6 is located at the end of the stroke of the second slide 15 5c. For medium azimuth angles or angles located at the other laying end, the possibility to slide only the base 6, only the movable plate 4, or only one of the two, so as to align the gripping means 11 above the pod 52 which constitutes the shell releasing area, will be considered.
According to Figure 7, in order to drop off the shell in the pod 52, the 20 pivoting arm 9 is lowered until dropping off the shell 30 in the pod 52, and then the jaws 12 and 13 are opened by the opening cylinder 14. The shell is thus released in the pod 52.
It will be noted that, during the shell release, the opening 12a of the front jaw 12 allows the easy passage of the shell fuze without damaging interference 25 with the jaw 12, and without requiring a spacing between the jaws 12 and 13 equivalent to the total length of the shell due to the reduced diameter of the shell at the fuze.
The rear jaw 13 comprises a downward opening so as not to interfere with a lug (lug not visible) for ramming the shell located in the pod 52. 30
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Once the shell is dropped off in the pod, the loading device resumes a position located in the vicinity of the shell magazine in order to anticipate the loading of the next round and to allow firing without interference of the breech with the device during the weapon recoil.

WE CLAIM:-
1 – Shell gripping device characterized in that it comprises:
- a means (11) for gripping shells comprising a first (12) and a second (13) jaw, the clamping and opening action of which is ensured by an opening cylinder (14), said first jaw (12) being designed to at least partially surround the warhead of the shell (30) and said second jaw (13) being designed to at least partially surround the base of the shell (30),
- a means (15) for adjusting the spacing between the jaws (11) comprising a straight slide (18), said spacing being adjustable by means of a spacing cylinder (15), the first jaw (12) comprising a truncated cone-shaped recess designed to receive the front part of a shell (30), said first jaw (12) comprising an opening (12a) oriented downwardly and according to a generatrix of the truncated cone-shaped recess.

2 – Shell gripping device according to claim 1, characterized in that the rear jaw (13) comprises a cylindrical cavity (13a) designed to match with the base of a shell.
,TagSPECI:SHELL GRIPPING DEVICE

The technical field of the invention is that of shell gripping devices for an artillery piece weapon.

The required firing rates for modern artillery pieces impose either fast firing rhythms over short periods, in the order of several rounds per minute, or spaced but regular firings over long periods beyond twenty minutes. The shells used have significant masses between 42 and 48 kg. Handling such shells at such rates puts a strain on the gun numbers at the limits of their physical abilities. To remedy this problem, it is known to automate the weapon loading, and it is also known to mechanize the feeding of the autoloading of the weapon.
One of the main constraints to which a shell feeding device is subjected is its ability to adapt to the weapon loading angle, both in elevation and in azimuth, especially since this position will change between successive firings which can have different laying angles.
Thus, patent US6591733 A2 describes a shell gripping device comprising a cylindrical casing surrounding the shell body. Such a device makes dropping off and gripping the shell delicate because the casing must be able to pass between the shell body and the support where the shell is dropped off. It is difficult to grip the shell without interfering with this support, at the risk of causing the shell to fall or an unsteady grip.
Patent JP-H03-113296 describes a shell carrying device comprising a cradle receiving the shell, a rear jaw designed to at least partially surround the shell base and a blocking front fork allowing to block the warhead. Such a device requires to horizontally maintain the shell, and the release of the shell is performed by rolling the shell on the right or on the left of the tray. This device requires to previously drop off the shell on the tray. It does not allow to grip a shell placed on a support.
Patent US5965837 describes an arm for carrying a shell comprising a cradle and a pivoting front jaw and partially surrounding the warhead. Here again, this device requires to previously drop off the shell in the cradle. It does not allow to grip a shell placed on a support.
Patent GB8878 describes a means for gripping a shell comprising a rail and two jaws linearly movable along the rail and allowing to adjust the spacing of the jaws to the length of the shell. If the adjustment of the jaws allows to grip even a shell placed on the floor, the release of the shell is difficult because it is necessary to move the jaws on which the shell bears against with its entire mass.
Thus, the invention proposes to solve the problem of reliability of gripping and releasing a shell, thereby solving a safety problem.
The invention also allows to adapt to the weapon laying angles.

The invention relates to a shell gripping device characterized in that it comprises:
- a means for gripping shells comprising a first and a second jaw, the clamping and opening action of which is ensured by an opening cylinder, said first jaw being designed to at least partially surround the warhead of the shell and said second jaw being designed to at least partially surround the base of the shell,
- a means for adjusting the spacing between the jaws comprising a straight slide, said spacing being adjustable by means of a spacing cylinder, the first jaw comprising a truncated cone-shaped recess designed to receive the front part of a shell, said first jaw comprising an opening oriented downwardly and according to a generatrix of the truncated cone-shaped recess.
Advantageously, the rear jaw comprises a cylindrical cavity designed to match with the base of a shell.

The invention will be better understood in the light of the following description, description made with reference to the appended drawings in which:
Figures 1 and 2 show an overview of an artillery comprising a gripping device according to the invention and according to two opposite viewing angles.
Figure 3 shows a first step for transferring a shell by a device according to the invention.
Figure 4 shows a second step for transferring a shell by a device according to the invention.
Figure 5 shows a third step for transferring a shell by a device according to the invention.
Figure 6 shows a fourth step for transferring a shell by a device according to the invention.
Figure 7 shows a fifth step for transferring a shell by a device according to the invention.
Figure 8 shows a detailed view of a means for gripping shells according to the invention.

According to Figures 1 and 2, and according to an embodiment of the invention, a shell feeding device 1 according to the invention comprises a fixed plate 2 serving as a load-bearing structure for the other components of the device 1. The fixed plate 2 comprises a first slide connection 3. This first slide connection 3 comprises two parallel rails 3a and 3b in the form of circular arcs with a same center, as well as a first rack 3c.
The first slide connection 3 serves to guide the pivoting of a movable plate 4 which meshes with the first rack 3c via a motorization (motorization not visible).
The movable plate 4 also comprises a slide 5. This second slide 5 comprises two curved rails 5a and 5b parallel to each other and parallel to the rails 3a and 3b of the first slide connection 3. The movable plate 4 also comprises a rack 5c. This second rack 5c is designed to mesh with the pinion 6a (Figure 2) of a motor 6b of a base 6 of a movable pillar 7. The thus-motorized base 6 allows the movable pillar 7 to move along the second slide 5 with a movement of the portion of a circle centered on the vertical azimuth laying axis 200 of a weapon, said axis being visible in Figures 3 and 5. The movable pillar 7 is supported at its lower end by the motorized base 6 and it comprises, at its lower end, a first pivot connection, in elevation, of an axis 31, the movement of which is provided by a cylinder 8 secured to the base 6 at one of its ends and to the movable pillar 7 at its other end. The upper part of the movable pillar 7 comprises a second pivot connection, in elevation, of an axis 32 with the front end of a pivoting arm 9. The relative movement between the movable pillar 7 and the pivoting arm 9 is provided by a cylinder 10 secured to the movable pillar 7 at one of its ends and to the pivoting arm 9 at its other end. The pivoting arm 9 comprises at its rear end a gripping means 11 for gripping shells.
According to the embodiment of the appended figures, the gripping means 11 comprises a shell clamp 11 comprising two jaws 12 and 13. The spacing between the jaws 12 and 13 is adjustable by a third cylinder 15 allowing to translate the front jaw 12 toward the rear jaw 13 by means of a slide 18 substantially aligned with the pivoting arm 9 (see more particularly Figure 8) so as to adjust the spacing between the jaws 12 and 13 depending on the length of the shells to be gripped.
The opening of the gripping means 11 is ensured by a fourth cylinder 14 secured to the pivoting arm 9 at a first end and to the rear jaw 13 at its second end. The rear jaw 13 is pivotally mounted with respect to the rear of the pivoting arm 9 (pivoting axis 33), thereby ensuring a clamp movement for catching a shell between the front jaw 12 and the rear jaw 13.
As visible in Figure 8, the jaw 12 comprises a truncated cone-shaped recess designed to match with the warhead of a shell. The jaw 13 is designed to grip the base of the shell (shell not shown).
The truncated cone-shaped recess of the front jaw 12 comprises an opening 12a oriented according to a generatrix of the truncated cone-shaped portion. This opening 12a is downwardly oriented and is sufficiently wide to be able to let a shell fuze pass. The rear jaw 13 comprises a cylindrical cavity 13a adapted to at least partially surround the shell base. The jaw 13a comprises an opening 13b designed to prevent the jaw from interfering with autoloading elements described later and not shown in Figure 8.
According to Figures 3 to 5, the device 1 is secured to a trail 100 of a large calibre artillery piece 20 (weapon with a calibre between 90 and 155 mm) by the fixed plate 2. The artillery piece 20 comprises a shell magazine 16 designed to provide a shell gripping area to the gripping means 11 and to store several shells within range of the gripping means 11.
The shell magazine 16 is fed with shells by a conveyor 17. The conveyor 17 comprises a shell receptacle 17a designed to receive a shell in a position substantially horizontal with respect to the ground, and such that the warhead of the shell is oriented toward the front of the piece. A ramp 17b allows to lift the receptacle 17a to a first end of a conveyor belt 16a of the magazine 16 for dropping off a shell in a housing of the conveyor belt 16a. The conveyor belt 16a is adapted to move a shell to a cradle 16b (Figure 5) articulated with respect to the magazine 16 and which is itself adapted to lift the shell above the conveyor belt 16a with a specific cylinder. This lifting of the shell allows to release the ends thereof so as to make them accessible to the gripping means 11.
According to Figure 3, the gripping means 11 is gripping a shell 30 and, to this end, the gripping means 11 is opened by spacing the jaws 12 and 13 (jaws visible in Figures 2 and 8) under the action of the opening cylinder 14. The spacing between the jaws 12 and 13 will have been previously set by the spacing cylinder 15 (cylinder visible in Figure 8) so as to adapt to the length of the shell to be gripped.
According to a step intermediate to those illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 and not shown, the jaws 12 and 13 are tightened under the action of the opening cylinder 14 so that the base of the shell 30 is placed in the cavity 13a of the rear jaw 13 and that the shell warhead is placed in the front jaw 12. Thus, the shell is firmly gripped by the gripping means 11.
According to Figure 4, the pivoting arm 9 has performed a rotation in elevation P of an axis 32 from the preceding position for gripping the shell 30 to a transfer elevation angle. This movement is obtained by the action of the cylinder 10.

According to Figure 5, the motorized base 6 and the movable pillar 7 have performed a circular movement G1 in the direction of the autoloading 51 on the second slide 5 of the movable plate 4. To this end, the pinion 6a, driven by its motor, has meshed with the second rack 5c of the movable plate 4.

In the same manner, according to Figure 6, the movable plate 4 has performed a second circular movement G2 in the direction of the autoloading 51 thanks to the slide 3 and to the associated rack and its motorization (rack and motorization visible in Figure 1). The gripping means is placed according to an azimuth angle identical to that of the autoloading of the weapon and is located above the loading pod 52 thereof (Figure 7).

The curved slides 3c and 5c are centered on the azimuth axis 200 of the weapon so as to follow the autoloading and its pod whatever its azimuth angle. In the configuration shown in Figure 6, the autoloading is at its maximum azimuth, requiring the movable plate 4 to slide to the maximum stroke allowed by the first slide 3c. Similarly, the base 6 is located at the end of the stroke of the second slide 5c. For medium azimuth angles or angles located at the other laying end, the possibility to slide only the base 6, only the movable plate 4, or only one of the two, so as to align the gripping means 11 above the pod 52 which constitutes the shell releasing area, will be considered.
According to Figure 7, in order to drop off the shell in the pod 52, the pivoting arm 9 is lowered until dropping off the shell 30 in the pod 52, and then the jaws 12 and 13 are opened by the opening cylinder 14. The shell is thus released in the pod 52.
It will be noted that, during the shell release, the opening 12a of the front jaw 12 allows the easy passage of the shell fuze without damaging interference with the jaw 12, and without requiring a spacing between the jaws 12 and 13 equivalent to the total length of the shell due to the reduced diameter of the shell at the fuze.
The rear jaw 13 comprises a downward opening so as not to interfere with a lug (lug not visible) for ramming the shell located in the pod 52.
Once the shell is dropped off in the pod, the loading device resumes a position located in the vicinity of the shell magazine in order to anticipate the loading of the next round and to allow firing without interference of the breech with the device during the weapon recoil.

WE CLAIMS:
1 – Shell gripping device characterized in that it comprises:
- a means (11) for gripping shells comprising a first (12) and a second (13) jaw, the clamping and opening action of which is ensured by an opening cylinder 5 (14), said first jaw (12) being designed to at least partially surround the warhead of the shell (30) and said second jaw (13) being designed to at least partially surround the base of the shell (30),
- a means (15) for adjusting the spacing between the jaws (11) comprising a straight slide (18), said spacing being adjustable by means of a spacing cylinder 10 (15), the first jaw (12) comprising a truncated cone-shaped recess designed to receive the front part of a shell (30), said first jaw (12) comprising an opening (12a) oriented downwardly and according to a generatrix of the truncated cone-shaped recess.
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2 – Shell gripping device according to claim 1, characterized in that the rear jaw (13) comprises a cylindrical cavity (13a) designed to match with the base of a shell.