Patent Application
20120255431
Applicant claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 of French patent application no. 1101095 filed on Jul. 4, 2011.
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The invention belongs to the technical field of ballistic protection grids.
To protect the armored vehicles from the attacks of shaped charge projectiles, rigid protection grids placed at a distance from the walls of the vehicle are used.
These grids comprise bars spaced from each other. The function of the bars is to deteriorate the warhead of the incident projectile, so as to destroy the firing contact of the shaped charge, thus preventing its triggering.
The bars of the grid should not be too spaced apart from each other to prevent the passage of a projectile between them. However, they should be sufficiently spaced apart to reduce as much as possible the probability of having the projectile rocket directly hitting a bar, which would cause the firing of the shaped charge.
For the same reasons of reduction of the probability of contact of a bar with the projectile rocket, the bars also have to expose to the impact of the projectiles a surface as reduced as possible on the face of the grid undergoing the attacks.
On the armored vehicles, the grids constitute an obstacle to the access to the elements disposed at the periphery of the vehicle. Thus, to access a door handle or a tank cap, it is known to form an opening in the grid facing the region to which access is desired and then to place a hatch of a structure identical to the grid to conceal this opening.
However, this access solution through the grid has one drawback.
The opening of the grid comprises a first frame bordering this opening. In correspondence with this frame is disposed a second frame bordering the access hatch which conceals the opening of the grid. At the joint between the opening and the hatch, the juxtaposition of the frames significantly increases the apparent surface exposed to the threat, and the probability of having this junction region impacted by a projectile rocket.
Thus, the subject-matter of the invention is a ballistic protection grid for a vehicle comprising an access hatch received in an opening of the grid, the grid and the hatch comprising bars separated from each other by an inter-bar distance, the ballistic protection grid being characterized in that the access hatch partially conceals the opening of the grid, each edge of the opening of the grid being separated from the sides of the hatch by a distance substantially equal to the inter-bar distance.
According to one feature, the hatch is securable in a closed position to the grid by a locking means.
According to one embodiment, the locking means comprises at least a first tab on one side of the hatch and positioning itself facing a second tab secured to an edge of the grid, a fastening member securing the tabs.
According to another feature, the hatch comprises at least a hinge secured to an edge of the grid by one end and secured to a side of the hatch by its other end.
Advantageously, the edges of the grid and/or the sides of the hatch are delimited by a frame formed by bars.
The invention will be better understood from the following description, by reference to the appended drawings in which:
According to
The grid 1a according to the invention comprises an opening 4 partially concealed by a hatch 5. The hatch 5 is secured to the grid 1a and it comprises bars 200. The hatch 5 and the grid 1a are made of the same material, preferably steel of a hardness greater than 360 Brinells, and the bars 2 and 200 have the same dimensional features for the hatch 5 and for the grid 1a.
According to
The hatch 5 comprises a spacing D of its own bars 200 equal to the distance D separating the consecutive bars 2 of the grid 1a.
The opening 4 formed in the grid 1a is delimited by edges 7 also disposed at a distance D from the sides 8 of the hatch 5. According to this embodiment, the hatch and its opening are triangular and the three edges 7 of the grid 1a and the three sides 8 of the hatch 5 are all materialized by bars which have the same section as the bars 2 and are made of the same material (steel of a hardness greater than 360 Brinells).
Thus, the protection grid 1 provides a more homogeneous protection throughout its whole surface. A rocket trying to penetrate in the region 10 between the sides of the hatch 5 and the edges 7 of the opening 4 has as many chances of having its warhead deteriorated without its rocket hitting any structural element of the grid 1a as in any other location of the grid 1a or of the hatch 5.
It will be noted that the hatch 5 does not integrally cover the opening 4 of the grid 1a and leaves a region 10 of a width D between the edges 7 of the grid 1 and the sides 8 of the hatch 5. The cover reduction of the opening 4 by the hatch 5, besides optimizing the protection, lightens the protection device.
The hatch 5 is secured to the grid 1a. To achieve this, two coaxial hinges 11 secured to a same edge 7 of the grid 1a are fixed to a side 8 of the hatch 5. In addition, the hatch 5 is securable in the closed position (as shown in
Also, the two corresponding sides 8 of the hatch 5 are not materialized by bars but are also defined by the ends of the bars of the hatch 5.
According to another embodiment, not shown, it is possible to consider making a hatch 5 of a smaller or greater size, as required. Thus, it is possible for instance to make a hatch 5 with the dimensions of a door for boarding a vehicle.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1101095 | Apr 2011 | FR | national |
