This application claims priority under 35 USC 119(a)-(d) from Swedish Application No. 2151474-0 filed on Dec. 2, 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a tube launcher. More particularly, the invention concerns a tube launcher such as a grenade launcher that can be mounted under the barrel of a conventional gun.
In a general manner, a grenade launcher is already known which is mounted in a permanent or detachable manner under the barrel of a gun and which is provided with its own trigger so as to be able to fire grenades, whereby said trigger is situated in front of said chamber.
Certain grenade launchers are provided with their own grip, which enables a shooter to hold the gun with his strong hand at the grip of the gun and with his weak hand at a grip of the grenade launcher, thus forcing him to use his weak hand to operate a trigger of the grenade launcher. Many prior art grenade launchers are dimensioned for comparatively power full grenade with a diameter of at least 35-40 mm. Such launchers may reach up to and ever beyond 300 m and may cause physical injuries on persons at far distances.
From the above it is understood that there is room for improvements and the invention aims to solve or at least mitigate the above and other problems.
The invention is defined by the appended independent claims. Additional features and advantages of the concepts disclosed herein are set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the described technologies. The features and advantages of the concepts may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the described technologies will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims or may be learned by the practice of the disclosed concepts as set forth herein.
The disclosed tube launcher or grenade launcher is configured to receive at least one grenade that can be launched or fired by igniting a primer of a primer cartridge. The grenade launcher comprises a support that can be attached or connected to and released from a carrier device, such as a gun.
In a first aspect there is disclosed a grenade launcher comprising at least one barrel for receiving a grenade, a support for releasably mounting the grenade launcher to a carrier, and a receiving slot receiving a removable primer cartridge; wherein the primer cartridge when received in the receiving slot holds a primer in position for firing the grenade in the barrel.
The grenade launcher can be launched by a firing mechanism, such as by manually cocking a spring biased cock followed by releasing the spring biased cock to hit the primer.
In order to best describe the manner in which the above-described embodiments are implemented, as well as define other advantages and features of the disclosure, a more particular description is provided below and is illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only exemplary embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting in scope, the examples will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
Further, in the figures like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several figures.
Various embodiments of the disclosed methods and arrangements are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components, configurations, and steps may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
In the description and claims the word “comprise” and variations of the word, such as “comprising” and “comprises”, does not exclude other elements or steps.
Hereinafter, certain embodiments will be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the inventive concept. Other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice disclosed herein. The embodiments herein are provided by way of example so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the inventive concept, and that the claims be construed as encompassing all equivalents of the present inventive concept which are apparent to those skilled in the art to which the inventive concept pertains. If nothing else is stated, different embodiments may be combined with each other.
The word grenade will be used for different types of bullets, shells, stun bombs, flash grenade, flashbangs, thunder flashes, sound bombs and similar devices comprising some kind of pyrotechnical composition and an effect composition. It will normally have a delay after being ignited to allow it to be launched or thrown some distance where the effect composition will be activated or ignited after the delay. Normally, the grenade in this context is less-lethal.
The grenade launcher according to embodiments may be a grenade launcher for close quarter combat or other short-range firing of grenades or the like. The grenade launcher may be a grenade launcher for indoor launching of grenades. In particular, the grenade launcher may be used with low impact grenades.
The embodiment shown in
The barrels 12 are formed with an inner diameter which is matched to an outer diameter of a grenade 24. When a grenade 24 will be used it is slid into the barrel 12 in the direction of arrow X. In various embodiments, the grenade 24 is provided with a weather seal 26 that will engage the barrel 12 when the grenade is inserted in a front side of the barrel and keep the grenade dry.
In some embodiments, the support 14 is provided with a first bore 28 and a second bore 30 extending from a mounting recess 31 to an inside of each barrel. The bores 28, 30 have a threaded portion and in each bore a screw 32 is screwed down to a position where each screw extends into a barrel 12. The screws 32 will keep the grenades 24 in position when they have been inserted into the barrels 12. In alternative embodiments, a steel wire is provided along the barrels 12 and extending into in interior of the barrels 12 to lock grenades 24 disposed therein.
A spring biased cock 34 is arranged at rear side of the barrels 12. The cock 34 rotates around shafts or pins 36 that are mounted in fastening wings 38 extending from a rear section of the support 14. The function of the cock 34 will be explained further on below. Springs 35 for biasing the cocks 34 are shown in
At the rear side of each barrel 12 there is provided a slot 50 designed to receive a primer cartridge 52. Each primer cartridge 52 can hold one primer 54 in a primer pocket 56. The primer 54 normally contains a charge such as a small amount of gun powder. When hit by the cock 34 it will provide a primer flame that ignites a pyrotechnical composition of a delay train of the grenade 24. When the primer cartridge 52 is fully inserted into the slot 50 the primer 54 will be located in front of the barrel 12, normally at a central position. It should be noted that two primer supports 52 already are in position in the slots 50. The primer cartridge 52 is moved into position in the slot 50 in a direction indicated by arrow Y.
In various embodiments, the primer 54 is replaceable in the primer cartridge 52. When the primer 54 has been fired, it can be replaced by a new primer. In other embodiments, the primer cartridge 52 is integral with the primer 54. In such embodiments, the primer cartridge 52 including the primer 54 is exchanged after firing the primer 54.
In
In various embodiments, the delay train will provide a delay time of at least one second and not longer than five seconds. Different types of pyrotechnical compositions can be used for providing the intended delay time.
The effect composition can comprise or combine different effects, such as one or a plurality of bangs, flashbangs, smoke, colored smoke, training shells without a bang or a low-level bang,
The embodiment shown in
A safety arrangement is provided for preventing unintentional firing of the grenade launcher. One embodiment of the safety arrangement is shown in
An alternative embodiment of a safety arrangement is shown in
The bottom view in
In
When the sliding carriage 62 is to be mounted in the grenade launcher, both release buttons 66 are depressed to move the locking pegs 72 into the locking recesses 70 to allow sliding of the T-shaped slide into the groove 64. It is necessary also to rotate the cocks 34 from the position shown in
The safety arrangement comprises a rod 76. The rod 76 may be arranged at a rear side of the barrels 12 between the primer cartridge 52 and the cocks 34. The rod 76 may extend behind one or more of the barrels 12 of the grenade launcher 10.
The rod 76 is rotatably arranged such that the rod 76 can be rotated around a longitudinal axis of the rod 76. The axis of rotation may also be referred to as a rotational axis. The longitudinal axis may be any axis extending along the length of the rod 76. For example, the longitudinal axis may be a central longitudinal axis extending along the centre of the rod 76.
As shown in
In the locked position as shown in
In the unlocked position, as shown in
It will be appreciated that although a flat rectangular rod is shown in
The rod 76 may for example be a substantially symmetrical rod provided with a protrusion 77 at an angular portion thereof as seen in
The safety arrangement may further comprise a handle 78 allowing a user to rotate the rod 76 between the first and second rotational positions. For example, the handle 78 may be pivoted around the rotational axis of the rod 76. The handle 78 may be provided on an outer side of the grenade launcher 10 to allow a user to easily access the handle 78.
Each modular barrel 81 comprises on a first side one or more male connectors 83 (e.g. studs), and on a second side opposite to the first side one or more female connectors 84 (e.g. holes) in corresponding positions. Thus, a plurality of modular barrels 81 may be connected, and secured, in sequence.
The barrels 81 are shown empty and in
The barrels 81 also comprise engaging flanges 86 for engagement with the grenade launcher 80. The engaging flanges 86 are preferably located at or on the same end side of the modular barrel 81 as the primer 54, i.e. at the first end side. The engaging flanges 86 preferably comprise two or more parallel flanges. A first and second flanges may preferably extend in a direction perpendicular to the first and second sides. For example, a first flange may be provided at an upper portion of the first end side, and a second flange may be provided at a lower portion of the first end side.
The grenade launcher 80 comprises a barrel slot 88 for receiving one or more modular barrels 81. The barrel slot 88 may be arranged to accommodate one, two, three or more modular barrels 81. The barrel slot 88 comprises a slide rail 89 arranged to engage with the engaging flanges 86 of the modular barrels 81 such that the modular barrels 81 can be slid into, and along, the barrel slot 88.
The barrel slot 88 preferably comprises an inlet 90 for receiving the modular barrels 81. When inserting the modular barrels 81, the modular barrels 81 may be inserted into the barrel slot 88 at the inlet 90, made to engage with the slide rail 89, and slid into position in the barrel slot 88. Preferably a plurality of modular barrels 81 may be inserted at the same time. That is, a plurality of modular barrels 81 may be connected in sequence away from the grenade launcher 80, and then the connected plurality of modular barrels 81 may be slid into the barrel slot 88 with one smooth sliding motion.
The modular barrel grenade launcher 80 also comprises one or more triggering mechanisms (one triggering mechanism for each modular barrel) for triggering the primers located in each barrel. The triggering mechanism shown in
The modular barrel grenade launcher 80 may comprise a safety arrangement for locking the triggering mechanism so as to prevent the triggering mechanism from triggering the primer(s). Preferably, the safety arrangement is substantially similar to the safety arrangement with a rotatable rod 76 of
The safety arrangement preferably comprises a handle 78 for actuating the safety arrangement. The handle 78 may be moveable between a first handle position and a second handle position. The first handle position may correspond to a position where the safety arrangement locks the triggering mechanism (i.e. where the safety arrangement prevents the triggering mechanism from triggering the primer 54). The second handle position may correspond to a position where the safety arrangement ensures that the triggering mechanism is in an unlocked state (i.e. where the safety arrangement allows the triggering mechanism to trigger the primer 54).
Preferably, the handle 78 is pivotably arranged such that a pivotal motion on the handle can move the handle 78 between the first and second handle positions. For example, the handle 78 may be pivotably arranged to allow a user to rotate the rod 76 (as previously described).
The handle 78 is preferably provided on the same side of the grenade launcher 80 as the inlet 90 to the barrel slot 88. The handle 78 may then be arranged such that the handle 78, in the second handle position shown in
The handle 78 of the safety arrangement thus performs two functions, the first function being transitioning the safety arrangement between a locked and unlocked state, and the second function being ensuring that modular barrels 81 can only be inserted when the safety arrangement is in a locked state.
Although the modular barrel grenade launcher 80 is shown in combination with the safety arrangement of
In various embodiments, the grenade launcher 10, 80 comprises one barrel 12 only. In other embodiments, the grenade launcher 10, 80 comprises a plurality of barrels 12. One barrel can comprise a flashlight or be exchanged with a flashlight.
In alternative embodiments, the support 14 comprises a magnet, fastening straps, adhesive tape, or other fastening means. The support 12 can also be welded or attached by other means to the gun or to any other type of carrier.
The various embodiments described above are provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed to limit the invention. For example, the principles herein may be applied to any grenade launcher irrespective of how it is intended to be supported. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize various modifications and changes that may be made to the present invention without following the example embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein, and without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
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2151474-0 | Dec 2021 | SE | national |
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