Method of producing a fragmentation jacket

The fragmentation jacket of a projectile or shell should be prefragmentized in the simplest possible manner by means of reference fracture locations provided at the inner side or interior surface of the fragmentation jacket. For this purpose, the reference fracture locations are impressed into a disk, for example, by stamping. Subsequently, the thus formed disk is shaped by deep drawing to form a fragmentation jacket such that the reference fracture locations formed by grooves are located at the inner side or interior surface of a cup-shaped fragmentation jacket. This cup-shaped fragmentation jacket is filled with an explosive charge which is detonated by a base fuze or by a tip or point fuze.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention broadly relates to ammunition rounds for weaponry and 
pertains, more specifically, to a new and improved method of producing a 
fragmentation or splintering jacket for a projectile or shell. In the 
interior of the fragmentation or splintering jacket there is located an 
explosive charge which is detonated by a fuze or detonator. 
In its more particular aspects the present invention specifically relates 
to a new and improved method of producing a fragmentation or splintering 
jacket for a projectile or shell and which method encompasses producing a 
blank in the form of a disk, impressing into the disk reference fracture 
locations in the form of grooves and then subjecting the disk to a shaping 
operation in order to form the fragmentation or splintering jacket from 
the disk. 
A warhead produced according to a known method of manufacturing splintering 
jackets is disclosed, for example, in German Petty Patent No. G 
8,427,780.7, published May 15, 1985. A warhead housing serves to receive a 
hollow charge. A detonator or fuze is fastened to the warhead housing 
which is cup-shaped and fabricated by a shaping process, for instance deep 
drawing, from a metallic blank in the form of a round disk. A wire netting 
is rolled into the disk. This known method of fabricating a warhead of the 
fragmentation type is complicated and impractical for mass production 
purposes. Furthermore, the wire netting does not provide any particular 
advantages. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Therefore, with the foregoing in mind, it is a primary object of the 
present invention to provide a new and improved method of producing a 
fragmentation or splintering jacket and which method is not afflicted with 
the drawbacks and limitations of the prior art methods heretofore 
discussed. 
Another significant object of the present invention is directed to 
providing a new and improved method of producing a fragmentation or 
splintering jacket and which method is inherently simple, and especially 
suitable for mass production of such fragmentation or splintering jackets. 
Now in order to implement these and still further objects of the invention, 
which will become more readily apparent as the description proceeds, the 
method of producing a fragmentation or splintering jacket of the present 
development is manifested, among other things, by the features that the 
disk is produced to comprise portions having different thicknesses and 
defining a predeterminate configuration of the fragmentation or 
splintering jacket to be produced, prior to shaping the fragmentation or 
splintering jacket from such disk. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
The invention will be better understood and objects other than those set 
forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the 
following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference 
to the annexed drawings wherein throughout the various figures of the 
drawings, there have been generally used the same reference characters to 
denote the same or analogous components and wherein: 
FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal sectional view through a projectile or shell 
comprising a tip or point or nose fuze or detonator and a fragmentation or 
splintering jacket produced according to a first exemplary embodiment of 
the inventive method; 
FIG. 2 shows a cross-section through a disk from which the fragmentation or 
splintering jacket depicted in FIG. 1 is fabricated; 
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary top plan view of the disk depicted in FIG. 2; 
FIG. 4 shows a longitudinal sectional view through a projectile or shell 
comprising a base fuze or detonator and a fragmentation or splintering 
jacket produced according to a second exemplary embodiment of the 
inventive method; 
FIG. 5 shows a cross-section through a disk from which the fragmentation or 
splintering jacket depicted in FIG. 4 is fabricated; 
FIG. 6 shows, on an enlarged scale in relation to the illustration of FIG. 
5, a detail of the cross-section through the disk depicted in FIG. 5; 
FIG. 7 shows a top plan view of the detail illustrated in FIG. 6; 
FIG. 8 shows a longitudinal sectional view through a modified projectile or 
shell comprising a base fuze or detonator and a fragmentation or 
splintering jacket produced according to the second exemplary embodiment 
of the inventive method; 
FIG. 9 shows a cross-section through a disk from which the fragmentation or 
splintering jacket depicted in FIG. 8 is fabricated; and 
FIG. 10 shows, in a top plan view of a disk, different configurations of 
grooves defining reference fracture locations.