Patent GB-577041-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to cartridge case testing machines
IPC: F42B35/02
Filed: 1943-10-16
Abstract: 577,041. Testing ammunition cartridges. AUTOPACK (LONDON), Ltd., LEE, G. A., SMITH, A. R., and HOPKINS, C. J. Oct. 16, 1943, No. 17029. [Class 9 (i)] [Also in Group XIX] A machine for testing the base of a cartridge case, to ascertain whether the ignition holes, through which a flash passes from the firing cap to the propellant charge, are present and are of the correct size, effects the test by the application to the base of each cartridge in turn of a nozzle to which compressed air is supplied. The cartridges are sorted according to the results of the test by means of a pivoted arm or arms, the position of which is automatically determined by a slidable stop under the control of the air pressure behind the nozzle when the cartridge case is under test, the pivoted arm or arms serving to direct the cases or allow them to pass to appropriate discharge positions from a rotary carrier by which they have been conveyed in succession to the testing-nozzle. In the machine shown, the carrier comprises a pair of intermittently-rotating coaxially-arranged notched discs a (only one of which is shown), which carry the cartridge cases o to a position where a nozzle n is pressed against each of them in turn by a spring (not shown). A pair of pivoted notched arms c (only one shown) cooperate with the discs a, the arms being automatically set in any one of three positions relatively to the discs. In one of these positions, shown in Fig. 3, the arms are set so as to be clear of a cartridge case as it is moved by the carrier away from the testing position, so that the case can fall into a " reject " receptacle. In another setting, the arms c occupy a position in which the outer sides of the arms engage a cartridge case so as to direct it to another reject receiver. In a third and intermediate setting of the arms, they detach a cartridge case from the carrier, and direct it to an " accepted " position. The various settings of the arms c in relation to the periphery of the discs a are determined by the engagement of a slidable stop-rod d, Figs. 1 and 4, with one or other of three steps e, e<1>, e<2 >on a catch f attached to one of the arms. The movements of the stop are pneumatically controlled as follows. When the base of a cartridge case is held against the nozzle n, air under pressure is supplied to the nozzle from a cylinder p. A byepass pipe leads the air supply to a cylinder 6, in which a piston 7 engages a spring-controlled lever 8 which acts upon the rod d, the rod itself being under endways spring control. When air is admitted to the nozzle, the consequent pressure acting upon the piston 7 depends upon whether holes are present in the cartridge base, or upon their size if they exist. Thus, the piston 7, through the lever 8, moves the rod d to such a position that it can engage that step in the catch f which determines the appropriate position of the arms c. After each cartridge case has been tested and sorted, a cam i on a shaft j resets the arms c. The piston in the cylinder p is actuated from the shaft j, which also operates a trip-lever 25 for controlling a catch 22 adapted to retain temporarily the stop-rod d in its set positions.