METHOD AND DEVICE FOR HANDLING PROPELLING CHARGES IN FULLY AND SEMI-AUTOMATIC LOADING SYSTEMS FOR ARTILLERY GUNS

摘要

The present invention relates to a device for the loading system of artiller y guns to enable unitary propelling charges (16), of preferably modular charge type that are mutually combinable into larger units and which have combustible casings, to be handled in a main magazine (1) comprising a number of mutually parallel magazine tubes (2-15) designed to accommodate such modular charges (16), with the outfeed apertures of the magazine tubes (2-15) terminating in a common vertical plan e, and a retrieval tube (17) whose infeed/outfeed aperture can be docked with the outfeed aperture of any freely selectable magazine tu be (2-15) whereby the retrieval tube (17) is used to transfer a selected number of modular charges (16) from the respective magazine tubes ( 2- 15) to a loading pendulum (19) used for loading the gun. The device in the present invention is primarily characterized by the way in which the magazine tubes (2-15) and the retrieval tube (17) are designed with dedicated outfeed devices (31) which ensure that the modul ar charges are always kept packed together, end-to-end when they are transferred between the tubes.