Magnetic ammunition for air guns and biodegradable magnetic ammunition for airguns

Abstract

A round for a magnetically chambered air gun has a magnetically influenced portion and a non-magnetically responsive portion, as well as an exterior shell and an interior. The interior may be hollow, solid, or filled with liquid. Any part of the invention may be the magnetically responsive portion: the shell, the interior, the solid or liquid core and so on. The round may advantageously be spherical, and may include an actual magnet itself as opposed to merely being magnetically responsive. Magnetic materials may be impregnated into a non-magnetic portion such as a plastic shell. The shell may be of multiple part construction with a snap together design.

Claims

1. A round of ammunition comprising: a spherical body, the body comprising a first body part and a second body part; the first body part being a core; the second body part surrounding the core and being a shell about the core, the second body part having an interior void into which the core is disposed; the second body part being made of two constituent materials, a first structural material which is non-magnetic and a second magnetically responsive material dispersed within the first structural material; and a magnet disposed within a material of the first body part.

2. The round of ammunition of claim 1, the first structural material further comprising: a polymer.

3. The round of ammunition of claim 2, the first structural material polymer further comprising: a shock absorbing polymer.

4. The round of ammunition of claim 2, wherein the second magnetically responsive material further comprises: particles of metal.

5. The round of ammunition of claim 4, wherein the particles of metal further comprise: iron filings.

6. The round of ammunition of claim 2, wherein the core further comprises: a gas.

7. The round of ammunition of claim 2, wherein the core further comprises: a metal.

8. The round of ammunition of claim 1, wherein the second body part is comprised of a plurality of sections, the sections having fastening means by which the sections are fastened together about the core.

9. The round of ammunition of claim 8, the fastening means further comprising: on a first one of the sections, a plurality of tabs, each tab having thereon at least one catch, on a second one of the sections, at least one detent, the detent dimensioned and configured to accept the catch into mechanical engagement, whereby the two sections are fastened together.

10. The round of ammunition of claim 8, wherein the shell further comprises: a plurality of fragmentation grooves whereby the shell may more easily fragment upon impact; and further whereby the shell may absorb energy by means of fragmenting upon impact.

11. The round of ammunition of claim 1, wherein the first structural material is biodegradable.

12. The round of ammunition of claim 11, the first structural material further comprising one member selected from the group consisting of: paper, cellulose, wood fiber, saw dust, powder, polymer, recycled material, compressed materials, and combinations thereof.

13. The round of ammunition of claim 11, wherein the second magnetically responsive material comprises one member selected from the group consisting of: iron filings, metal particles, recycled material, compressed materials, and combinations thereof.

14. A round of ammunition comprising: a spherical body, the body comprising a first body part and a second body part; the first body part being a core; the second body part surrounding the core and being a mantle about the core, the second body part having an interior void into which the core is disposed; the second body part being made at least in part of a structural material which is non-magnetic; the second body part being made at least in part of a material which is magnetically responsive; and a magnet disposed within a material of the first body part.

15. The round of ammunition of claim 14, the magnet further comprising: a rare earth magnet.

16. The round of ammunition of claim 15, wherein the rare earth further comprises: Neodymium.

17. The round of ammunition of claim 14, wherein the material of the second body part further comprises: iron filings.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The following drawings form part of the present specification and are included to further demonstrate certain aspects of the present invention. The invention may be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the detailed description of specific embodiments presented herein.

(2) FIG. 1 is an oblique elevated orthogonal exterior view of a first embodiment of the invention.

(3) FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a second embodiment of the invention.

(4) FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a third embodiment of the invention, showing a different caliber but with the same shell thickness as the previous embodiment.

(5) FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a fourth embodiment of the invention showing a different shell thickness and construction.

(6) FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a fifth embodiment of the invention, a non-lethal version with a foam outer casing.

(7) FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a sixth embodiment of the invention with an iron-filing core or the like, and including an actual magnet rather than just incorporating a magnetically responsive material.

(8) FIG. 7 is an elevated exploded view of a hollow round, showing details of fastenings suitable for use in the field and thus allowing field filling.

(9) FIG. 8 is an elevated exploded view of a hollow round, showing details of fragmentation grooves.

(10) FIG. 9 is an elevated exploded view of a hollow round showing an empty bladder therein.

(11) FIG. 10 is an elevated exploded view of a hollow round, for clarity disassembled half way through the act of filling the bladder.

(12) FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of a compressed paper round, with a magnetically infused mantle and a hollow core. The round has a liquid impermeable coating on the interior cavity.

(13) FIG. 12 is an exterior view of the compressed paper round, with a magnetically infused mantle and a hollow core, showing the sealable fill ports thereof.

(14) FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of a compressed powder round with an iron core.

(15) FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view of a compressed powder round with a magnetically infused mantle and a payload cavity/core suitable for liquid.

(16) FIG. 15 is a refuse round made with an iron core or a core of compressed magnetically responsive refuse and a compressed refuse mantle which may or may not be magnetically responsive.

(17) FIG. 16 is a refuse round made with a compressed refuse mantle containing magnetically responsive materials in the mantle and a cavity suitable for liquid.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Glossary

(18) For purposes of this application, magnetic materials refers to materials having a magnetic retentivity sufficient to allow it to generate, at least temporarily, a magnetic field, also called magnetic flux. Magnets are themselves made of magnetic materials. Magnetically responsive materials, on the other hand, will respond when in a magnetic field, thus, steel ball bearings are an example of a magnetically responsive material. Ferrous, on the other hand, refers to the presence of iron materials (since iron is the most common magnetic and magnetically responsive material), and the while the term is often used as a synonym for magnetic materials or magnetically responsive materials, in this application it refers to the presence of iron. There are non-ferrous magnetic materials, for example, rare-earths and electromagnets can both be free of iron and yet magnetic.

(19) The word shell as used herein, particularly in regard to the claims, does NOT refer to a cannon shell (a cannon projectile). The word shell means a mantle, covering, exterior integument or the like, thus a clam has a shell as used herein. The words round or projectile or the like will be used as needed and the word shell will not be herein used nor taken to indicate or refer to a projectile.

(20) The word biodegradable in this application may mean either true biodegradability, that is, something which is degraded by actual biological action such as digestion, enzymatic action, etc, or the word may refer to the broader concept of something which degrades under natural conditions. Such degradation may be erosion (for example, a mantle of compressed powder may erode away much like adobe erodes in time) or due to solar radiation (many polymers decay under radiation) or due to the presence of oxygen (ditto), hydration (for example, paper products) and so on and so forth. The term recycled as used herein as the ordinary meaning that something which was already used in a product may be reused with a variable degree of processing. In the present application, the term recycled may specifically include something being shredded, split, shaved, drawn into streamers, reduced, dissolved, pulverized, ground up, granulated or otherwise reduced to small component pieces or particles which may then be used, especially when compressed together. Compressed particles/streamers, etc may refer to simple mechanical compression until mechanical co-adhesion of the particles is achieved or it may refer to a sintering process or the like.

(21) The term refuse as used herein may refer to actual waste/garbage or it may simply refer to industrially un-economical products or byproducts of other processes. For example, flashing from injection molding may be present in large quantities and may be contaminated by passing through the first manufacturing process so that it has no economical use. On the other hand, actual garbage may be used. Recycled materials (see previous paragraph) are desirable as the shredding or other partial processing of the materials will usually render them more suitable for compression and reuse as structural material for a bullet mantle.

(22) In particular, wood products, paper products, and plastic products are anticipated to be good matches for mantle material (the first part of the round) while metal materials are anticipated to be useful as the magnetically responsive part of the round of ammunition, either in the core of the round or in the mantle as an infusion.

(23) The word infusion as used herein may refer to an actual chemical infusion or it may simply refer to having pieces of something spread throughout something else: the word dispersed is used as a synonym.

End Glossary

(24) FIG. 1 is an oblique elevated orthogonal exterior view of a first embodiment of the invention. This embodiment of the round 100 features a hollow shell having fragmentation grooves 102 which are designed to break upon impact. This not only absorbs more energywhich is desirable in nonlethal applicationsit also allows the round to disperse a liquid or gas interior, such as tear gas or the like.

(25) Liquid fill nipple 104 may be recessed, as shown. One advantage of the present invention, discussed later, is the ability for the user to fill the round themselves, using the fill nipple 104.

(26) Since the round is fired from an air gun, the shell need not be as strong as the thick walls of a typical gunpowder round. This is due to a sometimes lower muzzle velocity but more due to the gentle nature of the acceleration in the gun design (see the parent patent incorporated herein by earlier reference) which does not use any breech block of any type.

(27) Since the block-less action relies on magnetism, it is necessary that the round has at least one magnetically responsive component, either the shell/mantle or the core within. In this embodiment, the shell may be plastic if the liquid within is magnetically responsive or has magnetically responsive particles suspended therein. The shell may be metallic and magnetically responsive, such as ferrous metal, in which case the core need not be.

(28) FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a second embodiment of the invention. Magnetic round 200 has a thin shell 206 which as noted earlier may be magnetic or not. Core 208 will contain almost anything from air, to metallic spheres, the explosive charges, nonlethal gas or liquid and so on. (Liquid is one of the possible ways to deliver tear gas and the like.)

(29) Caliber/diameter 210 may be rather surprising, as the gun of the invention has been tested up to quite large calibers and may be susceptible to even larger ones. Based on testing, calibers of 100 (1 inch) are easily possible and larger calibers as well. For a user in the field filing the round up, this large size means that even materials like gravel, shot, sand, paint, defoliants and so on may be used with ease, not to mention propaganda, electronics for C3 and intel/recon roles and so on.

(30) FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a third embodiment of the invention, showing a different caliber but with the same shell thickness as the previous embodiment. Magnetic round 300 has a shell of the same thickness (see shell 306) as shell 206, but the overall outer diameter/caliber 310 is smaller. Testing confirms that rounds very small can be used. Core 308 loses a great deal of volume for the payload compared to larger calibers

(31) FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a fourth embodiment of the invention showing a different shell thickness and construction.

(32) Magnetic round 400 has a mantle/shell 406 which has a structural material component selected for strength, or desirable impact/energy absorption qualities (for example to reduce lethality) or the like. This may be any polymer, such as plastic, rubber, foamed plastic or rubber, and so on. Core 408 may be seen to be smaller than core 208 despite the same caliber 410/210. Thus core diameter 412 is smaller, and the distance from outer diameter 410 to core diameter 412 allows the shell/mantle to be thicker. Magnetically responsive material 414 may be any magnetically responsive material of choice, one obvious choice is a ferrous metal particle such as iron filings.

(33) This is one major distinction between the invention and a typical rail gun round is this lack of a huge percentage of magnetically responsive material for magnets to grab and accelerate. A rail gun typically generates an enormous G force on a projectile as it accelerates it using magnetic forces. This projectile does not need large amounts of magnetically responsive material as it is not accelerated magnetically at all, it is merely chambered into line with the air pressure by action of a magnet and then is accelerated by air pressure.

(34) FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a fifth embodiment of the invention, a non-lethal version with a foam outer casing. Magnetic round 500 has a mantle/shell 506 which may be a foamed material, such as closed cell or open cell polymer, or another similar material.

(35) Core 508 is in this embodiment the magnetically grab-able part of the round, that is the part subject to the influence of magnetic forces.

(36) This round is distinctly different from a rubber bullet. Most rubber bullets are in fact normal metal bullets made slightly smaller than caliber and then coated with a very thin layer of extremely hard polymer. They feel more like steel than like rubber and have in fact been found to easily be lethal. The present invention on the other hand teaches that an air gun may accelerate a round which has a great deal less mass and a great deal more impact padding, in this case in the form of a thick mantle. The present invention is capable of inexpensively firing enormous numbers of rounds when compared to most infantry weapons firing rubber bullets: as mentioned previously 10,000 RPM is achievable. The round gets its effectiveness not from nearly killing the target but rather from sheer overwhelming volume of fire.

(37) FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a sixth embodiment of the invention with an iron-filing core or the like, and including an actual magnet rather than just incorporating a magnetically responsive material.

(38) Magnetic round 600 may have a polymer shell 606 as the material of core 608 may be a magnetically responsive powder such as iron filings. In addition, a rare-earth magnet 615, for example a neodymium magnet, may be placed in the core as well.

(39) FIG. 7 is an elevated exploded view of a hollow round, showing details of fastenings suitable for use in the field and thus allowing field filling.

(40) Magnetic round 700 has shell half 716a and shell half 716b which combine to form the complete shell when assembled. Interior 718 may be used to hold the desired core. This may be left empty if the shell is magnetically responsive, or if the shell is polymer or a non-ferrous metal, the core may provide the magnetic grip to the magnet in the gun's breech.

(41) Tabs 720 may each bear at least one catch 722 which may be guided by race 724 to seat in mechanical engagement into dimples/detents/holes 726, thus securing the halves together. Again, this construction would probably fail in a gunpowder weapon of normal strength or a rail gun, due to the extreme accelerations of a gunpowder explosion right behind the round versus the onset of pressure in an open breech air gun.

(42) In embodiments, each half might have one or more tabs and one or more detents, so that the halves may in fact be identical. By rotating one in relation to the other by a set number of degrees (90 degrees or the like) the two identical shell halves might then fit together.

(43) The shell may be composed of more than two pieces, etc. Note that this particular round is designed for applications not requiring fragmentation grooves, perhaps solid cores, or the shell may be a very frangible polymer, etc.

(44) FIG. 8 is an elevated exploded view of a hollow round, showing details of fragmentation grooves. Magnetic round 800 has both exterior fragmentation groove 802 and interior fragmentation groove 804, on respective outer and inner surfaces of the shell. These grooves allow the round to fragment, absorb energy, and release whatever the user has placed therein.

(45) While the fragmentation grooves shown on inside and outside match in this case, there is no reason the invention is so limited. Also fragmentation grooves may be present only on the inner or outer surface instead of both (for example see FIG. 1) so as to reduce manufacturing cost. It is anticipated that rounds with fragmentation grooves will be used for liquid core applications, but it is not so limited.

(46) FIG. 9 is an elevated exploded view of a hollow round showing an empty bladder therein. Interior 918 has an empty bladder 928, shown dangling out for clarity but unlikely to actually do so in reality. The size of the fill nipple has been increased also for clarity, though it is unlikely to be that large.

(47) It will be appreciated that the round may be shipped at very low cost to the end users or to intermediate fillers.

(48) FIG. 10 is an elevated exploded view of a hollow round, for clarity disassembled half way through the act of filling the bladder.

(49) Magnetic round 1000 is shown with bladder 1028 half full, as in the process of filling, or if the user does not need to entirely fill the bladder. The bladder may contain gas or liquid, as desired. Note that the user could also leave the bladder empty and put a solid or particulate substance in the interior space, since the empty bladder takes up very little space.

(50) Note that the round might be shipped assembled, or in embodiments not have two portions, and have the bladder already in place so the user could fill it without having to assemble it as well. Such embodiment would require more space for shipping.

(51) The invention is also susceptible to a method embodiment in which a round is made unassembled, for example in two shell halves, and shipped empty and nested together. The user then fills the round with solid core material and then snaps it together, or snaps it together and fills it with liquid materials. The user then loads the round into a gun and fires it. By these steps the user can control the payload of the round.

(52) FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of a compressed paper round, with a magnetically infused mantle and a hollow core. The round has a liquid impermeable coating on the interior cavity.

(53) Paper round 1100 is again generally spherical. However, the magnetic chambering of the present invention allows, or in embodiments even relies upon, a greater degree of play between the ammunition and the various parts of the interior of the weapon. This in turn means that the ammunition need not be entirely round. In this context note that many types of conventional ammunition rely upon lands or other projections from the round the mechanically engage to grooves or even larger structures within the barrel of a weapon, thus gaining spin. The present invention merely uses this to provide a degree of manufacturing ease: the ammunition of the invention need not be perfect. This is helpful given that in certain embodiments the ammunition may be filled or assembled onsite (shell embodiments discussed previously), or even manufactured on site from recycled materials.

(54) Magnetically attracted compressed paper mantle 1106 may be seen to be made of paper, for example, cardboard, carbon fiber, wood fiber, sawdust, carbon strands, woody stalk material from certain plants famous for woody stalks, and so on. The mantle may be magnetic due to the infusion/dispersion therein of magnetically responsive materials such as iron filings or the like.

(55) Since the mantle may be magnetically responsive, no metallic core is necessary, which in turn means the device may be loaded with liquids (including in that term gases) such as tear gas, paint, dye, or the like.

(56) Liquid proof interior coating 1104 may be a thin polymer, a lacquer previously applied, metallic, foil, etc etc. This interior coating may even be considered to be similar to the bladder previously discussed.

(57) Interior (liquid payload) 1102 may be any of the substances previously discussed, including gases, gels, aerosols, and so on.

(58) FIG. 12 is an exterior view of the compressed paper round, with a magnetically infused mantle and a hollow core, showing the sealable fill ports thereof. As noted previously, the invention may be customizable at the scene of use, such as merchant ship or military outpost, by local choice of filling.

(59) Self-sealing fill ports 1202 may be a simpler type than those of the first embodiment, instead the ports may simply be sealable. This can be a separate operation or the ports may be self-sealing, for example, by being made of a material which automatically compresses sideways into any small puncture and thus blocks it. One example of this is the compressed rubber of old style self-sealing fuel tanks, but other mechanisms may be used.

(60) By means of the ports, the user may insert/inject a filling into the core with ease. A simple machine may be provided into which ammunition and liquid/gaseous filler is fed and from which filled ammunition rounds are ejected.

(61) FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of a compressed powder round with an iron core.

(62) Compressed powder mantle 1302 may derive its structural integrity from compression only or the mantle may incorporate an agent which aids in binding, for example, an adhesive, a binder, or simply anything which causes a slight degree of melting followed by resolidifying of the constituent material or powder.

(63) Iron/filing core 1304 of this embodiment provides the magnetic responsiveness to allow the zero moving parts chambering of rounds taught in the parent application hereto.

(64) FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view of a compressed powder round with a magnetically infused mantle and a payload cavity/core suitable for liquid.

(65) In this embodiment, it is possible to have both a powder mantle for extremely quick degradability and also to have a liquid core (first part) rather than a metallic core.

(66) The benefit of certain powders is that they may degrade under conditions of low biotic activity. For example, in extremely cold areas it is common for normally biodegradable matter to survive almost indefinitely, in fact, even food stuffs can be found edible after extremely long periods of time. The same may apply in other biotically inert areas such as extreme deserts or the like. Powder however may degrade or at least fall apart back into particles (biodegrade under the broad definition of the Glossary) merely from the influence of solar radiation, wind, water, weather or the like.

(67) Compressed powder round 1400 has a hollow interior/cavity which may contain non-lethal liquid/fluid 1402 such as tear gas or paint, or markers or the like. Obviously a liquid impermeable coating may be used as shown in a previous embodiment, or a bladder may be used as shown in other embodiments previously, fill ports or sealable ports and so on also being usable.

(68) The round remains magnetically chamberable due to the compressed powder with a magnetic infusion used to make the mantle 1404. The magnetic infusion may be any of the materials previously discussed, such as iron (particles/filings) 1406. Once again, a certain small degree of deviation from the true round is permissible due to the flexible and simple design of the weapon which uses the ammunition.

(69) FIG. 15 is a refuse round made with an iron core or a core of compressed magnetically responsive refuse and a compressed refuse mantle which may or may not be magnetically responsive.

(70) Iron core/compressed magnetically responsive refuse core 1502 may provide the magnetic responsiveness needed for operation of the air gun. It may be found refuse materials such as scrap metal of a ferrous nature.

(71) Compressed refuse mantle 1504 may provide the cushioning, if desired, to non-lethal levels of impact, or may simply provide the desired caliber, weight or other factor to the round.

(72) Since refuse as defined previously includes actual garbage and left over material from industrial processes, the invention may once again be susceptible to on the spot ammunition creation with fairly small and portable machinery.

(73) FIG. 16 is a refuse round made with a compressed refuse mantle containing magnetically responsive materials in the mantle and a cavity suitable for liquid.

(74) Compressed refuse iron infused round 1600 has an interior cavity in alternative embodiments but need not, as shown.

(75) Compressed refuse mantle 1604 has iron infusion 1606 as discussed previously: iron filings or other useable magnetically responsive materials.

(76) Throughout this application, various publications, patents, and/or patent applications are referenced in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains. The disclosures of these publications, patents, and/or patent applications are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties, and for the subject matter for which they are specifically referenced in the same or a prior sentence, to the same extent as if each independent publication, patent, and/or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.

(77) Methods and components are described herein. However, methods and components similar or equivalent to those described herein can be also used to obtain variations of the present invention. The materials, articles, components, methods, and examples are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting.

(78) Although only a few embodiments have been disclosed in detail above, other embodiments are possible and the inventors intend these to be encompassed within this specification. The specification describes specific examples to accomplish a more general goal that may be accomplished in another way. This disclosure is intended to be exemplary, and the claims are intended to cover any modification or alternative which might be predictable to a person having ordinary skill in the art.

(79) Having illustrated and described the principles of the invention in exemplary embodiments, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the described examples are illustrative embodiments and can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. Techniques from any of the examples can be incorporated into one or more of any of the other examples. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.