INTERMEDIATE, TOOL AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING A DEFORMATION BULLET WITH DEFINED TERMINAL BALLISTICS

Abstract

The present invention relates to a bullet, in particular a deformation bullet, such as a hollow-point bullet, for example for police and/or authority ammunition, in particular with a caliber in the range of 4.6 mm to 20 mm, comprising a bullet body with a nose wall delimiting a central cavity which is open towards the surroundings, wherein the nose wall is notched and/or the cavity is produced by cold forming in such a way that on impact of the bullet on a target the nose wall is deformed so that it is widened by less than 90, in particular less than 60, in particular less than 45 or less than 30, in relation to the longitudinal axis of the bullet.

Claims

1. Bullet, in particular a deformation bullet, such as a hollow-point bullet, for example for police and/or authority ammunition, in particular with a caliber in the range of 4.6 mm to 20 mm, comprising a bullet body with a nose wall delimiting a central cavity which is open towards the surroundings, wherein the nose wall is notched and/or the cavity is produced by cold forming in such a way that on impact of the bullet on a target, the nose wall is deformed so that it is widened by less than 90, in particular less than 60, in particular less than 45 or less than 30, in relation to the longitudinal axis of the bullet.

2. Bullet, in particular according to claim 1, in particular a deformation bullet, such as a hollow-point bullet, for example for police and/or authority ammunition, in particular with a caliber in the range of 4.6 mm to 20 mm, which consists of a bullet body produced in one piece with a nose wall delimiting a central cavity which is open towards the surroundings, the inner wall surface of which facing the cavity has at least two notches oriented in the longitudinal direction of the bullet, wherein the cavity is produced by cold forming.

3. Bullet, in particular according to claim 1, in particular a deformation bullet, such as a hollow-point bullet, for example for police and/or authority ammunition, in particular with a caliber in the range of 4.6 mm to 20 mm, which consists of a bullet body made from one piece of iron material with a nose wall delimiting a central cavity which is open towards the surroundings, the inner wall surface of which facing the cavity has at least two notches oriented in the longitudinal direction of the bullet.

4. Bullet, in particular according to claim 1, in particular a deformation bullet, such as a hollow-point bullet, for example for police and/or authority ammunition, in particular with a caliber in the range of 4.6 mm to 20 mm, comprising a bullet body with a nose wall delimiting a central cavity which is open towards the surroundings, the inner wall surface of which facing the cavity has at least two micro-notches oriented in the longitudinal direction of the bullet with a notch depth of less than 0.3 mm, in particular less than 0.2 mm or less than 0.1 mm.

5. Bullet according to claim 1, wherein the notches extend by less than 25%, in particular less than 20% or less than 15%, of a total longitudinal extension of the bullet and/or by less than 50%, in particular less than 40%, less than 30% or less than 25%, of a total longitudinal extension of the cavity from the open end of the cavity in the direction of a cavity base, wherein in particular a length of the notches is in a range of 0.5 mm to 3 mm.

6. Bullet according to claim 1, wherein the inner wall surface has 2 to 10, in particular 3 to 8, notches which are distributed uniformly, in particular in the circumferential direction.

7. Bullet according to claim 1, which is produced without a heat treatment process, in particular annealing, and/or wherein the cavity is produced by means of backwards extrusion and/or wherein the notches are produced by cold forming, in particular in a process step with the cavity.

8. Intermediate for producing a bullet formed in particular according to claim 1, consisting of a metal body cold-formed from a metal blank and having a hollow cylinder delimiting a central cavity which is open towards the surroundings, the hollow cylinder inner surface facing the cavity being notched in such a way, that during cold forming of the hollow cylinder to form a, in particular ogive shaped, bullet nose of the bullet, a dimension of the notch is reduced in such a way that the notch is only visible under reflected light microscopy and/or that a notch depth of less than 0.3 mm, in particular less than 0.2 mm or less than 0.1 mm, results.

9. Intermediate, in particular according to claim 8, for producing a bullet formed in particular, comprising a iron material body produced by cold forming from an iron material blank and having a hollow cylinder delimiting a central cavity which is open towards the surroundings, the hollow cylinder inner surface facing the cavity having at least two notches oriented in the longitudinal direction of the intermediate.

10. Intermediate according to claim 8, wherein the notches extend by less than 25%, in particular less than 20% or less than 15%, of a total longitudinal extension of the intermediate and/or by less than 50%, in particular less than 40%, less than 30% or less than 25%, of a total longitudinal extension of the cavity from the open end of the cavity in the direction of a cavity base, wherein in particular a length of the notches is in the range of 0.5 mm to 3 mm.

11. Intermediate according to claim 8, wherein a depth and/or a width of the notches varies from the open end of the cavity towards the cavity base, wherein in particular the depth and/or the width decreases preferably continuously from the open end of the cavity towards the cavity base.

12. The intermediate according to claim 8, wherein the notches have a depth of less than 1 mm, in particular in a range of 0.1 mm to 0.7 mm, and/or a width of less than 1.5 mm, in particular in a range of 0.1 mm to 1 mm.

13. Intermediate according to claim 8, wherein the notches each have two V-shaped tapering notch flanks, which are oriented in particular at an angle in the range of 30 to 80, preferably at an angle of about 60, to one another.

14. Intermediate according to claim 8, wherein the hollow cylinder inner surface has 2 to 10, in particular 3 to 8, notches, which are distributed uniformly, in particular in the circumferential direction.

15. Intermediate according to claim 8, wherein the notches are produced by cold forming, in particular in a process step with the cavity.

16. Press mandrel for pressing a metal blank inserted in a cylindrical die in order to produce an intermediate and/or bullet formed in particular according to claim 1, comprising an in particular cylindrical press head with at least two press ribs extending in the longitudinal direction of the press mandrel, the depth of which transversely to the longitudinal direction is less than 1 mm, in particular in the range of 0.1 mm to 0.7 mm.

17. Press mandrel, in particular according to claim 16, for pressing a metal blank inserted in a cylindrical die in order to produce an intermediate formed in particular and/or a bullet, comprising a cylindrical press head with at least two press ribs extending in the longitudinal direction of the press mandrel and protruding radially from a cylinder jacket surface of the press head.

18. Press mandrel, in particular according to claim 16, for pressing a metal blank inserted in a cylindrical die along a pressing direction in order to produce an intermediate, comprising a press head with at least two press ribs extending in the longitudinal direction of the press mandrel and protruding transversely to the longitudinal direction from an outer jacket surface of the press head, the depth of which varies transversely to the longitudinal direction in the longitudinal direction in particular decreases against the pressing direction.

19. Press mandrel according to claim 18 wherein the depth of the press ribs decreases against the pressing direction at an angle of 6 to 15, in particular from 6 to 10, and/or decreases over at least 80% of a longitudinal extension, in particular over at least 90% and/or less than the total longitudinal extension, of the press ribs against the pressing direction.

20. Press mandrel, in particular according to claim 16, for pressing a metal blank inserted in a cylindrical die in order to produce an intermediate, comprising a press head with at least two press ribs extending in the longitudinal direction of the press mandrel and protruding transversely to the longitudinal direction from an outer jacket surface of the press head and which have two V-shaped press flanks whose transition is rounded, wherein in particular a radius at the transition is at least 0.01 mm and/or at most 0.2 mm.

21. Press mandrel according to claim 20, wherein the press flanks are oriented at an angle in the range of 30 to 80, preferably at an angle of about 60, to one another.

22. Press mandrel, in particular according to claim 16, for pressing a metal blank inserted in a cylindrical die in order to produce an intermediate, comprising in particular cylindrical press head with at least two press ribs extending in the longitudinal direction of the press mandrel, wherein in particular flat face side of the press head is inclined with respect to the longitudinal direction, wherein in particular a forming angle of the in particular flat face side of the press head is in the range of 105 to 135 with respect to the longitudinal direction.

23. Press mandrel according to claim 22, wherein a transition between the face side and the press ribs is rounded, wherein in particular a radius at the transition lies in a range of 1 mm to 2 mm and/or wherein the face side has a central planar region and the press head is rounded at a transition between the central region and the inclined face side, wherein in particular a radius at the transition lies in a range of 1 mm to 2 mm.

24. Press mandrel according to claim 16, wherein the press head comprises 2 to 10, in particular 3 to 8, press ribs, which are distributed uniformly, in particular in the circumferential direction.

25. Press mandrel according to claim 16, wherein the press head comprises friction-reduced regions between the press ribs, wherein in particular the friction-reduced regions comprise a low surface roughness, a lubrication and/or a coating.

26. Press mandrel according to claim 16, wherein the press head is made of a hard material, such as a hard metal, in particular with a hardness of more than 550 HV.

27. Method for producing an intermediate formed in particular according to claim 8 and/or a bullet, in which a metal blank is inserted into a cylindrical die and, in order to produce the intermediate of the bullet, the metal blank is cold-formed by means of a mandrel formed in particular according to claim 16 in such a way that a hollow cylinder delimiting a central cavity which is open to the surroundings is formed, the hollow cylinder inner surface facing the cavity having at least two notches oriented in the longitudinal direction of the intermediate, wherein the cavity has a constant cross-section along its longitudinal extension, wherein in particular the hollow cylinder is cold-formed to form a, in particular ogive shaped, bullet nose.

28. Method according to claim 27, wherein the notches are introduced by cold forming in a process step with the cavity.

29. A fired, deformed bullet resulting from firing a bullet formed according to claim 1 and impact of the bullet on a target, in particular a standard target.

Description

[0057] In the following, further properties, features and advantages of the invention will become clear by means of a description of preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the accompanying exemplary drawings, in which show:

[0058] FIGS. 1-5 a schematic stage plan for producing an exemplary embodiment of a bullet according to the invention starting from a blank;

[0059] FIG. 6 a sectional view of an exemplary embodiment of an intermediate according to the invention;

[0060] FIG. 7a, b a top view of the intermediate from FIG. 6;

[0061] FIG. 8 a sectional view of an exemplary embodiment of a press mandrel according to the invention;

[0062] FIG. 9a, b a sectional view of the press mandrel from FIG. 8 along line IX-IX in FIG. 8;

[0063] FIG. 10 a side view of the press mandrel from FIGS. 8 and 9;

[0064] FIG. 11 a perspective view of the press mandrel from FIGS. 8 to 10; and

[0065] FIG. 12 a schematic view of an exemplary embodiment of a bullet according to the invention in a deformed state after impacting a target.

[0066] In the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a bullet according to the invention is generally provided with the reference numeral 1, an intermediate according to the invention is generally provided with the reference numeral 10 and a press mandrel according to the invention is generally provided with the reference numeral 100.

[0067] A bullet 1 according to the invention is shown in FIG. 5 in a sectional view. The bullet according to the invention comprises a bullet body 3 which is produced in one piece. The bullet body 3 consists of homogeneous material, for example the bullet body 3 can consist of iron material, such as steel, in particular soft iron. The bullet body 3 comprises a cylindrical bullet tail 5 and an ogive-shaped bullet nose 7. The bullet nose 7 is formed by a circumferential nose wall 9, which encloses a central cavity 11 which is open towards the front of the bullet 1.

[0068] With reference to FIGS. 1 to 5, which show a staged plan for producing a bullet 1 according to the invention, the individual manufacturing steps of the finished bullet 1 shown in FIG. 5 are first shown.

[0069] First, a blank 13 made of metal, preferably iron material, is provided (FIG. 1), which is obtained by cutting from continuous raw material such as a wire or tube. The blank 13 consists of a particularly homogeneous material and is constructed in one piece, in particular from solid material.

[0070] In a first manufacturing step, the blank 13 is cold-formed into a set workpiece 14 by setting, for example by pressing (FIG. 2). As can be seen from a comparison of FIGS. 1 and 2, the blank 13 expands in length during setting, wherein the outer diameter remains substantially constant. The increase in length results from the central recess 15 introduced during setting, which extends from a front face 17 of the set workpiece 14 to a recess base 16 in the direction of the opposite front face 19 of the set workpiece 14. Introducing the recess 15 causes a material displacement, which manifests itself in a length expansion. Opposite the recess 15, i.e. on the opposite front face 19, there is a centering recess 21. Setting can be carried out using a punch and die arrangement (not shown), wherein the outer geometry of the punch determines the inner geometry of the recess 15.

[0071] After setting, the set work piece 14 is pre-pressed to form an intermediate 10 according to the invention (FIG. 3). To form the intermediate 10, the set work piece 14 is cold-formed on a hollow cylinder inner surface 25 of the hollow cylinder 23 surrounding the recess 15, so that the recess 15 is deformed into the front-side cavity 11 of the bullet 1. At the same time, at least two notches 27 oriented in the longitudinal direction L of the set workpiece 14 or the intermediate 10 are cold-formed on the hollow cylinder inner surface 25 of the hollow cylinder 23, which will be explained in detail later. During pre-pressing, the hollow cylinder 23 is also cold-formed on the outside to form a nose wall 9 that tapers ogive-shaped at least sectionally. As a result of the nose wall 9 tapering towards the bullet tip 29 and decreasing in wall thickness, the longitudinal dimension of the section forming the later bullet nose 3 is extended compared to the hollow cylinder 23 of the set workpiece 14

[0072] The intermediate 10 produced in this way consists of a metal body 12 made of homogeneous material, preferably iron material, and is then further cold-formed to form a cylinder 31 shown in FIG. 4, which for the most part already has the complete geometry of the final bullet 1. Starting from the intermediate 10, the cylinder 31 is compressed in the longitudinal direction L, wherein the internal geometry of the cavity 11 is retained. Due to the compression in the longitudinal direction L of the intermediate 10, the diameter of the cylinder 31 increases. The cylinder 31 has a substantially solid, fully cylindrical cylinder section 33 arranged in the region of the later bullet nose 7, which forms over a large part of the longitudinal length of the cylinder up to the ogive-like tapering of the nose wall 9. To produce the final bullet 1, the bullet nose 7 remains substantially unchanged. The bullet tail 5 can be further processed by cold forming steps, for example to introduce a guide band (not shown) for guiding the bullet 1 in a firearm barrel or a circumferential chamfer (not shown) at the rear for easier feeding of the bullet 1 into the firearm barrel.

[0073] The final bullet 1 has a rear, substantially planar bullet base 35, in the center of which the centering recess 21 is located. The cavity 11 has a cavity base 37, up to which the cavity 11 extends from the bullet tip 29 in the direction of the bullet tail 7. An inner wall surface 39 of the nose wall 9 has at least two notches 27 oriented in the longitudinal direction L of the bullet 1, which were introduced into the hollow cylinder inner surface 25 delimiting the cavity 11 during preforming of the set workpiece 14 to form the intermediate 10 (FIGS. 2 and 3). The subsequent cold forming of the hollow cylinder 23 to form the nose wall 9 or the cold forming of the intermediate 10 to form the cylinder 31 reduces the dimensions of the notches 27 in such a way that the notches 27 on the producing bullet 1 are only visible under reflected light microscopy. The notches 27 on the inner wall surface 39 of the nose wall 9 can then be described as micro-notches and have a depth of less than 0.3 mm. A cavity base section 41 inclined with respect to the longitudinal direction L of the bullet 1 adjoins the inner wall surface 39 of the nose wall 9, which then merges into a cavity base section 43 oriented perpendicular to the longitudinal direction L.

[0074] In order to illustrate the producing and subsequent compression of the notches 27, the geometry of the notches 27 at the time they are introduced into the blank 13 to form the intermediate 10 according to the invention is described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7 in comparison to the micro-notches formed on the inner wall surface 39.

[0075] In the exemplary embodiment, the intermediate 10 according to the invention has six notches 27 uniformly distributed in the circumferential direction on the hollow cylinder inner surface 25. The notches 27 each have two V-shaped tapering notch flanks 45, which are oriented at an angle 47 of about 60 to one another, which can be seen particularly well in the detailed view of a notch 27 in FIG. 7b. The notches 27 extend from the open end of the cavity 11 at the bullet tip 29 in the direction of the cavity base 37. The notches 27 preferably extend by less than 25% of the longitudinal extension of the intermediate 10 and/or by less than 50% of a longitudinal extension of the cavity 11. The depth of the notches 27 transversely to the longitudinal direction L of the intermediate 10 is preferably in the range of 0.1 mm to 0.7 mm. As already mentioned, the notches 27 are compressed during the subsequent cold forming of the hollow cylinder 23 to the nose wall 9 of the producing bullet 1, so that a depth of the notches 27 in the producing bullet 1 is less than 0.3 mm and the notches 27 are no longer visible to the naked eye. However, the notches 27 have an effect on the deformation behavior of the bullet 1, which will be explained in detail later.

[0076] With reference to FIGS. 8 to 11, a press mandrel 100 according to the invention is described below, with which the recess 15 in the set workpiece 14 (FIG. 2) can be deformed into the cavity 11 and the notches 27 can be introduced into the cavity inner wall 25 in one process step.

[0077] The press mandrel 100 has a press head 49, which is pressed into the blank 13 or the set workpiece 14 produced from the blank 13 along a pressing direction P (compare FIGS. 2 and 6). There is no rotation of the press head 49 or the press mandrel 100 with respect to the longitudinal axis L of the press mandrel 100, which coincides with the longitudinal axis L of the blank 13 or the intermediate 10 when the press mandrel 100 is pressed into the blank 13.

[0078] In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 8 to 11, the press head 49 is cylindrically shaped and formed rotationally symmetrically with respect to the longitudinal axis L of the press mandrel 100. In the sectional view in FIG. 9, it can be seen that the press head 49 has six press ribs 53 on an outer jacket surface 51 that are uniformly distributed in the circumferential direction and protruding from the outer jacket surface 51 in the radial direction. The press ribs 53 extend in a straight line in the longitudinal direction L on the outer jacket surface 51 of the press head 49. The depth of the press ribs 53 in the radial direction, transversely to the longitudinal direction L, is preferably between 0.1 mm and 0.7 mm, which corresponds to the preferred depth of the notches 27 introduced into the intermediate 10 with the aid of the press ribs 53.

[0079] In FIG. 8 and FIG. 11 it can be seen that the depth of the press ribs 53 varies in the longitudinal direction L and decreases continuously from a section 55 of constant depth against the pressing direction P. An angle of inclination 57 of the press ribs 53 can preferably be between 6 and 10 in relation to the longitudinal direction (L) of the press mandrel 100. This reduces the friction between the press ribs 53 and the blank 13 when the press head 49 is pressed into the blank 13, because only the section 55 of the press ribs 53 in which the press ribs have the greatest depth comes into contact with the hollow cylinder inner surface 25 and the inclined section 59 of the press ribs 53 arranged behind it in pressing direction P does not come into contact with the already generated notches 27. The distance of the contact area 55 of the press ribs 53 with the greatest depth in relation to the face side 61 of the press head 49 corresponds to the distance between a lower end 63 of the notches 27 from the cavity base 37 (compare FIG. 6) and thus determines the length of the notches 27.

[0080] The face side 61 of the press head 49 has a central planar region 65, which is oriented perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction L, and adjacent thereto an inclined front face 67. The front face 67 is preferably inclined at an angle 68, which can be described as a forming angle and in the exemplary embodiment is between 105 and 135 with respect to the longitudinal axis L. Both at a transition 69 between the planar region 65 and the inclined front face 67 and at a transition 71 between the inclined front face 67 and the press ribs 53 or the outer jacket surface 51, the press head 49 is rounded. A radius can be comparatively large and lie between 1 mm and 2 mm. A comparison of FIGS. 8 and 5 clearly shows that the contour of the cavity base 37 corresponds to the contour of the face side 61 of the press head 49. Due to the curves on the press head 49, it can be pressed into the blank 13 particularly easily without damaging the press head 49 or the blank 13.

[0081] The press ribs 53 each have two V-shaped press flanks 73, which in the embodiment in FIGS. 8 to 11 are oriented at an angle 75 of about 60 to one another, which can be seen particularly well in the detailed view of a press flank 53 in FIG. 9b. The angle 75 of the press flanks 73 to one another corresponds to the angle 47 of the notches 45 of the notches 27 in the intermediate 10 produced by the press mandrel 100 to one another. At a transition 77 between the press flanks 53 and the outer surface 51 of the press head 49 and at the tip 79 or at the transition between the two press flanks 73, the press head 49 is rounded in each case, wherein a radius is preferably between 0.1 mm and 0.2 mm. The regions between the press ribs 53 are friction-reduced regions 81. The friction reduction can be realized, for example, by a low surface roughness, by lubrication and/or by a coating. At the rear end 83 of the press head 49, viewed in the pressing direction (P), an undercut 85 is formed, at which the press head 49 merges into a cylindrical section 87 of the press mandrel 100 without press ribs.

[0082] A schematic representation of a fired, deformed bullet 2 resulting from firing a bullet 1 according to the invention and impact of the bullet 1 on a target, in particular a standard target, such as a jelly mass, is shown in FIG. 12.

[0083] The deformed bullet 2 differs from the prior art bullets in particular by a reduced mushrooming effect radially outwards on impact with a target. As can be seen in FIG. 12, the front deformed section 89 of the nose wall 9 is widened or mushroomed by significantly less than 90 in relation to the longitudinal axis of the bullet L, resulting in a trumpet-shaped form in the front area.

[0084] The deformation behavior results on the one hand from the cold forming of the cavity 11 and on the other hand from the notches 27 introduced into the hollow cylinder inner surface 25 of the intermediate 10, which remain as micro-notches on the inner wall surface 39 of the nose wall 9 on the finished bullet 1. Cold forming increases the strength of the nose wall 9 transversely to the longitudinal direction L compared to the strength of the nose wall 9 in the longitudinal direction L and the deformation behavior can be specifically controlled by the notches 27. As can be seen in FIG. 12, the bullet 1 in FIG. 12 has five front-sided notches 27. On impact with a target, the nose wall 9 opens along the notches 27, while the nose wall areas 91 arranged in the circumferential direction between the notches 27 remain in one piece. The length of the notches 27 can be used to specifically adjust how far the nose wall 9 opens and thus how large the expansion of the front region 89 is. In this way, the deformation behavior of the bullet nose 7 can be changed independently of the strength of the nose wall 9. As a result, expensive heat treatment processes, such as annealing, after cold forming can be dispensed with and the bullet 1 according to the invention can thus be produced particularly simply and cost-effectively.

[0085] The features disclosed in the preceding description, the figures and the claims may be of importance both individually and in any combination for the realization of the invention in the various embodiments.