Improvements in or relating to machines for charging clips which form the links of cartridge-belts for automatic guns

摘要

572,761. Cartridge-belt loading machines. PARRY, F., and MOLINS MACHINE CO., Ltd. Feb. 26, 1941, No. 2626. [Class 92 (ii)] A machine for charging with cartridges the clips of a machine gun cartridge-belt comprises a rotary charging-unit 3, Fig. 1, having pockets or flutes 7 on a drum 4 to receive a succession of clips and a succession of cartridges each with its bullet end facing a clip, the charging-unit including means, such as a cam 57, to move the cartridges in succession end. wise into the clips. Further, a cartridge-feeding unit 5 and a clip-feeding unit 6 are associated with the charging-unit to build up reserve supplies of clips and cartridges yieldingly against the charging-unit, the units being operated by a single driving means and being readily detachable for transferring the machine from one place to another. Fig. 1 shows the units assembled on a table 11 supported on legs 12 braced by bars 16, 18, the support being readily taken to pieces for transport. The parts are driven from an electric motor 64 geared by a detachable chain 67 to a countershaft 66 which may be hand driven. The shaft 66 is geared to a shaft 71 which through a chain 73 drives the feed-belt 25 of a cartridge-feed unit as described in Specification 572,760, and a shaft 80 geared to the fluted drum 4 of the rotary charging-unit 3. The shaft 71 is also connected by a detachable chain 87 to a camshaft 89 controlling the clip-feeding unit. The cartridge feed may be interrupted at regular intervals to supply special tracer bullet cartridges from a shoot 35 by a hooked plate member 26 driven from a cam 34 engaging a roller on a lever mechanism 31, 30, 29. The clip feed is from packets of oriented clips as described in Specifications 541,954 and 539,184, the packets being carried in a hopper 41 and being moved laterally by a plunger 42, Fig. 6, one by one into an inclined guide 48 down which the clips are fed to the charger by gravity. The cam-shaft 89 has a cam 91, for operating a pusher 45 to move the packets partly down the guide to release a catch retaining the clips in the packets, and a cam 90 to operate an arm 51 to return the empty packets into position for ejection into a box 56 by the action of the plunger 42 operated by a face cam 92 on the shaft 89. The loaded belt is retained on the charger drum by a strap 59 until the belt is stripped from the drum by a member 60 to leave the machine by a guide 61. Specification 572,769 also is referred to. The Provisional Specification refers to the use of plungers instead of a cam for pushing the cartridges into the links.