| ROTATIONAL CARTRIDGE-LOADING BREACH | ||||||||||
| This is the infant stage of an idea I had recently that could be used in a Gatling-style gun where the barrels are already rotating. It involves the use of cartridges (same diameter as the barrel), and two larger shrouds. Each barrel (not pictured) has a gap in it just long enough to hold a cartridge. The shrouds fit over this gap. The inner shroud (light grey) is fixed to the barrels at each end of the gap and rotates with it. Outer shroud (dark grey) rotates in the opposite direction, but with the same speed. Slits in the shrouds allow a cartridge to be loaded or expelled whenever both slits are lined up. In the diagram, the barrel and inner shroud are rotating counter-clockwise, and the outer shroud is rotating clockwise. In this way, the two slits line up twice per rotation. At the top of the rotation (1.), the slits line up and a cartridge (red) drops into the breach. The slits then rotate to opposite sides of the breach (2.), sealing the chamber for firing. At the bottom of the rotation (3.), the slits line up once again and the empty shell falls out. The cycle then resets itself and starts over (4. & 5.). |
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| I drew a spacer in the diagram that is attached to the outer shroud. It's purpose is to keep the shells centered in the breach. In order to accommodate it, however, there has to be a small gap in the inner shroud, which effectively splits it in half. This is not a serious problem, however, because the barrel can easily be braced on either side, and the gap created is sealed by the cartridge. It is fairly straight-foreward how the barrels and inner shrouds will rotate in a Gatling gun, but making the outer shrouds counter-rotate is more difficult. It can be done with a set of planetary gears. If each outer shroud is extended back past the slits, a set of gear teeth can be placed around each one. These can then be turned by a central fixed gear placed between the barrels. As long as the number of teeth on the central gear equals the number of teeth on the planetaries, the shrouds will rotate once for every revolution of the gun. Again, this is in its infancy and I'll refine it a bit, but I hope you can use your imagination and get the general idea. |
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