Explosive device with casing having voids therein

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016178336-A1
Application number	US-201514972211-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 17, 2015
Priority date	Dec 18, 2014
Publication date	Jun 23, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An explosive device, such as a munition or a part of a munition, has an explosive material surrounded by a casing that has one or more voids within the casing. The one or more voids define sizes and shapes of the fragments that the casing breaks into when the explosive material is detonated. The casing may be made using an additive manufacturing process, with the one or more voids fully between an inner surface of the casing and an outer surface of the casing. The voids may substantially define the size and shape of fragments making up a majority of the volume of the casing, such as 75% or more of the volume of the casing. The voids may change direction within the casing, for example branching and intersecting to define a plurality of rectangular (parallelepiped) or other shaped fragments.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An explosive device comprising:
a casing; an explosive material within the casing; wherein the casing has one or more voids therein.

2 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more voids define fragments of the casing that are propelled from the device when the explosive material is detonated.

3 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the voids include branching and/or intersecting passages.

4 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the explosive device is part of a munition.

5 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the casing includes webs on opposite ends of the voids, with the webs being broken by shock stress and pressure forces due to detonation of the explosive material.

6 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein a major direction of at least some of the voids is perpendicular to major surfaces of casing.

7 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein a major direction of at least some of the voids is not perpendicular to major surfaces of casing.

8 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein major directions of the voids are in multiple directions relative to major surfaces of casing.

9 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the fragments are rectangular, cubic, regular polyhedral, irregular polyhedral, parallelepiped fragments, and/or spherical.

10 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the fragments are all of the same size.

11 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the fragments include fragments of different sizes.

12 . The device according to claim 11 , wherein some of the fragments are at least twice the volume of other of the fragments.

13 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the explosive device is part of a warhead, such as for a missile.

14 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the casing is made of metal, such as being made of stainless steel alloys, nickel alloys, cobalt-chrome alloys, nickel-chromium based alloys, titanium alloys, or aluminum alloys.

15 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the casing is made of plastic.

16 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the casing is made by an additive manufacturing process.

17 . The device according to claim 1 , further comprising a material in the voids.

18 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein the material in the voids is a powdered casing material.

19 . The device according to claim 18 , wherein the material in the voids is a liquid.

20 . The device according to claim 18 , wherein the material in the voids is a solid or liquid phase-change material.

Assignees

• Raytheon Co

Inventors

• Jennett Gaston P
• Knyazev Dmitry V
• Johnson Robert P
• Bakarich Morgan J
• Schurr Michael A

Classifications

• F42B12/24 Primary

  with grooves, recesses or other wall weakenings {(F42B12/26, F42B12/28 take precedence)} · CPC title

• F42B12/32

  the hull or case comprising a plurality of discrete bodies, e.g. steel balls, embedded therein {or disposed around the explosive charge} · CPC title

• F42B12/207

  characterised by the explosive material or the construction of the high explosive warhead, e.g. insensitive ammunition · CPC title

• F42B12/22 Primary

  with fragmentation-hull construction · CPC title