Patents Assigned to Firma Wegmann & Co.
  • Patent number: 5861569
    Abstract: A combat vehicle with a rear hatch and a track powered by a diesel-electric drive mechanism in the rear. The drive mechanism includes separate motors that drive the track and several current-generating diesel-electric aggregates, each in the form of a generator powered by a diesel engine. The diesel-electric aggregates are positioned symmetrically to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle and above the track cover, leaving a passage between the inside of the vehicle and the hatch. The passage is either open or can be opened or expanded by moving the diesel-electric aggregates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1997
    Date of Patent: January 19, 1999
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventor: Frank O. Abels
  • Patent number: 5712441
    Abstract: A land-mine search-and-removal device mounted on a vehicle, especially a military tank. A framework (1) can be attached to the front of the vehicle (KP) by a coupling (2 & 2.1). Several sensors (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, & 3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 1996
    Date of Patent: January 27, 1998
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co.
    Inventor: Peter Grunewald
  • Patent number: 5625159
    Abstract: A combat vehicle, in particular a combat tank, with a weapon mounted outside its longitudinal middle axis, that is mounted on a vertical axis rotatable ring mount linked by rotational rings to the hull of the vehicle. Within the rotational rings is a controllable coupling with plural coupling elements distributed on the circumference of the rotational ring. The coupling elements are, in a disengaged position, freely rotable in the ring mount and in an engaged position are unrotatable in the ring mount linked to the hull. During firing of the weapon, the coupling elements are controlled such that after the exit of the projectile from the weapon barrel but before the ending of the free weapon barrel recoil, the couplings are moved to an engaged position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 1992
    Date of Patent: April 29, 1997
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co., GmbH
    Inventors: Hans-Peter Malolepsy, Hilmar Rabe
  • Patent number: 5461961
    Abstract: A combat vehicle with a driver's cab mounted on its chassis along with a weapon incorporating a rocket launcher, wherein the rocket launcher rests on a carriage and is elevated and leveled by electrically powered mechanisms between it and the carriage, and the carriage pivots in azimuth on an intermediate structure that rotates on a collar on the chassis. The weapon is an independent assembly incorporating the rocket launcher, the carriage, the intermediate structure, and the collar and is attached to the chassis only by a mount, and by electrical connections if any, accessible from outside the vehicle. To load the motor vehicle onto aircraft, the rocket launcher is rotated at elevation 0.degree. into a position 90.degree. to the length of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 31, 1995
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventors: Rudiger Baus, Reiner Linge
  • Patent number: 5408783
    Abstract: A device for opening and closing a hatchway on a combat vehicle, especially a tank, by a hatch. The hatch comprises two components, one above the other. The upper component slides back and forth across and above the hatchway. The lower component descends tight into the hatchway. The object is to simplify the generic device to the extent that it can be operated from inside the vehicle. An operations-control rack extends along the upper component in the direction it slides back and forth in. The rack is engaged by a pinion. The pinion is part of a mechanism mounted on the vehicle and controlled from inside the vehicle. A cam track is fastened tight to the rack. A control pin rests against the cam track. The cam track operates by way of the control pin in conjunction with at least one mechanism that locks the upper component in position. The upper component is attached to the rack by a clutch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 25, 1995
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventors: Uwe Sprafke, Michael Fehr, Manfred Matheis
  • Patent number: 5315915
    Abstract: A periscope at the hatchway of a combat vehicle. The hatchway is closed by a hatch that comprises two components. One component is above the other at least when the hatchway is closed. The upper component is positioned over the upper edge of the hatchway and moves parallel to the plane that the hatch slides back and forth in. The lower component moves perpendicular to that plane. The periscope comprises two sections. The lower section is fastened to the vehicle and extends into its interior. The upper section extends through and slides back and forth along with the upper hatch component. The upper and lower periscope sections remain in optical alignment and contact as long as the upper hatch component is in its hatchway-closing position. A dirt-removal brush is secured to at least an area of the lower surface of the upper hatch component that, as long as that hatch component keeps the hatchway closed, is directly upstream of the periscope in the direction the component slides in when it opens the hatchway.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 1993
    Date of Patent: May 31, 1994
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventor: Uwe Sprafke
  • Patent number: 5311807
    Abstract: A military tank with a heavy weapon suspended to pivot in elevation in a turret that rotates on a chassis. The turret (2) is on the rear half (1.2) of the chassis (1) and its drive mechanisms are in the forward half. At least the section of the upper surface (1.2) below the turret slopes back and down at a prescribed angle (.alpha.) to the horizontal. The vertical longitudinal cross-section (LM) of the turret is a wedge that tapers together forward with its bottom (2.1) paralleling the upper surface of the chassis and its top (2.2) at another prescribed angle (.beta.) to the horizontal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 1992
    Date of Patent: May 17, 1994
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventor: Gottlieb Ruttgerodt
  • Patent number: 5284082
    Abstract: An ammunition bunker rests against a military tank turret. The bunker's outward-facing walls are scored. The bunker wall facing the crew compartment is unscored. The ammunition stowed in the interior of the bunker points away from the crew compartment. The bunker is a separate and totally enclosed housing. The housing rests in a matching niche in the surface of the turret. One wall of the housing faces the crew compartment at a prescribed distance away from its wall. The roof of the housing consists of a number of separate plates resting in the interstices of a stationary grating. When the stowed ammunition explodes and the explosion increases the pressure inside the housing to a prescribed level, the pressure will break the scored walls apart at the scores, mold the wall of the housing that faces the crew compartment against the crew-compartment wall, and lift the plates out of the interstices in the grating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 8, 1994
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventors: Uwe Sprafke, Klaus Hersemeyer, Klaus-Peter Pietrzok
  • Patent number: 5196642
    Abstract: An unbalance-compensating device for a weapon, especially a large-caliber weapon with a long barrel, with a component accommodating the barrel, mounted on trunnions in a stationary accommodation, and pivoting in elevation. The pivoting component's center of gravity is outside the trunnions' axis of rotation. A torque that counteracts the moment of unbalance is generated in that the weapon's pivoting component is attached by a flexible tractioning component to a device on the stationary accommodation that produces a positioning force. The tractioning component travels along a contour of prescribed shape attached to the weapon's pivoting component and determining the effective component of lifting force. The device is light in weight, takes up little space in the vicinity of the angle of elevation, and provides almost perfect compensation for the moment of unbalance while also allowing for temperature compensation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 1992
    Date of Patent: March 23, 1993
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventor: Ernst Tripp
  • Patent number: 5191163
    Abstract: A device for setting fuzes in large-caliber shells, wherein the fuze is coaxial with the point of the shell and has one section secured stationary to the shell and a second section rotatable around the shell's axis. Each section has a groove in the surface which extends along a plane through the shell's axis. The device has a housing which is essentially round and has a handle extending out of it radially. The housing accommodates two concentric rings. A motor rotates one ring by way of a torque limiter. The second ring can either rotate independently of the first ring or be secured to and rotate along with it. The inner circumference of both rings matches the outer circumference of the fuze. The inner surface of the first ring has a pin that slides radially outward against the force of a spring. The inner surface of the second ring has a stationary radial pin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 1992
    Date of Patent: March 2, 1993
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventors: Erich Wallwey, Siegfried Suss
  • Patent number: 4957028
    Abstract: A rammer for artillery shells with a carriage behind the gun's tube that supports a tray in alignment with the powder chamber, that has a mechanism at the rear to intercept the shell, that travels on slides along a track paralleling the axis R of the tube, that is coupled to a piston-and-cylinder drive mechanism to accelerate toward the tube, and that has a braking mechanism to brake it at a prescribed distance from the rear end of the tube. The braking mechanism has a shock absorber position in the longitudinal midplane of the carriage with a piston that moves against the force of a friction spring inside a cylinder and that has a piston rod projecting forward beyond the front of the carriage with a stop mounted on it, whereby the stop rests directly against the rear end of the tube when the carriage is in the forward and braked position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 1989
    Date of Patent: September 18, 1990
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventors: Karl Lieberum, Werner Hofmeister, Peter Grunewald
  • Patent number: 4849715
    Abstract: A frequency synthesizer with a voltage-controlled oscillator that can be tuned over its total frequency range in increments of a prescribed frequency range a frequency-dictating component. A reference oscillator emits a reference signal of a strictly prescribed frequency that is supplied as a first input signal to a comparator to which is simultaneously supplied a second input signal of a frequency that is a function of the frequency of the output signal from the voltage-controlled oscillator. The comparator generates a fine-tuning signal in accordance with the difference between the frequencies or between the phases of the first and second input signals and supplies the fine-tuning signal to the voltage-controlled oscillator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 1988
    Date of Patent: July 18, 1989
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventor: Franz Weinzierl
  • Patent number: 4462299
    Abstract: A mechanism that automatically opens the breech block wedge on a semi-automatic weapon, especially a tank cannon with a training liner. Mounted on the breech of the weapon is an electromechanical drive mechanism that includes an electric motor with a drive shaft on which is mounted an energy-saving flywheel that can be connected through adjustable couplings and a reduction gear to an opener shaft on which is mounted an opener lever that shifts the breech block wedge into the open position when the shaft rotates. The flywheel is accelerated to a nominal speed when the couplings are disengaged. Electronic controls then engage the couplings for a predetermined amount of time and turn off the electric motor. Some of the energy of rotation of the flywheel is transferred to the opener lever. The couplings are then disengaged and the electric motor turned on again. The electronic controls are practically activated by the firing pulse and/or the actual firing procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 1982
    Date of Patent: July 31, 1984
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co. GmbH
    Inventors: Peter Grunewald, Rudolf Brockmeyer
  • Patent number: 4155285
    Abstract: An improvement in a pot mortar for electrically firing different types of ammunition charges said mortar having a mortar tube, the improvement residing in the mortar tube contains therewithin at least three electrical contacts for electrically contacting ammunition placed therein, one of which contacts is positioned to electrically fire a plurality of different types of ammunition, the other two of which are each positioned to electrically fire only one type of ammunition, each of said two electrical contacts positioned to fire a different type of ammunition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 1975
    Date of Patent: May 22, 1979
    Assignee: Firma Wegmann & Co.
    Inventors: Karl-Heinz Kratzenberg, Helmar Stobbe, Gunter Kullmer