Multi-tool for disrupter breech maintenance

The invention described herein was made in the performance of official duties by employees of the Department of the Navy and may be manufactured, used, licensed by or for the Government for any governmental purpose without payment of any royalties thereon.

The invention relates generally to combination or compound tools, and more particularly to a multi-tool for use in maintenance of disrupter breeches.

Routine maintenance on the breech of a disrupter firearm typically requires a variety of sockets and their ratchet bar/handle, a gauge for testing the linearity of the disrupter's firing pin, a tool for evaluating the correct size and shape of the firing pin's spring, as well as availability of spare parts and/or other implements for a particular repair. Unfortunately, it is time consuming to collect the needed tools/parts needed for disrupter breech maintenance.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a single, multi-tool that can be used for maintenance on a disrupter breech.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious hereinafter in the specification and drawings.

In accordance with the present invention, a single, multi-tool is provided for disrupter breech maintenance. The multi-tool includes an elongate body having a first axial end and a second axial end. The elongate body encases a storage volume commencing at and accessible from the elongate body's second axial end. An open-ended rectangular notch is in a radial wall of the elongate body. The rectangular notch has a planar base. A hole extends radially through the elongate body. The hole originates in the notch's planar base and has a longitudinal axis perpendicular to the planar base. A rectangular well in the radial wall of the elongate body is provided adjacent to the rectangular notch. A first hexagonal socket is coupled to the first axial end of the elongate body. A second hexagonal socket is provided for attachment to the second axial end of the elongate body.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reference to the following description of the exemplary embodiments and to the drawings, wherein corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings and wherein:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a multi-tool for disrupter breech maintenance in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the multi-tool's elongate body taken along line 2 - 2 in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the multi-tool's elongate body taken along line 3 - 3 in FIG. 1 ; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the multi-tool's elongate body from FIG. 1 following an 180° axial rotation of the elongate body.

Referring now to the drawings, simultaneous reference will be made to FIGS. 1-4 in order to describe a multi-tool for disrupter breech maintenance in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 depicts the entire multi-tool in an exploded view where the multi-tool is referenced generally by numeral 10 .

Multi-tool 10 includes an elongate body 20 and a hexagonal socket attachment 30 . Elongate body 20 and socket attachment 30 will generally be made from rigid materials such as a metal. The choice of materials used for multi-tool 10 as well as the methods to fabricate multi-tool 10 is not a limitation of the present invention.

Elongate body 20 may be fabricated as a single integrated element to have the features shown and described herein. Elongate body 20 has a first axial end 21 terminating in a hexagonal socket 22 ( FIG. 3 ). The size of socket 22 is not a limitation of the present invention. The opposing axial end 23 is open to provide access to an interior storage volume 24 ( FIG. 2 ) encased by elongate body 20 . Storage volume 24 may be used to store spare parts or other miscellaneous implements needed for breech maintenance. Axial end 23 may be threaded on its interior (as shown) or exterior to facilitate attachment of socket attachment 30 that, when accomplished, seals storage volume 24 .

Elongate body 20 includes additional features needed for disrupter breech maintenance. For example, an open-ended rectangular notch 25 is provided in a radial wall of elongate body 20 near axial end 21 . Notch 25 effectively defines a wrench flat having sidewalls 25 A and a planar base 25 B. Notch 25 is sized to cooperate with protective “ears” (not shown) generally found on a disrupter breech. These “ears” protect the breech's integral parts from damage caused when the disrupter is fired and/or when the breech impacts hard surfaces. By placing notch 25 near axial end 21 , the remainder of elongate body 20 serves as a wrench handle.

In addition to inclusion of notch 25 for use as a wrench, at least some portion of elongate body 20 may have a cross-section whose perimeter is hexagonal as illustrated in FIG. 2 . In this way, elongate body 20 may be gripped by a wrench, pliers, etc., (not shown) in order to facilitate axial rotation of elongate body 20 when the socket features of multi-tool 10 are used.

Elongate body 20 also includes features to facilitate testing of important elements of a disrupter breech. More specifically, elongate body 20 includes a gauge for testing the linearity or “trueness” of a breech disrupter's firing pin (not shown), and includes a gauge for testing the size and shape of a firing pin spring (not shown). The multi-tool's firing pin gauge is provided by a pass-through gauge hole 26 that originates in planar base 25 B (e.g., in the center of planar base 25 B as shown), extends radially through elongate body 20 , and exits elongate body 20 in radial opposition to planar base 25 B ( FIG. 4 ). In order to properly test for linearity of a firing pin, gauge hole 26 is sized to provide a slidingly fit with a straight firing pin. More specifically, an undamaged straight firing pin will readily move through gauge hole 26 . However, a damaged or bent firing pin will tend to get stuck in gauge hole 26 . To facilitate removal of a damaged firing pin from gauge hole 26 , a depressed region 27 ( FIG. 4 ) of elongate body 20 disposed annularly about the exit portion of hole 26 may be provided to facilitate the removal of a damaged firing pin. Thus, gauge hole 26 provides an instantaneous “go/no go” test response for a firing pin.

The multi-tool's spring gauge is provided by a rectangular well 28 that, in the illustrated exemplary embodiment, adjoins notch 25 . Rectangular well 28 is sized commensurate with a firing pin's coil spring that is still within tolerance in terms of size (i.e., not stretched out) and shape (i.e., still cylindrical and not curved or bent). That is, a damaged firing pin spring will not fit in rectangular well 28 thereby allowing rectangular well 28 to provide an instantaneous “go/no go” test response for a firing pin spring.

Hexagonal socket attachment 30 is threaded at one axial end 31 for threaded engagement with axial end 23 of elongate body 20 . The opposing axial end 32 of socket attachment 30 has a hexagonal socket 33 that is generally sized differently than socket 22 . The particular size of socket 33 is not a limitation of the present invention.

The advantages of the present invention are numerous. The single, multi-tool provides the tools needed to disassemble and re-assemble a disrupter breech. Spare parts and/or other needed implements may be kept in the multi-tool's storage volume. The multi-tool also includes “go/no go” gauges to test a disrupter breech's critically-important firing pin and firing pin spring.

Although the invention has been described relative to a specific embodiment thereof, there are numerous variations and modifications that will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the above teachings. For example, the elongate body's socket size, notch size, hole gauge size, and rectangular well may all be sized to work with a particular disrupter. Further, the socket attachment could include threads and sockets at both axial ends to thereby increase the versatility of the multi-tool. Lanyard attachment points or holes may be provided on the elongate body and/or its socket attachment to allow the multi-tool to be hung easy storage and for ready access. It is therefore to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described.

Finally, any numerical parameters set forth in the specification and attached claims are approximations (for example, by using the term “about”) that may vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by the present invention. At the very least, and not as an attempt to limit the application of the doctrine of equivalents to the scope of the claims, each numerical parameter should be at least construed in light of the number of significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding.