Search

EP-4597023-B1 - ANTI-SHOOTING SAFETY DEVICE FOR A BARREL OF A FIREARM

EP4597023B1EP 4597023 B1EP4597023 B1EP 4597023B1EP-4597023-B1

Inventors

  • FINARDI, Matteo
  • GHERLINZONI, Ruggero

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20240202

Claims (12)

  1. Anti-shooting safety device (1) for a barrel (2) of a firearm, in particular of a long-barrelled firearm, comprising: - a substantially cylindrical locking body (3) that is suitable for engaging a mouth of said barrel (2) to prevent a projectile being inserted into said barrel, said locking body (3) extending along a longitudinal axis (X); - anchoring means (4) that is expandable transversely to said longitudinal axis (X) and configured to exert an anchoring force on an inner surface of said barrel (2) to constrain said locking body (3) stably in said barrel (2) and prevent a displacement of said locking body (3), and thus of said safety device (1), with respect to said barrel (2), wherein said anchoring means comprises a sleeve body (4); - lock driving means (5) associated with said anchoring means (4) and drivable, by a respective key (6), in an anchoring rotation direction (R1) to fix said safety device (1) to said barrel (2), and in a releasing rotation direction (R2) to disengage said safety device (1) from said barrel (2), said lock driving means (5) comprising a stator unit (7, 8) arranged in a stationary position with respect to said locking body (3), and a rotor unit (9) suitable for being rotated by said key (6) relatively to said stator unit (8); - displacing means (10) that is drivable by the rotation of said lock driving means (5) and configured to act on and expand, said anchoring means (4) to said inner surface of said barrel (2); - uncouplable connecting means (17) to rotatably uncouple said displacing means (10) from said lock driving means (5) in response to a rotation of a fraction of a revolution angle of said rotor unit (9) in said releasing rotation direction (R2), so as to ensure the maintenance of an anchoring force of said anchoring means (4) with respect to said barrel (2) in the step of removing said key (6) from said rotor unit (9); wherein said displacing means comprises at least one nut element (10) movable axially and suitable for abutting on an abutting face (18) of said sleeve body (4) and configured to compress axially, and expand radially, said sleeve body (4) with respect to said longitudinal axis (X), said abutting face (18) lying on a plane that is transverse to said longitudinal axis (X); wherein said at least one nut element (10) is provided with a nut screw portion, and said lock driving means (5) comprises a screw part (11, 12) suitable for coupling with said nut screw portion, said screw part (11, 12) being connected to said rotor unit (9), so as to convert a rotational movement of said key (6) - and thus of said rotor unit (9) - in an axial movement of said nut element (10); wherein said uncouplable connecting means (17) is obtained on two reciprocally facing portions of said screw part (11, 12) and of said rotor unit (9) respectively, and wherein on said rotor unit (9) at least one driving tooth (20a, 20b) is obtained and on said screw part (11, 12) at least one driven tooth (21a, 21b) is obtained, said at least one driving tooth (20a, 20b) and said at least one driven tooth (21a, 21b) being positioned to come into reciprocal contact; wherein said at least one driving tooth (20a, 20b) comprises a first driving tooth (20a) and a second driving tooth (20b), and wherein said at least one driven tooth (21a, 21b) comprises a first driven tooth (21a) and a second driven tooth (21b); and wherein said first driving tooth (20a) and said second driving tooth (20b) are placed at different radial distances from said longitudinal axis (X), said radial distances corresponding to further radial distances between said first driven tooth (21a) and said second driven tooth (21b), so that, during rotation of said rotor unit (9), said first driving tooth (20a) can contact said first driven tooth (21a) without contacting said second driven tooth (21b), and said second driving tooth (20b) can contact said second driven tooth (21b) without contacting said first driven tooth (21a).
  2. Locking device (1) according to claim 1, wherein said sleeve body (4) is connected to said stator unit (7, 8) and configured to interact with said displacing means (10), an axial hole (23) being obtained in said sleeve body (4), said axial hole (23) being arranged for receiving at least partially said rotor unit (9).
  3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said anchoring means (4) is made of an elastomeric material chosen from a unit comprising: natural rubber, silicone, neoprene, in general a synthetic rubber.
  4. Locking device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said anchoring means (4) has an abutting seat (4a) arranged for abutting on said displacing means (10) so that said displacing means (10) can transmit an axial force to said anchoring means (4) and shaped to prevent a relative rotation around said longitudinal axis (X) between said anchoring means (4) and said displacing means (10).
  5. Safety device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said at least one driving tooth (20a, 20b) and said at least one driven tooth (21a, 21b) are positioned at the same radial distance from said longitudinal axis (X) so that said at least one driving tooth (20a, 20b) can abut on and push said at least one driven tooth (21a, 21b) at a rotation action of said rotor unit (9) in the anchoring rotation direction (R1) and disengages said at least one driven tooth (21a, 21b) by a fraction of a revolution angle at a further rotation action of said rotor unit (9) in the releasing rotation direction (R2).
  6. Safety device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said at least one driving tooth (20a, 20b) protrudes substantially parallel to said longitudinal axis (X) from an end rotor portion (16) of said rotor unit (9) and said at least one driven tooth (21a, 21b) protrudes substantially parallel to said longitudinal axis (X) from an end screw portion (24) of said screw part (11, 12), said end rotor portion (16) and said end screw portion (24) facing one another.
  7. Safety device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said at least one driving tooth (20a, 20b) extends angularly with respect to said longitudinal axis (X) by an angle comprised between 1 and 180 degrees, in particular between 45 and 25 degrees, and wherein said at least one driven tooth (21a, 21b) extends angularly with respect to said longitudinal axis (X) by a further angle comprised between 1 and 180 degrees, in particular between 45 and 25 degrees so as to permit a free rotation of a fraction of a revolution angle of said rotor unit (9) in said releasing rotation direction (R2) during the step of removing the key (6), in which said fraction of a revolution angle can reach 240°.
  8. Safety device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said rotor unit (9) comprises a barrel body (13) and said stator unit (11, 12) has a receiving cavity (7a) shaped to receive said barrel body (13), and in which said lock driving means (5) comprises mechanical joint transmission means (14, 15, 16) couplable with said barrel body (13) and with said screw part (11, 12) to transform a rotation of said barrel body (13) in a rotation of said screw part (11, 12) around said longitudinal axis (X).
  9. Safety device (1) according to claim 8, wherein said receiving cavity (7a) is further shaped to enable rotation thereof around a further longitudinal axis (Y) parallel and offset with respect to said longitudinal axis (X), said mechanical joint transmission means (14, 15, 16) being configured to transform a rotation of said barrel body (13) around said further longitudinal axis (Y) in a rotation of said screw part (11, 12) around said longitudinal axis (X).
  10. Safety device (1) according to claim 8 or 9 as claim 8 is appended to claim 6, wherein said mechanical joint transmission means (14, 15, 16) are partially obtained on said end rotor portion (16).
  11. Safety device (1) according to claim 10, wherein said mechanical joint transmission means (14, 15, 16) comprise an intermediate part (15) positioned between said end rotor portion (16) and said barrel body (13) and shaped for coupling prismatically at an end portion (14) of said barrel body (13) and with said end rotor portion (16) so as to permit, during rotation, reciprocal sliding between said intermediate part (15) and said joint portion (14) along a first sliding direction (S1) orthogonal to said longitudinal axis (X) and reciprocal sliding between said intermediate part (15) and said end rotor portion (16) along a second sliding direction (S2) orthogonal to said first sliding direction (S1).
  12. Safety device (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, and comprising angular retaining means (22) configured to temporarily retain said rotor unit (9) with respect to said stator unit (7, 8) according to a predefined angular orientation to enable the key (6) to be extracted from and inserted into said rotor unit (9).

Description

Background of the invention The invention relates to an anti-shooting safety device for a barrel of a firearm. Specifically but not exclusively, the safety device according to the invention can be used to prevent a projectile being inserted into the barrel of a gun, in particular of a hunting gun, in particular into a smoothbore barrel. Prior art Regulations governing firearms, also in the hunting field, have focused in particular on the manner of keeping and transporting firearms. In particular, during transport, for example from the home of the user to the place in which the user intends to hunt, the firearms must be in such a condition as not to permit immediate use thereof. In fact, the firearms may be actuated unintentionally by the user, or by a user inexpert in (or incapable of) using firearms or also by an ill-intentioned person. In this connection, safety devices have been developed to prevent an unintentional or unauthorized use of such weapons. An anti-shooting safety device for a barrel of a long-barrelled firearm is known. This safety device is provided with a cylindrical body that is suitable for being inserted into the barrel of the long-barrelled firearm (from the projectile insertion side) and for being locked by lock driving means so as to enable a user in possession of a respective key to respectively anchor the safety device stably in the firearm and remove the safety device from the firearm. The known safety device is provided with a series of levers that, in response to a clamping action of the key by the user, i.e. in response to a rotation of the key in a first rotation direction, transmits - by interposed transmitting elements - a movement of the levers that is such that they exert a set clamping force against an inner surface of the barrel of a long-barrelled firearm, thus anchoring the safety device inside the barrel. Once the user has anchored the safety device in the barrel and removed the key from the latter, the barrel of the long-barrelled firearm is obstructed and the insertion of projectiles into the barrel is prevented. Inserting the key into the lock and rotating the key in a second rotation direction opposite the first rotation direction act so as to diminish the anchoring force exerted by the petal elements on the inner surface of the barrel until permitting the release and then the extraction of the safety device from the barrel. US 5,115,589 discloses an anti-shooting safety device for a barrel of a firearm, comprising a cylindrical locking body for engaging a mouth of said barrel to prevent a projectile being inserted into said barrel, anchoring means configured to exert an anchoring force on an inner surface of said barrel to constrain said locking body stably in said barrel and prevent a displacement of said locking body, lock driving means associated with said anchoring means and drivable, by a respective key, in an anchoring rotation direction to fix said safety device to said barrel, and in a releasing rotation direction to disengage said safety device, displacing means drivable by the rotation of said lock driving means and configured to act on and expand said anchoring means to said inner surface of said barrel, and uncouplable connecting means to rotatably uncouple said displacing means from said lock driving means in response to a rotation of a fraction of a revolution angle of said lock driving means in said releasing rotation direction, so as to ensure the maintenance of an anchoring force of said anchoring means with respect to said barrel in the step of removing said key. The prior art safety device has certain limits. One limit of the prior art safety device is due to the fact that the anchoring force is not maximized, because in order to remove the key it is necessary to counter-turn the key to reach a preset angular position that is such as to enable the key to be removed, with a consequent decrease of the previously achieved anchoring force. In the light of what has been set out above, it has been noticed that there is ample room for improvement for anti-shooting safety devices for a barrel of a firearm. In particular, it would be desirable to have a anti-shooting safety device for a barrel of a firearm that enables the anchoring efficacy and the stable positioning of the safety device on the barrel to be increased. Objects of the invention One object of the invention is to improve current anti-shooting safety devices for a barrel of a firearm. Another object is to provide a solution that is able to position stably the safety device inside the barrel. Another object is to provide a solution that is able to ensure the maintenance of a given anchoring force of the safety device on the barrel. A further object is to provide a safety device that has compact dimensions, in particular a compact longitudinal dimension. A further object is to provide a safety device that is constructionally simple and versatile. A still further object is to provide a versati