The present invention relates to the field of recovering materials forming used hunting cartridges, for the correct disposal and recycling thereof. In particular, it relates to an apparatus adapted to mechanically separate the plastic part from the metal part of each cartridge to facilitate the recovery thereof after the cartridge has been "shot".

In hunting weapons, in particular smoothbore barrel guns, the so-called shot cartridges or buckshots are used, which are nothing more than cartridges with multiple shots, in which there are inserted lead shots classified according to the diameter of the individual shot, with a number ranging from 14 (for the smallest shot) to 0 (for the largest shot) .

The successive measurement is depicted by the buckshots, which can be identified with a number followed by a forward slash and "0". The notation "00", "000" and subsequent is also used, in addition to the double-zero, triple-zero and subsequent expressions also being used. The measurements and weights of standard hunting lead shots and buckshots are reported below.

[ "pall-ini shots ;

"pallettoni" = buckshots;

"grammi" = grams;

"non esiste" = does not exist]

The so-called "buckshots" are cartridges consisting of rather large buckshots, or in any case having larger dimensions than common hunting shots. According to the size thereof, there may be more or less inside the cartridge but in any case, the speed thereof to the mouth of the gun is always kept at 400 m/s .

They are not very effective against protected targets and lose the r accuracy at 25 to 30 meters (despite having ranges of 500 m) ; they are especially used for hunting because they are very dangerous at short distances and provide increased possibilities of hitting the target.

Great use of such ammunition is made at skeet shooting rifle ranges, where the problem is especially felt of disposing of/recycling the used cartridges, which cannot be directly recycled because they consist of a bottom metal part and of a plastic material part.

Therefore, it is the main object of the present invention to allow the separation of the plastic material part from the metal material part so as to collect them separately and facilitate the disposal and recycling thereof.

This has been obtained according to the present invention by providing an apparatus capable of separating the plastic cartridge case from the metal base by means of a mechanical pulling action which removes the cartridge case and moves it away from the base so that they may be collected in separate containers for the successive recycling.

A better understanding of the invention will be achieved with the following detailed description and with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment by way of mere exampl e .

In the drawings:

figure 1 is a side view of a preferred embodiment of the invention, which diagrammati cally shows the main internal components; figure 2 is a front view corresponding to fig. 1, in which there is shown the front panel and a cut-out view showing the containers for separately collecting the cartridge cases and bases;

figure 3A diagrammatically shows a side, front and top view of the separation assembly according to the invention;

figure 3B diagrammatically shows a side, front and top view of the gripping means of the separation assembly;

figure 4 shows the means for temporarily locking the base, both in assembled configuration and separately;

figure 5 shows the sequence of movements with which the cartridge case is separated from the base; figure 6 diagrammatically shows the rotating carousel with the path of the cartridges from the supply conduit to the processing position for separating the base from the cartridge case;

figures 7, 8 and 9 show certain construction details of the rotating carousel;

figure 10 shows the sequence of the movements with which the cartridge is picked from the loading conduit by means of the rotating carousel;

figure 11 shows certain construction details of the means for positioning each cartridge on the rotating carousel;

figure 12 diagrammatically shows the means for checking for the possible presence of new cartridges, which therefore are not to be processed;

figure 13 is a diagram of the main parts which generally form a cartridge.

With reference to figures 1, 2, and 3A, described apparatus 1 substantially comprises an "assembly 2 for separating" the cartridge case 5 from base 6, which provides means 7 for temporarily locking base 6 in the axial direction of the cartridge, and gripping means 10 for gripping only on the cartridge case 5 and applying a tractive force thereto in the axial direction of the cartridge to separate it and move it away from base 6 itself.

According to the invention, each used cartridge is manually inserted by the user into a supply conduit 3 of the machine, which guides the cartridges towards a rotating carousel 11 provided with magnetic means 12 for picking each cartridge from the metal base 6 thereof and for bringing it at the position of separation, where base 6 of the cartridge is temporarily locked in axial direction by means of said temporary locking means 7 which comprise at least two opposite side gripping elements 8, which abut against the collar C of base 6 which allows the hooking of the gun extractor, which collar C is radially protruding (with respect to the body of the cartridge) at the base of the base itself.

In the example diagrammatically shown in fig. 6 by way of mere example, the rotating carousel 11 substantially consists of a horizontal axis wheel on which the cartridges to be processed, which are kept in position by said magnetic means 12, are radially arranged. Carousel 11 moves di sconti nuously - by steps - to keep the cartridge to be processed still when it is exactly at the gripping means 10, so that the pulling and separating action can occur while the cartridge is still. Said opposite gripping elements of collar C preferably consist of two oscillating side plates 8 hinged at an end on respective fixed pins 8', which are prepared to open at the passage of base 6 of a cartridge, contrasting with the elastic force of respective thrust springs M, which press the plates 8 themselves on the side surface of base 6 so that the inner edge of said plates 8 themselves is abutting against the collar C of base 6, thus preventing the movements of the cartridge in axial direction.

According to the present invention, the separation of the plastic material cartridge case 5 from base 6 by means of said gripping means 10 may be performed only when a cartridge is located with the base 6 thereof between said two oscillating plates 8.

Once the cartridge case 5 has been separated and moved away from base 6, carousel 11 rotates by one step to place the successive cartridge in position, while base 6 of the preceding one is simultaneously pushed out from the grip of the oscillating plates 8 by means of a contrast element 18 which acts at the rear on base 6 itself during the successive movement thereof with carousel 11.

With reference to figure 4, in the preferred embodiment described by way of mere non-limiting example, said two jaws or oscillating plates 8 are installed in a multi-plate element 7 consisting of a rear load-bearing plate 7A, an intermediate plate 7B which is coplanar to the plates 8 themselves and a front assembly plate 7C, which are superposed on and tightened with one another preferably by means of a plurality of screws which allows the disassembly thereof when required, such as for example for servicing or replacing certain movable parts which substantially consist of the two plates 8 and the respective thrust springs M.

As shown in figure 4 itself, the pins 8' preferably are integral with the rear plate 7A, the intermediate plate 7B has areas for lodging the springs M and the two plates 8, while the front plate 7C has only seats for the head of the clamping screws of assembly 7.

All three plates 7A, 7B and 7C have a longitudinal middle groove 9 which width is greater than the diameter of the cartridges to be processed, which groove 9 is open towards the bottom edge of the plates themselves.

Said gripping means 10 (figures 3B and 5) consist of a pair of opposite jaws 13 - each of which rotates about a respective axis which is perpendicular to the axis of the cartridge ready to be processed and of carousel 11 - provided with teeth 14 which are partly "meshed" with one another to laterally grip the body of the plastic material cartridge case 5 and to deform it by simultaneously applying a tractive force in axial direction (of the cartridge case itself) which pulls it from the metal base 6 without ripping or cutting it.

Figure 5 shows the sequence of movements with which the cartridge case 5 is separated from base 6. A peculiar feature of the present invention is the fact that the teeth 14 of said jaws 13 interpenetrate one another, thus leaving a sufficient space to avoid ripping or cutting the plastic material forming the cartridge case 5 so as to completely detach it from base 6 without leaving residues.

Moreover, said teeth 14 of the gripping jaws 13 are such as to act only on the part of the cartridge case 5 furthest from base 6, so as to avoid interacting with the base 6 itself or with the plastic ring which is generally present at the bottom of the cartridge case 5.

A further peculiar feature of the invention (figures 5 and 3B) consists in said jaws 13 being shaped so that after detaching the cartridge case 5 from base 6, they move said cartridge case 5 away from base 6 to avoid accumulations of material during the processing of the successive cartridges. For this purpose, each jaw 13 is provided with an arm 15 consisting of a protruding thrust element which, by acting in conjunction with the mirroring one of the other jaw, pushes the cartridge case (now separated from the base), thus moving it away from the work area. Said arms or protruding thrust elements 15 of the jaws 13 for gripping and pulling the cartridge case 5 have a dimension and length such as not to interfere with the body of the metal base 6 which was just separated from the cartridge case 5.

The cartridge cases 5 and the bases 6 are collected in conveniently provided separate containers, towards which they preferably are sent by falling and/or by means of suitable slides.

Apparatus 1 described hereto is provided with a "separation assembly" 2 - consisting of said carousel 11, which individually places the cartridges to be processed between the rotating jaws 13 of the cartridge case-base separation means 10, which carousel 10 moves the metal base 6 away from the magnetic means 12 which hold it in its seat for the processing - which separation assembly 2 is manually supplied by the user with the used cartridges to be processed .

The insertion of the used cartridges occurs by means of a preferably tubular slide 3, in which each cartridge is inserted with base 6 facing downwards, which slide keeps the cartridges aligned and stacked while waiting for them to be individually picked from the rotating carousel 11 (figures 1 and 2).

To this end, it is worth noting that the aforesaid carousel 10 (figures 7, 8 and 9) provides that, at each seat for the used cartridges to be processed, there is a saddle-shaped plate 16 for centering and positioning the cartridge itself, in addition to said magnetic means 12 which are prepared on said carousel exactly at the position provided for each metal base 6.

In particular, said saddle plate 16 is configured to collaborate with the curved side surface of base 6 to arrange the cartridge centrally in the seat thereof on carousel 11 and moreover, the same plate 16 has a groove or cavity arranged at the resting surface of the flat bottom of base 6 adapted to house collar C to provide a kind of temporary joint which keeps the cartridge in the right position, due also to the combined action with the magnetic means 12.

Moreover, (fig. 11) in order to correctly arrange each cartridge in radial position on carousel 11, there are provided four elastic elements 17 which act as kind of flexible "brushes" configured to delicately slide on the side surface of the cartridge in order to bring it into contact with said saddle plate 16 and with a specific rear resting pin 18 so that the cartridge is firmly anchored to carousel 11 for the whole path from the picking position to the processing posi ti on .

It might happen that there erroneously be a new cartridge among the used cartridges to be processed, that is an unused cartridge and therefore containing the shots or the buckshots and the propellant powder. In such a case, the length of such a cartridge is less than the one of the cartridge itself after use, because during the shot, the star-like closure of the cartridge case 5 (at the end opposite to base 6) opens towards the mouth of the gun and remains in such an open configuration.

According to the present invention, to avoid the risk of apparatus 1 described hereto also processing new cartridges, there are provided optical means 19, such as for example one or more photoelectric cells, adapted to control the length of the cartridges that are introduced into the loading/supply conduit in order to detect the presence of a new cartridge and, in case this happens, the machine is stopped and an alarm signal indicates the need for an operator to intervene to remove the new cartridge and restore operation (fig. 12).

Finally, it is worth noting that the preferred embodiment of the invention described hereto can be also advantageously used with various gauges (16, 12, 20, etc.); indeed, for this purpose, there are provided temporary locking means of base 6 - in axial direction - which consist of the oscillating plates 8 which can be opened to be adapted to the different diameters of base 6 of the processed cartridges.

It is however worth noting that the same inventive concept can be applied without variations also if a simplified variant of the invention is to be made, suitable for solely processing cartridges of a specific gauge: here, said means 7 for temporarily locking base 6 in the axial direction of the cartridge (with which the "separation assembly" 2 is provided) will not have the oscillating plates 8 or other movable parts and the longitudinal middle groove 9 described above will have a fixed and tapered width such that: in the inlet part of the cartridge, it is greater than the diameter of the cartridge itself, while in the area at the work position (that is where the oscillating plates 8 are arranged) in which the gripping means 10 of the cartridge case 5 are placed, said width corresponds to the exact value of the diameter of the base of the cartridge. In other words, a groove 9 of corresponding width will be provided for each gauge of the cartridges to be processed.

Finally, it is worth noting that a further peculiar feature of the invention consists in the fact that the gripping jaws 13 of the cartridge case 5 have a shape such that the teeth 14 are angularly spaced apart from the respective arms 15 and furthermore, the areas of the jaws 13 which are not involved by the teeth 14 or by the arms 15 are shaped so as to leave an adequate free space to allow the passage of the cartridge to be processed during the travel thereof towards the processing positions (figures 5 and 6).

KEY

1. Apparatus for processing used cartridges

2. Separation assembly

3. Conduit for introducing/loading cartridges to be processed

4. Electric motor

5. Cartridge case

6. Base

7. Means for temporarily locking the base

7A. Rear load-bearing plate

7B. Intermediate plate coplanar to the plates

7C. Front assembly plate

8. Opposite side gripping elements (oscillating pi ates)

9. Longitudinal middle groove

10. Gripping means

11. Rotating carousel

12. Magnetic means

13. Rotating opposite jaws

14. Teeth of the jaws

15. Arms or protruding thrust elements

16. Saddle-shaped plate 17. Elastic elements that act as "brushes"

18. Rear resting pin

19. Optical means

20. Shots or buckshots

21. Wadding

22. Trigger

23. Plastic ring of the cartridge case bottom

24. Propellant powder

C. Collar