Centrifugal ball cam locking device

A centrifugal cam locking apparatus for a spin stabilized projectile comprises:

• a cylindrically shaped housing having a longitudinal spin axis and a coaxial housing cavity;
• a stack of circularly shaped cargo members contiguously disposed in said housing cavity;
• stop means operatively disposed in said housing adapted to engage one end of said stack of cargo members for preventing longitudinal movement of said cargo members in a first longitudinal direction;
• base member means fixedly attached to said housing for restraining the other end of said stack of cargo members for moving in a second longitudinal direction;
• cam means, slidably disposed in said housing cavity having an inclined cam surface positioned at a critical angle .theta. with respect to a normal to said longitudinal spin axis, for restraining said stack of cargo members in fore and aft longitudinal movement by acting as a self-locking taper;
• spin responsive means which moves radially outward in response to projectile spin, operatively positioned in abutment with said inclined cam surface for exerting a longitudinal force against one end of said stack of cargo members in response to projectile spin and for providing a holding force for substantially eliminating looseness of said stack of cargo members within said housing cavity which causes eratic projectile flight, and, said critical angle of incline .theta. for said cam means and coefficient of friction ".eta." for said base member means and said spin responsive means are selected to provide cam back force which increases exponetially with increasing values of coefficient of friction and cam forward forces which decrease exponentially with increasing coefficient of friction.