[Daiviet]

Originally Posted by ian209

Haha, yea. Whatever happened to AI's 40mm launch able impact grenade?

Originally Posted by MadMax

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40mm launchable grenade

I continue to work on this project, but it is still a long way off. I am currently trying to deal with safety issues requiring the automatic arming of the projectile round as well as the need to automatically disarm the driver charge unless the round is in a launcher.

The safety requirements of a launchable grenade are multifarious. Included but not limited to:

-exploding projectile must be FUN: actually blasts bbs, flies reasonable far, combat deployable etc
-projectile must be lightweight
-projectile design must be inherently disarmed during loading procedure (usually done in the safe zone)
-driver charge design must be naturally disarmed until it is in the launch pipe

The first two issues seem to be dealt with. The most recent POC is pretty cool. It blasts 100bbs on impact and flies in a stable manner (non tumbling). The projectile and driver charge (driver charge propels the projectile) are fairly short (equivalent length as a 165bb moscart rnd) and they attach together so you only have to load one thing. You do have to eject the "expended" driver charge which is kind of cool too. The current projectile flight weight (total launch weight including bbs and propellant) is also quite light at a little over 50g which I'm pretty happy with considering that 20g of that is the expendable bb charge. I was surprised that I was able to pare down the non expendable weight of 30g to only 60% of flight weight.

The last two issues are quite a challenge. If I cannot come up with a reasonable solution for either, the project is a bust. It is unacceptable for me to release a product which has no safe direction (it explodes in all directions) and is easy to accidentally discharge in the safe zone. It looks like I can do a projectile which is armed by the launch pressure exerted by the driver charge, but I still have to work out a way to automatically disarm the launch charge because accidentally sitting the trigger plate of the launch charge on say a loose bb would launch the grenade and arm it which is a bad scenario. There is significant variation between grenade launchers (tube diameters etc) out there so it's tough to make a robust arming solution for the driver charge.

It is likely that it will take quite a long time for me to complete this project unfortunately. The small marketing director in me is pissed that I'm talking about it at all because it'll distract from the upcoming product launch so I'm going to cap the discussion on the launchable grenade. All I can reveal is a bit of an intimate peek (hey it's Valentines day!) on this new product in the works, but I can't dwell on it. I figure the launchable grenade is at least a year away for me to dig through the R&D process and work up the financing to start paying for tooling.

I know it's exciting, but it's not practical to open a lengthy design discussion on it online and I need to refocus on getting the impact grenade out to market. Just think: every timer or impact grenade I sell goes to paying for the R&D for the launchable grenade and it's incredibly expensive Canadian manufactured injection mould. I actually haven't drawn a wage in nearly six years now. I'd like to start contributing to my RRSPs someday because I'm starting to get old.

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