Self-destructing impact fuses are employed to detonate ammunition delivered by projectiles when the ammunition fails to explode upon impact. There are a variety of reasons why ammunition fails to explode upon impact: First, it misses the target and lands on soft grounds such as a swamp or a snow covered area; or secondly it lands on a suboptimal angle with respect to the point of impact. Unexploded ammunition poses hazards for the civilians and the military alike and operation to remove such unexploded ammunition is dangerous, costly and labor intensive.
Prior art self-destructing impact fuses can be generalized into three categories: (1) chemical, (2) mechanical and (3) electronic. Exemplary of a chemical self-destructing delay impact is U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,164 issued to Hadfield. The '164 patent describes a self-destructing fuse illustrating the use of a timing chamber containing liquid in combination with a weight and tubular spring mechanism for releasing the firing pin onto the detonator.
An example of a mechanical self-destructing fuse for sub-munition is U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,401 issued to Gatti. The '401 patent relies on the plastic deformation of a wire element which holds and delays the exertion of a secondary striker member onto the detonator.
Recently, electronic self-destructing fuses have also been developed to detonate projectiles via electronic timing circuitry after they fail to explode upon impact. The present invention avoids the deficiencies of the prior art, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a review of the description of the present invention.