Fuze
In military munitions, a fuze is the part of an explosive device that makes it explode. In some devices (notably torpedoes) a fuze may be identified by function as the "exploder".[1] The term fuze is used to indicate an advanced ignition device with mechanical and/or electronic parts.[2]
Time fuzes detonate after a set period of time. Impact, percussion or contact fuzes detonate when they hit something, usually the target. A proximity fuze uses sensors which can be one or more combinations of the following: radar, active sonar, passive acoustic, infrared, magnetic, photoelectric, seismic or even television cameras. Whatever the sensor used, percussion fuzes cause the explosion to occur close to the target. The target will either be destroyed or severely damaged.
Most English-language countries use the "z" spelling to distinguish between simple burning fuses and pyrotechnical or explosive devices.[3]
Fuze Media
Mk 53 Proximity fuze for an artillery shell, c. 1945
SD2 Butterfly bomb c. 1940 - wings rotate as bomb falls, unscrewing the arming spindle connected to the fuze
Avro Lancaster at RAF Metheringham. Note the "Fuzed" status, chalked on the nose of each bomb
Cross-sectional views of QF 2-pounder naval gun shells, showing percussion fuzes.
Fuzes fitted to M107 155mm artillery shells, c. 2000
Fuzed 81mm white phosphorus mortar shell in 1980. Note spelling of "fuze" on adjacent boxes
British World War II 4-inch naval illuminating shell, showing time fuze (orange, top), illuminating compound (green) and parachute (white, bottom)
Fuze for a Stokes mortar shell
References
- ↑ Arthur P. Fairfield, Naval Ordnance (Baltimore, MD: Lord Baltimore Press, 1921), p. 24
- ↑ The New Weapons of the World Encyclopedia: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 B.C. to the 21st Century (New York: St Martin's Griffin, 2007), p. 236
- ↑ Rudolf Meyer; Josef Köhler; Axel Homburg, Explosives (Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2002), p. 148
