Adjustable Windage Optics Mount with External Tool
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Solution Overview
Problem
Firearms with large manufacturing and assembly tolerances often result in misalignments between the side rail and barrel axes, limiting the adjustment range of aiming devices and reducing accuracy when internal mechanisms are used to correct these misalignments.
Innovation Solution
A windage-adjustable optics mount with an external windage adjustment tool, featuring a base member attachable to a firearm's side rail, a windage-adjustable rail, and an external adjustment tool that includes a bracket, pivot screw, adjustment screw, dial disk, and threaded fasteners, allowing incremental pivoting of the rail to align the aiming device with the barrel axis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If internal adjustment mechanisms are used to correct misalignment between side rail and barrel axes, then alignment accuracy is improved, but the adjustment range is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the adjustment function into two independent parts: (1) the internal adjustment mechanism of the aiming device for fine-tuning within its limited range, and (2) the external adjustment tool with the adjustable mount for correcting large misalignments. This segmentation allows each component to operate within its optimal range without compromising the other, resolving the contradiction between precision and range.
Solution Approach 2:
The adjustable mount serves as an intermediary component between the side rail and the aiming device. It includes a first engaging member that attaches to the side rail and a second engaging member that secures the aiming device, with an adjustable rail connecting them. This intermediary structure absorbs the misalignment correction function, preserving the full adjustment range of the aiming device's internal mechanisms.
2Measurement precision
If internal adjustment mechanisms are used to correct extreme misalignments, then alignment is achieved, but the adjustment range in the opposite direction is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
By separating the correction of large misalignments (handled by the external adjustment tool and adjustable mount) from fine-tuning adjustments (handled by the internal mechanism), the invention ensures that the internal mechanism retains its full bidirectional adjustment range. The segmentation prevents the internal mechanism from being forced to compensate for extreme misalignments, which would limit its flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The external adjustment tool is used first to preliminarily correct the large misalignment between the side rail and barrel axes before the aiming device is mounted or before using its internal adjustment mechanisms. This preliminary action establishes a proper baseline alignment, ensuring that subsequent adjustments using the internal mechanism operate within their full range in both directions.
3Ease of manufacture
If the axis of the side rail is aligned with the barrel axis during manufacturing, then assembly is simplified, but manufacturing tolerances cause misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The invention performs the alignment correction action after manufacturing and assembly, using the external adjustment tool to preliminarily correct misalignments caused by manufacturing tolerances. This approach maintains the simplicity of manufacturing while achieving the required alignment precision through a subsequent adjustment step.
Solution Approach 2:
The adjustable mount acts as an intermediary that decouples the manufacturing alignment requirement from the final operational alignment. The side rail can be manufactured with standard tolerances and simple assembly procedures, while the adjustable mount compensates for any misalignment, achieving precise alignment without compromising manufacturing ease.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a windage-adjustable optics mount with at least one external windage adjustment tool. Further disclosed herein is a method of adjusting the windage of an aiming device mounted on an adjustable windage optics mount by way of an external windage adjustment tool. The external windage adjustment tool may provide a means for adjusting windage by incrementally pivoting one end of a rail, upon which an aiming device may be mounted, relative to an opposite end of the rail, thereby allowing the rail to function as a windage-adjustable rail. A windage-adjustable rail may include an optics mounting feature, for example a Picatinny rail (also known as MIL-STD-1913 rail), and an arrangement of holes and recesses necessary for alignment and for securing to a base member.