Firearm Operating System with Belleville Spring Recoil Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing semi-automatic and automatic firearm operating systems face challenges such as complex maintenance, sensitivity to user characteristics, and inefficiency with varying cartridge weights, particularly with heavy cartridges, due to recoil-based mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
The operating system employs a breech mechanism with Belleville springs and a sliding carriage to manage the recoil energy, allowing for a controlled firing stroke that adapts to different cartridge weights, reducing maintenance needs and user influence, and optimizing performance across a range of cartridge weights.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a recoil-based operating system is used, then the system is simple and economical to achieve, but the performance depends heavily on firearm recoil and user characteristics
Solution Approach 1:
The operating system is segmented into two independent energy sources: a spring mechanism providing baseline inertial energy, and a gas piston providing supplemental energy. This segmentation allows the system to maintain simplicity while ensuring reliable operation across varying recoil conditions by activating the gas piston only when additional energy is needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring is pre-compressed before firing to store potential energy in advance. This preliminary action ensures that the minimum energy required for cycle completion is already available, making the system reliable even when recoil is insufficient, while maintaining a simple overall structure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a gas intake operating system is used, then the system can handle heavy cartridges, but it requires complicated maintenance due to non-combusted gases forming deposits
Solution Approach 1:
A valve mechanism acts as an intermediary to control gas flow into the chamber. This allows precise regulation of gas intake, enabling the system to adapt to different cartridge weights while limiting gas exposure to moving parts, thereby reducing deposit formation and simplifying maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
Only a controlled portion of the gas is introduced into the chamber rather than allowing full gas flow. This partial action provides sufficient energy for heavy cartridges while minimizing the amount of gas that could form deposits on mechanical parts, reducing maintenance requirements.
3Ease of repair
If an inertial operating system is used, then maintenance is simple, but the system fails with lightweight cartridges that do not cause forceful recoil
Solution Approach 1:
The gas piston mechanism is merged with the traditional inertial spring system. The spring provides the basic inertial operation for lightweight cartridges, while the gas piston supplements energy for heavy cartridges. This combination maintains maintenance simplicity while extending adaptability across the full cartridge weight range.
4Device complexity
If a short barrel recoil system is used, then maintenance is simple, but the impact between barrel and body is high requiring a damper system
Solution Approach 1:
The high-impact recoil interaction between barrel and body is extracted and replaced by the controlled gas piston mechanism. The gas piston absorbs and regulates the recoil energy, eliminating the need for complex damper systems while maintaining simplicity and reducing impact forces.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution provides a reliable, low-maintenance, and user-independent firearm operation that effectively handles lightweight to heavy cartridges with reduced recoil impact and energy storage, ensuring optimal performance and extended lifespan.
Implementation Method 1
an elastic element in a compressed state between the carriage and the obturator
Implementation Method 2
The operating system employs a breech mechanism with Belleville springs and a sliding carriage to manage the recoil energy
Implementation Method 3
following the explosion of the powder in the cartridge chamber, recoils, pushing the obturator and the obturator carriage backwards
Implementation Method 4
following the explosion of the powder in the cartridge chamber
Implementation Method 5
the carriage, by inertia, remains in a fixed position in relation to the obturator, which instead moves backwards
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 3
AI summary
An operating system for an individual firearm, such as a rifle, comprises a carriage (14) sliding axially in the compartment of the body of the firearm, an obturator (10) associable to the barrel (2), an elastic element (16), compressible between the carriage (14) and the obturator (10). In the configuration of firearm ready to fire with the bullet in the barrel, the obturator (10) has a free compression stroke (D) for the compression of the elastic element (16) and the barrel (2) has a free firing stroke (C) in relation to the abutment (32) of the operating compartment (8).