Firearm Scope Mount with Adjustable Stop for Play Compensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing firearm scope mounts, particularly tip-up mounts with Picatinny rails, face issues with manufacturing tolerances leading to play and instability during automatic weapon firing, causing accuracy losses and wear due to the inability to precisely fit recoil lugs into grooves.
Innovation Solution
A tip-up mounting unit with a recoil lug and a manually or automatically adjustable stop that compensates for manufacturing tolerances by providing a close-tolerance fit, using a movable stop to absorb recoil and return forces, ensuring the optics assembly remains fixed without play.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single recoil lug is used in a one-piece assembly, then the device complexity is reduced, but manufacturing tolerances cause free play and instability during automatic weapon firing
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting assembly is divided into two separate elements: a front element with a front recoil lug and a rear element with a rear recoil lug. Each element can be independently positioned and adjusted to compensate for manufacturing tolerances in the Picatinny rail grooves, eliminating free play while maintaining manageable device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
A stop mechanism is introduced as an intermediary component between the mounting assembly and the Picatinny rail. This stop acts as a mediator that absorbs and compensates for tolerance-induced gaps, providing stable positioning without requiring extremely tight manufacturing tolerances on the primary mounting components
2Reliability
If two-piece assemblies with front and rear recoil lugs are used, then free play is reduced, but the securing process becomes more complicated and positioning precision is lost when changing to different Picatinny rails
Solution Approach 1:
The stop mechanism is designed to be manually adjustable, allowing dynamic adaptation to different Picatinny rails. The stop can be repositioned along the rail to accommodate varying groove positions and tolerances, maintaining ease of operation while ensuring reliable free play compensation on each new rail
Solution Approach 2:
The front and rear recoil lugs are pre-positioned on their respective elements during manufacturing, establishing a baseline configuration. This preliminary positioning, combined with the adjustable stop, creates a system that requires minimal field adjustment while maintaining precision across different rails
3Ease of manufacture
If standard Picatinny rail grooves with large tolerances are used, then manufacturing cost and ease of manufacture are improved, but relative movement occurs during automatic weapon firing causing accuracy loss
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting system changes the critical parameter from groove width tolerance to stop position adjustment. By making the stop manually adjustable, the system transforms a manufacturing precision problem into an operational adjustment problem, allowing standard-tolerance rails to achieve precision-fit performance through field adjustment
Data Source
AI summary
A device for fixing an additional device, such as a scope or laser sighting device, to a firearm free of play and able to accommodate the ever-changing (recoil and spring-back) forces that occur on the engaging mechanism of the fixing device. In addition to a recoil lug contacting a first stop surface of a first groove, a further adjustable stop is provided, engaging a stop surface in a different groove in a direction opposite, along the line fire, to the first stop surface.