Monolithic Optical Mount with Flexure Tilt Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing optical mounts often have complex adjustment mechanisms and long lead times for configuration and fabrication, making them difficult to use and customize, especially when quick setup is required.
Innovation Solution
An optical mount is additively manufactured as a single unitary, continuous monolithic piece with overlapping plates and flexures that allow tilt adjustment in multiple directions, enabling easy adjustment and alignment of optics like lenses, mirrors, or beam splitters.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional optical mounts use separate components and complex adjustment mechanisms, then they can achieve precise positioning, but the device complexity and fabrication time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple separate components (frame, plates, adjustment mechanisms) into a single monolithic piece manufactured by additive manufacturing. This integration maintains the positioning functionality while eliminating the complexity of assembling and adjusting multiple separate parts, directly resolving the contradiction between precision and complexity
2Adaptability or versatility
If custom optical mounts are designed and fabricated from scratch, then they can be customized for specific applications, but the lead time for configuration and fabrication increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs additive manufacturing to create the monolithic mount structure in advance, allowing complex geometries to be fabricated directly without traditional multi-step manufacturing processes. This preliminary action of using advanced manufacturing techniques reduces the time required to produce customized mounts while maintaining adaptability
3Stability of the object's composition
If optical mounts use rigid fixed structures, then they provide structural stability, but they lack the flexibility for tilt adjustment and alignment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates flexures into the monolithic structure that enable dynamic tilt adjustment while maintaining overall structural stability. These flexures allow controlled movement and alignment adjustments without compromising the rigidity of the main mount structure, resolving the contradiction between stability and adjustability
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 rapid and flexible method for configuring and fabricating optical mounts, reducing lead times and allowing for precise tilt adjustments in multiple directions, enhancing the ease of integration into optical systems while maintaining structural integrity.
Implementation Method 1
flexures mechanically coupling the plates together, and mechanically coupling one of the plates to a frame of the mount, thereby allowing tilt adjustment of the optic
Data Source
AI summary
An optical device mount is made largely as a single unitary, continuous, and monolithic piece of material. The single-material piece for optical mount includes a frame, a pair of overlapping plates that secure an optical device (an optic) such as a lens or mirror, and flexures that couple the plates to each other and to the frame, so as to allow tilt of the optical device relative to the frame in multiple directions. The optical device mount may include tilt adjustment mechanisms for adjusting the tilt in the multiple directions, for example by putting forces on the plates and/or frame that cause flexing at the flexures, thereby tilting the optical device. The material for the single piece of the optical mount may be any of a variety of suitable materials, such as metals, polymers, or other suitable materials.