Reflector Sight Monolithic Correction Block for Firearm Optics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing reflector sights for portable firearms face challenges in maintaining parallax-free images and combining natural and thermal images effectively, particularly in varying lighting conditions and with limited optical correction capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A reflector sight design featuring a beam splitter cube with a convex correction lens and an aspherical mirror lens element, both made from silica glass or plastics, forming a catadioptric correction block that minimizes dioptric faces for wide visual field correction and low weight, allowing for compact and high-quality image overlay with thermal imaging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If multiple dioptric faces are used for optical correction, then image quality improves, but manufacturing complexity and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple optical correction functions into a single monolithic correction block. This correction block integrates a beam splitter, correction lenses, and field flatteners into one unified component made from a single piece of glass, eliminating the need for multiple separate dioptric faces and reducing manufacturing complexity while maintaining excellent optical correction quality across a wide visual field.
Solution Approach 2:
The correction block uses specialized optical glass materials with specific refractive indices and Abbe numbers to achieve the required optical correction. By selecting appropriate glass compositions, the patent accomplishes complex optical functions (correction of astigmatism, field curvature, and distortion) within a single material medium, avoiding the need for multiple different optical elements.
2Ease of manufacture
If a monolithic correction block is used, then manufacturing effort is reduced, but optical adjustment flexibility decreases
Solution Approach 1:
While the correction block itself is monolithic, the patent segments the overall optical system into distinct functional modules: the correction block, the display assembly, and the housing. This modular segmentation allows the monolithic correction block to be manufactured as a single piece (reducing manufacturing effort) while still enabling optical adjustments by repositioning entire modules relative to each other during assembly and alignment procedures.
3Volume of moving object
If the display is arranged on the beam splitter cube with correction lenses, then compactness is achieved, but optical alignment precision becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The monolithic correction block incorporates built-in reference surfaces and mechanical features that self-align with corresponding features in the housing and display assembly. The integration of the beam splitter and correction optics into a single rigid block eliminates relative movement between these elements, providing inherent alignment stability. During assembly, the monolithic structure ensures that optical elements maintain precise relative positions without requiring complex adjustment mechanisms, thus achieving compactness while preserving alignment precision.
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
The solution provides excellent optical correction and vignetting freedom, enabling clear image overlay with minimal manufacturing effort and low weight, while allowing for easy optical adjustments and hybrid material usage for improved performance.
Implementation Method 1
a beam splitter cube for overlaying the natural image with the thermal image reproduced by the display
Implementation Method 2
a correction lens connected to the first flat face of the beam splitter cube, the face of which facing the display is convex
Implementation Method 3
a mirror lens element connected to a second flat face of the beam splitter cube, the mirrored face of which mirror lens element facing away from the beam splitter cube is convex and aspherical
Data Source
AI summary
A reflector sight (2) for a portable firearm has an optical system for generating a natural image of a target region, a display (4) for reproducing an electronic image of the target region created by an electronic image creation unit and a beam splitter cube (6) for overlaying the natural image with the electronic image of the target region reproduced by the display (4). According to the invention, the display (4) is arranged on a first flat face (10) of beam splitter cube (6), to which flat face a correction lens (12) is connected (12), the face (14) of which facing the display is convex, wherein a mirror lens element (18) is connected to a second flat face (16) of the beam splitter cube, the mirrored face (20) of which mirror lens element facing away from the beam splitter cube (6) is convex and aspherical and wherein the beam splitter cube (6), the correction lens (12) and the mirror lens element (18) form a correction block that consists of silica glass and/or.