Supports – Brackets – Specially mounted or attached
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-10
2002-04-16
Chin-Shue, Alvin (Department: 3634)
Supports
Brackets
Specially mounted or attached
C248S187100, C248S224510
Reexamination Certificate
active
06371424
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to mountings for articles upon supports.
BACKGROUND ART
Mountings for articles upon supports are commonplace and diverse in design. However, mountings having certain specific requirements need to be of specific designs to satisfy those requirements. For instance, some mountings are required to withstand, in use, the application of forces applied either to an article or to a support without there being any change in relative orientation of the article to the support such as may be caused by loosening of the mountings or by reason of movement of one part of a mounting upon another. Particular instances of interest are where mountings are subjected to sudden violent and strong forces placed either upon the article or upon the support, such forces being, for instance, either in the form of impact forces or vibrational forces. Such forces are applied in the use of weaponry.
Weapons which depend upon being mounted upon weapon carriers or other supports should have reliable mountings for this purpose, for any change in condition of these mountings or in relative orientation of their parts, as may be brought about by such forces as referred to above, may have disastrous results for the weapon user. Similar concerns also apply to parts of weapons which are assembled together and which may be caused to loosen or come apart due to the application of sudden violent and/or vibrational forces. By way of example, grenade launching machine guns which fire relatively slow, heavy rounds necessarily require elevation of their barrels by a relatively large angle, perhaps at least 30 degrees above the sight line of the target. In order to elevate a barrel to the correct angle of elevation and also to enable it to move in azimuth to be able to fire accurately at a target, an aiming system is required.
In modern weapons, aiming systems include sight units coupled by computer to a visual display unit. There are two critical gun settings. In one setting, the aiming system needs to be calibrated. In the other setting, the aiming system needs to be “boresighted” with the gun bore for accurate alignment of the bore with the sight unit. Maintenance of calibration is primarily of importance during use of the weapon. In other words, a mounting holding the sight unit onto another part of the weapon, e.g. another part of the aiming system, must withstand sudden and extreme forces applied to it when the weapon recoils after firing, without any change in mounting condition resulting in shifting the position of the sight unit. It is also necessary to maintain the critical settings upon reinstallation of the sight unit after removal of the sight unit from the gun for transportation purposes.
Hence, a great deal of reliance must be placed upon a mounting for connecting the sight unit. It is known, however, that in existing mountings for this type of purpose, loosening of the mounting parts may result during firing. Also, after removal of a sight unit, it is possible for foreign matter such as dust particles to be present between mating parts of the mounting which, upon reassembly, prevent intimate mating of mounting parts, thereby resulting in inaccuracy in repositioning of the sight unit. Inaccurate firing of the weapon will then result.
Mountings which may be subjected to sudden forces, such as may occur during movement of an assembly of other articles upon supports are also known. Such articles include video cameras and theodolites which are continually moved, laid to rest in awkward positions, or transported about, whereby their mountings may suffer indeterminate forces from diverse directions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention seeks to provide a mounting for mounting an article upon a support so that positional orientation of the article remains substantially unchanged when the assembly of article and support is subjected to forces in use and also positional orientation of the article upon its support is replicated when the article is remounted thereon after its removal.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a mounting for mounting an article upon a support comprising first and second mounting members which are relatively movable into assembled relationship in which the second mounting member is held in a seating position by the first mounting member, each mounting member having a seating means, and the seating means of the two members lie in abutting relationship with the second mounting member immovably registered in a first plane relative to the first mounting member when the second mounting member is in the seating position, the mounting also comprising three spaced mounting member registration projections which are located to provide, in the seating position, contact between the mounting members in a three spaced position and staggered relationship from side to side of the second mounting member to register the second mounting member in a second plane relative to the first mounting member, the registration projections providing wiping action between the mounting members during their movement into assembled relationship; the mounting further comprising means for locking the mounting members together with the second mounting member remaining in the seating position.
In a preferred arrangement of the invention, the first mounting member has a receiving channel for receiving the second mounting member during assembly of the mounting members. This receiving channel has edges defining a first pair of guide surfaces. A second pair of guide surfaces on the opposite sides of the second mounting member confront the first pair of guide surfaces during assembly. Each projection is provided as part of a respective one of the guide surfaces. Hence, the registration projections may be provided on both of the guide surfaces of one or the other pair of guide surfaces. Alternatively one projection may be provided upon one mounting member and the other two projections upon the other mounting member.
It is envisaged that the three registration projections may simply register the second member in its second plane according to the invention. However, in a preferred arrangement, the registration projections serve also to immovably register the second mounting member in the first plane relative to the first mounting member. In this preferred arrangement, the guide surfaces of the first pair are inclined, in a lateral direction, towards the seating means of the first mounting member and these guide surfaces are convergent along their length. The second pair of guide surfaces are correspondingly inclined and convergent. Hence, during assembly of the two mounting members, the guide surfaces of one pair move longitudinally and, because of the convergence, also laterally of the guide surfaces of the other pair. This movement brings the second mounting member into the seating position in which each projection of a guide surface abuts against an opposing guide surface. This action forces the seating means against one another to provide the immovable registration discussed above.
The locking means is preferably designed for quick release so as to enable rapid disconnection of the two mounting members and thus of the article from the support on which it is carried. For this purpose the locking means preferably comprises a plurality of locking arms, namely two, carried by one of the mounting members, each arm being spring-urged about a pivot to move it into a position of locking engagement with the other mounting member when the two mounting members are in assembled relationship. In order to overcome the possibility of repeated operation of sudden accelerations inadvertently causing disengagement of one or other of the locking arms from its locking position, each arm is balanced about its pivotal axis so that the mass of the arm on one side of the pivotal axis is substantially equal to the mass on the other side.
Preferably, each of the arms has a detent surface to engage said other of the mounting members and the geometry of the detent surface, arm and its pivots preferably are d
Adams Thomas
Chin-Shue Alvin
General Dynamics Canada Ltd.
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