Patent Application
20250137761
The present disclosure generally relates to the field of suppressing the blast created when a firearm discharges, thereby reducing the acoustic intensity of the muzzle report by modulating the speed and pressure of the ejecta gas released from the muzzle.
The numerous advantages of the disclosure may be better understood by those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying figures in which:
The present disclosure has been particularly shown and described with respect to certain embodiments and specific features thereof. The embodiments set forth herein are taken to be illustrative rather than limiting. It should be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes and modifications in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
Reference will now be made in detail to the subject matter disclosed, which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Referring generally to
Referring to
An exterior surface 111 of a tubular body portion 112 of the firearm sound suppression device 100 may include one or more heat radiating surfaces 113 (e.g., fins, channels, and the like) configured to provide increased surface area to facilitate cooling of the firearm sound suppression device 100 during operation. In another embodiment, and as further described below, the tubular body portion 112 of the firearm sound suppression device 100 (and in some cases, the entirety of the firearm sound suppression device 100) may be constructed from a porous material having a plurality of pores forming a system of channels from an interior of the firearm sound suppression device 100 through the tubular body portion 112.
Referring to
Referring to
The pyramidal subunits 121 may each occupy a circular sector of a baffle 114. The pyramidal subunits 121 may uniformly distributed about the central aperture 115. For example, as shown in
While shown in
Further, additional rotational orientations are contemplated such that no baffle 114 has the same rotational orientation as another baffle 114 such as back-and-forth (e.g., 0°, 15°, 7.5°, 30°, 22.5°, and 37.5°), or exponential progression (e.g., 0.71°, 1.43°, 2.86°, 5.71°, 11.4°, and 22.9°). Still further, one or more baffles 114 may have a corresponding rotational orientation (e.g., 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 75° and 90° where the 0°, 45°, and 90° rotations are the same; 0°, 22.5°, 45°, 67.5°, 90°, 112.5° where the 22.5°, 67.5° and 112.5° as well as the 0°, 45°, and 90° rotations are the same).
Referring to
Similar to the varying rotational configurations of baffles 114 as described above, the through-channels 124 may have additional asymmetric patterning where the through-channel 124 openings are rotated back and forth to maximize sound dampening. As shown in
In one example, the through-channel 124 opening in the first surface 117 of a baffle 114 may be align with the through-channel 124 opening in the second surface 118 of the baffle 114. In another example, the through-channel 124 opening in the first surface 117 of a baffle 114 may be offset (e.g., offset radially and/or circumferentially) relative to the through-channel 124 opening in the second surface 118 of the baffle 114 such that the position of the through-channel 124 translates as it moves through the baffle 114.
Referring to
Additionally, as noted above, one or more structures of the firearm sound suppression device 100 (e.g., the baffles 114, tubular body portion 112, and the like) may have a porous construction. For example, various 3D printing, additive or subtractive manufacturing processes have been developed for production of porous products in numerous industries, including, for example, medical applications. As one example, the S.I. Bone® company has developed a series of titanium-based implant products marketed under the iFuse 3D™ brand (See, e.g., https://sibone.com/providers/solutions/ifuse/ifuse-3d; MacBarb R, Lindsey D, Woods S, Lalor P, Gundanna M, Yerby S. Fortifying the Bone-Implant Interface Part 2: An In Vivo Evaluation of 3D-Printed and TPS-Coated Triangular Implants. Int J Spine Surg. 2017; 11 (3):116-128.) which are manufactured via 3D printing/additive manufacturing to include porous structures. As another example, the DePuy Synthes company has developed a series of titanium-based implant products marketed under the CONDUIT™ Interbody Platform brand (See, e.g., https://www.jnjmedtech.com/en-US/product/conduit-interbody-platform-eit-cellular-titanium) which are manufactured via 3D printing/additive manufacturing to include porous structures.
As yet another example, the Medtronic® company has developed a series of titanium-based implant products marketed under the Titan™ brand (See, e.g., https://www.medtronic.com/us-en/healthcare-professionals/therapies-procedures/spinal-orthopaedic/interbody-science/interbody-technology/titan-endoskeleton.html) which are manufactured via subtractive manufacturing processes to include porous/textured implant structures.
In one specific example, the various components of the firearm sound suppression device 100 may be constructed from 3D printable corrosion resistant nickel chromium alloys such as Inconel-type alloys (e.g., Iconel 718).
Any of such processes or those providing similar porous structures may be employed in the manufacture the firearm sound suppression device 100. Such processes/materials may allow for the creation of components having structures defining pores of from 50-400 microns up to 1 millimeter in size.
Further, such 3D printing/additive/subtractive manufacturing processes may enable the creation of monolithic baffle 114 and/or tubular body portion 112 structures having the specifically configured pores and internal through-channels 124 as described above. In some examples the baffles 114 may be fabricated independently from and be insertable into the tubular body portion 112 so as to enable replacement of worn or damaged baffles 114. In other examples, the entirety of the firearm sound suppression device 100 may have a single-piece construction.
One skilled in the art will recognize that the herein described components (e.g., operations), devices, objects, and the discussion accompanying them are used as examples for the sake of conceptual clarity and that various configuration modifications are contemplated. Consequently, as used herein, the specific exemplars set forth and the accompanying discussion are intended to be representative of their more general classes. In general, use of any specific exemplar is intended to be representative of its class, and the non-inclusion of specific components (e.g., operations), devices, and objects should not be taken as limiting.
The previous description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention as provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements. As used herein, directional terms such as “top,” “bottom,” “over,” “under,” “upper,” “upward,” “lower,” “down,” and “downward” are intended to provide relative positions for purposes of description, and are not intended to designate an absolute frame of reference. Various modifications to the described embodiments will be apparent to those with skill in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments. Therefore, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments shown and described, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features herein disclosed.
With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations are not expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
It is further contemplated that each of the embodiments of the method described above may include any other step(s) of any other method(s) described herein. In addition, each of the embodiments of the method described above may be performed by any of the systems described herein.
The herein described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely exemplary, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated” such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being “connected,” or “coupled,” to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being “couplable,” to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.
Furthermore, it is to be understood that the invention is defined by the appended claims. It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” and the like). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, and the like” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, and the like). In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, and the like” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, and the like). It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
It is believed that the present disclosure and many of its attendant advantages will be understood by the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the components without departing from the disclosed subject matter or without sacrificing all of its material advantages. The form described is merely explanatory, and it is the intention of the following claims to encompass and include such changes. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the invention is defined by the appended claims.
