One-piece gunstock of advanced composite material for firearm and manufacturing method thereof
AssigneeSabatti S.p.A.
InventorBernardino Merelli
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A one-piece gunstock for firearm and the relevant manufacturing method are described, said one-piece gunstock being composed of a frame (1) having two half-shells (1a, 1b) extended longitudinally and defining a recess inside the frame (1), a plurality of seats (31,32) and a space (42) for housing respective mechanical components formed between said half-shells and delimited by a transversal structural connection element (33) of said half-shells (1a, 1b), characterized in that said half-shells (1a, 1b) and said transversal connection element (33) are made in a single piece of an advanced composite material by a vacuum-bag moulding technology.
Claims15
A process for manufacturing a one-piece gunstock for firearm, wherein the one-piece gunstock comprises a frame having two half-shells extended longitudinally and defining a recess inside the frame, a plurality of seats and a space for housing respective mechanical components formed between said half-shells and delimited by a transversal connection element of said half-shells,
- the process comprising the steps of:
- providing a mould split into two half-moulds having each a recess with a shape being complementary to the external shape of one of the half-shells of the frame of the one-piece gunstock to be manufactured;
- arranging at least one sheet of an advanced composite material comprising fibres and a resin in one of the half-moulds so as to fill in the recess of said half-mould without projecting therefrom;
- arranging at least one sheet of an advanced composite material comprising fibres and a resin in the other half-mould so as to fill in the recess of the other half-mould and project from said recess;
- inserting into said other half-mould at least one bag having an open end portion projecting from said other half-mould;
- inserting into said other half-mould at least one shaped insert being adapted to define internal recesses of the frame of the gunstock to be manufactured;
- coupling said half-moulds, keeping said open end portion of at least one bag outside the resulting mould and thereby obtaining the overlap of the sheets of advanced composite material arranged in said half-moulds;
- inserting said mould into a vacuum bag and arranging said open end portion of at least one bag in communication with the outside;
- generating vacuum in said vacuum bag so as to extract air from said mould;
- curing the resin of the sheets in the mould kept under vacuum and generating a pressure inside at least one bag through said open end portion thereof in communication with the outside so as to compact the sheets inside the mould, thus obtaining said one-piece frame;
- extracting said one-piece frame from the mould.
A process for manufacturing a one-piece gunstock for firearm, wherein the one-piece gunstock comprises a frame having two half-shells extended longitudinally and defining a recess inside the frame, a plurality of seats and a space for housing respective mechanical components formed between said half-shells and delimited by a transversal connection element of said half-shells,
- the process comprising the steps of:
- providing a mould split into two half-moulds having each a recess with a shape being complementary to the external shape of one of the half-shells of the frame of the one-piece gunstock to be manufactured;
- arranging at least one sheet of an advanced composite material comprising fibres and a resin in one of the half-moulds so as to fill in the recess of said half-mould without projecting therefrom;
- arranging at least one sheet of an advanced composite material comprising fibres and a resin in the other half-mould so as to fill in the recess of the other half-mould and project from said recess;
- inserting into said other half-mould at least one shaped expanding core and at least one shaped insert being adapted to define internal recesses of the frame of the gunstock to be manufactured;
- coupling said half-moulds and inserting the resulting mould into a vacuum bag thereby obtaining the overlap of the sheets of advanced composite material arranged in said half-moulds;
- generating vacuum in said vacuum bag so as to extract air from said mould;
- curing the resin of the sheets in the mould kept under vacuum and allowing the expansion of the shaped expanding core for generating a pressure inside the mould, thus compacting the sheets inside the mould and obtaining said one-piece frame;
- extracting said one-piece frame from the mould.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.