topic Re: Research Guidance - mechanical triggers and safety lockouts in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Research Guidance - mechanical triggers and safety lockouts

Drewpan — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 04:13:34 GMT

Hi All,

I am interested in doing some research on how mechanical triggers work and in

particular adjusting the force necessary to trigger them. I am also interested in

how safety cutouts for these triggers are designed and implemented.

This research is not for a weapon of any kind it is for me increasing my design

knowledge in an interesting area. I am from Australia and guns and weapons

are not common here but various mechanical triggers are used for other things.

That being said, obviously triggers for firearms probably have a great deal of

information available and for my purposes would be suitable to get the knowledge

I am interested in.

I do understand the Rules of the Forum and I do not wish to start a thread that

might be in breach of the Rules. What I am looking for is some ideas of where I

should start looking for this information. The main thing I am looking for is a

selection of simple mechanical triggers but the important thing is the mechanism

to adjust the sensitivity and equally important is the safety lockout mechanisms.

I know this is an International Forum and so there should be sufficient members

from the USA where this information is more likely to be more common. I am

looking for any information so information from elsewhere would also be welcomed.

I am only looking for some guidance on where to look. I am not looking for a thread

that may breach the Forum Rules on Content.

Cheers

Andrew

Re: Research Guidance - mechanical triggers and safety lockouts

BetterWithTools — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 22:01:05 GMT

Someplace to look that might cause less upset would be spear fishing. I've known several hobbyist spear fishermen that built their own spearguns. Back in the mid to late 90s the info was in books but I imagine it should be online somewhere now. The shapes, materials, finishes will need to be tweaked to fit whatever release you are trying to create but the principles should still roughly apply.

Re: Research Guidance - mechanical triggers and safety lockouts

MichaelT_123 — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 03:25:16 GMT

Hi Mr Drewpan,

I am not sure (and don't want to be) about the nature of your research urge, but you might consider starting from a tabula rasa stage. Well, perhaps you can skip the Dirac function, which is the epitome of the abstraction you call 'trigger'.

The 'trigger' is a change in the energy of a semi-adiabatic system caused by an impulse of external energy, allowing the system to reach a new adiabatic energy level.

The basic concept can be synthesized as a hysteresis paradigm and parameterized by two main parameters (there are more): remanence and hysteresis point/force.

Moving the pure concept into the real/physical world amounts to an attempt to untangle the miracle of the whole universe.

In the mechanical realm … geometry, mechanical properties, rheology… of matter will 'define the shape of hysteresis '.

In the thermodynamics of chemical reactions, activation energy serves as a 'trigger impulse'.

In magnetics… hysteresis force and remanence will be the main focus.

In optics… There are many nonlinear phenomena worth investigation.

In the Universe… perhaps the Big Bang should be put under a magnifying glass.

In politics… analyse election perturbations

In your belief or non-belief… religion will/will not give you the answer

In marriage … return home after too many hours in a pub and observe the "trigger", although you might not remember the experiment the next day.

Regards

MichaelT

Re: Research Guidance - mechanical triggers and safety lockouts

Drewpan — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 05:14:39 GMT

Thank you @MichaelT_123

I always know I can rely upon you to give me a straight forward, thoughtful, well researched

answer to any question I put to the Forum. Without you we would all truly be Lost.

Cheers

Andrew

Re: Research Guidance - mechanical triggers and safety lockouts

aleksei_ovsienko — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:53:25 GMT

I am somewhat of a gun guy and I would say that most modern firearms trigger mechanisms are probably going to be massively overengineered for any other application. Firearms have a unique set of requirements for trigger assemblies that are not going to be relevant for most other applications. That said I'm sure there are plenty of firearms CAD available in the public domain. Do some googling on Cody Wilson and his work.