Shafting Patents (Class 464/179)
  • Patent number: 5486730
    Abstract: Past methods and apparatus for manufacturing a rotor assembly have been used to provide rotor assemblies for rotating electric machines. Many of these electric machines rotate at low speeds. The present method and apparatus for manufacturing a rotor assembly can be used to make a rotor assembly to be used at high speeds. The rotor assembly includes a shaft having a frustoconical mounting surface defined thereon and having a plurality of magnets attached to the frustoconical mounting surface. A cover having a frustoconical inner surface surrounds the magnets and compressively secures the magnets to the shaft. The compressive forces applied by the cover and the adhesive used to secure the magnets insuring that a positive contact pressure exists between the magnets and the shaft during operation of the electric machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 1993
    Date of Patent: January 23, 1996
    Assignee: Solar Turbines Incorporated
    Inventors: George A. Ludwig, David G. Teraji
  • Patent number: 5462489
    Abstract: A drive shaft for an automotive vehicle water pump has an outer race with plural outer raceways formed in an inner peripheral wall thereof, a shaft member disposed for rotation relative to the outer race and defining a like plural number of inner raceways formed in an outer peripheral wall of the shaft member in radial registration with the corresponding outer raceways, and a multiplicity of rolling elements arranged between the inner raceways and the corresponding outer raceways, respectively. The shaft member comprises a large-diameter bearing portion with the plural inner raceways formed in an outer peripheral wall thereof, a small-diameter impeller shaft portion extending from one end of the large-diameter bearing portion, a small-diameter pulley shaft portion, and a continuously-connecting portion extending between an opposite end of the large-diameter bearing portion and a proximal end of the small-diameter pulley shaft portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 31, 1995
    Assignee: NSK Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshio Kan, Takeshi Nakamura, Yukihiro Akabane
  • Patent number: 5141248
    Abstract: A rod with an increased capacity for buckling under length-wise load has a central portion bent in the form of an omega with a central bend joined to end portions by elbows. The cross-section of the central portion is formed, for example by plastic deformation, into the shape of a bow-tie or the mathematical symbol "infinity" which consists of two lateral lobes connected by a thin central core and which is inscribed in a rectangle of which the length is equal to at least twice its width. Such rod is used as a shaft in a motor vehicle safety steering column.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 1990
    Date of Patent: August 25, 1992
    Assignee: Nacam
    Inventors: Bernard Haldric, Laurent Fevre, Luis Teixeira
  • Patent number: 5135204
    Abstract: A dynamic damper to be mounted on a rotary shaft, such as the drive shaft or a propeller shaft of an automobile, to damp detrimental vibrations generated as the rotary shaft rotates. The dynamic damper is of a sectional type comprising a first end unit, a second end unit and a mass member. The first and second end units are mounted on the rotary shaft opposite to each other, and the mass member is joined fixedly at its opposite ends to the first and second end units. Each of the first and second end units comprises an elastic member integrally having a holding portion which holds to the rotary shaft and a flange portion radially extending from the holding portion, and a holding member fixedly joined to the outer circumference of the flange portion of the elastic member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 1990
    Date of Patent: August 4, 1992
    Assignee: Tokai Rubber Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Shigeyuki Funahashi
  • Patent number: 4911034
    Abstract: A shaft slides within a tube. A relatively high-rate leaf spring is positioned to exert its force against the outer surface of the shaft. The leaf spring provides optimal sliding force between the shaft and the tube with minimum friction, while also functioning to minimize rotational lash. Indents located on the exterior surface of the tube are directed radially inward to further minimize rotational lash.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 1988
    Date of Patent: March 27, 1990
    Assignee: The Torrington Company
    Inventors: David Kulczyk, John E. Dackow
  • Patent number: 4813903
    Abstract: A running toy having an integral and concealed transmission member permits easy construction of running toys having a desirable appearance. A block unit of the running toy includes a hollow cube or block having a concave portion for receiving other block units and a convex portion for coupling to other block units. The concealed transmission member is rotatably mounted within the hollow cube so as to permit successive block units to be connected, and top permit a drive force inputted to one end of a succession of block units, from a power unit and through a power transmission, to be output at another end of the succession of block units. The succession of blocks can be configured in any desired shape, such as a crane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 1988
    Date of Patent: March 21, 1989
    Assignee: Tomy Kogyo Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Masami Furukawa, Naoyuki Yamakazi
  • Patent number: 4706659
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are embodiments of a flexible connecting shaft for an intramedullary reamer. In each embodiment, several short segments or links are attached together to form an elongated flexible shaft which shaft is designed, due to the specific attachment means for the links, to bend along its longitudinal axis while transmitting torque without any lag in such transmission. A link at one end of the flexible shaft as made by a plurality of the links includes means provided for attachment to a torque providing device such as an electric motor. At the opposite end of the shaft, the last link includes structure thereon enabling connection to a drill bit. The various embodiments disclose different ways of interconnecting the links.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 1984
    Date of Patent: November 17, 1987
    Assignee: Regents of the University of Michigan
    Inventors: Larry S. Matthews, Steven A. Goldstein
  • Patent number: 4696659
    Abstract: A swivel-jointed robot arm consisting of a plurality of interconnected, rigid links (5,6,7,8) linked together in the fashion of chain links, wherein the links (5,7) are joined to the same intermediate link (6) and adjacent, abutting ends of the links (5,7) are mutually pivotally connected; whereas the flexible robot arm's innermost end link (5) is pivotally supported (1) in relation to a preceding robot arm member (14) having a protruding drive shaft (13) for turning the jointed robot arm about its own axis, and is arranged to be driven by a drive means (16,17,18) in controlled outward swinging movements about said pivotal support (1), while at the same time the inner end of the next successive link (6), which is joined to said end link (5), is pivotally connected to the drive shaft (13) for transmitting a corresponding outward swinging motion to the following links (7,8).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 29, 1987
    Inventor: Ole Molaug
  • Patent number: 4685823
    Abstract: An antibacklash splined shaft (14) is formed by first machining splines (22) in the end of the shaft, thereafter forming an axial bore (26) in the shaft, and thereafter forming slots (28) in the shaft that extend from between the spline into the bore. When the slots are formed, the teeth flex slightly outwardly to relieve the internal stresses in the shaft. Thus, when the splined shaft (14) is inserted into an internally splined member, the teeth are biased outwardly so as to firmly and intimately engage the internal splines, providing a coupling that exhibits no backlash.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 1980
    Date of Patent: August 11, 1987
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventor: Nephi E. Lopez
  • Patent number: 4565539
    Abstract: A toy vehicle utilizing a multiple-use shaft which is cylindrical and has a series of longitudinal grooves parallel to the longitudinal axis, each groove having a shape to mate with both gear teeth and keys. The groove edges are radiused to eliminate gouging of bearing surfaces in which the shaft is journaled. Internally splined gears are slidably mounted on the shaft with their splines fitted in driving relation to the multiple-use shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 1983
    Date of Patent: January 21, 1986
    Assignee: Mattel, Inc.
    Inventor: John S. Cook
  • Patent number: 4535645
    Abstract: The sub-assembly includes a telescopically arranged rotatable driving shaft and rotatable driven shaft. Both shafts are substantially triangular in cross-section. A spring provides a pre-determined spring force having a magnitude to permit one shaft to slide within the other shaft. The complementary triangular shapes of the shafts causes the torque from the driving shaft to be transmitted to the driven shaft without rotational lash.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 1983
    Date of Patent: August 20, 1985
    Assignee: The Torrington Company
    Inventors: James De Bisschop, Anthony A. Neri, Thomas J. Williams
  • Patent number: 4460346
    Abstract: An elongate eccentric shaft formed from a cylindrical billet has cylindrical bearing sections at its opposite ends, a cylindrical center section, and cylindrical coupling sections outboard of and eccentric to the center section. The cylindrical sections are of uniform diameter, the bearing and center sections have coincident longitudinal axes, and the longitudinal axes of the coupling sections are coincident with one another and offset from the axes of the other sections. Adjacent each coupling section is an elliptical section having a major axis the length of which is no greater than the diameter of the cylindrical sections and a minor axis the length of which is less than that of the major axis by an amount corresponding to one-half the offset of the aforementioned longitudinal axes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 1980
    Date of Patent: July 17, 1984
    Assignee: General Steel Industries, Inc.
    Inventor: Thomas L. Behnke
  • Patent number: 4449955
    Abstract: An operating shaft mechanism in a pushbutton tuner, etc. characterized in that there is formed an enlarged portion in a central portion of a shaft element and the enlarged portion is formed with a plurality of slits in different phases with each other. The enlarged portion thus comprises a plurality of disc portions connected to each other by connecting portions which remain at the bottoms of the slits, thus to be flexible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 1981
    Date of Patent: May 22, 1984
    Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tadaaki Watanabe, Yoshio Tanaka
  • Patent number: 4432874
    Abstract: A collecting rope which is intended especially for collecting oil from the surface of water, the rope comprising a drive chain which is situated inside a cylindrical part, which is surrounded by a lightweight float layer, which is surrounded by another cylindrical part, oil-collecting bristles being attached to the outer surface of the outer cylinder. The cylindrical parts can rotate in relation to the drive chain, since the joint between them consists of resilient protrusions on the inner surface of the inner cylinder. The cylinders and the chain are, however, locked to each other in the longitudinal direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1982
    Date of Patent: February 21, 1984
    Inventor: Lars Lundin
  • Patent number: 4425823
    Abstract: One or more remotely disposed valves may be opened or closed by a control handwheel by means of rotatable flexible shafting and mechanism associated therewith which may reduce the torque required to rotate the hand wheel and permitting much lighter weight and less costly flexible shafting to be employed. The associated mechanism comprises pulley-belt arrangements and/or gearing structures at each valve to be opened or closed as well as an optional pulley-belt arrangement cooperating with the handwheel. A torque limiting clutch device may readily be incorporated into the system for providing necessary slippage to the valve stems in the event one or more of the remotely disposed valves reaches the end of its travel prior to the remaining valves in the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 1981
    Date of Patent: January 17, 1984
    Assignee: Penwalt Corporation
    Inventors: Walter Kulischenko, Martin J. Capdevielle
  • Patent number: 4392614
    Abstract: A portable paint spraying device for generating a paint spray by centrifugally impelling liquid paint from the edge of a vertically oriented spinning disc. The disc is driven by an electric motor which also drives a conveyor screw used to lift the paint upwardly from a reservoir or container through a vertically oriented pump tube and into a spray chamber in the sprayer housing. The pump tube has a horizontal portion at the upper end thereof terminating in a delivery orifice through which the liquid paint is discharged into a centrally located recess or well in the front face of the disc. The disc has a relatively large flat annular region surrounding the central well which is in turn surrounded by an outer peripheral angled flange or lip having a feathered edge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 1981
    Date of Patent: July 12, 1983
    Assignee: The Wooster Brush Company
    Inventors: Hugh F. Groth, John D. Vogel
  • Patent number: 4362520
    Abstract: This invention is a heavy-duty flexible shaft that accommodates for misalignments between an input and output shaft. The flexible shaft is comprised of a multiplicity of hollow, individually fabricated, interfitting members housed in a tubular, bendable shaft. Each segment is intimately engaged, one within the other, yet the segments are so designed to allow for limited longitudinal movement while restricting circumferential movement between segments during torsional transmissions from the input to the output shafts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 1980
    Date of Patent: December 7, 1982
    Inventor: John C. Perry
  • Patent number: 4362521
    Abstract: The carbon fibre reinforced plastics tube (1) is provided at each end with a cemented-in sleeve (2) and a cemented-on sleeve (3) made of the same material and having the same anisotropy behaviour. A fitting (4) is inserted into each end of the tube to introduce a torque and is secured by bolts (5). The bolts are secured by a sleeve (6). The securing of the fittings by bolts and the adapted structure of the wall reinforcements ensure a safe introduction of torque, even into extremely anisotropic tubes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 1980
    Date of Patent: December 7, 1982
    Assignee: Ciba-Geigy Corporation
    Inventors: Alfred Puck, Peter Voirol
  • Patent number: 4350460
    Abstract: A vibratory compactor vehicle includes a roller drum provided with internal concentrically mounted eccentric weights which are rotated for imparting vibration to the drum. The weights are mounted upon concentric shafts of helical polygonal shape having mating, helically ribbed and grooved surfaces, whereby longitudinal movement of one of the shafts with respect to the other brings about relative rotation of the weights, thereby changing the amplitude of the resulting vibration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 1980
    Date of Patent: September 21, 1982
    Assignee: Hyster Company
    Inventors: Lynn A. Schmelzer, W. Thomas Fouser