Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G04—HOROLOGY
  • G04B—MECHANICALLY-DRIVEN CLOCKS OR WATCHES; MECHANICAL PARTS OF CLOCKS OR WATCHES IN GENERAL; TIME PIECES USING THE POSITION OF THE SUN, MOON OR STARS
  • G04B15/00—Escapements
  • G04B15/14—Component parts or constructional details, e.g. construction of the lever or the escape wheel

Definitions

• the present invention relates to an anchor intended to equip an escapement with a clockwork movement.
• the anchor used in the watch is actually composed of two bodies, a main body forming the anchor itself and the fork.
• the main body carries two generally machined ruby pallets: the entry pallet and the output pallet which are intended to cooperate with an escape wheel.
• the fork, the horns and the dart are in turn intended to cooperate with a regulating member, for example with a balance spring.
• the pallets are ruby and fixed on the main body of the anchor which is made of brass, steel or other metal alloy such as nickel phosphorus in recent decades.
• the pallets are for example held by pinching in a suitable housing of the main body of the anchor and are fixed firmly by a thermoplastic resin.
• the position of the pallets relative to the main body of the anchor can be adjusted by heating the thermoplastic resin to soften it and then by sliding the pallets slightly in their housing. By cooling, the thermoplastic resin hardens again to fix the position of the pallets. This operation is part of the completion of the watch movement.
• This ability to adjust the position of the pallets is very useful for correcting machining errors because it allows the position of the output pallet to be offset independently of that of the input pallet. This also makes it possible to adjust the operating safety and to intervene on the efficiency of the overall exhaust (anchor and escape wheel). Finally, this setting also makes it possible to use the same anchor in several different movements by determining for each movement different parameters for the completion.
• the watchmaker uses new materials such as silicon. These new materials have interesting properties and allow in particular a gain in the performance of the exhaust, a dry use of the exhaust, a control of the component manufacturing form and / or moderate wear of the latter.
• the anchor is then made in one piece (main body, pallets, fork, dart, horns) in a single material such as silicon.
• This is called a monoblock anchor.
• These anchors have the advantage of having pallets with improved tribological properties, as well as a body of low mass which has a better performance than the body mass is low.
• the present invention aims to provide an anchor capable of working with an escape wheel to improve the performance of traditional anchor escapement which is furthermore simple to produce and assemble and allows easy adjustment of the position pallets.
• the present invention relates to an anchor according to claim 1.
• the anchor according to the invention advantageously allows to combine the advantages of a traditional anchor, particularly as regards the completion and adjustment, the advantages of modern anchors and their new materials.
• the invention further relates to an escapement according to claim 3, a watch movement according to claim 5 and a timepiece according to claim 6.
• Figure 1 illustrates an anchor for equipping an anchor escapement.
• Anchor 10 is intended to be part of an escapement (not shown) of a watch movement.
• Anchor 10 thus comprises a body main 1 which carries two pallets: an entry pallet 3 and an output pallet 4.
• the pallets 3, 4 are intended to cooperate with an escape wheel of the exhaust comprising the anchor 10.
• the anchor 10 comprises again a fork 2 which comprises horns 5 and a stinger 6.
• the fork 2 is intended to cooperate with a movement regulating member (not shown), for example with a sprung balance.
• the fork 2, the horns 5 and the stinger 6 may each be attached to the main body 1 or come from a room therewith.
• the two pallets 3, 4 are made of a first material and are each reported independently on the main body 1. According to the invention, said pallets 3, 4 are each pinched in a housing of the main body 1 so to be able to slide there, and fixed by means of a thermoplastic resin (glue, for example shellac).
• a thermoplastic resin glue, for example shellac
• the first material of the pallets 3, 4 is chosen from the following materials: ceramic, glass, oxide apart from ruby and sapphire, alloy or metal glass, polymer and silicon.
• the ruby which is conventionally used for the pallets of the anchors with traditional exhaust is thus excluded from this list.
• the ceramics used are generally of three kinds: oxides, non-oxides and composites.
• oxides silicon oxide, zirconium oxide, silicon carbides or nitrides, as well as for composites, silinvar® (a composite formed of a silicon core and an oxide shell of silicon).
• the glasses advantageously used are chosen from silica, soda-lime glasses, borosilicates, non-alkaline glasses, vitreous silica, alumino-silicates and fluorinated glasses.
• the polymers are advantageously chosen from high performance mechanical polymers such as polyaryletherketones (PAEK) such as polyetheretherketone (PEEK), for example PEEK or polyamides.
• PAEK polyaryletherketones
• PEEK polyetheretherketone
• the metal glasses used may, for example, be based on zirconium such as ZrCuAINb or copper-based such as CuTiZrNiSn, or other bases.
• the first material of the pallets 3, 4 is chosen from glasses and ceramics.
• the first material is a composite formed of a silicon core and a silicon oxide envelope (silinvar®).
• the main body 1 may in turn be made of a second material different from the first and preferably chosen from the following examples: brass, steel or other metal alloys such as beryllium bronze (CuBe) or nickel phosphorus, ceramic, glass, alloy or metal glass, polymer, preferably brass, steel, beryllium bronze (CuBe) or phosphorus nickel, preferably steel or nickel phosphorus.
• CuBe beryllium bronze
• the use of these materials as a second material makes it possible to keep the experience of the production of traditional anchors, almost identical production lines, as well as to authorize engraving on the body of the anchor and termination operations such as polished bevelling. These operations make it possible to obtain a very high aesthetic level of the anchor, a very visible part of the watch movement, which is of great importance for Haute Horlogerie.
• the escape wheel itself can be made of modern and more efficient materials such as ceramic, silicon, glass, oxides, metal glass or a polymer.
• a steel anchor 10 with entry and exit pallets 3, 4 made of glass already allows a better performance without changing the production of the anchor (main body 1, fork 2, stinger 6 and horns 5).
• Such an anchor is directly integrable into an existing escapement or movement.
• an anchor combining the advantages of tuning during the completion of the traditional anchor with its ruby pallets and the advantages of an anchor using modern materials that have been proven to improve the performance of the anchor is realized. an exhaust.

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Micromachines (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=60702331

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Family Cites Families (3)

• 2018
  • 2018-12-20 WO PCT/IB2018/060447 patent/WO2019123380A1/fr unknown
  • 2018-12-20 EP EP18839875.4A patent/EP3729200A1/de active Pending

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