GB1586563A

GB1586563A - Tiltable mountings

Info

Publication number: GB1586563A
Application number: GB3486277A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: VINTEN Ltd
Current assignee: VINTEN Ltd
Priority date: 1977-08-19
Filing date: 1977-08-19
Publication date: 1981-03-18
Also published as: DE2833819A1; FR2400664B1; FR2400664A1; JPS5436933A; NL7805887A; AU3684578A

Description

ERRATUM SPECIFICATION NO 1586563 I' ; yr ?, line 6 7, aJ'tor therehetween. Start new liue inscrt WHATW) : CLAtM tS : (I) A tiltable mounting comprising a housing into which a shaft is journaled, a crankarm fixed to said shaft, the crankarm having a crankpin located thereon and spaced apart from said shaft, and relatively rotatable and lockable attachment means on said crankpin for maintaining the position vf an article mount located on said crankpin in relation to said crankarm.

(') A tiltable mounting as claimed in Claim I wherein said crankarm comprises at least two sections hingedty located and lockable one with the other so that the effective length of said crankarm may he ; idjusted.

(3) A tiltable mounting as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 having a variably adjustable damping means located in said housing and operable on said shaft to produce a desired resistance to rotation of said shaft, in use, when an article is located on said article mount and said mounting and article are relatively adjusted to place the centre of gravity of said article, article mount and crankarm combined at or near the axial centre of said shaft.

(4) A tiltilble mounting substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Tl 11 I'I\TI NT OFFICE 14 Z 19+91 Bas 82882/4 This invention relates to tiltable mountings and more particularly, though not exclusively, to tiltable mountings wherein the centre of gravity of a camera, or the like, mounted thereon, is at or near, the axis of the pivot point of said tiltable mounting.

Available mountings of similar type suffer certain disadvantages, one of which is the difficulty, and often the inability, to align the centre of gravity of the article, such as a camera, with the pivot point of the mounting so that the article has no apparent weight when tilted about the horizontal axis. The nearer the centre of gravity of the article is to the axis of tilt the less becomes the apparent weight of the article and a more evenly applied torque, during transition of the article about the pivot point, may be obtained. With such a mounting, fitted with a drag unit, the constant force required to move the drag unit is the force required to move the article when the centre of gravity of the article is on the axis of the pivot point. The drag unit may for example comprise an adjustable fluid damper, an adjustable friction device or even a combination thereof.

Accordingly it is a primary aim of the invention to provide a tiltable mounting wherein the apparent weight of an article mounted thereon may be easily minimise.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a tiltable mounting comprising, a housing into which a shaft is journaled, a crankarm fixed to said shaft having a crankpin located thereon and spaced apart from said shaft, and relatively rotatable and lockable attachment means on said crankpin for maintaining the position of an article mount located on said crankpin in relation to said crankarm. va oas mas VI1Ig a wrslKpm locarea and spaced apart from said shaft, and relatively rotatable and lockable attachment means on said crankpin for maintaining the position of an article mount located on said crankpin in relation to said crankarm.

The invention will now be described, by way of example only, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals indicate like elements and in which, Figure 1 shows the basic system, Figures 2 and 3 show variations in the article mount attachment means, Figure 4 shows a variation of the crankarm to accommodate a greater variety of centre of gravity positions and, Figures 5, 6 and 7 show examples of centre of gravity compensation.

Referring to figure 1 a support (l), part only shown, has a housing (2) mounted thereon and a shaft (3) journaled therein. A drag unit (4) preferably adjustable by a control knob (5) varies the torque required to rotate the shaft (3) within the housing (2). A crankarm (6) fixed to shaft (3) has an article mount (7) adjustably located for movement relative to crankarm (6) and a locking means (8), which may conveniently be a split clamp lockable on a crankpin (9), or a thumb screw in crankarm (6) to lock crankpin (9) (as shown in fig. 2), or as shown in fig. 3 as a quadrant lockable to crankarm (6) by a screw (8) when pivoted about a screw acting as crankpin (9), or by any other known means of locking.

Figure 4 shows the same basic system with crankarm (6) fixedly, hingeable at a point along its length. The object of the hinged joint will become more apparent as the operation is explained. The two sections of crank (54) IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO TILTABLE MOUNTINGS (71) We, W. VINTEN LIMITED, of Western Way, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, a British Company do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement :- This invention relates to tiltable mountings and more particularly, though not exclusively, to tiltable mountings wherein the centre of gravity of a camera, or the like, mounted thereon, is at or near, the axis of the pivot point of said tiltable mounting.

Accordingly it is a primary aim of the invention to provide a tiltable mounting wherein the apparent weight of an article mounted thereon may be easily minimised.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a tiltable mounting comprising, a housing into which a shaft is journaled, a crankarm fixed to said shaft having a crankpin located thereon and spaced apart from said shaft, and relatively rotatable and lockable attachment means on said crankpin for maintaining the position of an article mount located on said crankpin in relation to said crankarm.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a tiltable mounting comprising, a housing into which a shaft is journaled, a first section of a crankarm fixed to said shaft, a second section of said crankarm hingedly located and lockable to said first section of said crankarm, the second section of said crankarm having a crankpin located and spaced apart from said shaft, and relatively rotatable and lockable attachment means on said crankpin for maintaining the position of an article mount located on said crankpin in relation to said crankarm.

Referring to figure 1 a support (1), part only shown, has a housing (2) mounted thereon and a shaft (3) journaled therein. A drag unit (4) preferably adjustable by a control knob (5) varies the torque required to rotate the shaft (3) within the housing (2). A crankarm (6) fixed to shaft (3) has an article mount (7) adjustably located for movement relative to crankarm (6) and a locking means (8), which may conveniently be a split clamp lock- able on a crankpin (9), or a thumb screw in crankarm (6) to lock crankpin (9) (as shown in fig. 2), or as shown in fig. 3 as a quadrant lockable to crankarm (6) by a screw (8) when pivoted about a screw acting as crankpin (9), or by any other known means of locking.

Figure 4 shows the same basic system with crankarm (6) fixedly, hingeable at a point along its length. The object of the hinged joint will become more apparent as the operation is explained. The two sections of crank arm (6) may be locked in the desired position by any known means and effectively vary the length of crankarm (6).

Referring now to figure 5 a simple case of low centre of gravity (c. of g.) is shown corrected. An article generally shown as (10) and enclosed by a solid line rests centrally on the mount (7) which is suspended on crankarm (6) about shaft (3). By rotating shaft (3) crankpin (9) is raised, mount (7) is then rotated about crankpin (9), or crankpin (9) may be rotated within crankarm (6), to the horizontal position. The article may then be moved along mount (7) to the position shown by the broken line so that the c. of g. of the combined mass hanging on shaft (3) is aligned with shaft (3) and the article (10) will have no apparent weight when rotated on mount (7) about shaft (3).

Figure 6 shows the same basic principle using the crankarm of figure 4 wherein the two sections are misaligned and locked to raise the c. of g. and mount (7) is rotated to obtain a horizontal position. By combining both movements the c. of g. may be aligned with shaft (3), as shown by the area enclosed by the broken line and the article will have no apparent weight when rotated on mount (7) about shaft (3).

Figure 7 shows the more important case as found in practice, i. e. where the c. of g. is away from the crankarm (6) when the crankarm (6) is vertical. In practice a far greater degree of mis-alignment of c. of g. with shaft (3) can be tolerated in the vertical plane than in the horizontal plane, as the out of balance mass tends to swing towards the vertical and the arc of operation in normal use is rarely more than 90 about the vertical.

In figure 7 the mis-alignment is counteracted by contrarotating shaft (3) and crankpin (9) and locking crankpin (9) when the c. of g. is aligned with shaft (3) or is vertically below. Although the mount (7) is raised and its pivot point moves, the article (10) remains central on the mount (7) and rotation about shaft (3) shows no apparent weight of the article (10).

As aforestated it is preferable that the c. of g. is aligned with shaft (3) and it is apparent that with the hinged crankarm of fig. 4 this is more easily achieved when the c. of g. is low and off the vertical.

It is to be understood that many variations of clamping devices may be used for securing the article and pivot points of the apparatus without deviating from the invention.

It is also to be understood that the support (1) may be located on any known mounting and control in the pan axis will be determined by the type of mounting to which the apparatus is fitted. Furthermore support (1) may be in the form of a"U"bracket and two crankarms (6), shafts (3) and drag units (4) may be used with the platform (7) pivotably located therebetween.