GB623943A - Improvements in gyroscopes - Google Patents

Abstract

623,943. Gyroscopic apparatus. ROBERTSON, J. W., and BUCKINGHAM, J. June 3, 1947, No; 14630. [Class 97 (iii)] [Also in Group XXXV] A gyroscopic rotor assembly is constructed as an electric motor having an internal stator which is accessible for gimbal mounting between the opposed rims of an axially opposed pair of rotor shells surrounding the stator and coupled for rotation as one rotor through bearings in the stator. A cast metal frame 1, Fig. 2, has bearing housings 1a, 1b for the trunnions 2a, 2b of a gimbal ring 2 having bearing housings 2c, 2d, Fig. 3, for trunnions 3a, 3b fast in a fourpole cylindrically-shaped stator 3. The stator 3 has an axial bore which houses bearings 4 for a spindle 5 on which are mounted to turn therewith a pair of almost hemispherical rotor shells 6 and 7, the spherical shape of the assembly being completed by a non-magnetic closing ring 3c secured to circumferential ribs on the stator 3. The stator has a field winding 8 and has four bores parallel to its axis containing a pair of full-length end-to-end bushes 9, a pair of half-length insulated bushes 10 and a pair of half-length earthed bushes 11. Ring type armature cores 6a, 7a are mounted in the rotor shells 6, 7 respectively, each being triangular in cross-section and of the maximum diameter to surround the end of the stator. The armature windings 6b, 7b are connected to segments of sixteen segment commutators 6c, 7c on insulating mountings fast within the rotor shells 6, 7 respectively. The electric circuit is an earth return circuit and from a terminal 14 comprises a blade spring 16 and trunnion pivot 2a, an insulated wire 17, in a groove in the ring 2, a coiled blade spring 18, a field winding terminal in the trunnion 3b, the field winding 8 which terminates in the two half-length insulated bushes 10, whence the circuit is led in two series paths by the commutator 6c to the armature winding 6b, then to the brushes 9 and thence to the armature winding 7b via the commutator 7c and thence via the earthed brushes 11 to earth. The stator is earthed via blade springs 19, 20 in the housings 2c, 2b respectively. A pin 21 is provided, having a square-headed end engaging in a socket in one end of the spindle 5, the other end of the pin being screwed into the frame 1. When the rotor begins to rotate, the pin 21 unscrews itself from the frame 1 and when fully unscrewed is withdrawn completely from engagement with the rotor spindle by a strong blade spring 23, thus holding the rotor against gimbal movement during starting.