GB657131A - Improvements in computing devices employing three-dimensional cams - Google Patents

Abstract

657,131. Computers for gun-fire control systems. SPERRY CORPORATION. Oct. 1, 1948, No. 25635. Convention date, Oct. 2, 1947. [Class 92 (ii)] A three-dimensional-cam computing device, particularly for gun-fire control systems, comprises a cam 10 having a central bore for the passage of a shaft 16, means for causing relative rotational and translational displacements between the cam and shaft in accordance with functions of two input data, means for transmitting the movements of shaft 16 to an output member 36, and a cam follower 26 pivotally mounted on the end of the shaft so as to be rocked by the cam, such rocking movements being differentially applied to the output member. In the construction shown the follower 26 is pivoted in bearings of a yoke 20 at the end of the shaft 16 and is fixed to a shaft 23 carrying a radial arm 24. A spring and roller arrangement between arm 24 and an arm 37 on output shaft 36, which is coaxial with shaft 16, ensures that rotations of shaft 16 are imparted to the shaft 36. Any rocking of the follower 26 produced by the cam causes shaft 23 to rotate on its own axis and such movement is also conveyed by arms 24, 37 to the output shaft 36. In the particular example shown the shaft 16 is rotated in accordance with a target's ground range R, the cam is translated by a shaft 15 and rack and pinion mechanism in accordance with the altitude H, and the cam is so dimensioned that slant range D, which can be put in the form R + f (R.H.) is applied to shaft 36 and conveyed thence to a transmitter 35.