JP2000283258A - Rotary driving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rotary driving device which can be reduced in size and operated manually. SOLUTION: This device includes a rotary plate 22 having a locking hole 22b formed in a plane and a shaft part 22a rotatably supported, and a direct- acting actuator 23 fitted with a pin member 23c which is pivoted to oscillate toward the face of the rotary plate 22 and has a linearly movable part 23b fitted and locked in the locking hole 22a. By this arrangement, with the pin member 23c fitted and locked in the locking hole 22b, the linerly moving actuator 23 is operated to turn the rotary plate 22, and the turning force generated by the rotation is taken out from the shaft part 22a of the rotary plate 22.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rotary drive for converting a linear motion into a rotary motion to obtain a rotational power.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, mobile communication means such as mobile phones, which have become very popular, have a certain correlation between their use time and place of use. Therefore, it is practiced to direct a beam of a base station as much as possible to a place where there is a lot of traffic during a time period when traffic increases, thereby securing more calls.

[0003] The radiation direction of a beam radiated from an antenna of a base station is changed by a rotary variable phase shifter interposed between the antenna and the radio. Since this rotary type variable phase shifter is configured to change the phase of a signal by rotating a rotating shaft, a servo motor,
A rotary drive mechanism having an actuator such as a stepping motor and power transmission means for transmitting the rotational power of the actuator to the rotary shaft is used in combination. There is a predetermined correspondence between the radiation direction of the beam and the rotation angle of the rotation shaft. Therefore, the rotation angle of the rotation shaft is detected by angle detection means such as an absolute encoder, and the actuator is controlled so that the rotation angle becomes the target angle.

[0004]

The rotary drive mechanism comprising the above-described actuator and power transmission mechanism is desirably housed in an antenna radome in order to facilitate installation of the base station and improve the appearance. However, the conventional rotary drive mechanism has a disadvantage that it is difficult to incorporate it into the antenna radome because it requires a large arrangement space, and also has a problem that it is difficult to perform a manual rotation operation. ing. In view of such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a rotation drive device that can perform rotation drive within a certain angle range, can achieve downsizing, and can perform a manual rotation operation. And

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a rotary plate having a locking hole formed in a plane and a rotatably supported shaft portion, and A linearly movable actuator pivotally supported so as to be capable of swinging and having a pin member fitted and locked in the locking hole in the movable portion that linearly moves, and The linear motion type actuator is actuated in a state where the rotary plate is fitted and locked in the hole, and the rotary plate is rotated, and the rotational power generated by this rotation is taken out from the shaft of the rotary plate. The second invention is
In the first invention, the rotating plate is a disk, and a long hole along the radial direction of the rotating plate is used as the locking hole. In a third aspect, in the first aspect,
The rotating plate is a circular plate, and this rotating plate is used as a code plate of an absolute encoder.

[0006]

FIG. 1 conceptually shows a rotary drive device according to the present invention installed in an antenna radome 10 of a mobile communication base station. The rotation drive device 20 includes a base 21 formed of a box, a disk 22 having a shaft 22 a rotatably supported on the base 21, and a direct-acting actuator 23.

The disk 22 has a long hole-shaped locking hole 22b extending in the radial direction in the plane in order to have a function as a mechanical element for converting the linear motion of the actuator 23 into a rotary motion. is there. Further, the disk 22 has a code mark 22c as shown in FIG. 4 in order to have a function as a code plate of the absolute encoder. In this example, the code mark 22c is formed by a through hole. Also, the arc lines C1, C2 and C
The marks 22c positioned on 3 are assigned weights of 1, 2, and 4, respectively.

The reader 24 reads the code mark 22c, and incorporates a pair of a light emitting element such as a light emitting diode and a light receiving element (not shown) such as a phototransistor by the number of arrangement bits of the mark 22c. I have. The disk 22
And the reader 24 constitute a known absolute encoder. Therefore, the rotation angle of the shaft portion 22a of the disk 22 can be detected based on the output of the reader 24.

The linear actuator 23 includes a main body 23a.
And a movable rod 23b slidably supported by the main body 23a. The movable rod 23b is provided on the base 21 in a manner parallel to the longitudinal axis of the base 21 and at a predetermined distance from the longitudinal axis. It is located in. The movable rod 23b is
It consists of a ball screw rod and is located on the surface of the disk 22. A locking pin 23c shown in FIG. 3 projects downward from the distal end of the movable rod 23b.

The main body 23a has a movable rod 23b.
A rotation preventing means, a ball screw nut screwed into the rod 23b, and a small motor (not shown) for rotating the ball screw nut. Therefore, if the motor is driven, the movable rod 23b
, A movable rod 23b slides in the left-right direction. As shown in FIG. 2, the main body 23a has its lower left surface pivotally attached to the base 21 via a hinge 25, and thus can swing vertically with the hinge 25 as a swing fulcrum. . The main body 23a and the base 2
Between them, a spring 26 for urging the movable rod 23b toward the disk 22 is interposed.

The linear actuator 23 having the above-described structure converts the rotary motion into a linear motion to linearly move the movable rod 23b, so that it can be made compact. Further, since a sufficiently large driving force can be obtained even when a small motor is used as a driving source, a battery can be used as a power source of the driving source.

When the movable rod 23b is moved forward and backward with the locking pin 23c fitted and locked in the locking hole 22a of the disk 22,
The disk 22 is rotated by being urged in the left-right direction. Therefore, if the element to be rotated is connected to the shaft portion 22a of the disk 22,
This rotated element can be driven to rotate. In addition, according to the rotation driving device 20, the shaft portion 22a of the disk 22 can be rotationally driven within a range of about 90 °. Further, since the locking hole 22a is a long hole, the movable rod 23b of the actuator 23 can be smoothly and directly moved regardless of the rotation angle of the disk 22.

FIG. 5 shows an array antenna 30 installed in a mobile communication base station. The radiating elements 30a to 30f of the antenna 30 are connected to a radio 33 via variable phase shifters 31a to 31f and a distributing / combining unit 32 provided separately for these elements. When the tilt angle (directivity) of the radiation beam of the antenna 30 is changed, the splitter / combiner 32 is changed by the variable phase shifters 31a to 31f.
Change the phase of each output. That is, for example, the variable phase shifters 31a, 31b,...
If the angle is changed by 60 °, the tilt angle of the radiation beam changes as shown in the figure.

The variable phase shifters 31a to 31f have a common rotary shaft 34 for linking them. The amount of phase change by the variable phase shifters 31a to 31f is set based on the rotation angle of the rotation shaft 34. Since the configurations of the rotary variable phase shifters 31a to 31f are conventionally known, description thereof will be omitted here.

When the rotary drive device 20 is applied to drive the rotary shaft 34, the rotary shaft 34
Are connected. In order to control the rotation angle of the rotation shaft 34, the output of an absolute encoder including the disk 22 and the reader 24 is used. Note that the variable phase shifters 31a to 31f and the distributor / combiner 32 are disposed in the base 21 shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, the actuator 2
In the state where the locking pin 23c provided on the third movable rod 23b is not fitted in the locking hole 22b of the disc 22,
Since the tip of the pin 23c contacts the upper surface of the disk 22,
The main body 23a of the actuator 23 is inclined. In this state, a limit switch (not shown) for detecting the inclination of the main body 23a is turned on. Therefore,
The controller 36 controls the movable rod 23b of the actuator 23 to fit the pin 23c into the locking hole 22b.
To expand and contract. Accordingly, the pin 23c moves on the surface of the disk 22 to search for the locking hole 22b, and fits into the locking hole 22b by the urging force of the spring 26 during the movement. In this state, the power of the actuator 23 can be transmitted to the disk 22.

When the pin 23c is fitted and locked in the locking hole 22b, the main body 23a of the actuator 23 is parallel to the base 21 and the limit switch is turned off. Therefore, the controller 36 determines the rotation shaft 34 based on the target rotation angle of the rotation shaft 34 and the actual rotation angle of the rotation shaft 34 detected by the absolute encoder.
So that the rotation angle of the actuator 23 becomes the target angle.
Control the stroke length. As a result, the amount of phase change of the rotary variable phase shifters 31a to 31f is set to a magnitude corresponding to the target angle, and the beam tilt angle of the antenna 30 is changed.

The disk 22 can also be rotated manually. At this time, a manual mode is set by a mode setting switch (not shown) provided on the controller 36. When this manual mode is set, the controller 36
Stops the actuator 23. Thus, the operator lifts the actuator 23 to pull out the pin 23c from the locking hole 22b as shown in FIG. 3, and makes the disk 22 freely rotatable. The controller 36 displays the rotation angle of the rotary shaft 34 or the beam emission angle on a display (not shown) based on the output of the absolute encoder. The disk 22 is manually operated so that the beam tilt angle is set.

After the manual operation of the disk 22, when the automatic mode is selected by the mode setting switch, the controller 36 performs the above-described process, that is, the pin 23c is fitted and locked in the locking hole 22b. A process for operating the actuator 23 and a process for controlling the stroke length of the actuator 23 so that the rotation angle of the rotation shaft 34 becomes the target angle are executed.

The rotary drive device 20 according to the above embodiment is
Since the antenna 30 can be made small, it can be housed in the radome 10 of the antenna 30, as shown in FIG. 1, whereby the antenna section of the mobile communication base station can be made compact and beautiful. Improvement can be achieved.

In the above description, the case where the rotary drive device 20 is applied to drive the rotary shaft 34 of the variable phase shifters 31a to 31f has been described. However, the drive device 20 needs to be driven to rotate within a certain angle range. It is also possible to apply to the rotation drive of other mechanism elements.

[0022]

According to the present invention, the pin member provided on the movable portion of the linear motion type actuator is fitted and locked into the locking hole provided on the rotary plate, and the linear motion type actuator is operated in this state. Thus, the disk is rotated. According to the present invention, a high driving force can be obtained with a small and compact configuration. Therefore, if the present invention is used for the rotation driving means of the variable phase shifter applied to the base station antenna described above, it can be incorporated in the antenna radome. Becomes possible.
Further, since the rotating plate can be freely rotated by releasing the locking of the pin member with respect to the locking hole,
A manual rotation operation of the driven element connected to the shaft of the rotating plate is possible. Furthermore, if a circular disk is used as the rotating plate and this rotating plate is used as a code plate of an absolute encoder, it is not necessary to separately attach an absolute encoder to a shaft portion of the rotating plate or the like. The labor required for assembling can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a rotary drive device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the rotation drive device.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a state in which a locking pin is removed from a locking hole of the disk.

FIG. 4 is a partial plan view showing an example of a code mark provided on a disk.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a state in which a rotary driving device according to the present invention is applied to driving of a rotary variable phase shifter.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 radome 20 rotation drive device 21 base 22 disk 23 direct-acting actuator 23a main body 23b movable rod 23c locking pin 24 reading unit 25 hinge 26 spring

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshio Ebine 2-10-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo NTT Mobile Communications Network Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5J021 DA02 DA04 DA05 DA07 EA01 EA02 HA05 HA10 JA07

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A rotating plate having a locking hole formed in a plane, and a shaft part rotatably supported, and a pivotally supported pivotally swingable surface of the rotating plate; A linear motion actuator having a linearly movable portion provided with a pin member that fits and locks into the locking hole; and a state in which the pin member is fitted and locked in the locking hole. The rotary drive device according to claim 1, wherein said rotary actuator is operated to rotate said rotary plate, and rotational power generated by said rotation is taken out from a shaft portion of said rotary plate. 2. The rotation drive device according to claim 1, wherein the rotating plate is a disk, and the locking hole is a long hole along a radial direction of the rotating plate. 3. The rotary drive device according to claim 1, wherein the rotary plate is a circular plate, and the rotary plate is used as a code plate of an absolute encoder.