JP2536450Y2 - Underwater ultrasonic transducer - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an underwater ultrasonic transducer, and more particularly to an improvement of a support structure for arranging ultrasonic transducers with high positional accuracy.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, underwater ultrasonic transducers have been used, for example, for fish finder for detecting fish in water and for sonar for observing topography on the seabed. This underwater ultrasonic transducer is
Transmits and receives ultrasonic waves toward the detection target using a piezoelectric vibrator, etc., and learns the position and shape of the target from the reflection state (reflection time, reflection amount, reflection direction, etc.) of the ultrasonic wave by the detection target. be able to. In particular, in the case of sonar, a large number of ultrasonic transducers are arranged in the entire circumferential direction to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves, so if the position of each ultrasonic transducer or the direction of the radiation surface shifts, the acoustic characteristics will be seriously affected. give. For this reason, the alignment error between each ultrasonic transducer is plus / minus 0.5 mm.
It is requested that:

FIG. 7 shows an attached state of a submersible ultrasonic transducer in a sonar. As shown in this figure, the underwater ultrasonic transducer 10 is mounted on the bottom 16 of a ship 14 floating on the sea 12, for example. Observe the underwater situation while transmitting and receiving in all directions.
FIG. 8 is a sectional view of a conventional underwater ultrasonic transducer. As shown in the figure, the underwater ultrasonic transducer 1
Numeral 0 is screwed and fixed to a flange plate 22 at the bottom of the elevator 18. Inside, a cylindrical cylinder 24 is fixed to a flange plate 26 on the side of the ultrasonic vibrator 32, and a number of vibrator storage units 28 are screwed to the outer side surface of the cylinder 24 to form a cylindrical cylinder. The ultrasonic transducer assembly 30 is constituted.

[0004] Inside the transducer housing unit 28,
Ultrasonic transducers 32 are housed at predetermined intervals along the cylinder direction, and are embedded with their radiation surfaces 32a facing outward. In the conventional transducer housing unit 28, a surface other than the radiation surface 32a of each ultrasonic transducer 32 is covered with a sound insulation material such as cork, and the periphery of the ultrasonic transducer 32 is molded with a polyurethane resin or the like.

The ultrasonic vibrator 32 is made of a piezoelectric material such as PZT, and applies a voltage of a predetermined frequency to an electrode (not shown) to generate ultrasonic waves from the radiation surface 32a. When the ultrasonic vibration is received, an electric signal is output from the electrode unit. Thus, each ultrasonic transducer 32
Can transmit and receive ultrasonic waves by itself to detect a detection target.

The outside of the ultrasonic transducer assembly 30 is further waterproof-coated with a radome 34 made of FRP or polyurethane resin. The space between the ultrasonic transducer assembly 30 and the radome 34 is filled with castor oil 35. This is to protect the ultrasonic transducer assembly 30 used in water from intrusion of water, obstacles, and the like, and to eliminate attenuation of ultrasonic waves.

[0007]

However, in a conventional transducer housing unit of an underwater ultrasonic transducer, a part other than the radiation surface 32a of the ultrasonic transducer 32 is covered with a sound insulating material, and the surroundings are molded with a polyurethane resin or the like. Is molded. Since this molded product shrinks during curing, there is a problem that an error occurs in the vertical and horizontal pitches between the ultrasonic transducers 32 housed therein.

FIG. 9 is a side view for explaining a conventional means for fixing the transducer housing unit. As shown in the figure,
The fixing brackets 36 and 38 for fixing the vibrator housing unit 28 to the flange plate 26 and the like are embedded in the resin at the time of molding, but there is a problem that the positions are shifted due to the influence of shrinkage of the resin.

The vibrator housing unit 28 shown in the figure is fixed so as to be hung from above with a fixing bracket 36 and a screw 37, and further fixed with a lower fixing bracket 38 and a screw 39. For this reason, the vibrator housing unit 28 can be fixed vertically by the play between the screw hole of the fixing bracket and the screw.
There is a problem that it is likely to shift in the left-right or radial direction. FIG. 10 is a perspective view of an ultrasonic transducer assembly of a conventional underwater ultrasonic transducer, which is drawn upside down. As shown in the figure, each of the transducer housing units 28 arranged on the side surface of the cylinder 24 is a molded product as described above, and thus has poor dimensional accuracy, and the adjacent transducer housing units 28
There is a problem in that a gap is formed between them and positional deviation easily occurs. Therefore, the conventional ultrasonic vibrator assembly 30 reduces the displacement in the left and right direction by sandwiching a sponge having a thickness of about 2 mm in this gap, but when a strong force is applied in the lateral direction, the vibrator housing unit becomes large. 28 is displaced, not only in the left and right pitches, but also in the radial and ultrasonic transducers 32.
There is a problem that it shifts to an angle.

In FIG. 10, the interval A indicates the pitch between the upper and lower ultrasonic transducers, the interval B indicates the pitch between the left and right ultrasonic transducers, and the interval C indicates the radial direction.

As for the displacement of the ultrasonic transducer 32 in the radial direction (see the interval C in FIG. 10), as shown in FIG. 8, a sponge 40 for sound insulation is provided on the back of the transducer housing unit 28. The vibrator housing unit 2
The position is changed only by the degree of tightening of the screw for fixing 8.

As described above, in the conventional underwater ultrasonic transducer, it is difficult to arrange and maintain a large number of ultrasonic transducers 32 at appropriate positions due to various causes, and errors between the ultrasonic transducers are caused. May exceed 2 mm, which has a large effect on acoustic characteristics.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and the arrangement error between the ultrasonic transducers is not more than ± 0.5 mm in the vertical and horizontal pitches and in the radial direction. It is an object of the present invention to provide an underwater ultrasonic transducer that is arranged with high dimensional accuracy such that excellent acoustic characteristics can be obtained while maintaining the state.

[0014]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an underwater ultrasonic transducer according to the present invention comprises a circular flange plate accurately positioned and fixed facing vertically above and below a cylinder, and a flange thereof. A metal support frame fixed to the circumferential end surfaces of the two flange plates and arranged in a cylindrical shape while abutting any one of the upper and lower surfaces of the plate as a reference surface, and a sound insulating material incorporated in the metal support frame. A transducer housing unit having a wedge-shaped shape, and a housing hole for accommodating the ultrasound transducer therein is formed by molding, and inserted between the metal support frame and the transducer housing unit abutting on the reference surface. And a positioning spacer for positioning the transducer housing unit in the vertical direction.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that a positioning pin for fixing the metal support frame from the upper surface of the flange plate to determine the horizontal angle of the transducer housing unit is further provided.

[0016]

According to the present invention, one surface of the flange plate accurately positioned and fixed to the cylinder is used as a reference surface,
The position in the up-down direction is determined by abutting the metal support frame on this. By inserting a positioning spacer between the metal support frame and the transducer housing unit, each transducer housing unit can be accurately fixed to a desired vertical position.

Further, by fixing the metal support frame at the circumferential end faces of the two flange plates, it is possible to accurately position the metal support frame in the radial direction.

Further, in the vibrator housing unit, the sound insulating material is formed in a wedge shape, and a housing hole for housing the ultrasonic vibrator is provided therein by die molding, so that a vibrator housing unit with high dimensional accuracy can be obtained. Therefore, by inserting the ultrasonic vibrator into the storage hole, the positional accuracy of the ultrasonic vibrator in the vertical direction is improved. Further, the wedge-shaped vibrator housing unit having high dimensional accuracy also in the left-right direction is arranged in a cylindrical shape with no gap, thereby improving the position accuracy of the ultrasonic vibrator in the left-right direction.

According to the present invention, the horizontal angle of the ultrasonic transducer housed in the transducer housing unit can be accurately maintained by the positioning pin for fixing the metal support frame from the upper surface of the flange plate. .

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In addition, about the structure similar to the conventional example demonstrated in FIGS. 7-10, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and description is abbreviate | omitted. FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of an underwater ultrasonic transducer according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure,
In the underwater ultrasonic transducer according to the present embodiment, the flange plates 42 and 44 made of a circular metal plate are accurately positioned parallel to each other at the upper and lower positions of a cylindrical cylinder 24 as a housing, and fixed by welding. Have been. Further, the flange plates 42 and 44 are machined to improve mechanical accuracy such as cylindricity and squareness of the flange circumferential surface. The circumferential end faces 42 of the flange plates 42, 44
Tap holes 42b and 44b for screwing the metal support frame 46 at predetermined intervals are formed in the holes a and 44a.

First, a configuration for improving the dimensional accuracy of the pitch between the ultrasonic transducers 32 in the vertical direction (see the arrow A in FIG. 10) will be described. For the vibrator housing unit 48 of this embodiment, it is preferable to use a sound insulating material such as a cork material, which easily provides dimensional accuracy, as its material. In the present embodiment, for example, a mixed material obtained by uniformly mixing and dispersing urethane in a material obtained by classifying a cork material to 10 to 40 mesh may be used.

FIG. 2 is a plan view for explaining a mold forming step of the vibrator housing unit, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, a positioning pin 58 as shown in FIG. 3 is provided in the mold 54 for forming a storage hole 56 for storing the ultrasonic transducer. The vibrator housing unit 48 of the present embodiment uses, for example, a mixed material 60 of cork and urethane and injects it into the mold 54, and then uses the pressure lid 62 shown in FIG.
The composition can be cured by heating at a pressure of m ² and a temperature of 80 ° C. for about 30 minutes.

In the vibrator housing unit molded in this way, the outer shape and the housing holes 56 for individually housing the ultrasonic vibrators are formed with high dimensional accuracy. Therefore, a vertical dimensional error of the storage hole formed in the transducer storage unit 48 can be suppressed to plus or minus 0.2 mm or less. Then, this transducer housing unit 48
Are fixed to the flange plates 42 and 44 by being incorporated in a metal support frame 46 described later.

Next, the metal supporting frame 46 of the present embodiment is
Is formed so as to cover one side surface of the vibrator housing unit 48, and screw holes 46 are formed at upper and lower positions thereof.
a, 46b are provided. When the metal support frame 46 is fixed to the circumferential end surfaces 42a and 44a of the flange plates 42 and 44, the surface indicated by hatching of the flange plate 44 is used as a reference surface 50, and the bottom of the metal support frame 46 is used here. While abutting the tap holes 42b of the flange plate described above,
The holes 46a and 46b of the metal support frame are aligned with 44b and fixed by screws.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a portion D in FIG. As shown in the figure, the vertical position of the metal support frame 46 and the transducer housing unit 48 is such that the metal support frame 46 is abutted against a reference surface 50 having high positional accuracy, and the positioning spacer 52 is placed thereon. Further, by incorporating the transducer housing unit 48 thereon, it is possible to accurately position a desired position. For this reason, the vertical dimensional accuracy of the transducer housing unit 48 can be suppressed to ± 0.2 mm or less.

Therefore, the vertical dimensional accuracy of the ultrasonic vibrator 32 of the present embodiment can be suppressed to the target plus or minus 0.5 mm or less even when the positional error of the storage hole is adjusted.

The radial direction of the ultrasonic transducer 32 (FIG. 1)
The dimensional accuracy of the ultrasonic transducer 32 is stored in a cork-molded vibrator storage unit 48 having high dimensional accuracy, and the metal support frame 46 in which the vibrator storage unit 48 is incorporated. Machined flange plate 4
2, 44 are fixed to the circumferential end surfaces 42a, 44a. For this reason, dimensional errors of cork molded products are positive.
Less than or equal to minus 0.2 mm, and the flange plates 42, 4
Since the dimensional error of No. 4 can be suppressed to plus or minus 0.2 mm or less, the dimensional accuracy in the radial direction can also be set to the target plus or minus 0.5 mm or less.

Next, the dimensional accuracy of the pitch between the ultrasonic transducers 32 in the left-right direction (see the interval B in FIG. 10) will be described. Since the vibrator housing unit 48 in which the housing hole for housing the ultrasonic vibrator 32 is formed is formed by cork molding, the left and right dimensional error of a single unit is ± 0.2 mm or less.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a state where the transducer housing units of the present embodiment are arranged. As shown in the figure, the vibrator housing unit 48 has a desired wedge-shaped outer shape with dimensional accuracy. Therefore, the vibrator housing unit 48 is spread without gaps and a cylindrical ultrasonic vibrator assembly is formed. Can be formed. For this reason, the dimensional accuracy (the interval B in the figure) of the pitch of the storage holes 56 (ultrasonic transducers) in the left-right direction is plus or minus 0.1 due to joining the two transducer storage units 48 without any gap. 2mm x 2 and the target plus / minus 0.
It can be 5 mm or less.

The ultrasonic vibrator assembly in which the vibrator housing unit 48 is integrally formed in a cylindrical shape receives even the force from the lateral direction by the entire structure, so that it is hardly partially deformed, and The positional accuracy of the vibrator 32 can be maintained.

Further, as shown in FIG.
In the case where is formed into a cylindrical shape by covering one side surface of the vibrator housing unit 48, and the sheet metal of the metal support frame 46 further increases the mechanical strength, the positional accuracy is maintained. Is easy.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the metal support frame 46 is further fixed from the upper surface of the flange plate 42 with the positioning pins 58. This prevents rotation in the horizontal direction with the tap holes 42b and 44b to which the metal support frame 46 is fixed as a fulcrum. Therefore, the metal support frame 46 is fixed at the three points of the tapped holes 42b, 44b and the positioning pins 58, so that the mechanical strength of the structure supporting the ultrasonic vibrator is improved, and the angle of the horizontal direction is shifted. And high dimensional accuracy can be maintained.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of an underwater ultrasonic transducer according to this embodiment. As shown in the drawing, the underwater ultrasonic transducer 10 of the present embodiment is configured such that the ultrasonic transducers 32 are arranged in a cylindrical shape with the radiation surface facing outward. For example,
In one transducer housing unit 48 in the figure, 14 ultrasonic transducers 32 are arranged in the vertical direction. Further, 40 transducer housing units 48 are arranged in the circumferential direction without any gap, and the ultrasonic transducer assembly 30 is constituted by 560 ultrasonic transducers 32. The dimensional accuracy between the ultrasonic transducers 32 arranged in a large number in this manner can be arranged at a very high level as a result of employing the above-described configurations, and this state can be maintained. it can. For this reason, the underwater ultrasonic transducer 10 shown in FIG. 6 has particularly excellent acoustic characteristics such as directivity, and can always exhibit accurate and stable underwater detection ability.

[0034]

As described above, in the underwater ultrasonic transducer according to the present embodiment, the vertical and horizontal pitches between the ultrasonic transducers and the dimensional error in the radial direction are ± 0.1 mm.
Since the arrangement is performed with high accuracy of 5 mm or less and this state can be maintained, excellent acoustic characteristics can be obtained, and accurate and stable underwater detection ability can be exhibited.

Further, by employing the positioning pins, the horizontal angle of the transducer housing unit can be accurately maintained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of an underwater ultrasonic transducer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a mold of the transducer housing unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a side view of a part D of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a state where the transducer housing units of the present embodiment are arranged.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the underwater ultrasonic transducer according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a mounted state of a sonar which is an underwater ultrasonic transducer.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional underwater ultrasonic transducer.

FIG. 9 is a side view for explaining a conventional means for fixing a transducer housing unit.

FIG. 10 is a partial perspective view of an ultrasonic transducer assembly of a conventional underwater ultrasonic transducer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 24 Cylinder 32 Ultrasonic vibrator 42, 44 Flange plate 46 Metal support frame 48 Vibrator housing unit 50 Reference plane 52 Positioning spacer 58 Positioning pin

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masayoshi Tanaka 5-1-1, Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo Japan Radio Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-58-223772 (JP, A) 1-167794 (JP, U) Actually open 1956-71693 (JP, U)

Claims (2)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] In an underwater ultrasonic transducer in which a plurality of ultrasonic transducers are arranged in a cylindrical shape with their radiation surfaces facing outward, a circular shape is positioned and fixed with high accuracy facing vertically above and below the cylinder. A flange plate, a metal support frame fixed to the circumferential end surfaces of the two flange plates and arranged in a cylindrical shape while abutting any one of the upper and lower surfaces of the flange plate as a reference surface, and the metal support frame. A vibrator housing unit in which the sound insulating material is incorporated in a wedge shape, and a housing hole for housing the ultrasonic vibrator therein is molded; a metal support frame abutting on the reference surface; and the vibrator housing A positioning spacer inserted between the unit and the unit to vertically position the vibrator housing unit. 2. The underwater ultrasonic transducer according to claim 1, further comprising: a positioning pin for fixing the metal support frame from an upper surface of the flange plate and determining a horizontal angle of the transducer housing unit. An underwater ultrasonic transducer, comprising: