US3037355A

US3037355A - Control drive

Info

Publication number: US3037355A
Application number: US91982A
Authority: US
Inventors: Braithwaite Charles
Original assignee: Licentia Patent Verwaltungs GmbH
Current assignee: Licentia Patent Verwaltungs GmbH
Priority date: 1960-03-09
Filing date: 1961-02-27
Publication date: 1962-06-05
Anticipated expiration: 1979-06-05

Description

June 1962 V c. BRAITHWAITE 3,037,355

' CONTROL DRIVE Filed Feb. 27, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 .7nvenf0r:

June 5, 1962 c. BRAITHWAITE CONTROL DRIVE 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 27, 1961 Fig.3

June 5, 1962 c. BRAITHWAITE 3,037,355

CONTROL DRIVE Filed Feb. 27, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 & l 4 k f iaiz Jnvenfor:

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3,037,355 CONTRGL DRIVE tlharies Rraithwaite, Deal, Kent, England, assignor to Licentia FatentNerwaitungs-Gm.b.H., Frankfurt am Main, Germany Filed Feb. 27, 136i, Ser- No. 91,982 Qiaims priority, application Great Britain Mar. E, 19st 4 (Ziaims. (ill. 60-97 The present invention relates to control drives.

More particularly, the present invention relates to rotary-vane motor drives for a control shaft, such as the rudder head or stabilizer fin head of a ship, aircraft and the like.

Drives for rudders and also for stabilizing fins are structural elements the failure of inadequate operation of which may greatly endanger the craft equipped therewith and hence also its crew. Although this also applies to rotary-vane drives, the only provision hitherto made to safeguard such installations has been to replace a single pressure-medium pump by two such pumps which are independent of one another and which can be connected selectively to the rotary-vane motor driving the rudder or the stabilizing fin.

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a rotary-vane drive of this type which, in comparison with the installations previously known, ofiers greater reliability in operation and also improved maneuvering characteristics of the craft, particularly at relatively low traveling speed, with the minimum possible additional technical expenditure.

According to the invention, this object is achieved in a rotary vane drive of the above-mentioned type, essentially by the provision of two rotary-vane motor means arranged coaxially with the rudder head or stabilizer fin head. In one embodiment of the invention, the two rotary-vane motor means may be advantageously combined to form one structural unit in which case these motor means preferably have both a common stationary and a common rotary part.

Furthermore, according to another feature of the invention, the rotary vanes of the two motor means may either be arranged one above the other, or the rotary vanes of the one motor means may lie in the same transverse plane as the rotary vanes of the other motor means. In the latter case, the pressure chambers of the two rotary-vane motor means may be placed alternately side-by-side in the circumferential direction.

In all the embodiments of the invention, the two rotary vane motor means may, in a manner known per se, either be carried in accordance with the invention by the rudder head together with all the other parts of the drive, or the stationary part of the rotary-vane motor means may be secured directly to the body of the ship or aircraft or the like.

Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a sectional elevational view of one embodiment of the present invention, illustrated in simplified form, taken substantially along line I-I of FIG- URE 2; 7

FIGURE 2 is a sectional transverse view taken substantially along line 11-11 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of the supply and discharge pipes for the pressure medium leading from two difierent sources of pressure medium;

FIGURE 4 is a sectional transverse view, in simplified form, of another embodiment of the present invention, taken along line lV-IV of FIGURE 5;

States Patent FIGURE 5 is a sectional elevational view taken along VV of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a sectional transverse view of yet another embodiment of the present invention and shows the supply and discharge pipes in diagrammatic form.

According to FIGURES 1 and 2, the two rotary-vane motor means have a common motor housing 1 which does not participate in the rotation, and a hollow-bored keyed hub 2 which is fixed to the correspondingly keyed rudder head 2a, and in which are machined the superimposed pressure chambers 3 in the form of annular recesses.

The abutment members or partition walls 4, which bound the pressure chambers 3 of the rotary-vane motor means laterally, are fixed to the cylindrical inner wall of the motor housing 1 by the securing members 5. The vanes 6 in the pressure chambers 3 are connected to the hub 2 by the securing members 7. The rotary-vane motor means are carried by the rudder head. The motor housing 1 is held through cylindrical stop members 9 which are mounted inlugs 8 of the housing and are mounted resiliently transversely of the longitudinal housing axis by the buffer sleeves 10 fixed to the ship, such as by being bolted with bolts 10:: to the deck 10b.

The pressure medium reaches the upper pressure chambers 3 through the

annular ducts

11 or 12 and the lower pressure chambers =3 through the annular ducts 13 or 14.

According to the pipe plan shown in FIGURE 3, the supply pipe and the discharge pipe from each of the two pressure medium pumps leads both to the upper and to the lower rotary-vane motor, a shut-01f valve being provided in each pipe in front of each motor connection. Thus, the pipe la, coming from the one pressure medium pump, is connected through the shut-off valves 15 and 16 to the

annular ducts

11 and 13, respectively, and the pipe Ib is connected through the shut-off valves 17 and 18 to the annular ducts 12 and 14, respectively. From the other pressure medium pump, the pipe Ila leads through the shut-off valves 19 and 20 to the

annular ducts

11 and 12, respectively, and the pipe 1112 leads through the shutoif valves 21 and 22 to the annular ducts 12 and 14, respectively. All the annular ducts lead through branch ducts into the pressure chambers 3 of the associated rotary-vane motor means, in such a manner that the branch ducts from the one annular duct end to the right of each rotary vane and the branch ducts from the other annular duct end to the left of each rotary vane at opposite corners of the pressure chamber 3.

Connected between the two annular ducts for the upper and lower rotary-vane motor means, respectively, are the by-

pass valves

23 and 24, respectively, and also the

excess pressure valves

25, 26 and 27, 28, respectively. As a result of opening the by-pass valve of a rotaryvane motor means which is not in operation, the effect is obtained that the pressure medium present therein can circulate freely.

With the rotary-vane drive described, each rotary-vane motor means can be actuated selectively through one of the two pressure medium lines by appropriate operation of the shut-off valves. It is also possible, however, to connect both rotary-vane motor means to one of the pressure-medium lines selectively. Such a rotary-vane drive is therefore still operative even'if one of the rotary-vane motor means cannot be operated for a longer or shorter period of time, for example, as a result of leakages, damage to or failure of its individual components or operating medium pipes.

By connecting both pressure medium lines to only one rotary-vane motor means, higher rudder turning speeds can be achieved with rudder torques which are less than the rated torque for which the delivery of each pump unit is designed. The rudder turning speed may then be twice as great, with half the rated torque, as a result of the double delivery available, as when each of the pres sure medium lines acts on one rotary-vane motor means in normal operation. As a result, a more effective laying-over of the rudder and, consequently, an improved maneuvering of the craft is possible, particularly at low travelling speeds.

Special structural advantages are obtained with the subject of the invention if, as in the example, the two rotary-vane motor means have a common stationary and a common rotating part and if, in addition, the so-called construction without covers is selected. As a result of the fact that with this arrangement, the pressure chambers of both rotary-vane motor means are machined one above the other in the form of annular recesses in a single rotary-vane hub and are bounded radially by the smooth cylindrical inner wall of a single rotary-vane housing, it is possible to obtain a relatively simple, light and compact hydraulic steering engine without any particular additional technical expenditure.

In the embodiment shown in FIGURES 4 and 5, the stationary housing part 101 and the rotatable hub part 102 form two concentric

annular chambers

103a and 103b which lie in a common transverse plane normal to the axis of the control shaft (not shown in FIGURES 4 and 5). The stationary housing part 101 carries

partition walls

104a and 104b which project into the

chambers

103a and 103b, respectively, while the hub part 102 carries vanes 106a and 10612 which are movable within the chambers formed by the partition walls. The pipes leading to the pressure fluid medium to and from the chambers may be arranged exactly as shown in FIG- URE 3.

In the embodiment of FIGURE 6, the two rotaryvane motor means share a single annular chamber. The stationary part 201 carries a suitable number of partitions 204 which divide the annular chamber into pressure chambers indicated at a, b, c and d within which the

vanes

206a, 206b, 2060' and 206d of the rotatable hub 202 are arranged. The chambers a and c and the vanes 206a and 2060 pertain to one of the two motor means and the chambers b and d and the vanes 20611 and 206d to the other, the pipes Ia, Ib and Ha, IIb, communicating with these chambers on the appropriate sides of the respective vanes. The two pipe systems, which may be interconnected as shown in FIGURE 3, may then be used independently of each other, so as to operate each of the two rotary-vane motor means independently of the other.

It will be seen from the above that the two motor means may be combined into a single structural unit which incorporates clearly recognizable separate motor means which, actually, may be deemed to constitute two separate rotary-vane motors.

In the above description, particularly that of FIG- URES 1 and 2, the rotatable shaft to which the hub of the drive is connected was identified as a rudder head 2a. It will be understood, however, that the present invention is equally applicable to other types of controls, including the control of the stabilizing fin of an aircraft, and the term control shaft, as used throughout the instant specification and claims, should be construed to include any rotatable control shaft or axle and is not specifically limited to rudder heads or stabilizer fin heads.

It will be understood that the above description of the present invention is susceptible to various modifications, changes and adaptations, and the same are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A rotary drive comprising, in combination:

(a) a central shaft member and a tubular member surrounding said central shaft member, said members forming between themselves at least one annular chamber bounded both radially and axially by said members;

(12) a plurality of partitions on one of said members and extending radially to the other member, said partitions providing at least two groups of pressure chambers;

(c) a plurality of vanes on said other member and extending to said one member, each of said vanes being arranged in a respective pressure chamber and dividing the same into two portions; and

(d) at least two independently operable means for supplying a pressure medium, one of said pressure supplying means being in communication with the two portions of each of the pressure chambers pertaining to one of the groups of pressure chambers and the other of said pressure supplying means being in communication with the two portions of each of the pressure chambers pertaining to the other group of pressure chambers,

whereby pressure medium may be supplied into said pressure chambers, by either one or both of the two independent systems, alternativcly on one or the other side of the vanes, for angularly displacing one of the members, relative to the other, in one or the other direction.

2. A rotary drive comprising, in combination:

(a) a central shaft member and a tubular member surrounding said central shaft member, said members forming between themselves at least two coaxial annular chambers each of which is bounded both radially and axially by said members;

(c) a plurality of vanes on said other member and ex tending to said one member, each of said vanes being arranged in a respective pressure chamber and dividing the same into two portions; and

(d) at least two independently operable means for supplying a pressure medium, one of said pressure supplying means being in communication with the two portions of each of the pressure chambers of one of the two annular chambers and the other of said pressure supplying means being in communication with the two portions of each of the pressure chambers of the other of the two annular pressure chambers.

whereby pressure medium may be supplied into said pressure chambers, by either one or both of the two independent systems, alternatively on one or the other side of the vanes, for angularly displacing one of the members, relative to the other, in one or the other direction.

3. A rotary vane drive as defined in claim 2, wherein said chambers are axially spaced from each other.

4. A rotary vane drive as defined in claim 2, wherein said chambers are arranged in a common plane normal to the axis of said members.

Parker May 30, 1944 Wik Mar. 14, 1961