Inclination measurement apparatus

Inclination measurement apparatus for measuring the inclination of a surface to the horizontal. The apparatus includes (a) a base plate for mounting the apparatus on the surface; (b) a ball bearing with i) a housing washer rigidly mounted on the base plate, and having a flat upper bearing surface, ii) a ball and cage thrust assembly set on the upper bearing surface, and iii) a shaft washer having a flat lower bearing surface set on the ball and cage thrust assembly, and being rotatable thereon between a first pair of diametrically opposite orientations defining a first measurement axis on the horizontal to the local gravity vector prevailing at the location of the apparatus; and (c) a first clinometer mounted on the shaft washer for obtaining an inclination measurement in each of the first pair of diametrically opposite orientations whereby the true inclination of the surface to the horizontal along the first measurement axis is determinable from the difference between the pair of measurement inclinations.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to inclination measurement apparatus, and more particularly to an inclination measurement apparatus capable of highly accurate measurements to an accuracy in the order of 10 5 .

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Inclination measurement apparatus for highly sensitive applications including inter alia the setting up of and subsequent inclination monitoring of antennas, artillery, radar, telescopes, and the like, requiring ultra accurate inclination measurements may suffer from transient and aging biases leading to errors in the same order as the desired accuracy, or even greater. Inclination measurement apparatus are illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,829,9871, 3,849,897, RE 28,694, 4,528,760, 4,866,850, 5,210,954, and 5,317,810, and one known approach to negate transient biases arising from ambient temperature changes is to install inclination measurement apparatus within a so-called thermal blanket.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an inclination measurement apparatus for measuring the inclination of a surface to the horizontal, the apparatus comprising:

a) a base plate for mounting the apparatus on the surface;

b) a ball bearing including:

i. a housing washer rigidly mounted on said base plate, and having a flat upper bearing surface,

ii. a ball and cage thrust assembly set on said upper bearing surface, and

iii. a shaft washer having a flat lower bearing surface set on said ball and cage thrust assembly, and being rotatable thereon between a first pair of diametrically opposite orientations defining a first measurement axis on the horizontal to the local gravity vector prevailing at the location of the apparatus; and

(c) a first clinometer mounted on said shaft washer for obtaining an inclination measurement at each of said pair of diametrically opposite orientations whereby the true inclination of the surface relative to the horizontal along said measurement axis is determinable from the difference between said pair of measurement inclinations.

By virtue of high manufacturing tolerances of its upper and lower bearing surfaces and its balls, the ball bearing demonstrates a high degree of parallelism between its lower and upper bearing surfaces, thereby facilitating the measuring of an inclination to the horizontal to an accuracy in the order of about 10 5 . In addition, the inclination measurement apparatus of the present invention is readily manufacturable both in terms of its relative small number of parts, and the ease of their assembly, and is particularly suitable for applications for which the degree of accuracy required increases the smaller the inclination relative to the horizontal to be measured.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1 and 2 show inclination measurement apparatus 1 mounted on a surface 2 whose inclination to the horizontal is to be measured. The apparatus 1 includes a housing 3 having a base plate 4 for screw fastening to the surface 2 , and accommodating a ball bearing 6 , a belt drive 7 , a controller 8 , and an output interface 9 , for example, RS-232.

The ball bearing 6 includes a housing washer 11 rigidly mounted on the base plate 4 , a ball and cage thrust assembly 12 , an annular spacer 13 , and a shaft washer 14 . The housing washer 21 has an upper surface 16 including a laterally outermost flat upper bearing surface 17 . The ball and cage thrust assembly 12 is mounted exterior to the spacer 13 , and typically contains about thirty balls 18 . The shaft washer 14 has a lower surface 19 with a laterally outermost flat lower bearing surface 21 fully bearing on the uppermost surfaces of the balls 18 whose lowermost surfaces fully bear the shaft washer 14 . The upper and lower bearing surfaces 17 and 21 have a flatness tolerance of about 10 2 m, and the balls 18 have a spherical tolerance of about 10 2 m, whereby the bearing surfaces 17 and 21 are highly parallel, and are also highly parallel to the measured surface 2 .

A centrally mounted tubular sleeve 22 is seated within the ball bearing 6 for receiving a tension spring 23 (constituting an external compression means) extending between a closure plate 24 and an anchor point 26 located adjacent the base plate 4 . The tension spring 23 positively urges the closure plate 24 against another spacer ring 27 which in turn positively urges against an innermost shoulder 28 of the shaft washer 14 for ensuring intimate contact between the bearing surfaces 17 and 21 and the ball and cage thrust assembly 12 despite ambient temperatures changes, and the like which may otherwise affect the precise arrangement of the ball bearing 6 .

A clinometer 29 is set on the shaft washer 14 for measuring the inclination of the surface 2 relative to the horizontal in each of two diametrically opposite orientations respectively denoted V 0 and V 180 (see FIGS. 2A and 2B ) defining therebetween a measurement axis on the horizontal to the local gravity vector at the location of the apparatus 1 . The controller 8 controls the belt drive 7 for driving the shaft washer 14 between the two diametrically opposite orientations delimited by limit switches (not shown) whereupon the shaft washer 14 slidingly rotates about the spacer ring 27 which remains stationary.

The automatic operation of the inclination measurement apparatus 1 for measuring the inclination of the surface 2 relative to the horizontal along the measurement axis is as follows: The controller 8 sets the ball bearing 6 to its first orientation V 0 (see FIG. 2A ) for obtaining a first inclination measurement thereat. Thereafter, the controller 8 rotates the ball bearing 6 to its second orientation V 180 (see FIG. 2B ) for obtaining a second inclination measurement thereat. The controller 8 determines the true inclination of the surface 2 relative to the horizontal along the measurement axis as follows: V real = V 0 - V 180 2

where V real corresponds to the true inclination , namely, the inclination unaffected by the bias of the clinometer 29 , if any.

The inclination measurement apparatus 1 can be adapted for measuring the inclination of the surface relative to the horizontal along two mutually perpendicular measurement axes. This can be achieved in one of two ways: First, by providing a second clinometer perpendicularly oriented to the first clinometer whereby the apparatus can simultaneously measure the inclination of the surface relative to the horizontal along the two mutually perpendicular measurement axes. And second, by rotating the first clinometer between a second pair of diametrically opposite orientations perpendicular to the first pair of diametrically opposite orientations whereby the apparatus is capable of consecutively measuring the inclination of the surface relative to the horizontal along the two mutually perpendicular measurement axes.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations, modifications, and other applications of the invention can be made within the scope of the appended claims. For example, a degenerate version of the inclination measurement apparatus 1 can include a clinometer directly outputting its readings for external determination of an inclination, and/or a manually rotated ball bearing.