Focal plane shutter blade arrangement

Disclosed is a focal plane shutter for a camera having a shutter blade group consisting of a plural number of light shading thin plates held with two arms, so designed that the slit forming blade positioned at the end of the arm and a light shading auxiliary blade positioned next to the above are made to move in parallel by way of a parallel linkage and that a plural number of other auxiliary blades are mounted rotatably around the shaft provided on the one arm and engaged with a common shaft provided on the other arm in such a manner that along with the rotation of the latter arm they are rotated with the latter shaft.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a focal plane shutter having a leading 
blade group and a trailing blade group composed of a plurality of blades 
particularly consisting of light shading thin plates. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Generally this type of focal plane shutter is so designed that the leading 
blade group and the trailing blade group run upwardly and downwardly so as 
to open and close the exposure opening, with both blade groups being 
loaded and with both, being folded, above and beneath the opening when the 
opening is not covered. In consequence, in case the number of blades is 
small the size of the blades must be large with the result that the blade 
loading spaces above and beneath the opening have to be large, which 
increases the size, especially the height of the camera. 
In order to overcome the above shortcomings it is desirable for the number 
of the blades to be increased so as to make the size of the blades small. 
In the state where the shutter blades cover the opening, the edges of the 
blades of this kind of shutter overlap each other, and the width of the 
overlapped parts is sought to be about 4 mm in order to prevent light 
leakage. 
Consequently, taking the above into consideration, it is desired that the 
number of the blades should be about 5-7 for a camera in which 35 mm film 
is used. 
In this case it is desired that the blades be held in parallel by means of 
two arms in such a manner that along with the rotation of the arms around 
fixed shafts the blades are translated in parallel to the upper and the 
lower edge of the opening. Thus, when the number of the blades is large 
the number of the shafts on the arm becomes large so that the length of 
the arms must be large in order to avoid interference of the blades with 
the shafts. This makes the horizontal size of the shutter large. 
A shutter is known which is so designed that only one of the blades for 
forming the slit is translated in parallel while others are rotated around 
one shaft along with the rotation of the above arms. However, in this case 
the forms of the cam grooves to be provided in the blades become 
complicated so that smooth shutter operation cannot be expected or the 
opening covering efficiency is inferior, which is inconvenient. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above 
shortcomings. 
In accordance with the present invention the number of the blades is at 
least 5 so as to make the size of the blades small, while the slit forming 
blades and the blade adjacent thereto are held by means of two arms so as 
to be translated in parallel, whereby other blades are held to be 
rotatable around the shaft on the other arm in such a manner that along 
with the rotation of the latter arm the blades are rotated around the 
shaft of the former arm. 
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are 
pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part 
of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its 
operating advantages and specific objects attained by its use, reference 
should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which 
there is illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention 
.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
FIG. 1 shows the leading shutter blade group covering the exposure opening. 
In the drawing 1 is the shutter base plate and 1a the exposure opening, 2 
the slit forming blade, 3 the first auxiliary blade for light shading and 
4-6 the second to the fourth auxiliary blades. These blades are mounted, 
being superposed over each other, on the two arms 7 and 9 rotatable around 
the fixed shafts 8 and 10. On each arm the shafts 11, 13, 15 and 17 and 
12, 14 and 16 for supporting the blades are provided. The two holes 2a and 
2b provided near the side ends of the slit forming blade 2 are engaged on 
the shafts 11 and 12 on the arm, the hole 3a and 3b in the first auxiliary 
blade 3 on the shafts 13 and 14, and the shafts 8, 10, 11 and 12 and 8, 
10, 13 and 14 form parallelogram in such a manner that along with the 
clockwise rotation of both arms the blades are translated downwardly in 
parallel as shown in the drawing. 
The hole 4a of the auxiliary blade 4 is engaged on the shaft 15 on the arm 
7, while in the cam groove 4b the shaft 16 on the arm 9 is engaged in such 
a manner that along with the rotation of the both arms the blade 4 is 
translated downwards with the shaft 15 while it rotates around the shaft 
15 by means of the cooperation of the cam groove with the shaft. 
The holes 5a and 6a of the auxiliary blades 5 and 6 are engaged on the 
shaft 17 on the arm 7, while in the cam grooves 5b and 6b the shaft 16 on 
the arm 9 is engaged in such a manner that along with the rotation of both 
arms the blades 5 and 6 are translated downwardly while they are slightly 
rotated around the shaft 17 by means of the cams. 
The arm 7 is provided with a hole 7a in such a manner that from the driving 
part not shown in the drawing the driving power is transmitted to the arm 
via the hole. 
The trailing shutter blades are omitted from the drawing. However, they 
have the same construction as that of the above leading shutter blades. 
The only difference is that they are arranged in the reversed relation to 
the leading shutter blades, whereby in the state in that the leading 
shutter blades cover the exposure opening as is shown in FIG. 1, the 
trailing shutter blades are loaded, being folded, above the opening, while 
in the state that the leading shutter blades have run downwards the tail 
shutter blades cover the opening. 
As explained above in accordance with the present invention the slit 
forming blade and the one auxiliary blade next to the slit forming blade 
are held in parallel by means of two arms, while the other auxiliary blade 
is pivoted on the one arm so as to be rotated by means of the common shaft 
16 on the other arm and the cam groove so that the number of the shafts on 
the arms can be reduced with the result that the number of steps in the 
manufacturing process can be reduced. Further, because the rotation shafts 
of the blades are provided on the arm, the rotation angle of each 
auxiliary blade can be small so that the shapes of the cam grooves are 
simple and the movement of the shutter blade is smooth. 
While a specific embodiment of the invention has been shown and described 
in detail to illustrate the application of the inventive principles, it 
will be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise without 
departing from such principles.