Patent GB-883661-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to remote controls
Inventor: BENTLEY JAMES SYDNEY
IPC: F16C1/10
Filed: 1957-07-08
Abstract: 883,661. Flexible shafts; Bowden mechanisms; locking levers. TELEFLEX PRODUCTS Ltd. July 7, 1958 [July 8, 1957], No. 21518/57. Classes 80 (2) and 80 (3). [Also in Groups XXIII, XXXI, and XL (a)] A mechanical handling remote control has torsion transmitting means comprising a continuous circumferentially rigid but axially flexible, bellows-like, circular-sectioned metal tube 57 of stainless or other steel, which tube may be formed of brazed or welded together axial sections or helically laid overlapping strip and may have corrugations of various sections, mounted in a guide conduit 51 which resists flexing by the tube 57 and which may be rigid or flexible, but of fixed axial length, fixed or hand guided, and may be lined with polytetrafluorethylene 58, the said control having means at one end to impart a turning movement to the tube 57 and means at the other end for imparting the said movement to the controlled part. The remote control may also have means for transmitting axial movement, which means, at either end of the control, may be operated in combination with the torsion transmitting means, may, together with the torsion transmitting means, be spring biased, and may, as shown, transmit push-pull by a flexible stranded metal cable 59, slidably supported within the tube 57 by rounded metal washers 60 axially spaced by thrush-transmitting distance pieces 61. Alternatively, the tube 57 may be hermetically sealed and filled with hydraulic fluid to transmit thrust. In the control shown, a curved section 54 comprises the cable 59, the corrugated tube 57 and the conduit 51 which latter is sleeved at 52, 53 to straight conduit extensions 9, 37 respectively housing stiff tubes 28, 46, each connected to both the cable 59 and the corrugated tube 57 such that torsional or axial movement at the outer end of the tube 28 is transmitted to the outer end of the tube 46. The extension 9 carries an adjustable steady grip 75, and, by a journal and thrust bearing 11 in a sleeve 10, a rotatable control grip 14 housing a spring-opposed lever 20 with a spring- sustained, trigger-released, ratchet latch 35, the lever 20 being articulated to the tube 28, to effect turning and axial movement of the tube 28 by respectively rotating the grip 14, or squeezing or releasing the lever 20. The extension 37 carries, by a journal and thrust bearing 39 in a sleeve 38, a guide block 41, carrying a spigoted plate 43 having a diametral projection 44, the block 41 guiding the square shank of a plunger 50 which is coupled to the tube 46 and projects through the plate 43, to effect turning of the plate 43 and axial movement of the plunger 50, relative to the plate 43, by respectively turning and rotating tube 46. In the sleeves 52, 53 the corrugated tube 57 and the cable 59 are coupled to the stiff tubes by adaptors, one of which has screw means for tensioning the cable. The corrugated tube may be brazed or soldered to the adaptors or, where helically laid strip is used, the adaptors may be threaded to engage the internal threads thus formed in the corrugated tube.