Patent GB-802431-A (GB)
Title: Motor-spring winding mechanism
IPC: F03G1/00
Filed: 1955-04-05
Abstract: 802,431. Spring winding mechanism. MORF, 'E. April 5, 1955 [Jan. 5, 1955], No. 9975/55. Class 10. [Also in Group XVIII] A spring is wound by mechanism incorporating means whereby a power-driven winder is actuated in accordance with the tension of the spring. The car watch-spring 1, Fig. 1, is secured between an element 3, which actuates a watch via a gear-wheel 5, and an element 4 which may be rotated through ratchet mechanism by an oscillating arm 17. When " unwound " the spring is in a stressed condition, energy release being prevented by a collar 39 integral with a fixed member 38. The element 4 rotates in uni-directional steps in a bearing formed in a cover-plate 11 of a box 9 containing means for driving, by a pawl 28, a ratchet-wheel 13 fixed to the element 4 and means for automatically, in dependence upon the spring tension, associating or disassociating the powerdriven arm 17 with or from the rotation of the element 4. The arm 17 is spring (22) loaded against a stop 24 on the box 9, Fig. 4, and when urged to the right by rotation of a shaft 49, which may be effected through movement of the car's accelerator, moves, through interengagement of two lugs 21 thereon with slots 20 in a sleeve 15 integral with a disc 14 which carries the pawl 28, the wheel 13 and hence the element 4 in the direction a, Fig. 2. A pawl 25 prevents back-rotation of wheel and element. As the spring 1 is tensioned respective decrease and increase of its diameter and length ensues and this effect is used to automatically stop the winding at a predetermined spring stressing value. For this purpose the spring is mounted within a casing 43 on a flexible wire core 31 held securely and freely in respective elements 3, 4. At its free end the core carries a bolt 33 which bears on a latch member 34 carrying four equallyspaced notches 36 and axially movable relative to the sleeve 15 in the slots 20 therein but fixed angularly relative to the said sleeve. When the spring 1 is wound and lengthens, the latch 34 is pulled against a spring 42 on to lugs 37 carried by the element 4 as in lengthening both the spring and the core are forced into a sinuous shape so that the free end of the core partly withdraws from the element 4. Interengagement of lugs 37 and notches 36 locks the element 4 and the arm 17 and stops the spring winding as the pawl 25 prevents back-rotation of the element 4 and, in the spring " fully-wound position,"-chain position 41<SP>1</SP>, Fig. 4-the arm 17. Upon unwinding, the spring and core shorten and straighten so that the latch 34 moves axially to free the arm 17 from the element 4. The spring may again be wound. In a modified mechanism, the arm actuating chain 41 may be moved by a member moving parallel to itself. In a further embodiment the chain 41 is dispensed with, an oscillating bar 49b, Fig. 6, actuating the arm 17 through a roller 50. In another mechanism the latch and ratchet-wheel are combined and when the core 31, Fig. 7, pulls the latch notches 54 on to the lugs 53 the arm 17, sleeve 15a, disc 14, wheel 13a and element 4a are instantly immobilized allowing no further movement of the arm. This mechanism must be connected to the power winder through an element resiliently connected to the arm.