Patent ID: 7992485

Claim:
An apparatus comprising a ball rod joint module for compensating or transmitting forces, torques or rotational movements between two components, said joint module comprising: a piston, at least one rotatable shaft, a plurality of coupling rods having a ball at each end thereof interposed between said piston and said rotatable shaft so as to assume a spatial angle with a ball at one end of each coupling rod being connected in an articulated manner to the piston and the ball at the other end of each coupling rod being connected in an articulated manner to the rotatable shaft; a pressure chamber adjacent said piston, and pressure medium feed passage leading to said pressure chamber; wherein; application of a pressure medium through said pressure medium feed passage to said pressure chamber will cause movement of said piston, and the movement of said piston will impart a rotational movement to said rotatable shaft through said coupling rods; the coupling rods having balls at each end are fixed at the end disposed toward the piston and at the end disposed toward the rotatable shaft by respective fastening rings, said fastening rings each comprising a base in which concavely curved recesses are situated to form ball sockets in which the balls at the ends of the coupling rods are received, and i) each base has a central opening, from which radially outwardly extending slots lead to the concavely curved recesses, said slots having a width which is greater than the diameter of the rods which connect the balls of the coupling rods; or ii) each recess is associated with an offset hole, which transitions into the recess and whose diameter is greater than the ball diameter.