US1428345A - Mechanism for counterbalancing pivotally-mounted bodies - Google Patents

Description

E K. STANDISH. MECHANISM FOR COUNTERBALANCING PIVOTALLY MOUNTED BODIES.

APPLICATION FliED MAY22.1920.

PatentedSept. 5, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

E. K. STANDISH.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 22. I920.

' Patented Sept. 5, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET MECHANISM FOR COU-NTERBALANCING PIVOTALLY MOUNTED Bum.

i atented Sept, 5, 19.22.

EDWARD K. STANDISI-I, OE STOUGHTO'N, MASSACHUSETTS.

MECHANISM FOR GOUNTERBALANGING PIVOTALLY-MOUNTED BODIES.

Application filed May 22, 1920.

Serial No. 383,588.

(FILED UNDER THE ACT OF MARCH 3, 1883, 22 STAT. L., 625.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD K. STANDISH, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Stoughton, county of Norfolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Mechanism for Counter-balancing Pivotally-Mounted "Bodies, of which the following is a specification.

The invention described herein may be used by the Government, or any of its otlicers or employees in prosecution of work for the Government, or by any other person in the United States, without payment to me of any royalty thereon, in accordance with the act of March 3, 1883.

The subject of this invention is an equilibrator designed for the purpose of counterbalancing pivotally mounted bodies and more especially to counter-balance a gun barrel.

In ordnance practice, the barrel of the cannon or like gun is mounted on trunnions so as to oscillate about an axis passing through or substantially through the center of gravity of the barrel.

As the oscillatory movement of the gun body or barrel is for the purpose of permitting elevation or depression in directing lire, it is evident that the axis about which such movement takes place must pass throughor near the center of gravity of the barrel in order that the barrel may be capable of being rocked upon its trunnions without undue effort.

With the appearance of aircraft in warfare, it became necessary to devise some means of combatting them, and vtor this purpose an anti-aircraft gun was designed. As such a gun, to be eflective. required an angular range of elevation of ninety degrees or thereabout, it is evident that mounting the gun barrel in the usual .way, with the weight of the barrel so distributed on either side of the axis of oscillation as to counterbalance cannot be resorted' to unless the gun is supported on an exceedingly high mount, because that portion of the barrel to therear of the axis will be of such a length that, when the gun is near maximum elevation, the breech will strike the ground on recoil.

This difficulty is overcome by having the axis about which the gun oscillates located nt l y at he breech. Such elevation of the gun gives rise to another difficulty, especially in large guns of this character, which is that the weight of the barrel is so great as to make it impossible to elevate the same by the ordinary and practical mechanism devised for this purpose.

To overcome this difliculty means .for counter-balancing the gun barrel havevbeen devised, such means usually consisting of a crank arm extending downward from the gun. barrel and-urged forwardly by a resilient element producing a turning moment about the axis of the trunnions contrary to the .moment produced by the weight of the forwardly projecting gun barrel;

This means of counter-balancing the gun barrel contains two inherent defects; viz: an undue thrust against the trunnion bearings and a force which does not proximate and counter-balance the weight of thevbarrel for all positions of elevation thereof.

It is found that the turning moments produced by the weight of the barrel in its various positions of'el'evation vary, and that such variation is irregular giving a diagram of moment, in the form of a reverse curve. From this it will be apparent that a series of counter-balancing forces must be brought into play, which forces may be applied successively to counter-balance the successive turning moments due to weight and position of the barrel. 1

The equilibrator which is the subject of this invention was devised to overcome the foregoing difiiculties. I

It is also within the contemplation of'the invention to generally improve the construction and enhance the utility of equilibrators. It is also desired to eliminate the friction of packing inherent in most designs and which becomes very serious with the extremely highpressures and weights necessary. I y

It is also desired to secure a construction which will allow of positive sealing of the fluid under pressure and which will allow of a variation in the initial and fin'alpressures of expansion at various points in the curve of travel. v

It is also desired to secure a construction which will combine lightness with strength and which will give great length of action 5 and in itself occupy only a small space.

departing from the spirit of the invention- A practical structure for carrying out the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a fragmentary view in side elevation of an antiaircraft gun. equipped with an equilibrator constructed in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of the equilibrator, parts broken away.

Referring to the drawings by numerals of reference An anti-aircraft gun is indicated, generally, at 1 which is provided with trunnions 2 so as to be supported for oscillation on the gun mount 3.

The equilibrator 4; may be connected to the gun in any suitable way, but, as herein shown, it is provided with trunnions 5 which are journaled in bracket arms one of which is shown at 6, extending from the gun mount 8.

The equilibrator 4t consists of a series of elements adapted to successively exert pres sure upon the gun barrel 1, but, as herein shown, 7 it is composed of telescoping or nested cylinders 7 each provided at its inner end with an outwardly extending annular flange 8, formed with apertures 9 spaced about its periphery. The innermost cylinders are formed with inset rear ends or hottoms 10 and 11, respectively, the distance at which such bottoms are inset being controlled by the air space required. The cylinder next to the outer cylinder is preterably provided with a flat inner end or head 12 which is integral with the flange 8 of such cylinder, and the rear or lower end of the outermost cylinder is closed by head 13.

Fitted within the inner cylinder, to slide longitudinally thereof, is a'piston 1% formed with apertures 15 spaced about its periphery and having a piston rod le'extending torwardly therefrom and through the head 18 of the cylinder and terminating in an apertured head or eye 17 by which the equilibrator may be suitably articulated to the gun barrel. 1

Each cylinder is closed at its outer or upper end by a cap 18 which is preferably, as herein shown, threaded on the cylinder. A passage 18 is formed in each head or cap 18 which is adapted to be closed by a valve 19, the purpose of the passage and valve being to permlt air under pressure to be forced into thecylinders. I The device isdesigned to operate under compressed air for the reason that adiabatic (EXPElIlSlOn or compression gives a curve more nearly approximating that portion of the curve of the diagram of moments to through the ports 18 is outside of the hellows and free to pass through the apertures 9 and'15, but is prevented by the bellows from coming in contact with the sliding joints between the piston rod 16 or the cylinders '7 and the cylinder heads 18.

An air escape port 21 may be supplied when desired in the heads 18 of the cylinders for the purpose of permitting air within the bellows to escape after the bellows are contracted and so prevent compression of the air within the bellows and consequent loss of effective pressure in the device.

In practice, when the gun is elevated, the piston 12 rises in the outer-most cylinder '7 under the force of the compressed air contained within such cylinder and tends to counter-balance the weight of the gun harrel during the early states of its elevation. l l hen the piston 12 has advanced sufiiriently to bring; the shoulder 23. formed on its cylinder 7, into contact with the head 18 of the outermost cylinder, travel of the piston with relation to such outermost cylinder will The maximum countcr balancing pressure is required when the gun horizontal, and the higher the elevation the less the pres sure required for counterbalancing the gun. The piston head 12 presents the greatest area and the pressure against this head will be sufiicient to exactly -ounter-balancc the gun at 0 elevation. and by properly proportioning the volume oi air at the initial and final positions of piston 12 the gun can be balanced throughout this part of its elevation. It will thus be seen that by securing the correct initial pressure against piston head 11 to exactly balance the final upward pressure against the piston head 12 at the time the shoulder 23 contacted with the head 18, piston 11 will continue to balance the gun on further elevation until shoulder 24 hits flange 8 of piston head 11. V

By having the resulting initial upward pressure on the piston 10 equal to the final upward pressure on piston 11, piston 10 will balance tlie'gun through its movement upward until shoulder 25 hits the head 18 By having the resulting initial upward pressure on piston head 1% equalto the final ]pressure on piston head 10, piston 14 will alance the upward movement of the gun through the last part of its elevation and until the shoulder 22 hits head 18.

It will be noted that by this construction the pressures in each of the four separate cylinders will be approximately the same as the areas exposed, decreasing about in proportion to that required to maintain balance.

By this construction of four separate sealed telescoping cylinders, it is possible to design the volumes, both initial and final so that pressure will follow closely the curve of pressures required to balance the gun.

in this manner the air pressure in each cylinder is brought into successive operation until the shoulder 22 of the last or inner telescoping cylinder engages the cap or head 18 of the innermost cylinder which is the.

limit of movement of the device.

In lowering the gun barrel, a reverse ac tion of the cylinders and piston takes place.

Having described my invention, What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is V 1. The combination of an oscillatable gun and means for aiding oscillatory movement thereof comprising an outer compressed air cylinder, telescoping compressed air cylinders nested within said outer cylinder and movable relative to each other and to said outer cylinder, the inner end walls of said nested cylinders being provided with annular extensions projecting therebeyond, and bellows in said cylinders disposed between the said extensions and the outer end walls of said cylinders. I

2. The combination of an oscillata-ble gun and means for aiding oscillatory movement thereof comprising an outer compressed air cylinder. telescoping compressed air cylinders'nested withi said outer cylinder and movable relative to each other and to said outer cylinder, and annular flanges on the inner ends of the cylinders, said flanges provided with apertures to permit the passage of 'essure fluid therethrough.

3. The combination of an oscillatory gun and means for aiding oscillatory movement thereof, comprising a plurality of teleseop .4, bellows associated with each cylinder.

4. The combination ofan oscillatable gun, and means for aiding oscillatory movement thereof, including a plurality of telescoping cylinders and flexible bellows associated with the cylinders.

5. The combination of an oscillatable gun and pneumatically-controlled means for aiding oscillatory movement thereof said means including flexible bellows.

6. The combination of an oscillatable gun and fluid-controlled means for aiding oscillatory movement thereof said means includin flexible bellows.

4. The combination of an oscillatalole gun and means for aiding oscillatory movement thereof said means including flexible bellows.

8. The combination of a movable. body of means for applying successively changed pressures to said body said means including flexible bellows.

9. The combination of a movable body presenting during movement, successively changed resistances to motion and means for applying successively changed pressures to said body to counteract such reslstances said means including flexible bellows.

10. An equilibrator, including nested cylinders, flexible bellows associated with said cylinders and means for moving, successively, the cylinders with relation to each other.

11. An equilibrator, including an outer cylinder, telescoping cylinders within the outer cylinder, flexible bellows connected to the telescoping cylinders and means for moving, successively, the telescoping cylinders with respect to each other and to the outer cylinder. 1,

12. An equilibrator for cannon, including nested cylinders movable with relation to each other, means for admitting pressure and flexible bellows fluid to the cylinders,

fluid in the for retaining the pressure cylinders.

18. An equilibrator for cannon comprising means for storing pressure fluid including flexible bellows.

let. An equilibrator for cannon, including nested flexible bellows movable with respect to each other.

EDWARD K. STANDISH.

compressed-air cylinders and a flexible

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