US 10,704,665 B2Granted

Fluid rotary joint and method of using the same

AssigneeRE2, Inc.

InventorsNabil Michael Rizk, Gregory D. Danyo, Andrew B. Mor

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Abstract

A fluid rotary joint has a stator with a generally curved stator body and a flex spline with a flexible annular band disposed about and secured to the stator body. The stator also has at least three radially extendable members disposed between the stator body and the annular band to deform the annular band away from the stator body to contact the inner surface of a rotor. The inner circumference of the rotor is greater than the outer circumference of the annular band. A driver selectively expands the extendable members and brings the annular band of the stator into frictional driving engagement with the rotor for rotating the rotor. The extendable members may also be selectively extended to allow the stator and rotor to freely move with respect to one another or to have limited contact with one another to act as a torque limiting device.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A fluid rotary joint comprising:

a) a stator having:
1) a generally curved stator body,
2) a flex spline with a flexible annular band disposed about and secured to the stator body, wherein the annular band has an outer surface with an outer circumference and a high tensile strength in the direction of the circumference;
and
3) at least three radially extendable members disposed between the stator body and the annular band to deform the annular band away from the stator body;
b) a generally cylindrical rotor surrounding the stator body, wherein a rotor has a wall with an inner surface having an inner circumference;
c) wherein the outer circumference of the annular band is less than the inner circumference of the rotor;
d) a driver for selectively expanding the extendable members and bringing the outer surface of the annular band of the stator into frictional driving engagement with the inner surface of the rotor for rotating the rotor.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.