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US 11,365,824 B2Granted
Adjustable fail-safe rotary spring operator with a retaining band
AssigneeRotork Limited
InventorsFrederick Rand Underwood, Frederick Rand Underwood, III, Kenneth Earl Price
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A rotary spring-return actuator operator is provided with a multi-slot shaft and a clock type spring retained by a retaining band which encircles the spring in such a manner as to insure that the potential energy within the spring is safely contained during all operations requiring disassembly of the actuator assembly, and wherein the retaining band facilitates the in-field reversal of the spring direction or the adjustment of the spring preload by securing the spring to one or more of the slots on the multi-slot shaft.
Claims10
A rotary spring-return operator comprising:
- a housing having a housing aperture;
- a cover plate having a cover plate aperture;
- a multi-slotted shaft capable of extending through the housing aperture and the cover plate aperture;
- a spring capable of being engaged to said shaft and capable of being received within the interior of said housing, wherein the spring is rotatable to a defined position and securable to a slot in the multi-slotted shaft to adjust the preload on the spring return operator;
- a retaining band housed in the housing and that contacts the surface of the spring at a single location along an exposed outer circumference of a spiral of the spring;
- a support plate disposed between the retaining band and the spring;
- and
- an anchor capable of securing the retaining band around the spring;
- wherein the rotary spring-return operator is engaged with a pneumatic vane actuator and the spring preload of the rotary spring-return operator is adjustable to accommodate the air supply pressure from the pneumatic vane actuator.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.