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US 12,038,069 B2Granted
Mechanical linear actuators
AssigneeCarl Erickson
InventorCarl Erickson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a linear actuator comprised of a tube and method of deploying 3 spools of strips into a tube by consolidating the strips in an overlapping condition with each other each in a helical form of a constant diameter.
Claims17
An extendable tube comprising:
- a strip that is core strip able to be caused to progressively deploy from an at least substantially stowed format and into, or undeploy to its at least substantially stowed format from, a helical tubular form,
- an outer strip able to be caused, as the core strip deploys or undeploys, to progressively deploy from an at least substantially stowed format and into a helical tubular form, or undeploy to its at least substantially stowed format from, a helical tubular form about the tubular form of the core strip when the outer strip is deployed to anchor with said core strip and lay over and about one edge to edge contact or proximate region of the core strip of the tubular form of the core strip, and
- an inner strip able to be caused, as the core strip deploys or undeploys, to progressively deploy from an at least substantially stowed format and into, or undeploy to its at least substantially stowed format from, a helical tubular form within the tubular form of the core strip and when the inner strip is deployed to anchor with said core strip and to lay over and within the other edge to edge contact or proximate region of the core strip of the tubular form of the core strip,
- wherein, the core strip is in direct overlay contact with the inner strip when in their tubular form and the outer strip is in direct overlay contact with the core strip when in their tubular form.
1 more element
An extendable tube able to be assembled to a tubular form and disassembled to a non-tubular stored condition, the tube comprising of three flexible strips namely:
- a core strip able to be wound from the stored condition into and back from a tubular helical form and having a leading and trailing edge at where complementary shaped connector sections present a row of identical connector shapes so that the leading edge of one winding of the tubular helical form of the core strip can key with the trailing edge of an adjacent winding of the tubular helical form of the core strip in a leading to trailing edge abutting manner, the core strip carrying a row of protrusions extending orthogonally from one or both major faces of the core strip,
- an inner strip of width equal to the width to the core strip able to be wound from a stored condition together with the core strip into and back from a helical tubular form inside of and against the core strip and comprising a row of holes for mating with the protrusions of the core strip,
- an outer strip preferably of a width equal to the width of the core strip able to be wound from a stored condition together with the core strip into and back from a helical tubular form outside of and against the core strip and comprising a row of holes for mating with the protrusions of the core strip, and
- wherein when assembled:
- the inner strip is presented at the trailing edge of the core strip in a manner to prevent the connector formations of the leading edge of an adjacent winding of the core strip that are engaged with the connector formations of the core strip at the trailing edge of the core strip from moving radially inwardly of the tubular helical form, and
- the outer strip is presented at the leading edge of the core strip in a manner to prevent the connector formations of the trailing edge of an adjacent winding of the core strip that are engaged with the connector formations of the core strip at the leading edge of the core strip from moving radially outwardly of the tubular helical form.
3 more elements
An extendable tube able to be assembled to a tubular form and disassembled to a non-tubular stored condition, the tube comprising of three flexible strips namely:
- a core strip able to be wound from the stored condition into and back from a tubular helical form and having a leading and trailing edge at where complementary shaped connector sections present a row of identical connector shapes so that the leading edge of one winding of the tubular helical form of the core strip can key with the trailing edge of an adjacent winding of the tubular helical form of the core strip in a leading to trailing edge abutting manner, the core strip carrying a row of protrusions extending orthogonally from both major faces of the core strip,
- an inner strip preferably of width equal to a width to the core strip able to be wound from a stored condition together with the core strip into and back from a helical tubular form inside of and against the core strip and comprising a row of holes for mating with the protrusions of the core strip,
- an outer strip preferably of a width equal to the width of the core strip able to be wound from a stored condition together with the core strip into and back from a helical tubular form outside of and against the core strip and comprising a row of holes for mating with the protrusions of the core strip, and
- wherein when assembled:
- the inner strip is presented at the leading edge of the core strip in a manner to prevent the connector formations of the trailing edge of an adjacent winding of the core strip that are engaged with the connector formations of the core strip at the leading edge of the core strip from moving radially inwardly of the tubular helical form, and
- the outer strip is presented at the trailing edge of the core strip in a manner to prevent the connector formations of the leading edge of an adjacent winding of the core strip that are engaged with the connector formations of the core strip at the trailing edge of the core strip from moving radially outwardly of the tubular helical form.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.