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US 4,069,749 AGranted
Expansible drive shaft tool mechanism
AssigneeFlow Research, Inc.
InventorsJohn H. Olsen, Albert C. Saurwein
Life of this patent
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AssigneeFlow Research, Inc.
InventorsJohn H. Olsen, Albert C. Saurwein
Estimating the term…
An expansible drive shaft tool mechanism is disclosed in which mutually cooperating parallel drive shafts carry tool elements that can be shifted into and locked by shaft expansion in any of selected positions along such drive shafts. Applied hydraulic pressure in a sealed chamber causes outward expansion of a flexible outer sleeve member on each such shaft to grip the tool elements. An inner sleeve member closely encircled by the outer sleeve member and joined in sealed relationship therewith at opposite end portions forms the radially thin elongated annular sealed chamber into which the pressurized hydraulic fluid is forced by the action of a plunger type hydraulic pressure source housed inside the inner sleeve member cavity. Actuation of the hydraulic pressure source plunger passing through a cylindrical fluid take-up chamber by longitudinal displacement is effected by means of a pneumatic piston energizable through a connecting line including a low pressure rotary seal or union. Hydraulic fluid that may leak past a primary seal along the plunger is taken up in the seal chamber which, of cylindrical form, incorporates a sliding piston or seal element contacting the plunger and cavity wall and urged by a return spring to exert pressure on such accumulating hydraulic fluid tending to return it to the hydraulic cylinder. Such seal chamber including the spring-returned seal element is thus available to take up leakage of hydraulic fluid seeping past the primary seal, whether caused by operating pressure or by thermal expansion of fluid in the system, and to urge the fluid back through a check valve when the pressure drops again.
The combination comprising an elongated shaft, bearing means rotatably supporting said shaft at longitudinally spaced points thereon, at least one tool element slidably surrounding and movable to different operating positions on said shaft between said bearing means, said shaft comprising, between said bearing means, an elongated resiliently expansible cylindrical outer sleeve member and a cylindrical inner member closely surrounded by and extending longitudinally and coaxially within said outer sleeve member, means forming sealed connections between said members at longitudinally spaced points to define an annular elongated pressurizable chamber therebetween of a thickness radially of said shaft constituting a minor fraction of the average diameter of said chamber, a variable hydraulic fluid pressure source, connecting means placing said source in communication with said chamber, said source being operable to selectively increase pressure in said sealed chamber and thereby expand the diameter of said sleeve member into forcible holding engagement with said tool element.
The combination comprising an elongated shaft, bearing means rotatably supporting said shaft at longitudinally spaced points thereon, at least one tool element slideably surrounding and movable to different operating positions on said shaft between said bearing means, said shaft comprising, between said bearing means, an elongated resiliently expansible cylindrical outer sleeve member and a cylindrical inner hollow sleeve member closely surrounded by and extending longtudinally and coaxially within said outer sleeve member, means forming sealed connections between said members at longitudinally spaced points to define an annular elongated pressurizable chamber therebetween of a thickness radially of said shaft constituting a minor fraction of the average diameter of said chamber, a variable hydraulic fluid pressure source, connecting means placing said source in communication with said chamber, said source being operable to selectively increase pressure in said chamber and thereby expand the diameter of said sleeve member into forceable holding engagement with said tool element.
The combination comprising two elongated shafts, bearing means positioning said shafts in parallel adjacent relationship and rotatably supporting each of said shafts at longitudinally spaced points thereon, a plurality of tool elements slideably surrounding and movable to different operating positions on each of said shafts between said bearing means to cooperate with a tool element on the other such shaft, each of said shafts comprising, between said bearing means, an elongated resiliently expansible cylindrical outer sleeve member and a cylindrical inner member closely surrounded by and extending longitudinally and coaxially within said outer sleeve member, means forming sealed connections between said members at longitudinally spaced points to define an elongated pressurizable chamber therebetween of a thickness radially of said shaft constituting a minor fraction of the average diameter of said chamber, a variable hydraulic fluid pressure source, connecting means placing said source in communication with said chamber, said source being operable to selectively increase pressure in said chamber and thereby expand the diameter of said sleeve member into forceable holding engagement simultaneously with said tool elements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.