Hydraulical damping element, in particular for damping of the swivel movement of a movie or television camera which is secured on a head of a tripod

A tripod head for a television or film camera including a rotatable receiving device for the camera, a shaft connected to the receiving device, a fixed stator including bearing means rotatably supporting said receiving device, and a hydraulic damping element interposed between rotatable device and stator,

• the damping element comprising a self-contained independent unit incorporating two subunits, the first subunit being composed of alternating, abutting annular disk-shaped spacers and damping disks all having the same hole diameter with outer ones of said spacers forming the outer ends of said first subunit, the second subunit being composed of alternating, abutting annular disk-shaped damping disks and spacers all having the same outside diameter with outer ones of said damping disks forming the outer ends of said second subunit, the damping disks of the two subunits being interfingered with one another in a comblike manner, the two outer damping disks of the second subunit being slidable in friction bearing relation on the outer spacers of the first subunit, and including a seal therebetween at the friction bearing interface, and damping fluid contained in the thus-sealed damping element;
• means mounting the damping element as a unit on said head and including means rigidly fixing said first subunit for rotation with said shaft and locking means for locking said second subunit in a fixed position with respect to said stator during the rotary movement of said shaft, said rigidly fixing means including an elongate pin extending through eccentrically located axial openings in said spacers and damping disks of said first subunit and then into an eccentrically located axial hole in said rotatable device, said locking means comprising teeth on one of said outer ones of said damping disks of said second subunit and means on said stator selectively interengageable therewith, said second subunit including eccentrically located axially extending means locking together said spacers and damping disks of said second subunit and free of connection to said stator means.