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US 4,266,747 AGranted
Equipoised articulated support arm
AssigneePositioning Devices, Incorporated
InventorsJames J. Souder, Jr., Edward D. Scarborough, Jr., Merlin D. Fox
Life of this patent
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AssigneePositioning Devices, Incorporated
InventorsJames J. Souder, Jr., Edward D. Scarborough, Jr., Merlin D. Fox
Estimating the term…
An equipoising arm structure which can support relatively heavy objects, yet is compact in shape, and which can be counterbalanced by commercially available springs. The mechanism employs conventional parallelogram linkages for its lower and upper arms, with the lower arm being connected between a base bracket and a floating bracket, and the upper arm being connected between the floating bracket and a support bracket for the object. The upper arm includes a unique springing arrangement in which the ends of the springs attached to the brackets are connected beyond the conventional point of connections so as to maximize the lift of the springs when the upper arm is horizontally disposed. Means are provided for compensating for the non-linearity of such a springing arrangement over the range of angles of the upper arm that would otherwise normally occur.
In an equipoising mechanism for supporting an object at an infinite number of positions, said mechanism having a lower arm pivoted at its lower end to a base bracket and at its upper end to a floating backet, and an upper arm comprised of a pair of parallel links pivoted at one end to the floating bracket and at their other ends to a supporting bracket for the object, wherein the improvement comprises:
An equipoising mechanism for supporting an object at an infinite number of positions, said mechanism comprising a lower arm including a pair of parallel links pivoted at one end to a base bracket and at their upper ends to a floating bracket, and an upper arm pivoted at one end to the floating bracket and at its other end to a supporting bracket for the object, spring means for counterbalancing the object, and each of said links being complementarily tapered along their longitudinal axis, with the widest end of one link mounted adjacent the smallest end of the other link on the same bracket whereby to provide a complete, minimum thickness, enclosure for the counterbalancing springs throughout the range of movement of the arm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.