Method and apparatus for manufacturing slow-wave structures for traveling-wave tubes
AssigneeHughes Aircraft Company
InventorManuel A. Trujillo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tubular blank from which a slow-wave structure is to be formed is mounted on a mandrel in front of and spaced slightly from an electrode having a predetermined pattern of slots corresponding to areas along the tubular blank from which material is not to be removed. The blank and the electrode are connected to an electrical discharge machine to establish electrical discharges between the blank and the electrode, and the mandrel and the blank carried thereby are simultaneously advanced and rotated past the electrode. Portions of the blank adjacent to the non-slotted surface portions of the electrode are removed, while the portions of the blank adjacent to the slots in the electrode are retained.
Claims27
Apparatus for machining tubular objects comprising:
- a base for attachment to an electrical discharge machine, said base having a mounting surface carrying an electrode thereon with the electrode having a face, said face having recessed portions therein and terminating in a planar electrode front surface;
- a ram movably mounted with respect to said base along an axis parallel to said electrode face;
- a mandrel rotatably mounted on said ram so that the axis of rotation of said mandrel is parallel to said electrode face;
- and
- means interconnecting said base and said mandrel so that as said ram moves along said axis said mandrel rotates in a plane parallel to said electrode face.
Apparatus for forming tubular structures comprising:
- means carrying an electrode having a planar face and recesses extending inwardly from said planar face;
- means rotatably and translationally carrying a tube so that the external surface of said tube is located a substantially constant distance from said electrode face;
- means for causing translational advance of said tube;
- means for rotating said tube as it is translationally advanced so that said tube moves past the surface of said electrode face while spaced therefrom at a distance such that when said electrode and said tube are electrically activated in an electrical discharge machine, said tube is machined in accordance with the pattern of said recesses in said electrode.
A method for forming a machined tubular structure comprising the steps of:
- positioning a tubular blank from which the resultant structure is to be formed in front of and spaced from a planar surface of an electrode having recesses extending inwardly from said planar surface corresponding to areas along said tubular blank from which material is not to be removed;
- and
- electrically machining said tubular blank by said electrode while simultaneously advancing and rotating said tubular blank past said electrode, whereby portions of said tubular blank adjacent to the non-recessed portions of said planar surface are removed and portions of said tubular blank adjacent to the recesses in said electrode are retained.
A method for forming a slow-wave structure comprising the steps of:
- positioning a tubular blank from which the slow-wave structure is to be formed in front of and spaced from a planar surface of an electrode having slots extending inwardly from said planar surface corresponding to areas along said tubular blank from which material is not to be removed;
- and
- electrically machining said tubular blank by said electrode while simultaneously advancing and rotating said tubular blank past said electrode, whereby portions of said tubular blank adjacent to the non-slotted portions of said planar surface are removed and portions of said tubular blank adjacent to the slots in said electrode are retained.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.