Incremental drives
OwnerMichael R. Evermaninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An incremental drive for the incremental driving of a rotary shaft or of a line device, having a rotary driver shaft adapted to be driven by a power means. A plurality of cams are mounted on the drive shaft each having an offset camming surface relative to the axis of rotation of the driver shaft. A shoe with a respective engagement face is fitted to a respective cam. A driven element--rotary or linear--is sequentially contacted by the engagement faces. The driver shaft is resiliently biased toward the driven element. Rotation of the driver shaft causes the shoes sequentially to drive the driven element, and the resilient bias maintains driving contact and enables relief of the shoes from the driven element during operation.
Claims10
An incremental drive comprising:
- a rotary driver shaft having an axis of rotation, said driver shaft being adapted to be driven by a power means;
- a plurality of cams mounted on said driver shaft which are rotated therewith and which have offset camming surfaces that are eccentric to the axis of rotation of the driver shaft;
- a shoe respective to each of said cams, each shoe being fitted to its respective cam to be eccentrically moved by its cam when the driver shaft is rotated, each said shoe including an engagement face;
- a driven element having an engagement surface so disposed and arranged as to be contacted by the face of said shoes;
- bias means resiliently exerting a lateral force on said driver shaft to press it toward said driven element;
- whereby rotation of said driver shaft causes said cams sequentially to press one of said shoes against said driven element and move it, while relieving another of said shoes from such contact and returning it to a position where it will again be pressed against it, thereby to move the driven element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.