Tape wrapped, fabric reinforced, flex bearing
AssigneeThiokol Corporation
InventorBrian Simmons
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A flexible bearing for a rocket motor is constructed by forming a relatively very thin coating (about 0.01 inches thick) of an elastomer such as natural rubber on one surface at least of an equally thin continuous reinforcement strip of pliable fabric, and wrapping the coated fabric strip about an axis of rotation with a multiplicity of turns to form a laminated component comprising a continuous helical coil having aligned edges defining the transverse width thereof and having spaced top and bottom surfaces, the function of the reinforcement strip being containment of the elastomer, whereby a laminated helical coil, and hence, flexible bearing, with a given amount of elastomer contained therein for shearing, is produced with a substantially reduced dimension between the bearing top and bottom surfaces.
Claims20
A method of making a flexible bearing usable between a rocket motor case and a movable thrust nozzle therefor, the method comprises coating a layer of elastomer onto at least one face of an elongated pliable fabric reinforcement strip having opposed faces that have longitudinal and transverse dimensions, and wrapping the coated fabric reinforcement strip around an axis of rotation on a form the surface configuration of at least a portion of which is spherical with a multiplicity of turns thereby providing spaced surfaces of the flexible bearing for bonding between the case and nozzle respectively which conform to the surfaces of concentric spheres whereby the thrust nozzle may be rotated about a fixed point on the bearing axis to enable stable and controllable vectoring of the thrust nozzle for precision steering of the rocket and such that the turns of coated pliable fabric reinforcement strip are generally parallel to said spaced surfaces whereby the layer of elastomer is substantially incompressible to forces applied normal to the opposed faces of the reinforcement strip but yields to forces applied transversely to the opposed faces whereby adjacent face surfaces may shift transversely in shearing relationship relative to each other while the spacing therebetween may be maintained substantially constant by the layer of elastomer.
A flexible bearing for use between a rocket motor case and a movable thrust nozzle therefor, the flexible bearing comprises an elongated pliable fabric reinforcement strip which has opposed faces that have longitudinal and transverse dimensions and which is wrapped around an axis of rotation with a multiplicity of turns, a coating of elastomer on at least one of said opposed faces, and means including spaced surfaces for mounting the coated and wrapped pliable reinforcement strip between the rocket motor case and the movable thrust nozzle, said spaced surfaces generally conform to the surfaces of concentric spheres whereby the thrust nozzle may be rotated about a fixed point on the bearing axis to enable stable and controllable vectoring of the thrust nozzle for precision steering of the rocket, and the turns of coated fabric reinforcement strip are generally parallel to said spaced surfaces whereby the layer of elastomer is substantially incompressible to forces applied normal to the opposed faces of the reinforcement strip but yields to forces applied transversely to the opposed faces whereby adjacent face surfaces may shift transversely in shearing relationship relative to each other while the spacing therebetween may be maintained substantially constant by the layer of elastomer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.