Flexible wire
AssigneeNtn Corporation
InventorsHiroshi Isobe, Takayoshi Ozaki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A flexible wire assembly of a compact structure that can transmit the torque for a high speed rotation even in a bent condition is provided. The flexible wire assembly includes a flexible outer tube, in which a flexible inner wire having its opposite ends defining rotation input and output ends, respectively, is rotatably supported by means of a plurality of rolling bearings. Spring elements are employed for applying preloads to those rolling bearings. The use is also made of a speed reducing mechanism for reducing in speed and outputting rotation of the inner wire. The spring elements include inner ring spring elements and outer ring spring elements that are alternately arranged over the length of the inner wire.
Claims11
A flexible wire assembly which comprises:
- a flexible outer tube;
- a flexible inner wire rotatably extending in the flexible outer tube and having an input end of rotation and an output end of rotation opposite to each other;
- a plurality of rolling bearings for rotatably supporting the flexible inner wire;
- spring elements interposed between the neighboring rolling bearings for applying respective preloads to the rolling bearings;
- and
- a speed reducing mechanism drivingly connected with the rotation output end of the inner wire for reducing the speed of the rotation of the inner wire and outputting the rotation of the inner wire,
- wherein each of the rolling bearings has an inner ring and an outer ring and in which the spring elements includes an inner ring spring element in the form of a coiled compression spring for applying the preload to the inner ring and an outer ring spring element in the form of a coiled compression spring for applying the preload to the outer ring, the inner and outer ring spring elements being arranged alternately in a direction lengthwise of the inner wire.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.