GB567653A - Improvements in mechanical remote controls - Google Patents

Abstract

567,653. Bowden mechanism. CARTER, W. A., and BURGESS, G. May 12, 1943, No. 7568. [Classes 80 (ii) and 80 (iii)] In push-pull mechanism of the kind in which the movable member comprises a cable forming a core surrounded by a flexible tube composed of a number of wires wound helically side by side with adjacent turns in contact and enclosed in a guide conduit, the core and tube being connected so as to move axially as a unit the core, according to the invention, is loosely surrounded by the flexible tube so as to be readily separable therefrom and the flexible tube is composed of two, three or four wires wound with a fine pitch, the outer surface of the flexible tube being of substantially uniform diameter. The stranded flexible cable 1, Fig. 1, is surrounded by a tube composed of two wires 2, 3 each of triangular section, the base of one being on the outside and that of the other on the inside. In modifications (1) the two wires are respectively of circular and triangular section, the base of the latter being on the inside or outside, (2) four wires 9-12, Fig. 4, are wound side by side, the wires 9, 11 being of circular section and 10, 12 of triangular, section, with bases reversed. In the complete form, Fig. 5, the cable 1 is provided with a nipple 45 abutting against the end of a tubular socket 13, a recess at the other end of which receives the separable tube 2, 3. At the other end, the cable passes through a tube 14 having a shoulder 15 to abut the tube 2, 3. A tube 16, with. lock nut 17, screwed into the tube 14 serves to take up slack. The end of the .cable is secured in a socket 18 by passing through a transverse bore in a stud 19 with lock nut 46. In a further modification, Fig. 6, the core or cable 1 comprises also two layers wound tightly in helices 20, 21 of small pitch in opposite directions. In this form the core can be used to transmit torsion. The tube 2, 3 surrounds the helix 21, the guide conduit being shown at 22. Where the actuated member is a lever, thus necessitating arcuate movement of the end of the cable, a ball-andsocket-joint may be interposed in an enlarged part of the guide tube, Fig. 7 (not shown). The core 1 may be attached at either end to a rack engaging a pinion. The tube 2, 3 may be covered with flexible covering, e.g. braided wire impregnated with graphite or a synthetic resinous material.