The United States of America As Represented by the United States

The United States of America As Represented by the Department of Energy

The United States of America As Represented by the United States Energy

Charles E Knight, Jr

Roy E Pollard

Howard L Gerth

Louis Kovach

Robert M Pardue

William S Dritt

James J Kelly

John S Hurst

The present invention is directed to an improved rim or a high-performance rotary inertial energy storage device (flywheel). The improved rim is fabricated from resin impregnated filamentary material which is circumferentially wound in a side-by-side relationship to form a plurality of discretely and sequentially formed concentric layers of filamentary material that are bound together in a resin matrix. The improved rim is provided by prestressing the filamentary material in each successive layer to a prescribed tension loading in accordance with a predetermined schedule during the winding thereof and then curing the resin in each layer prior to forming the next layer for providing a prestress distribution within the rim to effect a self-equilibrating compressive prestress within the windings which counterbalances the transverse or radial tensile stresses generated during rotation of the rim for inhibiting deleterious delamination problems.

Rim for rotary inertial energy storage device and method

The inertial energy storage device of the present invention comprises a composite ring formed of circumferentially wound resin-impregnated filament material, a flanged hollow metal hub concentrically disposed in the ring, and a plurality of discrete filament bandsets coupling the hub to the ring. Each bandset is formed of a pair of parallel bands affixed to the hub in a spaced apart relationship with the axis of rotation of the hub being disposed between the bands and with each band being in the configuration of a hoop extending about the ring along a chordal plane thereof. The bandsets are disposed in an angular relationship with one another so as to encircle the ring at spaced-apart circumferential locations while being disposed in an overlapping relationship on the flanges of the hub. The energy storage device of the present invention has the capability of substantial energy storage due to the relationship of the filament bands to the ring and the flanged hub.

Inertial energy storage device

Machine tools utilized in precision machine operations require tool support structures which exhibit minimal deflection, thermal expansion and vibration characteristics. The tool support structure of the present invention is a graphite fiber reinforced composite in which layers of the graphite fibers or yarn are disposed in a 0/90.degree. pattern and bonded together with an epoxy resin. The finished composite possesses a low coefficient of thermal expansion and a substantially greater elastic modulus, stiffness-to-weight ratio, and damping factor than a conventional steel tool support utilized in similar machining operations.

Graphite fiber reinforced structure for supporting machine tools

The present invention relates to a filament wound spherical structure comprising a plurality of filament band sets disposed about the surface of a mandrel with each band of each set formed of a continuous filament circumferentially wound about the mandrel a selected number of circuits and with each circuit of filament being wound parallel to and contiguous with an immediate previously wound circuit. Each filament band in each band set is wound at the same helix angle from the axis of revolution of the mandrel and all of the bands of each set are uniformly distributed about the mandrel circumference. The pole-to-equator wall thickness taper associated with each band set, as several contiguous band sets are wound about the mandrel starting at the poles, is accumulative as the band sets are nested to provide a complete filament wound sphere of essentially uniform thickness.

Growing community of inventors

Knoxville, TN, United States of America

Charles E Knight, Jr