Stabilus Gmbh

Autoflug Gmbh

Gas Spring Company, Division of Fichtel & Sachs Industries, Inc.

Hermann Reuschenbach

Rolf Langanke

Egon Sentinger

Winfried Wirges

Werner Molders

Willi Schafer

Michael Hoenigs

Central belt lock, particularly for a parachute harness

A fluid-operated actuating device of the type including an actuating cylinder member, an axially movable actuating piston rod member, and actuating fluid connection means for introducing actuating fluid to and removing actuating fluid from the actuating cylinder member so as to adjust the relative axial position of the actuating cylinder and piston members and including structure for damping the movement of the piston rod member with respect to the cylinder member.

Fluid-operated actuating device

In the illustrative embodiments of the invention disclosed, the extension rce of a gas spring is controlled as a function of temperature by varying the volume of the working chamber entered by the piston rod, and thus the gas pressure within the working chamber, as a function of temperature.

Gas spring with extension force controlled as a function of temperature

A gas spring for height adjustment of drawing-tables or the like includes an arrangement for hydraulically locking the gas spring against sudden collapse due to overloading or loss of internal gas pressure. The hydraulic locking mechanism includes a pressure responsive valve which operates, in response to an excess pressure differential between the gas spring cavity and the pressurized gas chamber, either to prevent flow of the hydraulic locking medium out of the cylinder cavity or to restrict such flow to a slow, safe rate.

Gas spring including hydraulic locking means

In the illustrative embodiments of the invention described, a gas spring useful as a height-adjustment and weight-compensation device, as, for example, in a height-adjustable table, includes structure that is responsive to the drop in gas pressure within the primary cylinder below a predetermined level to lock or brake the piston rod against abrupt movement with respect to the primary cylinder if a compressive load is thereafter applied to the gas spring. The pressure-responsive structure preferably includes a sealed auxiliary cylinder-piston unit carried by the piston rod internally of the gas spring. The auxiliary unit contains a separate pressurized body of gas, and either the auxiliary cylinder or piston is axially movable, in response to the greater internal pressure within the auxiliary unit when gas pressure within the primary cylinder drops too low, to engage the locking or braking device. So long as gas pressure within the primary cylinder remains above the predetermined minimum level, the braking device is biased away from the engaged position.

Gas spring

In the illustrative embodiments described, the two compartments of the cylinder cavity of a gas spring of the piston-and-cylinder type, separated by a piston assembly, are connected by first and second passages extending across the piston. A valve arrangement on the piston assembly opens the second passage in response to movement of the piston assembly towards a terminal position in the cylinder and closes the second passage in response to movement of the piston assembly away from the terminal position. The first passage is open at all positions of the piston assembly remote from the terminal position. Releasable locking structure in the cylinder is operable to close the first passage as the piston assembly approaches the terminal position, thereby to hold the piston assembly in such terminal position until the locking force is manually overridden.

Gas spring with means for retaining piston adjacent one terminal position

In the illustrative embodiments disclosed, a pressurized cylinder-and-piston rod device, such as a gas spring, includes structure for releasably retaining the piston rod at a terminal position within the cylinder against the fluid pressure tending to expel it. Provision is also made for the fluid pressure to aid in further withdrawing the piston rod into the cylinder after the retaining structure has been engaged.

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Rossbach, Germany

Hermann Reuschenbach