Other

Dunlop Gmbh

John F Cole

Frederick Sidney Dowell

An instrument is structured as a guitar and control-box incorporating electronic circuitry to control an external electronic synthesizer and electronic sampling instruments via a conventional M.I.D.I. system. The instrument is played in the fashion of a guitar with digital signals generated in response to switches activated when a musician plays the instrument in a similar manner to playing a conventional guitar. Boards which are capable of movement with respect to the guitar body or arm together with displacement transducers and high efficiency touch-sensitive switches are used for note selection and to create pitch-bend, note-velocity and tremolo signals. The note and fret touch switches are mounted on fret boards which replace the strings of a conventional guitar. The fret boards also produce pitch bend signals. A plurality of pluckboards initiate note-pluck and enable ergonomic multi-timbre playing.

Guitar-style synthesizer-controllers

The invention provides a needle protector for a device incorporating a needle comprising at least one arm mounted or mountable at or generally adjacent to a hub, or blunt end of the needle, and hinged or articulated so as to be capable of folding along the needle such as to shield and protect the tip thereof, and being positively securable in that folded disposition.

Needle protection

For the pneumatic actuation of a multi-disc brake, plungers which are distributed circumferentially around the thrust ring (not shown) of the disc pack are paired and each pair is driven in the brake-application direction by a common pneumatic actuator. Thrust is transmitted from each actuator to the associated pair of plungers by a respective pair of transmission elements each of which moves at right angles to the associated actuator and plungers, each element having at its opposite ends ball-and-ramp formations with taper angles of less than 45.degree. such that the travel of each element is less than that of the associated actuator and the travel of each plunger is less than that of the associated element but the force applied by each actuator to the associated pair of plungers has twice been multiplied.

Brake assembly for a multi-disc brake including a force multiplying

The invention consists of a slack-adjuster for a brake which comprises a pair of interengaged screw threaded members which are urged towards an extended relative position by an axial bias applied to one member. The screw thread has a high helix angle to permit adjustment to take place on release of the brake and reverse rotation is prevented by frictional engagement of the leading member with a brake applying plunger part and by the use of a saw-tooth screw thread.

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Coventry, United Kingdom

John F Cole