Nabtesco Corporation

Koji Itoh

Makoto Nagashima

Toshiaki Ogawa

Masanori Hirai

Yasuyuki Shirai

Tsunehisa Nomura

An actuator-link assembly includes an actuator having first and second opposing ends in order to drive a control surface of an aircraft and a link coupled to the actuator. The actuator has a rod portion having a tip end, located at first end of the actuator, said tip end pivotably attach to a control surface of an aircraft. The link includes a pair of linear portions, each having first and second opposing ends, wherein the linear portions are disposed alongside each other; a coupling portion connecting the first ends of linear portions, a fulcrum shaft attachment portion protruding from the coupling portion configured to pivotably attach to a fulcrum shaft for rotatably supporting the control surface; and an actuator attachment portion configured to pivotably attach to the second end of the actuator. A material constituting the linear portions and the coupling portion contains fiber reinforced plastic.

Actuator-link assembly for aircraft control surface

In a material determining step, the material constituting an actuator and the material constituting a link are determined such that at least one of the materials contains fiber reinforced plastic. In a computing step, a computation model that defines the relationship between a control surface, the actuator, and the link is used to compute the change in gain margin with the change in a rigidity ratio, which is the ratio of the rigidity of the link to the rigidity of the actuator. The rigidities of the actuator and the link are determined in a rigidity determining step based on a result of the above-described computation, the shapes of the actuator and the link are determined in a shape determining step, and the actuator and the link are formed in a formation step, and are assembled in an assembly step.

Actuator-link assembly manufacturing method, actuator-link assembly designing method, and actuator-link assembly

An aircraft reaction link includes a pair of linear portions, a coupling portion that couples ends of the pair of linear portions on the same side to each other, a fulcrum shaft attachment portion, and a cylinder attachment portion. A metal frame that is made of a metallic material and that is provided so as to extend across the coupling portion and the pair of linear portions and a composite frame that is made of fiber-reinforced plastic and that is provided so as to extend at least in the pair of linear portions are bonded together, and thereby, the pair of linear portions and the coupling portion are formed. The metal frame is provided so as to extend from the fulcrum shaft attachment portion to the cylinder attachment portion.

Aircraft reaction link

An object of the present invention is to provide an electric actuator having a structure capable of reducing an external force or impact acting on a screw shaft when a piston rod is at a stretched position. An electric actuator includes a nut, a piston rod, recesses, keys, holes, and a tapered portion. Into the nut, a screw shaft is screwed. The piston rod moves linearly via the nut. The recesses are formed on an outer circumferential surface of the nut. The keys are each provided to a recess. The tapered portion is formed on an inner wall of the cylinder body. The piston rod advances to move the keys outward to cause the keys to fit to the tapered portion to block retraction of the piston rod.

Growing community of inventors

Gifu, Japan

Koji Itoh