The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 29, 1990
Filed:
Apr. 12, 1988
John A La Plante, Winchester, MA (US);
Robert D Schaefer, Huntington Beach, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
An optical element (10) is mounted and aligned with minimum strain and distortion within a support (12) to which at least three mounts (14) are attached and spaced 120.degree. about the periphery of the optical element. Each mount comprises a spherical disc (16) spherically contacting a spherical surface (30) on a seat (20) which is linearly moveable within a housing (18). Each disc abuts and supports the optical element. Any loading exerted on the support causes the discs to rotate with respect to the seats and the seats to reciprocate with respect to the annular disc-retaining housings to prevent such loadings from being transmitted to the optical element, thereby enabling the optical element to maintain a chosen, strain-free orientation with pressure on the spherical disc being evenly distributed.