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:
Mar. 26, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 15, 2000
Horst Bansemir, Munich, DE;
Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH, Donauwoerth, DE;
Abstract
A helicopter gimbal rotor arrangement includes a drive shaft with a rotor hub, a rotor blade holder arrangement, and a coupling membrane for transmitting the rotational drive moment from the rotor hub to the rotor blade holder arrangement. The coupling membrane includes a plate element made up of a plurality of concentric rings that are spaced apart radially by annular gaps and are connected to each other by respective connecting webs spanning across the gaps. This plate element as the coupling membrane provides torsional stiffness combined with bending flexibility to allow tilting motions of the rotor blade holder arrangement relative to the rotor hub. Plural plate elements connected in parallel provide a redundant fail-safe arrangement, while plural plate elements connected in series achieve increased flexibility for out-of-plane tilting.