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. 10, 2005
Filed:
Jun. 09, 2003
David A. Hinkley, La Mirada, CA (US);
Edward J. Simburger, Agoura, CA (US);
David A. Hinkley, La Mirada, CA (US);
Edward J. Simburger, Agoura, CA (US);
The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA (US);
Abstract
A conductive hinge is made of a superelastic shape memory alloy such as nitinol (NiTi) having a large elastic strain limit for enabling the hinge to bend to a small radius during stowage and flexible return to a trained rigid hinge position by training the shape memory alloy to assume a predetermined deployed configuration when released from a stowage configuration. The hinge is trained by forging at a temperature above a training temperature. The hinge is stowed and released in the superelastic state to deploy solar cell panels as the hinges unfold to the trained deployed configuration.