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:
Feb. 26, 2013
Filed:
Sep. 08, 2009
Thomas W. Murphey, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Joseph N. Footdale, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Thomas W. Murphey, Albuquerque, NM (US);
Joseph N. Footdale, Albuquerque, NM (US);
The United States of America as Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
A non-planar surface support structure that is compatible with deployable thin shell reflector segments. The structure is composed of multiple four strut closed loops connected to compliant hinges at the nodes to create an effective surface. The deployed surface shape is determined by the strut lengths (L) and the node locations and the packaged compatibility constraint in which L+L−L−Lapproximately equals zero. Each of the compliant hinges have degrees of freedom such that the compact configuration of the support structure is obtained by the translation of two opposite nodes of each loop upwards and the remaining two nodes downwards in a continuous process until all struts are approximately parallel and tightly bundled and the hinges lock out all degrees of freedom in the deployed configuration.