806results about "Dynamo-electric brakes/clutches" patented technology

In various embodiments, a surgical stapling instrument can comprise a plurality of magnetic elements configured to articulate an end effector of the surgical instrument. The surgical instrument can comprise at least one electromagnet which can be selectively activated, or polarized, to generate a magnetic field sufficient to motivate a second magnetic element, such as a permanent magnet and / or an iron core, for example, mounted to the end effector. In certain embodiments, a surgical stapling instrument can comprise a plurality of magnetic elements configured to open and / or close an end effector of the surgical instrument. In at least one embodiment, a surgical stapling instrument can comprise a plurality of magnetic elements configured to advance and / or retract a firing bar, cutting member, and / or staple sled within the surgical instrument in order to incise and / or staple tissue positioned within an end effector of the surgical instrument.

A control system and method for exercise equipment and the like provides a way to simulate a physical activity in a manner that takes into account the physics of the physical activity being simulated to provide an accurate simulation. According to one aspect of the present invention, the control system and method takes into account the physics of the corresponding physical activity to generate a virtual or predicted value of a variable such as velocity, acceleration, force, or the like. The difference between the virtual or expected physical variable and a measured variable is used as a control input to control resistance forces of the exercise equipment in a way that causes the user to experience forces that are the same or similar to the forces that would be encountered if the user were actually performing the physical activity being simulated rather than using the exercise equipment.

A drive transmission mechanism for transmitting torque between two or more rotary shafts in synchronization with one another without need for lubrication thereby eliminating occurrence of oil contamination, and an oil-free fluid machine equipped with the mechanism, are provided. A magnetic drive disk 16 and a synchronization gear 18 are attached to a rotary shaft 14 connected to a drive motor 11, a magnetic drive disk 17 and a synchronization gear 19 is attached to a rotary shaft 15, torque transmission from the rotary shaft 14 to the rotary shaft 15 is carried out in two ways, via the magnetic drive disks 16, 17 and via the synchronization gears 18, 19, and at least one of the synchronization gears is made of plastic material. With the construction, torque transmit load between the rotary shafts via the synchronization gears is decreased, and a plastic gear or gears can be adopted for synchronization gears without reducing life of the gears without need for lubrication oil.

An operation of drilling an earth borehole uses a drilling rig, a drill string of drill pipes having its generally upper end mechanically coupleable with and suspendable from the drilling rig, a drive string portion of the drill string, mechanically coupleable with the topmost drill pipe of said drill string, and a drive mechanism mechanically coupleable with the drive string for rotating the drive string and the drill string. A system for generating electric power in the region of the drive string includes an electric generator, which includes a rotating generator component mounted on said drive string for rotation therewith and a stationary generator component mounted on a stationary portion of the drilling rig. The rotating generator component produces electric power in the region of the drive string.

A control system and method for exercise equipment and the like provides a way to simulate a physical activity in a manner that takes into account the physics of the physical activity being simulated to provide an accurate simulation. According to one aspect of the present invention, the control system and method takes into account the physics of the corresponding physical activity to generate a virtual or predicted value of a variable such as velocity, acceleration, force, or the like. The difference between the virtual or expected physical variable and a measured variable is used as a control input to control resistance forces of the exercise equipment in a way that causes the user to experience forces that are the same or similar to the forces that would be encountered if the user were actually performing the physical activity being simulated rather than using the exercise equipment.

Embodiments of the present apparatus include a magnetic transmission. The apparatus in this embodiment may have the following components: a plurality of magnetic gears arranged to form at least two gear trains; at least two of the plurality of magnetic gears being non-coaxial; and at least one of the non-coaxial magnetic gears being moveable relative to the other magnetic gears to thereby form the at least two gear trains.

An exercise system includes a user input arrangement; a rotatable member that rotates in response to an input force applied by a user on the user input arrangement; a power sensing arrangement that senses power applied to the rotatable member due to the input force applied by the user; and a variable resistance arrangement interconnected with the power sensing arrangement and with the user input arrangement. The resistance arrangement applies resistance to rotation of the rotatable member, and is variable in response to the power sensing arrangement to vary the resistance applied to the rotatable member. The variable resistance arrangement may be a brake that interacts with the rotatable member to resist rotation of the rotatable member, and to thereby resist the input force applied by the user. The variable resistance arrangement includes a controller for controlling the brake in response to the power sensing arrangement.

An eddy current brake includes a diamagnetic member, a first support wall and a second support wall with the first and second linear arrays of permanent magnets disposed on the walls facing one another. Apparatus is provided for moving at least one of the walls in order to control eddy current induced in the member in the passage of the member therepast to adjust the braking force between the magnets and the member. Apparatus is also provided for causing the velocity of the member to change the braking force between the magnets and the member.

Apparatus, systems and methods for levitating and moving objects such as vehicles, doors and windows are shown and described herein. The embodiments incorporate a track with lower rails having lower permanent magnets and the object with upper rails having upper permanent magnets aligned with the lower rails and oriented to oppose the polarity of the lower permanent magnets. Ferrous backing plates may be incorporated behind the lower rails and / or the upper rails. Embodiments may also incorporated a third rail of an electroconductive material, and a driving disc positioned near the third rail. Permanent magnets in the driving disc may be rotated with the driving disc in the presence of the third rail to accelerate the upper rails with respects to the lower rails. The driving disc may be coupled one of the lower rails to maintain a desired alignment with the third rail.

An electrical machine apparatus having magnetic gearing embedded therein includes a moveable rotor having a first magnetic field associated therewith, a stator configured with a plurality of stationary stator windings therein, and a magnetic flux modulator interposed between the moveable rotor and the stator windings. The magnetic flux modulator is configured to transmit torque between the first magnetic field associated with said moveable rotor and a second magnetic field excited by the plurality of stationary stator windings.

A system for transferring torque between a pair of independently, concurrently rotating shafts of a turbofan engine includes a magnetic gearbox. The magnetic gearbox has a first ring structure, a second ring structure and an intermediate ring structure. Each ring structure has an annular aperture therethrough and a plurality of permanent magnets embedded therein. The intermediate ring structure is disposed between the first and the second ring structures. Each ring structure is coaxially concentric with, and independently rotatable with respect to the remaining ring structures. The first and second ring structures are each coupled to separate ones of the rotating engine shafts, and the intermediate ring is operable to transfer torque between the pair of shafts. Preferably, the intermediate ring structure is coupled to a rotating machine. The rotating machine has a controller, and is operable for adjusting a ratio of torque transferred between the pair of shafts.

A high volume low speed (HVLS) fan provides improved air circulation and thermal control in a building by incorporating composite fan blades pivotable to both positive and negative pitch angles. The blades are molded of polymer material over a metal tube core for strength and ease of attachment to the fan hub, and have a symmetrical airfoil shape to produce an efficient bi-directional conical airflow. The fan includes a control unit providing manual and automated intelligent control over blade angle and rotational speed, as well as startup with approximately zero blade angle for more economical power consumption and less motor wear. The fan structure and mounting system allows the fan to be installed at an optimal height inside a variety of buildings to provide increased efficiency of air destratification and air mixing. An array of multiple HVLS fans with alternating directions of airflow can further increase efficiency of air movement.

A hybrid-vehicle drive unit supports a motor-generator with high precision, improving the efficiency of the motor-generator, and reducing the size of the motor-generator, independent of any influence of centering precision of the crank shaft and of deformation of the torque converter. According to the invention, a motor housing is disposed between a converter housing and an internal combustion engine, and a bearing is fitted to a lateral wall provided in a front portion of the motor housing. Rotor supporting members are independently supported by the bearing. Eccentric rotation of the crank shaft resulting from explosive vibrations of the engine is counteracted by two flex plates. Owing to a predetermined clearance, one of the rotor supporting members as a separate component is free from the influence of deformation of the torque converter.

In order to provide a magnetic rotation transmitting device capable of obtaining a large transmitting torque without using a large-sized permanent magnet, in an axial-type magnetic rotation transmitting device, which includes a driving rotation body having one or plural magnetic line(s) in which plural first magnets (10A) are disposed in a circumferential direction on a first disk (11A) at almost equal intervals, a drive source rotationally driving a drive shaft of the driving rotation body, and a driven rotation body having one or plural magnet line(s) in which second magnets (20A) of the same number as the first magnets (10A) are disposed in the circumferential direction on a second disk (21A) at almost equal intervals, symmetrically disposed to, and magnetically coupled with the driving rotation body with a magnetic coupling gap and, which utilizes a magnetic operation and which allows the driven rotation body to rotate by rotationally driving the drive shaft by means of the drive source, the first magnet (10A) has a N-magnetic pole portion and a S-magnetic pole portion, and an extended surface of a boundary surface between the N-magnetic pole portion and the S-magnetic pole portion approximately overlaps with a driving center line as being a rotation center line of the driving rotation body, the second magnet (20A) has the N-magnetic pole portion and the S-magnetic pole portion, and the extended surface of the boundary surface between the N-magnetic pole portion and the S-magnetic pole portion approximately overlaps with a driven center line as being the rotation center line of the driven rotation body, adjacent and facing surfaces of the first magnets (10A) adjacent to each other on the first disk (11A) are disposed so that magnetic pole faces having the same polarity make pairs, and adjacent and facing surfaces of the second magnets (20A) adjacent to each other on the second disk (21A) are disposed so that the magnetic pole faces having the same polarity make pairs.

A drive member (1) for a water pump of the cooling-water circuit of an internal combustion engine, with a drive wheel (7) and a shaft (4) which is coupled to the water pump, is proposed. According to the invention, for the transmission of torque between the drive wheel (7) and the shaft (4), an electromagnetically actuable friction-disk clutch (9, 10, 11, 12) and a second clutch device in the form of an eddy-current clutch (14) are provided, the latter taking up the shaft (4) when the friction-disk clutch is out of engagement. Moreover, a frictional shift clutch for a drive member of this type is proposed.

A centrifugal magnetic clutch device includes, an input shaft and, a plurality of input magnets that are rotatable about an axis of the input shaft, and are radially movable relative to the input shaft axis, and are rotationally fixed to the input shaft. The device further includes, a plurality of output magnets rotatable about the input shaft axis and in axial alignment with the plurality of input magnets, and an output shaft rotationally fixed to the plurality of output magnets. The device further includes, a housing for fluidically sealing the plurality of output magnets and the output shaft relative to the plurality of input magnets and the input shaft.

An induction machine includes a stator provided with stator windings and a first rotor provided with first rotor windings, and generates an induction current in one of the stator windings and the first rotor windings by a rotating magnetic field generated in the other of the stator windings and the first rotor windings. A synchronous machine includes a second rotor which is provided with second rotor windings connected to the first rotor windings and coupled to the first rotor, and a third rotor which is provided with permanent magnets and rotatable independent of the second rotor, and a torque acts between the second rotor and the third rotor due to the interaction between the rotating magnetic field generated in the second rotor windings and the field flux generated in the permanent magnets.

A wellbore motor includes a source of rotational motive power disposed in a wellbore, a magnetic gear member operatively coupled at an input thereof to the source; and a magnetic gear member output coupled rotationally to a rotary wellbore tool.