US3870263A

US3870263A - Self-erecting pod

Info

Publication number: US3870263A
Application number: US406271A
Authority: US
Inventors: Russell J Hardiman; Leigh David Leiter; Howard C Valle
Original assignee: Ametek Inc
Current assignee: Ametek Inc
Priority date: 1973-10-15
Filing date: 1973-10-15
Publication date: 1975-03-11
Anticipated expiration: 1992-03-11

Abstract

A self-erecting pod has an elongated body with at least three substantially equally spaced legs pivoted to the body adjacent one end thereof and extending towards the other end of the body in their stowed position. Springs cause relative pivoting between the legs and the body when the legs are released from the stowed position. Advantageously the body has recesses for the stowage of the legs and the springs are tightly coiled ribbon springs with each leg having one such spring secured at one end to the leg adjacent its pivot and the remainder of the spring extending in the uncoiled condition between the leg and the body.

Description

Hardiman et al.

v[ Mar. 11,1975

[ SELF-ERECTING POD [75] Inventors: Russell J. Hardiman, Sellersville; Primary Paul Leigh David Leiter, willow Grove; Assistant Examiner-Kenneth J. Dorner Howard Vane Doylestown! a of Attorney, Agent, or FzrmSmith, Harding, Earley & Follmer [73] Assignee: Ametek, Inc., New York, NY. [57] ABSTRACT [22] Med: 1973 A self-erecting pod has an elongated body with at least 21 APPL 40 ,271 three substantially equally spaced legs pivoted to the body adjacent one end thereof and extending towards the other end of the body in their stowed position. {52] US. Cl. i. 248/168, 16/180 Springs cause relative pivoting between the legs and [51] hit. Cl. F16! 11/38 the body when the g are released from the stowed [58] new of Search Mag/I68 171; position. Advantageously the body has recesses for the 267/156 16/180 102/4 244/158; 9/9 stowage of the legs and the springs are tightly coiled ribbon springs with each leg having one such spring [56] References cued secured at one end to the leg adjacent its pivot and the UN S ES TENTS remainder of the spring extending in the uncoiled con- 1,610,534 12/1926 Rice 248/170 on etw n h l g and the body.

2.398 794 4/1946 Maltby 102/[3 2,895.77) 7/1959 Bender 267/156 3 Clams 12 D'awmg Fgures Y. I I 1 i 1 l i I s 1 l i 36LL 3 3 VZOI l i l6 l 7 7 //I\\\\\ V "V "1 e W A W ';I v \V/KWW/ \ZI/ SELF-ERECTING POD BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There is a need for devices positioned in remote locations by various types of remotely controlled delivery systems. For example, it is known to use projectiles and parachutes to drop instruments in remote locations. Some instruments are simply dropped from aircraft or from fast moving land vehicles. The orientation of the instrument carrying pod is frequently a problem, particularly where the instrument involves an antenna associated with a radio transmitter or receiver. For example, if the pod is oriented so that a carried whip antenna is lying close and parallel to the ground, the effectiveness of the antenna may be very greatly reduced or eliminated. In accordance with this invention the pod is provided with means to erect the pod to a preferred position, for example, a substantially upright position.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The self-erecting pod has an elongated body with at least three substantially equally spaced legs pivoted to the body adjacent one end thereof and extending towards the other end thereof in their stowed position. Spring means cause relative pivoting between the legs and the body to erect the pod. Each leg is pivoted on erection to lie with its outer end in or below a plane passing through the adjacent end of the body and which is perpendicular to the axis of the body. Advantageously each leg will intersect said plane at an angle of from about to about 40. Means are provided to releaseably retain the legs in the stowed position. Advantageously, the body has recesses for the stowage of the legs and the spring means comprises in each leg a tightly coiled ribbon spring having one end secured to the legs adjacent the pivot and the remainder of the spring extending in the uncoiled condition between the leg and the body. Alternatively, a spring may be secured to the body opposite each leg and adjacent the pivot point of the leg and similarly extended to lie between the body and the leg.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a self-erecting pod in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the self-erecting pod of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a section, partially broken away, taken on the plane indicated by the line 33 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an elevation of the self-erecting pod of FIG. 1, partially broken away, showing the erection of a leg in the early stages;

FIG. 5 is an elevational view of the leg of FIG. 4 in a later stage of erection;

FIG. 6 is an elevational view of the self-erecting pod of FIG. 1 in the fully erected position;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the pod of FIG. 6 taken on the plane indicated by the line 7-7 in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a horizontal section taken on the planes indicated by the line 88 in FIG. 3;

FIG. 9 is an elevational view, partially broken away, of a leg of the pod of FIG. 1;

FIG. 10, 11 and 12 respectively are essentially schematic views illustrating the self-erecting pod of the invention in various stages of erection.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION A self-erecting pod 2 in accordance with the invention has a hollow elongated cylindrical body 4 with dome shaped

ends

6 and 8 ..The dome shape for end 6 is advantageous in order to make the pod unstable with the end 6 facing the ground. The dome shape for end 8 is desirable to streamline the pod to avert snagging in brush. End 6 has a separate access section 10 which is secured, for example, by welding as indicated at 12.

A plurality of legs 16 U-shaped in cross-section are each pivotally secured to ears l8 integral with body 4 by pins 20, body 4 being cut away as indicated at 22 and 24 to permit access to pins 20. Each leg 16 is received in a slot 28 in body 4 and extending in the direction of the length thereof. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the upper end 30 and the lower end 32 of each leg 16 is curved to conform to the outer surface of body 4 when in the stowed position within slot 28. Y

A tightly coiled spring 36 is mounted on each leg 16. Each spring 36 has a ribbon 38 of spring material with adjacent turns set to coil tightly upon each other as taught in US. Pat. No. 2,609,192 which is incorporated herein by reference. The outer end of ribbon 38 is secured to the inner portion of arm 16 adjacent pin 20 by two rivets indicated at 40, 40 (FIG. 9). As best seen in FIG. 3, ribbon 38 is unwound along the length of arm 16 until substantially fully extended to permit arm 16 to be pivoted to the stowage position. The arms 16 are retained in the stowage position within slots 28 by means of flexible steel cable 46 having

eyes

50 and 52 at its ends.

Cable 46 extends about the outer periphery of body 4 and through a faired opening 48 into the interior of body 4.

Eyes

50 and 52 are aligned and receive a retractable retaining pin 54 which passes through a stripper plate 53 above the eye 50. Pin 54 is connected to an explosive-actuated retractable actuator 56 of the bridge resistance type which is readily available from a number of manufacturers. The 228-20000 retractable actuator available from Atlas Aerospace Division of ICI America Inc. (Data Sheet 131, September 1972) is satisfactory.'The resistance bridge (not-shown) of actuator 56 is connected to a-battery indicated at 58 by line 60 and also through line 62, explosive activated time delay switch 63 of the bridge resistance type, line 65, inertia switch 64 and line 66. The resistance bridge (not shown) of switch 63 is connected to line 60 by line 63A and to line 65. Satisfactory explosive time delay switches are readily available, for example, said Atlas Aerospace Division type MS (Data Sheet 011 of September 1972). Inertia switch 64 may be any of a wide variety of impact actuated switches such as, for example, omnidirectional inertia switch model 3RO-434 made by Inertia Switch Incorporated of 31 1 West 43rd Street, New York 36, New York. The time delay switch 63 insures that the pod has come to rest before the legs start to pivot.

Section 10 of dome end 6 is not secured in position until all of the legs 16 with their respective springs 36 in the extended position have been placed in the stowed position within their respective slots 28 where they may be held initially by a simple cord (not shown) tied around body 4. Cable 46 is then passed about body 4 with

eyes

50 and 52 passing through opening 48. Pin 54 is then inserted through

eyes

50 and 52 and the actuator 56 secured to the interior of body 4 as indicated at 57. Actuator 56 is then wired to battery 58 and switch 64 is wired to battery 58. Section is then secured in position and welded as indicated at 12.

OPERATION In operation the self-erecting pod 2 is discharged from, for example, a low flying aircraft or from a land vehicle and falls to the ground where the elongated shape of body 4 and dome ends 8 and 10 cause it to topple onto its side. On impacting the ground, switch 64 is actuated by the impact and provides a flow of current from battery 58 to time delay switch 62 which after, for example, a six second delay, closes to supply a flow of current to actuator 56. The explosion of the charge within actuator 56 withdraws pin 54 from

eyes

50 and 52 to release cable 46. Springs 36 now coil up between arms 16 and body 4 causing relative pivoting between each arm 16 and body 4. Two of the arms 16 will contact the ground and will, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, cause body 4 to be rotated generally clockwise about the end adjacent pins 20 until the other two arms 16, which have pivoted fully with respect to body 4, come into contact with the ground. The action of the springs 36 of the first two arms will then result in the completion of the erection of the body 4 into a substantially upright position.

It will be appreciated that the above described embodiment is illustrative and is not intended to be limit- We claim:

1. A self-erecting pod comprising:

an elongated body,

at least three substantially equally spaced legs pivoted to the body closely adjacent one end of the body and extending towards the other end of the body in their stowed position,

spring means to erect the pod with said one end nearer the ground from a substantially prone posi tion by reacting against at least one arm supported by the ground to pivot the body relative to the ground supported arms and to pivot the remaining arms relative to the body to their supporting positions, said spring means comprising in each leg a tightly coiled ribbon spring having one end secured adjacent the pivot of the leg and the remainder of the spring extending in the uncoiled condition between the leg and the body, and

means to releasably retain said legs in the stowed position, said retaining means including means actuated on impact with the ground to release said retaining means to free the legs for pivoting and erection of the pod on the ground.

2. A self-erecting pod in accordance with claim 1 in which the body has recesses for the stowage of the legs. 3. A device in accordance with claim 1 in which the impact actuated means includes time delay means to delay the release of the legs for pivoting.

Claims

1. A self-erecting pod comprising: an elongated body, at least three substantially equally spaced legs pivoted to the body closely adjacent one end of the body and extending towards the other end of the body in their stowed position, spring means to erect the pod with said one end nearer the ground from a substantially prone position by reacting against at least one arm supported by the ground to pivot the body relative to the ground supported arms and to pivot the remaining arms relative to the body to their supporting positions, said spring means comprising in each leg a tightly coiled ribbon spring having one end secured adjacent the pivot of the leg and the remainder of the spring extending in the uncoiled condition between the leg and the body, and means to releasably retain said legs in the stowed position, said retaining means including means actuated on impact with the ground to release said retaining means to free the legs for pivoting and erection of the pod on the ground.

2. A self-erecting pod in accordance with claim 1 in which the body has recesses for the stowage of the legs.