A locking mechanism capable of automatically realizing synchronous unlocking of rotor arms

Abstract

A locking mechanism that can automatically achieve synchronous unlocking of a rotor arm. It is composed of a shell, an inner cylinder, an outer slide, a locking hook, a pin puller and other components. The shell is used to accommodate and install the inner cylinder, the outer slide, the pin puller, and is connected to a rotorcraft; the inner cylinder and the pin puller are directly fixed to the internal lugs of the shell, the outer slide and the pin puller are fixed by screws, the locking hook is installed at the end of the rotor arm, and the outer slide and the inner cylinder are slidably matched. When the rotor arm is locked, the bent hook of the locking hook is in contact with the inner cylinder and the outer slide, thereby limiting the movement of the locking hook to achieve locking of the rotor arm. When unlocking, the pin puller is started, driving the outer slide to move downward, while releasing the contact constraints with all the locking hooks, thereby achieving synchronous unlocking of the rotor arm. The device provided by the present invention can not only automatically achieve synchronous unlocking of four rotor arms, but also prevent additional impact disturbances on the rotorcraft due to asynchronous unlocking of the rotor arms.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical fields of mechanical design and aircraft technology. Specifically, it is a locking mechanism for a small folding quadrotor configuration aircraft. Because it can automatically unlock all the rotor arms on the folding rotor aircraft at the same time, the synchronization of the unlocking of the rotor arms can be achieved. Background Art

[0002] In recent years, folding rotor aircraft have been widely popularized due to their good utilization rate of storage space. However, most folding rotor aircraft have 4 to 8 rotor arms, and the unlocking mechanism for each rotor arm is separate, and the unlocking of the rotor arms is not synchronous. At the same time, most of the existing unlocking mechanisms require manual operation and cannot achieve automatic unlocking. If the unlocking of the drone rotor arms is not synchronous, it will cause differences in the time for each rotor arm to complete deployment, which will in turn bring additional impact disturbances. If the rotor aircraft unfolds its rotor arms in the air, the additional impact disturbances caused by the asynchronous unlocking process of the rotor arms may cause the attitude of the aircraft to become chaotic. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a mechanism that can automatically achieve synchronous unlocking of the rotor arms. Summary of the Invention

[0003] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a locking mechanism that can automatically achieve synchronous unlocking of 4 drone rotor arms, so as to avoid the additional impact disturbances generated during the deployment process of the aircraft rotor arms due to the asynchronous deployment process of the rotor arms, which is beneficial to maintaining the stable flight attitude of the rotor aircraft; and combine the pin puller with the pyrotechnic device, so that the internal gunpowder ignition actuates to synchronously drive the unlocking of the rotor arms, realizing the effect of remote wing deployment.

[0004] To achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following technical solution: A locking mechanism that can automatically achieve synchronous unlocking of rotor arms, which mainly consists of a housing, an inner cylinder, an outer sliding cylinder, four locking hooks, and a pin puller. The housing is installed on the rotor aircraft. There is a lug structure with threaded through holes on the upper part of the housing for fixed connection with the rotor aircraft. There are four waist-shaped holes on the outer periphery of the housing and on the outer circumference of the inner cylinder for the hooks of the locking hooks to pass through. The outer sliding cylinder is a two-layer annular structure inside and outside. The inner cylinder is arranged between the two-layer annular structure of the outer sliding cylinder; the inner cylinder and the pin puller are fixed to the upper lug and the lower lug on the outer shell by screws respectively, the outer sliding cylinder is fixedly connected to the pin puller by screws, the locking hooks are arranged at the ends of the drone rotor arms, and the outer sliding cylinder and the inner cylinder are in sliding fit.

[0005] The housing is a thin-walled cavity part. Its upper part is provided with a threaded through-hole lug structure for fixedly connecting with a rotary-wing aircraft. There are two upper lugs on the upper layer inside and two lower lugs on the lower layer, both of which are provided with threaded holes. The upper lugs are used for fixing the inner cylinder, and the lower lugs are used for fixing the pin puller. There are four kidney-shaped holes around the outer surface of the housing for the upper hooks of the locking hooks to pass through.

[0006] The inner cylinder is a thin-walled cavity part. Its upper part has two lugs with through-holes for fixing with the housing. There are four kidney-shaped holes around its outer surface for the hooks of the locking hooks to pass through. Its outer circumferential surface is used for guiding and sliding cooperation with the outer sliding cylinder.

[0007] The outer sliding cylinder is a part with inner and outer ring structures. The outer circumferential surface of the inner ring structure and the inner circumferential surface of the outer ring structure are respectively used for contacting and restricting the hook structure of the locking hook. At the same time, the inner circumferential surface of the outer ring structure is also used for guiding and sliding cooperation with the outer circumferential surface of the inner cylinder. A through-hole for fixing with the pin puller is provided in the middle of the outer sliding cylinder.

[0008] The locking hook is a part composed of a hook and a mounting plate. Through-holes for placing countersunk head screws are provided on the mounting plate for installing the locking hook at the end of the rotor arm of the aircraft using countersunk head screws. The hook can contact and restrict the outer circumferential surface of the inner ring structure and the inner circumferential surface of the outer ring structure of the outer sliding cylinder in the locked state, thereby restricting the movement of the locking hook and realizing the locking of the rotor arm.

[0009] The pin puller is a pyrotechnic device and the power source of the whole mechanism. A thin rod extends from its upper part. When it is necessary to unlock the rotor arm, the gunpowder inside it ignites and actuates, driving the thin rod to move, making the extended length of the thin rod shorter. At this time, the pin puller switches to the unlocked state. There is a threaded hole in the center of the upper end face of the thin rod for fixing with the outer sliding cylinder. Its lower part is a planar structure with two through-holes for fixing with the housing.

[0010] As a preferred technical solution of the present invention, except for the pin puller, all parts in the mechanism are made of aluminum alloy.

[0011] The present invention has the following advantages:

[0012] The present invention can provide a locking mechanism that can automatically synchronously unlock four rotor arms, preventing additional impact disturbances on the rotary-wing aircraft due to asynchronous unlocking of the rotor arms, which is beneficial to maintaining the flight stability of the rotary-wing aircraft. At the same time, this mechanism has few parts, a compact structure, a light weight, high operating reliability, and is convenient for installation and deployment in small and medium-sized folding rotor arm aircraft. Since the present invention adopts a combination of a pin puller and a pyrotechnic device, it can make the gunpowder inside the pin puller ignite and actuate to drive the synchronous unlocking of four rotor arms, and can also achieve the effect of remote automatic wing unfolding. Description of the Drawings

[0013] Figure 1 It is a general schematic sectional view of a locking mechanism that can achieve automatic synchronous unlocking of the rotor arms. The figure mainly includes a housing 1, an inner cylinder 2, an outer sliding cylinder 3, a locking hook 4, and a pin extractor 5. The state of the mechanism in the figure is the locked state.

[0014] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the housing part.

[0015] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the inner cylinder part.

[0016] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the outer sliding cylinder part

[0017] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the locking hook part.

[0018] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of the pin extractor part in the unlocked state.

[0019] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the mechanism in the unlocked state. At this time, the pin extractor 5 is in the unlocked state, the length of the thin rod on it becomes shorter, and it pulls down to drive the outer sliding cylinder, releasing the contact constraint of the locking hook, so that the rotor arms can be unlocked and rotated to unfold.

[0020] Figure 8 It is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the entire mechanism in the sectional state of the housing.

[0021] Figure 9 It is a schematic diagram of the whole machine in the folded state of the rotor arms of the folding rotor aircraft.

[0022] Figure 10 It is a schematic diagram of the whole machine in the unfolded state after the rotor arms of the folding rotor aircraft are unlocked. Specific implementation manners

[0023] In order to make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention clearer and more understandable, the present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0024] The implementation manners of the present invention are as Figure 1 、 Figure 8 shown. The main parts include a housing 1, an inner cylinder 2, an outer sliding cylinder 3, a locking hook 4, and a pin extractor 5. The general schematic of the folding rotor aircraft corresponding to the installation of the locking mechanism is as Figure 9 、 Figure 10 shown.

[0025] As Figure 2As shown, the housing 1 is a thin-walled cavity part. It has four lug structures 11 with threaded through holes at its upper part for fixing to the aircraft. There are two upper lugs 12 in the upper layer inside and two lower lugs 13 in the lower layer, both with threaded holes. The upper lugs 12 are used for fixing the inner cylinder 2, and the lower lugs 13 are used for fixing the pull pin 5. There are four kidney-shaped holes 14 around the outer surface of the housing 1 for the hook 41 of the locking hook 4 to pass through.

[0026] As Figure 3 shown, the inner cylinder 2 is a thin-walled cavity part. Its upper part is fixedly connected to the housing 1 by two lugs 21 with through holes using screws. There are four kidney-shaped holes 22 around its outer surface for the hook 41 of the locking hook 4 to pass through. Its outer circumferential surface 23 is used for contact guiding and sliding fit with the outer sliding cylinder 4.

[0027] As Figure 4 shown, the outer sliding cylinder 3 is a part with two ring-shaped structures of an inner ring 31 and an outer ring 32. When the mechanism is in the locked state, the outer circumferential surface 311 of the inner ring 31 and the inner circumference 321 of the outer ring 32 are both in contact with the hook 41 of the locking hook 4 for constraint. At the same time, the inner circumferential surface 321 of the outer ring 32 is also used for contact guiding and sliding fit with the outer circumferential surface 23 of the inner cylinder 2. A through hole 33 for fixing to the pull pin 5 is provided in the middle of the outer sliding cylinder 3, and the outer sliding cylinder 3 is fixed to the pull pin 5 by screws.

[0028] As Figure 5 shown, the locking hook 4 is a part composed of a hook 41 and a mounting plate 42. In this embodiment, there are four countersunk screw through holes 421 on the mounting plate 42 for using countersunk screws to install the locking hook 4 at the end of the rotor arm of the folding rotor aircraft. The installation of the locking hook 4 at the end of the rotor arm is shown as Figure 7 shown.

[0029] As Figure 6 shown, the pull pin 5 is a pyrotechnic device and the power source of the entire locking mechanism. A thin rod 51 extends from its upper part. When it is necessary to unlock the rotor arm, the gunpowder inside it ignites and actuates, driving the thin rod 51 to move, making the extended length shorter. At this time, the pull pin 5 switches to the unlocked state. There is a screw hole 511 at the center of the upper end face of the thin rod 51 for fixedly connecting with the outer sliding cylinder 3. Its lower part is a planar structure 52 with two through holes for fixing to the housing 1.

[0030] As Figure 1 shown, when the entire mechanism is in the locked state, the hooks 41 of the four locking hooks 4 of the folding rotor aircraft are in contact with the outer circumferential surface 311 of the inner ring 31 and the inner circumference 321 of the outer ring 32 of the outer sliding cylinder 3 for constraint, thereby restricting the movement of the four locking hooks 4 and realizing the locking of the four rotor arms of all aircraft.

[0031] As Figure 7 shown, when unlocking is required, the pin extractor 5 receives an unlocking signal. The thin rod 51 of the pin extractor 5 drives the outer sliding cylinder 3 to move downward by a certain distance, and at the same time releases the contact constraint with the hooks 41 of all the locking hooks 4. At this time, the hooks 41 of all the locking hooks 4 can leave the waist-shaped holes 22 of the inner cylinder 2 and the waist-shaped holes 4 of the housing 1 and move outward, thereby realizing the synchronous unlocking of the rotor arms, and the rotor arms can be rotated and unfolded under the drive of an external force.

Claims

1. A locking mechanism capable of automatically realizing synchronous unlocking of rotor arms, comprising a housing, an inner cylinder, an outer sliding cylinder, four locking hooks, and a pin extractor, characterized in that, The housing is mounted on the rotary-wing aircraft. There are lug structures for fixed connection with the rotary-wing aircraft at the upper part of the housing. There are four waist-shaped holes for the locking hook bends to pass through around the outer surface of the housing and around the outer surface of the inner cylinder respectively. The inner cylinder and the pin puller are fixed to the upper lug and the lower lug on the outer shell by screws respectively. The outer sliding cylinder is a two-layer annular structure. The inner cylinder is arranged between the two-layer annular structure of the outer sliding cylinder. The outer sliding cylinder is fixedly connected to the pin puller by screws. The locking hook is arranged at the end of the rotor arm of the UAV. The outer sliding cylinder and the inner cylinder are in sliding fit. The pin puller is a pyrotechnic device. The housing is a cavity thin-wall part, and there are two upper lugs with threaded holes inside for fixing the inner cylinder and two lower lugs for fixing the pin puller inside. The inner cylinder is a cavity thin-wall part. There are two through-hole lugs for fixing with the housing at its upper part. There are four waist-shaped holes around its outer surface. Its outer circumferential surface is in sliding fit with the outer sliding cylinder. The outer sliding cylinder is a part with a two-layer annular structure. The outer circumferential surface of the inner annular structure and the inner circumferential surface of the outer ring are respectively used to contact and restrain the locking hook bend. At the same time, the inner circumferential surface of the outer ring is also in guiding and sliding fit with the outer circular surface of the inner cylinder. A through-hole for fixing with the pin puller is arranged in the middle of the outer sliding cylinder.

2. The locking mechanism for automatically realizing synchronous unlocking of rotor arms according to claim 1, characterized in that, The locking hook is a part composed of a bend and a mounting plate. There are countersunk screw through-holes on the mounting plate. In the locked state, the bend contacts and restrains the outer circumferential surface of the inner annular structure of the outer sliding cylinder and the inner circumferential surface of the outer ring structure.

3. The locking mechanism for automatically realizing synchronous unlocking of rotor arms according to any one of claims 1 to 2, characterized in that, Each part is made of aluminum alloy.

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