Support for a watch middle

Abstract

The invention provides a support comprising a support head (11) comprising a carrier plate (25) for carrying a case intermediate piece; the support head further comprises a foot (27) provided with a transverse pin (30). The support further comprises a tubular portion (15) having an open end and a closed end, and a spring (31) is provided inside the tubular portion. At its open end, the wall of the tubular portion is provided with a pair of grooves (16) configured to retain both ends of the transverse pin (30) upon compression of the spring and rotation of the footing, thereby forming a bayonet connection between the support head (11) and the tubular portion (15). Therefore, the watchcase middleware can be quickly transferred among different polishing machines, and repeated screwing or unscrewing operation on the watchcase middleware is not needed.

Description

The present invention provides a support member comprising a support head (11), the support head including a carrying plate (25) configured to support a watch case middle. The support head further includes a base portion (27) provided with a transverse pin (30). The support member further comprises a tubular portion (15) having an open end and a closed end, with a spring (31) disposed within the tubular portion. At the open end, the wall of the tubular portion is provided with a pair of grooves (16), the pair of grooves being configured to retain opposite ends of the transverse pin (30) after compression of the spring and rotation of the base portion, thereby forming a bayonet connection between the support head (11) and the tubular portion (15). Accordingly, the present invention enables rapid transfer of the watch case middle between different polishing machines without the need for repeated screwing or unscrewing operations on the watch case middle.

Claims

1. A support (5) for a watch case intermediate (1) in a chemical mechanical polishing machine, said support comprising: The base (10), which forms part of the support structure of the chemical mechanical polishing machine or is designed to be detachably attached to the support structure, includes a tubular portion (15) having an open end and a closed end; Support head (11), the support head comprising: A support plate (25) having an upper surface and a lower surface, the support plate being designed to support the watch case intermediate (1) which is detachably attached to the upper surface of the support plate; A foot (27) is fastened to the center of the lower surface of the bearing plate (25) and is provided with a transverse pin (30); in: The tubular portion (15) includes a spring (31) located inside the tubular portion, and includes a pair of grooves (16) in the wall of the tubular portion and located at the open end of the tubular portion; The assembly consisting of the spring (31), the groove (16), the foot (27), and the transverse pin (30) is adapted to attach the support head (11) to the base (10) via a bayonet connection.

2. The support member according to claim 1, wherein, The spring (31) is arranged between two components (35, 36). In a cross-sectional view along a plane passing through the central axis (9) of the tubular portion (15), both components are T-shaped. The portions of the two components that form the vertical legs of the T-shape are inserted into the spring (31). The two components include a proximal component (35) installed at the bottom of the tubular portion and a distal component (36) installed near the open end of the tubular portion (15).

3. The support member according to claim 2, wherein, The distal component (36) includes a removable transverse pin (39) whose two ends are inserted into an elongated opening (41) oriented in a direction parallel to the central axis (9) of the tubular portion (15) to restrict longitudinal movement of the distal component (36) relative to the tubular portion within a predetermined longitudinal path.

4. The support member according to any one of the preceding claims further includes a sleeve (12) arranged around the tubular portion (15), wherein the tubular portion is provided with grooves (18, 28) and O-rings (19, 29) are provided in the grooves so as to achieve the sealing of the bayonet connection by contact between the inner surface of the sleeve (12) and the O-rings.

5. The support member according to claim 3, further comprising a sleeve (12) arranged around the tubular portion (15), wherein: The proximal component (35) of the T-shape includes a removable transverse pin (38) whose two ends are inserted into a pair of holes (45) provided on the sleeve (12), such that rotation of the sleeve relative to the tubular portion (15) can cause the proximal component (35) to rotate relative to the distal component (36). The two ends of the transverse pin (38) of the proximal part (35) are also inserted into a pair of elongated openings (40) in the wall of the tubular part (15), the elongated openings (40) being oriented perpendicular to the central axis (9) of the tubular part, thereby restricting the rotation of the sleeve (12) and the rotation of the proximal part (35) within a predetermined angular path, the predetermined angular path extending between two angular positions of the sleeve; The proximal end (35) and distal end (36) of the T-shape are provided with notches (37) facing the interior of the spring (31); The notch (37) is arranged such that: At the first of the two angular positions of the sleeve (12), movement of the distal part (36) toward the proximal part (35) is prevented, thereby locking the bayonet connection when the bayonet connection is closed; At the second of the two angular positions of the sleeve (12), the distal component (36) is allowed to move closer to the proximal component (35), which is necessary to close or open the bayonet connection.

6. The support member according to claim 5 further includes a pin (46) having a spring-loaded ball (47) inserted laterally into the tubular portion (15), the spring-loaded ball being configured to fit into either of two recesses inside the sleeve (12) to indicate that the sleeve has reached either of its two angular positions.

7. The support member according to claim 5 or 6, wherein, The tubular portion (15) is provided with grooves (18, 28), wherein an O-ring (19, 29) is installed in the groove, thereby achieving the seal of the bayonet connection through the contact between the inner surface of the sleeve (12) and the O-ring.

8. The support member according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein, The base (10) of the support member includes a rod-shaped portion (13), and the tubular portion (15) is fixed to or integrally formed with the rod-shaped portion. The rod-shaped portion (13) is designed to be installed in a hole in a support structure in the form of a tray (3) of the chemical mechanical polishing machine.

9. The support member according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein, The base (10) of the support member forms part of the support structure of the chemical mechanical polishing machine.

10. The support member according to claim 9, wherein, The support structure includes a plurality of arms extending outward in a star shape from the center of the support structure, and the base (10) of the support member is fixed to one of the arms or integrally formed with one of the arms.

11. An apparatus comprising multiple chemical mechanical polishing machines of different types, the chemical mechanical polishing machines comprising different support structures for supporting multiple case intermediates (1), wherein each of the support structures comprises multiple support members according to any one of the preceding claims, the support members on the different chemical mechanical polishing machines being designed to receive the same support head (11) via the bayonet connection.

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