Flexible Guide Assembly With Offset Rotation Centers for Watch Resonators
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mechanical watches with Swiss lever escapements suffer from low energy efficiency due to jerky movements, friction, and the limitations of conventional balance springs and pivots, while flexible guides with uncrossed strips face issues with angular travel and gravity effects.
Innovation Solution
A flexible guide assembly for a rotating resonator mechanism comprising two or more flexible guides in series, with offset centers of rotation, allowing for greater angular travel and improved control of unwanted motions, minimizing the effect of gravity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If conventional balance spring and pivot are used, then angular travel is sufficient (300°), but friction occurs and energy efficiency is low
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the conventional mechanical pivot system with a flexible guide assembly consisting of elastic strips. This substitution eliminates the need for physical contact between the balance and the pivot point, thereby removing friction-related energy losses while maintaining the necessary angular travel for the resonator mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs flexible strips made of elastic material to guide the balance movement. These thin flexible elements replace rigid mechanical guides and pivots, allowing frictionless motion through elastic deformation rather than mechanical contact, thus improving energy efficiency by eliminating friction.
2Ease of operation
If flexible guide with uncrossed strips is used, then friction is eliminated, but angular travel is insufficient (10° to 20°)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the flexible guide system into multiple separate elastic strips arranged in a specific configuration. By segmenting the guide into multiple strips with different orientations and attachment points, the system achieves both large angular travel capability and proper guidance control, overcoming the limitation of single-strip designs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extends the flexible guide system from a single-plane configuration to a multi-dimensional arrangement with strips positioned at different orientations and depths. This dimensional expansion allows the balance to traverse larger angular distances while maintaining controlled guidance through the three-dimensional strip configuration.
3Ease of operation
If several flexible guides are placed in series, then angular travel is increased, but control of unwanted motions becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs an asymmetric arrangement of the flexible strips where each strip has a specific orientation, length, and attachment position that is deliberately non-uniform. This asymmetric configuration provides differential guidance for desired versus unwanted motions, enabling the system to achieve large angular travel while automatically suppressing parasitic movements through the non-symmetric strip geometry.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible strip configuration creates an inherent feedback mechanism where unwanted motions of the balance are automatically counteracted by the elastic restoring forces of the strips. The strips are positioned and dimensioned so that any deviation from the intended motion path generates restoring forces that guide the balance back toward proper operation, providing passive feedback control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The assembly achieves enhanced energy efficiency and precise control of unwanted motions, reducing friction and gravity impacts, thereby improving the operation of mechanical watches.
Implementation Method 1
a first pair of flexible strips connected to the first movable element, such that the first movable element can move by bending the strips of the first pair in a circular motion about a first centre of rotation
Data Source
AI summary
A flexible guide assembly for a rotating resonator mechanism, the assembly including a fixed support and two flexible guides extending in substantially the same plane or in two different parallel planes, the first flexible guide including a first element movable with respect to the fixed support, a first pair of flexible strips connected to the first movable element, such that the first movable element can move by bending the strips of the first pair in a circular motion about a first centre of rotation, the second flexible guide includes a second element movable with respect to first movable element, a second pair of flexible strips connecting the second movable element to the first movable element, such that the second movable element can move with respect to the first movable element by bending the strips of the second pair in a circular motion about a second centre of rotation. The first centre of rotation and the second centre of rotation are offset by a first predefined distance belonging to a plane of the assembly.