Radial Waveguide Flange Clamping for Assembly Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional waveguide connector technologies restrict rotational flexibility and accessibility during assembly, particularly in compact systems like communication satellites, due to screw orientation and limited access for tool manipulation.
Innovation Solution
A clamping apparatus with grooved clamping members on opposing lateral sides of the flanges, allowing for rotational adjustment and easy tool access, uses screws to compress the flanges together, facilitating efficient electromagnetic energy transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional screws are used to fasten flanges together, then the waveguide sections are securely connected, but the rotational flexibility and accessibility during assembly are restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reorients the fastening mechanism from a conventional axial screw configuration to a radial clamp configuration. The clamps extend radially outward from the waveguide axis, allowing assembly personnel to access and manipulate the clamps from the side rather than having to approach the flange face directly. This dimensional change in fastener orientation provides improved accessibility while maintaining secure connection.
Solution Approach 2:
The clamp design allows for rotational adjustment during assembly. The clamps can be rotated to different angular positions around the waveguide flange, enabling assembly personnel to orient the clamps in the most accessible position for tool application. This dynamic repositioning capability resolves the contradiction between secure connection and ease of operation.
2Strength
If screws are oriented perpendicular to the flange plane, then the flanges are securely fastened, but tool access for tightening and loosening is restricted in compact systems
Solution Approach 1:
The fastening force is applied radially outward from the waveguide axis rather than axially along the waveguide length. The clamps extend in the radial direction and apply clamping force perpendicular to the flange surface, maintaining fastening strength while allowing tool access from the side of the waveguide where space is more available in compact satellite systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The fastening function is segmented into multiple radial clamps distributed around the waveguide flange perimeter. This segmentation allows each clamp to be independently accessed and manipulated by assembly tools, improving accessibility compared to a single axial screw configuration where tool access is constrained by the flange geometry.
3Reliability
If the screw locations are fixed in the flanges, then the waveguide sections are securely connected, but rotational adjustment during assembly is not accommodated
Solution Approach 1:
The radial clamps are designed to be rotatable around the waveguide flange, providing dynamic positioning capability. During assembly, the clamps can be rotated to optimal angular positions that facilitate tool access and assembly operations. Once assembled, the clamps maintain fixed positions to ensure connection stability, thus providing both rotational flexibility during assembly and connection stability in operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The waveguide sections can be preliminarily aligned and positioned before the clamps are secured in their final positions. This preliminary alignment phase allows for rotational adjustment of the waveguide sections relative to each other, and subsequent clamp securing locks in the desired configuration, achieving both rotational flexibility during assembly and connection stability in operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A connecting system can couple two waveguides to one another, wherein each of the waveguides comprises a flange or a protruding rim. When the waveguides are connected together, the flanges can face one another in an adjoining arrangement. The connecting system can comprise two members, each having a groove, recess, or slot that receives a circumferential area of the adjoining flanges. The two members can be disposed on opposite lateral sides of the waveguides with each groove embracing a peripheral area of the adjoining flanges. A fastener or another apparatus can bring the two members towards one another, thereby causing the flanges to move deeper into the grooves. That is, the two members can clamp around opposing sides of the flanges. In response to the flanges moving deeper into the grooves, the sidewalls of the grooves can compress the flanges together to attach the waveguides to one another.