Retractable Thruster Drive Shaft With Telescopic Sections
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing retractable thrusters for marine vessels face challenges in achieving a low profile in both storage and deployment configurations, particularly for higher-powered systems, which requires minimizing space usage within the hull while ensuring safe and efficient operation, and avoiding excessive wear and tear from motor movement.
Innovation Solution
A retractable thruster assembly featuring a foldable and telescopic drive shaft with multiple sections, including a motor-side universal joint, intermediate telescopic sections, and a propeller-side universal joint, allowing for compact storage and efficient deployment, with the motor fixed relative to the housing to reduce space requirements and prevent unnecessary wear.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the motor is made movable to accommodate deployment motion, then the thruster can be deployed from storage configuration, but the motor takes up more space and increases wear and tear risk
Solution Approach 1:
The drive shaft is divided into multiple telescopic sections that can extend and retract independently. This segmentation allows the drive shaft to accommodate the deployment motion of the propeller unit while the motor remains fixed in position, reducing the space required for motor movement and minimizing wear and tear risks.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of making the motor movable to accommodate deployment, the invention inverts the approach by keeping the motor fixed and making the drive shaft telescopic. This reversal of the conventional design allows the power transmission system to adapt to deployment motion while the motor remains stationary, solving the space and reliability issues.
2Power
If the drive shaft is made rigid to transmit torque efficiently, then power transmission is improved, but the drive shaft cannot accommodate the motion between storage and deployment configurations
Solution Approach 1:
The drive shaft is designed with telescopic sections that can dynamically change length between storage and deployment configurations. This dynamic capability allows the drive shaft to accommodate the motion requirements while maintaining torque transmission efficiency through proper mechanical coupling of the telescopic sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The telescopic drive shaft sections are nested within each other, with inner sections sliding within outer sections. This nested configuration allows compact storage when retracted and full extension when deployed, while maintaining structural integrity and torque transmission capability throughout the motion range.
3Volume of stationary object
If the motor position is fixed to reduce space requirements, then hull space is optimized, but the associated wiring and mechanisms face increased wear and tear
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the drive shaft into telescopic sections, the system eliminates the need for the motor to move, thereby fixing the motor position and reducing hull space requirements. The segmentation isolates the wear and tear to the telescopic sections rather than the motor and its wiring, improving overall reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention inverts the conventional approach by keeping the motor fixed and allowing the drive transmission system to move. This reversal protects the motor and its wiring from wear and tear while still achieving the necessary deployment motion through the telescopic drive shaft mechanism.
Data Source
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AI summary
A retractable thruster assembly for a marine vessel has a propeller unit, a motor, a housing and a drive shaft linking the motor with the propeller unit. An actuator is operable to move the propeller unit from the storage configuration to a deployment configuration in a direction from inboard to outboard, the propeller unit being extended from the hull for use in the deployment configuration. The drive shaft comprises a motor-side universal joint for attachment to the motor and a propeller-side universal joint for attachment to the propeller unit. The universal joints permit folding of the drive shaft at least in the storage configuration. A motor-side telescopic section is disposed adjacent the motor-side universal joint. A propeller-side telescopic section is disposed adjacent the propeller-side universal joint. An intermediate telescopic section is disposed between the motor-side telescopic section and the propeller-side telescopic section.