Watch Regulating Member Eliminates Balance Spring Energy Loss
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing watch movement escapement mechanisms suffer from energy inefficiency due to energy dissipation caused by Earth's gravity, friction, and resistance in the balance spring, limiting the 100% utilization of energy from the power source.
Innovation Solution
A regulating organ with a balance wheel and balance shaft integral with stops, and a pusher device that cooperates with the stops to provide impulses and restart oscillations, eliminating the need for a traditional balance spring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional balance spring is used to maintain balance oscillations, then the balance can oscillate regularly, but energy is lost due to friction and resistance in the balance spring coils
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the balance spring from the traditional escapement mechanism, replacing it with a pusher device that directly imparts impulses to the balance. This eliminates the balance spring and its associated energy losses from friction and resistance in the coil structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical balance spring system with a different mechanical approach using a pusher device that cooperates with stops on the balance shaft. This substitution eliminates the coiled spring structure that causes energy dissipation through friction and resistance.
2Duration of action of moving object
If the balance spring expands and contracts to drive the balance, then oscillations are maintained, but energy dissipation occurs due to Earth's gravity and friction
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the balance spring from the system entirely, extracting the source of energy dissipation. The pusher device provides a different mechanism for maintaining oscillations that avoids the friction and gravitational effects acting on a coiled spring structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The pusher device is driven by the escapement mechanism itself, which receives energy directly from the power source. This self-service approach eliminates the need for the balance spring to store and release energy, thereby eliminating the associated energy losses.
3Power
If a balance spring is used in the escapement mechanism, then the balance oscillates, but the energy from the power source is not used 100% efficiently
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the balance spring from the energy transmission path between the escapement and the balance. By removing this intermediate component, the system eliminates energy losses in the spring coils and achieves more direct and efficient energy transmission from the power source to the balance.
Solution Approach 2:
The pusher device provides continuous impulses to the balance through its cooperation with the stops on the balance shaft, ensuring that energy is transmitted efficiently without the intermittent expansion and contraction cycles of a balance spring that cause energy dissipation.
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
This solution significantly increases the efficiency of the escapement mechanism by eliminating energy loss associated with the balance spring, allowing for improved performance and reduced energy consumption.
Implementation Method 1
a pusher device arranged to, during an oscillation of the balance in each direction, cooperate with said at least one stop to push it back in order to give said balance an impulse which restarts its oscillation in the opposite direction
Implementation Method 2
a balance wheel carrying at its periphery at least one heavy mass
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~6
Figure 7
AI summary
The present invention relates to a regulating member (1) of a watch movement intended to oscillate around an oscillation axis (A), said regulating member (1) comprising a balance (2) and a balance shaft (3) centered on the oscillation axis (A) and carrying said balance (2), said balance (2) carrying at its periphery at least one heavy mass (6). The balance shaft (3) is integral with at least one stop (8) and the regulating member (1) further comprises a pusher device (10) arranged to, during an oscillation of the balance (2) in each direction, cooperate with said at least one stop (8) to push it back in order to give said balance (2) an impulse which restarts its oscillation in the opposite direction. The invention also relates to an escapement mechanism as well as a timepiece comprising such a regulating member (1).