CN113685429A

CN113685429A - Unfolding structure and unfolding method

Info

Publication number: CN113685429A
Application number: CN202110874078.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李晓明; 邹宇; 赵成; 吴兴贵
Original assignee: Spacety Co ltd Changsha
Current assignee: Spacety Co ltd Changsha
Priority date: 2021-07-30
Filing date: 2021-07-30
Publication date: 2021-11-23
Anticipated expiration: 2041-07-30
Also published as: CN113685429B

Abstract

The invention relates to a deployment structure comprising at least: the main hinge unit can be folded and unfolded and is used for realizing the connection between two unfolded sides of the mechanism to be unfolded; the auxiliary hinge unit is used for limiting the degree of freedom of the main hinge unit after being folded and unfolded, and the gap eliminating unit is used for providing pre-tightening load and eliminating the gap existing in the main hinge unit.

Description

Unfolding structure and unfolding method

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of space mechanism unfolding, in particular to an unfolding structure and an unfolding method.

Background

With the increasing investment of the country in the aerospace field, space science and technologies such as satellite communication, navigation, military reconnaissance, deep space exploration and the like are rapidly developed. None of these techniques has evolved to a spatial antenna. The spatial antenna, called the "eye" of the satellite, is an important component of the satellite. The space-expandable antenna has a very important position in a space-expandable structure and is a main component of the space antenna. The antenna mechanism is an essential main component of spacecrafts such as satellites, spacecrafts, space stations and the like, and bears various tasks such as measurement and control, communication and the like. Deployable antenna structures have been widely used so far in a number of fields including military, aerospace, information technology, etc. As the development of aerospace technology has led to the demand for larger and more applications requiring large deployable antenna structures, the application of space deployable structures in aircraft antennas is due to the fact that the carrying volume of rockets is limited by the development of rocket technology, which is a contradiction between the limited carrying volume and the larger and larger volume of antennas.

After the expandable structure is applied to the antenna, the antenna is in a folding and locking state in a launching state, and after the aircraft enters a preset track, the folded antenna mechanism is gradually expanded from the folding state to a working state and locked under the action of the driving mechanism. An important part of the normal work of the space expandable antenna is whether the space expandable antenna can be smoothly expanded under the action of external driving force after the satellite enters the orbit. Due to the characteristics of large caliber and large contraction ratio of the space expandable antenna, different folding parts of the antenna inevitably have relative movement, especially relative rotation, in the expansion process, so that the hinge plays an indispensable role in the expansion structure of the antenna.

In the past decades, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which is an advanced Radar technology, has been frequently applied to many earth observation tasks due to its all-weather all-time function compared to the conventional optical band Radar. The synthetic aperture radar uses the antenna with smaller scale to move at a constant speed along the direction of the long line array and radiate coherent signals, and then reflected waves received at different positions are processed coherently, thereby obtaining the imaging radar with higher resolution. To achieve a higher viewing resolution, a larger size antenna is required, which also results in a synthetic aperture radar antenna substrate that is generally thicker in board, larger in size, has a larger mass and a larger fold ratio, e.g. canadian radars-2 antenna weighs 80Okg and has a fold volume of only 7 m. Meanwhile, the synthetic aperture radar has higher requirements on the plane precision of the antenna board. Therefore, for the deployable synthetic aperture radar antenna, the planar accuracy and rigidity after deployment are important, which requires the hinge of the deployable antenna to have high accuracy, rigidity and repeatability. Particularly for radar antennas without a back frame, the rigidity of the antenna is mainly ensured by hinges among plates, and the performance of the hinges also determines the performance of the antenna to a certain extent. An important method for improving the performance of the hinge is to add a locking device into the hinge, so that the rigidity of the hinge structure can be obviously improved after the device is locked. In addition, another design constraint of space hinge locking devices is to minimize mass. Under the drive of the unfolding structure, the antenna panel unfolds around the rotary hinge, after the antenna panel unfolds in place, the hinge is automatically locked under the action of the locking device, and certain rigidity is kept, so that the requirements of high rigidity, high precision and light weight of the satellite antenna mechanism under the action of various loads are met.

Because of the requirement of unfolding and folding, two components connected by the hinge move relatively, a certain gap is required between the shaft pin and the hinge hole, so that the two hinges have translational freedom degrees in two directions, and errors of the relative positions after locking are generated; relative sliding exists between the taper pin and the taper hole, and the locking precision is further influenced. The clearance may also be larger when a lower level of precision fit is selected to reduce manufacturing costs. And as the movement time of the mechanism increases, the abrasion between the hinges is increased, and the gap between the hinges is also increased.

The presence of hinge gaps in the mechanism has two effects on the mechanism. On the one hand, it can compensate for manufacturing, assembly errors and thermal deformations of the mechanism during movement and can also contain a lubricating medium. On the other hand, the hinge gap may have a large negative effect: it destroys the ideal model of the mechanism, and causes the deviation between the actual movement and the ideal movement of the mechanism; the presence of a gap will affect the accuracy of its profile for static mechanisms, which is particularly considered for precision machines. Most notable is the dynamic response of the gap during mechanical motion. Due to the existence of the gap, the kinematic pair elements can lose contact in the movement process of the mechanism, and can collide when being contacted again to cause vibration. The amplitudes of the acceleration, the kinematic pair counter-force and the like generated in collision can reach several times or even dozens of times of the amplitudes of the acceleration, the kinematic pair counter-force and the like in an ideal model, the dynamic stress of the mechanism is increased, the instability of the mechanism motion is caused, violent noise, vibration and abrasion are generated, the stability, the efficiency and the motion precision of the mechanism motion are reduced, and the mechanism damage can be even caused. For example, in the field of aerospace, after a satellite is conveyed to a designated orbit by a carrier rocket, the unfolding and positioning of an antenna are realized by a unfolding and locking mechanism, for a unfolding structure and a pointing mechanism with large size and high precision, the precision index of the unfolding structure and the pointing mechanism is related to the success or failure of a system, a mechanism used on the satellite is an articulated structure, and due to the influence of an articulated gap, the articulated structure has mechanical nonlinear characteristics and kinematic uncertainty, which adds great difficulty to the analysis of the unfolding structure of an articulated plate type satellite antenna. Due to the nonlinear influence of the gap on the mechanism, the conditions of instability of the stretching mechanism, insufficient positioning precision, failure in opening of the antenna and the like often occur, so that the aerospace vehicle fails. In addition, whether the satellite or other space equipment is subjected to various dynamic environments in the launching and carrying processes, under the excitation of dynamic loads, the structure can deform and even resonate, and therefore the equipment is damaged and even fails to launch.

In the prior art, patent document No. CN1035951039B proposes a novel flexible solar cell array unfolding apparatus for solving the problem of poor mechanism reliability of the existing unfolding structure with large size and high precision, in which a hinge mechanism is adopted to realize connection between rib plates, and the hinge mechanism is composed of a male hinge, a female hinge, a hinge rotating shaft, a sliding pin rotating shaft, a sliding pin fixing frame, a sliding pin spring piece, a flat spiral spring, a hinge rotating shaft fixing nut, a sliding pin fixing nut, and a flat spiral spring outer stop lever; the male hinge is connected with the female hinge through a hinge rotating shaft, and a hinge rotating shaft fixing nut is arranged at one end of the hinge rotating shaft to realize axial fixation; the hinge is integrated with a locking mechanism between the main body plates, the sliding pin is inserted into a through hole on the sliding pin fixing frame, a sliding pin fixing nut is arranged to realize relative fixation, the sliding pin rotating shaft penetrates through the other through hole of the sliding pin fixing frame and a corresponding through hole on the female hinge, and the sliding pin rotating shaft fixing nut is arranged to realize connection with the female hinge; the sliding pin spring piece is fixedly connected with the sliding pin rotating shaft, and the sliding pin slides on the edge of the male hinge; the outer lever of the spiral spring is fixed to the female hinge and used to fix the spiral spring and store certain elastic potential energy to tension the hinge mechanism. The driving mechanisms are planar spiral springs arranged in the hinge mechanism, and the number of the driving mechanisms is 60. The plane volute spiral spring adopts a non-contact type outer end rotary type, is fixedly connected with the hinge rotating shaft and is in a compression state when the sailboard is folded; after release, the flat spiral spring drives the flexible sailboard to unfold. The locking mechanism adopts a cam pin type locking mechanism arranged on a hinge mechanism, and can repeat locking and unlocking processes for many times. When the whole flexible solar cell array sailboard is unfolded to form a planar array, the sliding pin is driven by the planar spiral spring to be inserted into the groove on the female hinge, and locking is completed.

As another example, in the unfolding hinge proposed by the patent document with publication number CN1105181028A in the prior art, the unfolding hinge includes a hook hinge and a lock hinge, the hook hinge is fixed on the antenna base, the hook hinge is connected to a radial rib of the antenna, one side of the lower end of the lock hinge is hinged to the upper end of the hook hinge, the other side of the lower end of the lock hinge is provided with a slide rail, the lower end of the hook hinge is hinged to the lower end of the lock hook, the upper end of the lock hook is provided with a lock shaft, the lock shaft is attached to the slide rail under the action of a first leaf spring, the lock groove is arranged on the slide, the lock shaft is arranged in the lock groove in the unfolding locking state, and one side of the hook hinge is provided with a coil spring which connects the hook hinge and the lock hinge and generates a pretension force on the lock hinge.

At present, the main stream of unfolding structures only have a limit in the unfolding direction, for example, the unfolding structures proposed in the above prior art, the rigidity after unfolding is provided by the residual elasticity of the spring or the driving mechanism, some unfolding structures are provided with the locking pin and can play a role of stopping, however, a gap exists between the locking pin and the pin hole, the gap can cause the unfolding part to shake within a small angle range, and the shake has a great negative effect on the attitude control precision. For the parts with larger unfolding mass, the rigidity after unfolding is smaller, the overall frequency of the unfolding assembly is very low, the whole assembly is easy to form a coupling effect with the attitude control action system, resonance is generated, the attitude of the whole spacecraft is unstable, and the on-orbit task is influenced.

Furthermore, on the one hand, due to the differences in understanding to the person skilled in the art; on the other hand, since the applicant has studied a great deal of literature and patents when making the present invention, but the disclosure is not limited thereto and the details and contents thereof are not listed in detail, it is by no means the present invention has these prior art features, but the present invention has all the features of the prior art, and the applicant reserves the right to increase the related prior art in the background.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the deficiencies of the prior art, the present invention provides a deployment structure, at least comprising: the main hinge unit can be folded and unfolded and is used for realizing the connection between two unfolded sides of the mechanism to be unfolded; the auxiliary hinge unit is used for limiting the degree of freedom of the main hinge unit after being folded and unfolded, and the gap eliminating unit is used for providing pre-tightening load and eliminating the gap existing in the main hinge unit.

According to a preferred embodiment, the sub hinge unit is assembled to the main hinge unit by at least two sub hinge torsion springs having a torque capable of urging the sub hinge unit to be folded toward the main hinge unit and restricting the degree of freedom of the main hinge unit after being folded and unfolded.

According to a preferred embodiment, the angle of rotation between the secondary hinge and the primary hinge is between 90 ° and 180 °.

According to a preferred embodiment, the main hinge unit comprises at least two main hinges, and the anti-backlash unit comprises at least: a fixing pin disposed in a main hinge arm corresponding to a main hinge; and the elastic component is movably arranged in the main hinge arm corresponding to the other main hinge and has a first working posture and a second working posture formed relative to the fixed pin, wherein when the unfolding structure is unfolded to the proper position, the elastic component eliminates the gap by switching from the first working posture to the second working posture.

According to a preferred embodiment, the elastic means comprise at least a slide pin and a slide pin pretensioning compression spring, the slide pin being held in abutting relationship with the fixed pin by means of the slide pin pretensioning compression spring in a compressed state to provide a pretensioning load to the main hinge unit.

According to a preferred embodiment, the secondary hinge unit further comprises two secondary hinges connected to each other by a primary hinge torsion spring, the axis of rotation between the two secondary hinges being co-located on the first axis with the axis of rotation between the two primary hinges.

According to a preferred embodiment, the two secondary hinge torsion springs have respective axes of rotation that are co-located on a second axis that is perpendicular to the first axis.

According to a preferred embodiment, the unfolding structure further comprises at least one force-adjusting plug, which is fitted on the at least one hinge in such a way that it can adjust the torsion of the secondary hinge torsion spring or the primary hinge torsion spring.

The present application also proposes a method for unfolding an unfolded structure, characterized in that it comprises at least one of the following steps: when the foldable bicycle is not unfolded, the main hinge unit and the auxiliary hinge unit are both in a folding posture, two main hinges in the main hinge unit are mutually overlapped, and two auxiliary hinges in the auxiliary hinge unit are mutually overlapped; the main hinge unit is driven to unfold, and the auxiliary hinge unit is unfolded synchronously with the main hinge unit; keeping the unfolding posture of the main hinge unit and driving the auxiliary hinge unit to be folded relative to the main hinge unit; and driving the auxiliary hinge unit to be folded to a preset position and keeping the auxiliary hinge unit until the unfolding is completed.

According to a preferred embodiment, the deployment method further comprises: when the unfolding structure is unfolded in place, the elastic component in the anti-backlash unit is switched from the first working posture to the second working posture.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a simplified structural schematic of the deployed configuration of the present invention in its final deployed state;

FIG. 2 is a simplified front perspective schematic view of the deployed configuration in the deployed intermediate state provided by the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a simplified overall structural schematic of the unfolded configuration in the folded configuration provided by the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a simplified structural schematic of the deployed configuration in the deployed intermediate state provided by the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a simplified structural relationship diagram of the present invention providing an angular difference between the sliding pin and the fixed pin;

FIG. 6 is a simplified partial schematic view of the location of the sliding pin and the fixed pin in the deployed configuration of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a simplified bottom view schematic of the slide pin provided by the present invention.

List of reference numerals

1: first main hinge 2: second main hinge 3: first pair of hinges

4: second sub-hinge 5: main hinge torsion spring 6: auxiliary hinge torsion spring

7: the lubricating pad 8: fixing pin 9: sliding pin

10: the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 11: the positioning pin hole 12: force-adjustable plug

13: fixing pin opening 14: first main hinge arm 15: second main hinge arm

16: third main hinge arm 17: first end portion 18: second end portion

19: side wall surface 20: top end face 21: slope surface

22: first partial pin 23: second-part pin 24: first gap

25: second gap 26: third gap 27: first pin body

28: second pin 29: third pin body 30: second side end surface

101: main hinge unit 102: sub hinge unit 103: anti-backlash unit

31: bottom surface 32: bottom end face 33 of fixing pin: first hinge

34: second hinge 35: first through hole 36: second through hole

37: fourth gap 38: first side end face

Detailed Description

The following detailed description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The present application proposes a deployment structure including at least a main hinge unit 101, a sub hinge unit 102, and an anti-backlash unit 103.

The main hinge unit 101 mainly includes a first main hinge 1 and a second main hinge 2.

The first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are connected to each other by a main hinge torsion spring 5. The first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are respectively provided with at least one mounting point, and the first main hinge and the second main hinge can be respectively connected with two unfolding sides of the mechanism to be unfolded. Thereby supporting the rotatable connection between the two deployment sides of the mechanism to be deployed. Preferably, a mounting point is respectively arranged at the position corresponding to the four corners of the main hinge, so that the stability and the mounting accuracy between the main hinge and the mechanism to be unfolded are improved. Preferably, the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are further respectively provided with at least one positioning pin hole for further improving the installation accuracy between the main hinges and the mechanism to be unfolded. Two positioning pin holes can be formed on the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2. The positioning pin holes can be arranged on the main hinge in a mode that the central axes of the positioning pin holes are on the same plane with the central axes corresponding to the at least two positioning pin holes on the main hinge. The central axes corresponding to the different positioning pin holes on the different main hinges can be all positioned on the same plane.

When the unfolding mechanism is not unfolded, the main hinge torsion spring 5 can be elastically compressed by applying an external force, and then the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 rotate towards the directions close to each other, so that the mutual folding between the two main hinges is realized, and the two unfolding sides of the mechanism to be unfolded are also overlapped with each other. When the unfolding mechanism needs to be unfolded, the applied external force action is removed, the elastic potential energy stored in the main hinge torsion spring 5 is released, reverse torque is provided, the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are driven to rotate relative to each other, and the two unfolding sides of the mechanism to be unfolded are unfolded accordingly. The process completes the transition process of the mechanism to be unfolded from the folding state to the unfolding state. Preferably, the mechanism to be deployed may also be provided with a drive mechanism which provides a servomotor drive, the torsion spring drive and the servomotor drive acting in combination, and the torsion spring at the hinge may be used to compensate for the drive torque required during deployment.

In the transition process of the mechanism to be unfolded from the folding state to the unfolding state, a compensatory driving force is provided for the relative movement between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2, and the magnitude of the elastic potential energy released by the main hinge torsion spring 5 is mainly large. The driving force provided by the main hinge torsion spring 5 needs to be able to drive the first main hinge 1 and the corresponding unfolding side to rotate relative to the second main hinge 2 and the corresponding unfolding side until the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge are unfolded to a predetermined posture, so that for a single device needing to be unfolded at multiple positions, the single device is provided with a plurality of different mechanisms to be unfolded at different positions, and the resistance between the two unfolding sides of the different mechanisms to be unfolded is different in magnitude, namely, the driving force with different magnitudes is required to be provided for the single device respectively. To this, treat among the prior art that the mechanism of expanding chooses for use different main hinge torsional springs 5 to the difference of different positions department on single device usually, the drive power variation of can providing of different main hinge torsional springs 5, the steel wire diameter of different main hinge torsional springs 5, the diameter of gyration, the torsional spring material, the number of turns etc. is different, require the assigned position must adopt appointed main hinge torsional spring 5 during the assembly, the assembly degree of difficulty has greatly been improved, and to the simulation experiment system that needs to combine to use after the assembly, need to type in different main hinge torsional springs 5's multiple parameter respectively to a plurality of positions, the data handling capacity that has increased experimenter burden and simulation experiment system also greatly increased, be unfavorable for the experimental result precision. In addition, the driving force provided by configuration is different in the later simulation experiment process, so that the configuration scheme for simulating and calculating the optimal structure and parameters is used, and the unfolding structure is required to have a specific unfolding driving force under different working environments of different tasks, the torsion of the existing main hinge torsion spring 5 is fixed and not adjustable, so that the unfolded structure after assembly can only be applied to specific tasks, and the application range of the unfolded structure is limited.

Based on this, this application has combined accent power end cap 12 on traditional main hinge torsional spring 5's basis, utilizes the small-size advantage and the reliability advantage of accent power end cap 12 for the expansion structure that this application provided can be to the different positions that the required power of expanding is different on the device, can indiscriminately use main hinge torsional spring 5 under the same configuration parameter, adjusts the expansion power size that main hinge torsional spring 5 provided through accent power end cap 12 adaptability. On the one hand, under this setting, need not to require again that the assigned position must adopt appointed main hinge torsional spring 5, the mechanism of waiting to expand of all positions departments on single device all can adopt main hinge torsional spring 5 under the same configuration parameter, has greatly reduced the assembly degree of difficulty, is favorable to reducing staff's work burden. On the other hand, under the setting, as the mechanisms to be unfolded at all the positions can adopt the main hinge torsion springs 5 under the same configuration parameter, the staff only needs to input less parameter values with difference at different positions, such as related parameters of the force adjusting plug 12, and the like, and does not need to input multiple parameters of different main hinge torsion springs 5 aiming at multiple positions, so that the working content of the staff is greatly reduced, the data amount required to be processed by the system in a later-stage simulation experiment or a real application scene is reduced, and the response speed and the accuracy of the experiment result of the system are improved. In addition, the torsion can be adaptively adjusted according to different requirements without being reassembled after disassembly or being provided with a plurality of expansion structures with different expansion driving force sizes, so that the expansion structure has stronger adaptability and wider application range.

The force adjusting plug 12 can rotate relative to the main hinge by means of external force.

One end of the main hinge torsion spring 5 is fixed on the force adjusting plug 12, and when the force adjusting plug 12 rotates relative to the main hinge under the action of external force, the main hinge torsion spring 5 increases the torsion or decreases the torsion along with the torsion.

The force-adjusting plug 12 can be fixed relative to the at least one main hinge without external forces. By relatively fixed, it is meant that the force regulating plug 12 neither rotates nor displaces relative to each other. The working state of the main hinge torsion spring 5 adjusted by the force adjusting plug 12 can be maintained.

The outer end part of the force-adjusting plug 12 is provided with an adjusting hole, and a worker can adjust and control the angle of the force-adjusting plug 12 by adopting auxiliary equipment matched with the adjusting hole. Preferably, an inner hexagonal hole is formed in the outer end portion of the force adjusting plug 12, and when the force adjusting plug is installed, an inner hexagonal wrench is used for adjusting the angle of the force adjusting plug 12 from the outer end of the force adjusting plug 12 so as to change the magnitude of the torque force.

As a preferred embodiment, the force adjusting plug is provided with at least one threaded hole, the hinge arm is provided with a clearance hole or a pair of clearance holes aligned with each other, the force adjusting plug is rotated to enable one threaded hole to correspond to the clearance hole, and the force adjusting plug can be relatively fixed on the hinge by installing an external connecting component which simultaneously penetrates through the threaded hole and the clearance hole. The external connection member may be a screw or the like corresponding thereto. At least one threaded hole is arranged on the force-adjusting plug in a mode that the threaded hole is arranged along the circumferential direction of the force-adjusting plug at intervals. For example, the force adjusting plug is provided with 4 threaded holes which are arranged at equal intervals, so that the force adjustment of every 90 degrees can be realized. For example, the force adjusting plug is provided with 6 threaded holes which are arranged at equal intervals, and the force adjustment of every 60 degrees can be realized. When the torque force is adjusted to a proper position and the two holes are coaxial, the current torque force can be locked by screwing up the positioning screw.

The corresponding main hinge arms on the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are matched with each other and are matched together to form a continuous through cavity for assembling the main hinge torsion spring 5 and the force adjusting plug 12. The rotatable connection between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 is realized at least by means of a main hinge torsion spring 5 and a force-adjusting plug 12 which are assembled in the cavity of the main hinge arm.

In the present application, as shown in fig. 1, taking as an example that both end portions of the first main hinge 1 on a side close to the second main hinge 2 are respectively extended outward to form the first main hinge arm 14 and the second main hinge arm 15, a middle portion of the second main hinge 2 on a side close to the first main hinge 1 is extended outward to form the third main hinge arm 16.

Preferably, a lubricating pad is arranged between two hinge arms adjacent to each other. When the lubrication pad is unfolded, the lubrication pad can lubricate between two adjacent kinematic pairs. The material of hinge arm can be for the aluminum alloy the same with the hinge, if hug closely for a long time between two adjacent hinge arms each other, can have the cold welding risk, nevertheless if remain too big clearance between two adjacent hinge arms each other, can influence the precision, to this, this application adopts the lubricated pad with polytetrafluoroethylene preparation to add between two hinge arms, and the space environmental suitability of polytetrafluoroethylene material is fine, can play fine lubricated effect as lubricated pad.

The force-regulating plug 12 is mounted on the inner wall of the cavity of the first main hinge arm 14. As shown in FIG. 1, one end of force adjustment plug 12 extends through the cavity of first primary hinge arm 14 and into the cavity of third primary hinge arm 16.

The main body portion of the force-adjusting plug 12 may be a cylindrical structure, and the size of the main body portion is matched with the size of the cavity of the first main hinge arm 14.

The main hinge torsion spring 5 is installed in the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16, and two ends of the main hinge torsion spring are respectively and fixedly connected to the inner wall of the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16 and the force adjusting plug 12, so as to assist the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 to complete folding and unfolding.

In the unfolding structure, due to the matching requirement, the two unfolding sides connected through the hinge move relatively, a certain gap is required between the shaft pin and the hinge hole, so that the two hinges have translational freedom degrees in two directions, and the error of the relative position after locking can be caused. Moreover, as the time or number of movements of the mechanism increases, the wear between the hinges increases and the gap between the hinges also increases. To this, this application is through improving traditional hinge type structure of expandeing, to introducing the clearance unit that disappears of the cooperation with main hinge unit in the structure of expandeing, can fold the effect that expandes the in-process and initiatively provide pretension load and eliminate mechanism's clearance for main hinge unit to can effectively solve the mechanism and expand the precision not high, influence the appearance after expanding and control the problem.

The anti-backlash unit mainly comprises a fixed pin 8, a sliding pin 9 and a sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 which are all arranged in a cavity formed by a plurality of main hinge arms.

The fixing pin 8 is fixedly connected in the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16. The fixing pin 8 and the third main hinge arm 16 may be respectively provided with positioning holes corresponding to each other, and after the fixing pin 8 is placed in the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16, the fixing pin 8 may be fixed in the third main hinge arm 16 by sequentially penetrating through the positioning holes corresponding to the third main hinge arm 16 and the fixing pin 8 by the positioning assembly. The fixing pin 8 does not rotate relatively nor displace relatively.

As shown in fig. 1, the main body of the fixing pin 8 has a cylindrical shape, and one end of the main body extends through the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16 and extends to the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15.

The sliding pin 9 is slidably connected in the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15.

The slide pin 9 can be kept sliding in the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15 in a direction parallel to the centre axis of the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15.

The slide pin 9 has a first pin body 27, a second pin body 28 and a third pin body 29 which are fixed to each other in this order.

The second pin body 28 is dimensioned to fit the dimensions of the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15, so that the slide pin 9 has only two translational degrees of freedom in opposite directions to one another.

A sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 is sleeved on the third pin body 29, and one end of the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 is fixedly connected to the inner wall of the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15. The other end of the sliding pin pretensioning compression spring 10 can be fixedly connected to the sliding pin 9 or can only abut against the second pin body 28.

The slide-pin-pretensioned compression spring 10 is mounted in a compressed position on the third pin body 29, so that it has a driving force which can move the slide pin 9 in the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15.

When the sliding pin 9 has a reverse movement trend under the action of external force, the sliding pin pre-tensions the compression spring 10 to compress, and the sliding pin 9 can reversely slide.

One end of the fixing pin 8 is opened with a fixing pin opening 13 for matching with the first pin body 27 of the slide pin 9. When the external force applied on the sliding pin 9 for limiting the sliding pin to move towards the fixed pin 8 is removed, the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 releases the elastic potential energy thereof to push the sliding pin 9 to move towards the fixed pin 8, and the first pin body 27 can penetrate into the fixed pin opening 13 to limit the further movement trend of the sliding pin 9.

The fixing pin opening 13 may be irregularly shaped. The irregular shape herein is a shape in which all the side wall surfaces 19 are parallel to the penetrating direction of the cavity formed by the main hinge arms, in contrast to the regular shape. The regular shape may be, for example, a cylindrical shape, a rectangular parallelepiped shape, a square shape, or the like.

The fixed pin opening 13 has an internal cavity shaped to cooperate with the first pin body 27 of the slide pin 9 and to limit the tendency of the slide pin 9 to move rotationally relative to its internal cavity. The angle between the cavity of the fixing pin opening 13 and the respective contact surface on the first pin body 27 is greater than the friction angle formed between the respective materials. After the sliding pin 9 is in butt joint and slides into the fixed pin opening 13, even if the hinge arms are subjected to large external torsion, the contact surfaces of the hinge arms and the fixed pin do not slide relatively, and the hinge arms are in a self-locking state.

The fixing pin opening 13 has at least one side wall surface 19 extending in the direction from the first end 17 of the fixing pin 8 to the second end 18 of the fixing pin 8, in which the side wall surface extends and is arranged obliquely. At least two side wall surfaces 19 are inclined toward each other. The opening degree of the fixing pin opening 13 is decreasing in a direction from the first end 17 to the second end 18 of the fixing pin 8.

As a preferred embodiment, the fixing pin opening 13 has open ends at least on two end faces of the fixing pin 8 which are adjacent to one another but not parallel to one another. Even if the slide pin 9 is not completely aligned with the fixing pin opening 13, it is ensured that the slide pin 9 can be inserted into the fixing pin opening 13 in a butt joint manner, and the problem that the slide pin 9 is not aligned with the fixing pin opening 13 and is caught on the outer end surface of the fixing pin 8 is avoided. Preferably, the fixing pin opening 13 may also have only an open end opening onto the bottom end face of the first end 17 of the fixing pin 8, i.e. the fixing pin opening 13 resembles a groove opening onto the fixing pin 8. Further preferably, the fixing pin opening 13 may be opened at a central position of the fixing pin 8, and correspondingly, the first pin body 27 of the slide pin 9 is located at a central position of the second pin body 28 and corresponds to the fixing pin opening 13 to ensure smooth butt joint of the two.

The first pin body 27 of the slide pin 9 has at least one ramp 21 on its top end face 20 formed by the removal of material along its outer edge of the end face. Therefore, the problem that the top end face 20 of the sliding pin 9 is clamped on the outer end face of the fixing pin 8 can be further avoided, and smooth butt joint between the sliding pin 9 and the fixing pin 8 is guaranteed. In addition, under the condition that the slope 21 is not arranged, the top end face 20 of the sliding pin 9 is large and directly abuts against the bottom end face of the fixing pin 8, the force action area under surface contact is large, when the unfolding structure is unfolded to drive the sliding pin 9 and the fixing pin 8 to rotate relatively, the relative friction action between the sliding pin 9 and the fixing pin 8 is large, and the energy consumption for driving is increased.

The top end face 20 also has a top surface defined by a plurality of ramps 21 after at least one ramp 21 has been formed by removing material along the outer edge of the end face.

The top end surface 20 of the first pin body 27 of the slide pin 9 may be configured as a flat surface coplanar with the top surface before forming the ramp surface 21 and the top surface.

The removal of material at the outer edge of the top end face 20 at an oblique angle using an imaginary cross-sectional plane results in at least one ramp surface 21 and adjacent ramp surfaces 21 formed intersect each other at the same edge line. The vertical center line of the top surface defined by the slope surfaces 21 is taken as a central axis, and the ridge lines can be coincided with each other by rotating around the central axis respectively.

The imaginary cutting plane can be a plane or a curved surface or a combination of a plane and a curved surface.

The removal of material at the outer edge of the top end face 20 at an oblique angle using an imaginary cross-sectional plane results in at least one ramp surface 21, and adjacent ramp surfaces 21 formed intersect each other at the same edge. When the slope surface 21 is a curved surface protruding outward relative to the physical center of gravity of the first pin body 27, the edge may be smoothed so that two slope surfaces adjacent to the edge extend continuously.

When the slope surface 21 is planar, the edges may be smoothed to form arc-shaped edges with a certain radian between adjacent slope surfaces.

The first pin body 27 may be configured in a shape that fits the fixation pin opening 13.

In a preferred embodiment, the fixing pin opening 13 is provided eccentrically at the first end of the fixing pin 8. A fixing pin opening 13 opens at the outer edge of the fixing pin 8, which is the critical position. When not deployed, the sliding pin 9 is not aligned with the fixed pin opening 13; when the quick unfolding is in place, the sliding pin 9 is aligned with the critical position, and at the moment, the sliding pin 9 slides into the fixed pin opening 13 in a butt joint mode to form locking. In the process, the sliding pin 9 can be prevented from being suspended at the central position, and the effective stroke of the pressure spring can be better utilized by setting the critical position to the outer edge. The sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring starts to act, so that the sliding pin 9 and the fixing pin opening 13 can be locked fast, and the risk that the sliding pin 9 slides into the bottom and the contact surface between the sliding pin 9 and the inner cavity of the fixing pin opening 13 is not tightly pressed and locked can be avoided to the greatest extent.

In the case of fixedly fitting the fixing pin 8 to the third main hinge arm 16, the open end of the fixing pin opening 13 on the side of the fixing pin 8 can cover both a partial cavity of the third main hinge arm 16 and a partial cavity of the second main hinge arm 15. The side of the fixing pin 8 may refer to the side of its cylindrical shape.

The side wall surface 19 inside the fixing pin opening 13 is viewed along the open end of the fixing pin opening 13 on the side of the fixing pin 8, and the extending direction of the side wall surface 19 is inclined with respect to the normal direction of the side surface of the fixing pin 8 to surround the region forming the outer edge of the fixing pin opening 13.

The side wall surface 19 inside the anchor pin opening 13 is viewed along the open end of the anchor pin opening 13 on the bottom end surface of the anchor pin 8, and the extending direction of the side wall surface 19 is inclined with respect to the central axis of the anchor pin 8.

The bottom end face of the fixing pin 8 may be circular, and the open end of the fixing pin opening 13 at the bottom end face of the first end portion 17 of the fixing pin 8 covers at least the area of the center of the bottom end face of the fixing pin 8.

The first pin 27 is fixed to the second pin 28 at a position where it can be butted against the pin opening 13.

The part of the fixing pin 8 extending out of the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16 is only sleeved in the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15, and the respective rotational movements are independent of each other and do not influence each other. However, since the part of the fixing pin 8 extending out of the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16 is inserted into the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15, a first gap 24 may occur between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 in the direction of extension of the cavity formed by the main hinge arms.

At the same time, in order to ensure the relative rotation between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2, the fixing pin 8 is only fixedly connected to the inner wall of the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16, but not to the second main hinge arm 15, so that a second gap 25 may also occur between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 in the direction parallel to each other. In contrast, in the present application, the problem of the first gap 24 and the second gap 25 can be solved by the gap elimination unit, so that the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are relatively stable in all directions, and the precision of the deployed structure after deployment can be greatly improved.

The fixed pin 8 is fixed in the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16, the sliding pin 9 is relatively fixed in the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15, and the matching butt joint relation between the sliding pin 9 and the fixed pin 8 is unique, so that when the unfolding structure is in an unfolded state, the relative position relation between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 corresponds to the relative position relation between the fixed pin 8 and the sliding pin 9, at the moment, the first pin body 27 and the fixed pin opening 13 are relatively staggered, the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 is in a compressed state, and the sliding pin 9 cannot butt joint the fixed pin 8. That is, the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 have the first gap 24 and the second gap 25, which ensure that they can rotate relatively.

When the unfolding structure is in a completely unfolded posture, the first pin body 27 and the fixed pin opening 13 are switched from dislocation to alignment, the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 releases elastic potential energy to push the fixed pin 8 to slide, and the first pin body 27 is enabled to slide into the fixed pin opening 13 in a butt joint mode. In the direction of extension of the cavity formed by the main hinge arms, the length of the second main hinge arm 15 itself is fixed, while the slide pin 9 corresponds to the second main hinge arm 15 which is freely extendable and retractable in length, the slide pin 9 being held in tight abutment against the fixed pin 8 by the slide pin pretensioning compression spring 10. Overall, the fixing pin 8 can be internalized into the internal structure of the third main hinge arm 16, the sliding pin 9 can be internalized into the internal structure of the second main hinge arm 15, i.e. equivalent to being completely stable without the first gap 24 between the second main hinge arm 15 and the third main hinge arm 16. Alignment may refer to the two being substantially aligned, i.e., the first pin body 27 is located entirely within the fixation pin opening 13. For the first gaps 24 with different gap widths, the fastening and abutting relation between the sliding pin 9 and the fixing pin 8 can be continuously maintained due to the fact that the sliding pin pre-tightening compression spring 10 releases elastic potential energy, and therefore the first gaps 24 are eliminated.

Meanwhile, in the parallel direction between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2, since the matching butt-joint relationship between the sliding pin 9 and the fixed pin 8 is unique, the sliding pin 9 and the fixed pin 8 are completely engaged and cannot be displaced in the horizontal direction, that is, the second gap 25 is eliminated, which is equivalent to the second gap 25 being completely secured between the second main hinge arm 15 and the third main hinge arm 16. The elimination of the gap between the two does not necessarily mean that the two are brought close together to eliminate the gap, but mainly means that a small-amplitude relative movement tendency or relative movement capability existing between the two due to the gap between the two is eliminated, that is, it may mean that the small-amplitude relative movement tendency or relative movement capability existing between the two forming the gap is suppressed while the gap is maintained.

According to a preferred embodiment, one end of the force-regulating plug and one end of the fixing pin are each provided with two protrusions. The two protrusions may be two parts arranged in half with each other, which are simultaneously formed by removing a material having a certain thickness on a cylindrical body in a certain diameter direction. One end of the torsion spring is fixedly connected in a gap formed between the two protruding parts, so that the torsion spring can effectively store energy.

Preferably, a third gap between a part of the pin body of the fixing pin extending into the second hinge arm and the inner wall of the cavity of the second hinge arm may be filled with a solid lubricant molybdenum disulfide. The molybdenum disulfide solid lubricant can fill up a small gap between the molybdenum disulfide solid lubricant and the molybdenum disulfide solid lubricant on the basis of providing a lubricating effect to ensure the relative rotation capacity between the molybdenum disulfide solid lubricant and the molybdenum disulfide solid lubricant, and can also realize a finer hole-shaft matching structure.

A sixth gap exists between the second pin body 28 and the inner wall of the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15, a fifth gap exists between the first pin body 27 and the fixing pin opening 13 after the first pin body 27 is in butt joint locking with the fixing pin opening 13, the problem that the unfolding structure slightly swings in actual use is easily caused under the overlapping action of the gaps, the locking state between the first pin body 27 and the fixing pin opening 13 is not unique, and the unfolding precision cannot be guaranteed. In this regard, in the present application, the first pin body 27 and the fixed pin opening 13 are configured to assume a non-fully fitted posture when the deployment structure is in the fully deployed posture such that the two are aligned. The time when the two are aligned mainly refers to the time when the external force applied to the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 is removed so that the external force can release the elastic potential energy to drive the sliding pin to move towards the fixed pin opening 13. The non-fully-adapted posture can also refer to a non-fully-aligned posture, and mainly refers to that the two have a certain angle difference after being fully unfolded. The angular difference may be a predetermined angular difference between the sliding pin 9 and the fixed pin 8 at the time of full deployment of the deployed configuration, which is pre-designed during the manufacturing process. The angle difference is not smaller than the sum of the gap width of the sixth gap and the gap width of the fifth gap. At this angular difference setting, the fully deployed configuration will be forced to remain in a fixed locked state, eliminating the sixth and fifth gaps.

Preferably, the main hinge torsion spring 5 has a first torque directed in the unwinding direction. The secondary hinge torsion spring 6 has a second torque directed in the folding direction. The mechanism to be deployed may be deployed in such a manner that the first torque and the second torque decrease asynchronously such that relative motion between the primary hinges is first limited.

Reference in this application to "limiting the degrees of freedom of a component" may refer to causing the movement that a component may otherwise perform to be limited. A degree of freedom may refer to the ability of a component to move for a certain movement.

As used herein, the term "preload" may refer to a force that is applied to the components to urge them toward relative stability prior to deployment or during assembly.

The term "synchronous or asynchronous motion" as used herein may mean that the two may move synchronously in conjunction with each other or cancel the linkage relationship with each other to perform the corresponding motions in time.

Preferably, the sliding pin 9 and the sliding pin pretensioning compression spring 10 together form an elastic component. The elastic component is movably arranged in the main hinge arm corresponding to the other main hinge. The elastic member has a first operating posture and a second operating posture formed with respect to the fixing pin 8. When the main hinge is unfolded to the proper position, the elastic part is switched from the first working posture to the second working posture, so that the relative movement between the main hinges is limited by the second limit action.

Preferably, the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 each have a second lateral end face 30 which gradually come closer to each other during the unfolding of the unfolded configuration. The two second side end surfaces 30 are configured to abut each other in the fully deployed configuration such that relative movement between the primary hinges is subject to a third limiting effect.

The first limiting function is that after the auxiliary hinge unit is driven to act, the auxiliary hinge unit forms a large bearing interface in the unfolding direction of the main hinge unit, so that the movement trend of the two main hinges towards the folding direction is limited, and the rigidity after unfolding can be greatly improved. The second limiting function is mainly to utilize the conversion of the relative working posture of the elastic part in the unfolding process, and the elastic part is abutted with the fixing pin 8 to limit the relative rotation between the two main hinges, so that the movement trend towards the folding direction between the two main hinges is further limited. The third limiting action is different from the first limiting action and the second limiting action, and the third limiting action is mainly used for limiting the continuous unfolding movement trend between the two main hinges so as to ensure the unfolding precision. The elastic components mentioned in the present application mainly comprise a sliding pin 9 and a sliding pin pre-tightening compression spring 10. The main hinge torsion spring 5 has a first torque pointing to the unfolding direction, the auxiliary hinge torsion spring 6 has a second torque pointing to the folding direction, and mainly means that the main hinge torsion spring 5 can drive the two unfolding sides connected with the main hinge torsion spring to rotate towards the unfolding direction, and the auxiliary hinge torsion spring 6 can drive the two unfolding sides connected with the auxiliary hinge torsion spring to rotate towards the folding or closing direction. The unfolding direction and the folding direction of the torsion spring mentioned in the present application are not two directions opposite to each other, but refer to the unfolding direction or the folding direction of two corresponding unfolding sides at the position of the torsion spring, that is, the unfolding direction and the folding direction of the torsion spring mentioned in the present application may be different from each other or coplanar.

The elastic member has a first operating posture, which mainly means that the slide pin 9 and the fixed pin opening 13 in the elastic member are misaligned with each other, and a second operating posture, which mainly means that the slide pin 9 in the elastic member is slid into the fixed pin opening 13 in a butt joint manner.

For example, in order to solve the problem of the influence of the radial clearance between the base and the unfolding member on the reliability and stability of the folding and unfolding mechanism after the existing pin is locked, a patent document with the publication number of CN110155373B in the prior art proposes a device for eliminating the radial clearance at the joint of the folding and unfolding mechanism, which is characterized in that firstly, a boss of the unfolding member is placed in a groove of the base, then a rotating shaft is inserted from a small-diameter end into a second pin hole of the base, and when an external thread section of the rotating shaft is contacted with an internal thread section of the unfolding member, the rotating shaft is rotated to complete the threaded connection between the unfolding member and the rotating shaft; then, the rotating shaft is continuously rotated until a third pin hole of the unfolding piece is matched with the rotating shaft and is installed and has certain pretightening force, then the first tightening ring and the second tightening ring are sequentially sleeved at the small-diameter end and the large-diameter end of the rotating shaft in an interference fit mode respectively, and finally the unfolding piece is folded to an initial folding state as shown in the figure. When the unfolding part needs to be unfolded, the unfolding part rotates, the first tightening ring and the second tightening ring limit the freedom degree of the rotating shaft together, the rotating shaft and the base body are made to be of an integral structure, the unfolding part rotates relative to the rotating shaft, the gap between the unfolding part and the rotating shaft in the X direction is reduced under the matching of the internal thread section and the external thread section, the rotating shaft is a truncated cone, and the third pin hole is an internal taper hole, so that when the unfolding part moves from a small-diameter end to a large-diameter end relative to the rotating shaft, the third pin hole of the unfolding part is matched with the rotating shaft to be installed, and the radial gap between the unfolding part and the rotating shaft is eliminated. The eliminating device can effectively eliminate the gaps between the unfolding part and the rotating shaft after the unfolding part is locked and between the side face of the unfolding part and the inner side face of the base part while ensuring that the unfolding part is smoothly unfolded, and avoids the influence of the gap on the rigidity and the fundamental frequency of the folding and unfolding mechanism, thereby influencing the anti-interference capability of the folding and unfolding mechanism. In addition, a transmission mode of threaded section connection is adopted between the rotating shaft and the unfolding piece.

However, the proposed device achieves the gap elimination process in synchronization with the deployment process of the deployment mechanism, that is, the gap between the deployment mechanisms is smaller as the deployment degree is larger during the deployment process of the deployment mechanism, and the gap is not eliminated until the deployment mechanism is deployed in place. The gap continuously exists in the unfolding process, so that the rigidity and the fundamental frequency of the unfolding mechanism are easily influenced by the outside, high-frequency vibration among components is caused, the anti-interference capability of the unfolding mechanism is seriously influenced, and the attitude control precision is low.

In this regard, in the present application, the torsion spring pre-tightening compression spring is configured to be always in a compressed state, and particularly for the main hinge unit in the folded posture and the incompletely unfolded posture, the torsion spring pre-tightening compression spring is in the compressed state so that the sliding pin 9 is tightly abutted to the fixing pin 8, and the gap between the main hinge arms in the axial direction is eliminated, so that the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are always kept free from a gap in the axial direction, and the tension in the axial direction is equivalent to limiting the relative movement trend in the radial direction between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2, and the resistance in the circumferential direction is small and does not excessively influence the relative rotation capability between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2, so that the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 can freely rotate relatively in the unfolding process, and the radial movement trend and the axial movement trend between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are both limited. Namely, the gap is eliminated while the unfolding process is not influenced in the unfolding process, the rigidity of the mechanism and the stability of the fundamental frequency are enhanced, and the anti-interference capability and the attitude control precision of the unfolding mechanism can be effectively improved.

The sub hinge unit mainly includes a first sub hinge 3 and a second sub hinge 4 rotatably connected to each other.

The first sub hinge 3 and the second sub hinge 4 are rotatably connected to the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2, respectively, and enable the first sub hinge 3 and the second sub hinge 4 to rotate together in synchronization with each other with respect to the main hinge unit.

The axis of rotation between the first secondary hinge 3 and the first primary hinge 1 is located on the same first axis as the axis of rotation between the second secondary hinge 4 and the second primary hinge 2. The axis of rotation between the first and second

secondary hinges

3, 4 is located on the same second axis as the axis of rotation between the first and second

main hinges

1, 2. The first axis is perpendicular to the second axis. So that the sub hinge unit can be integrally rotated with respect to the main hinge unit. Or the first auxiliary hinge 3 and the first main hinge 1 are used as one unfolding side, the second auxiliary hinge 4 and the second main hinge 2 are used as the other unfolding side, and the two unfolding sides can rotate relatively.

The unfolding structure is a core component of the solar wing and is used for realizing the unfolding and locking functions of the solar panel, and the common unfolding driving mechanisms are generally divided into active unfolding driving mechanisms and passive unfolding driving mechanisms. At present, only one unfolding direction of the mainstream unfolding mechanism is limited, the rigidity after unfolding is provided by the residual elastic force of a spring, some unfolding mechanisms are additionally provided with a locking pin and can play a role of backstopping, but a gap exists between the locking pin and a pin hole, the gap can cause the unfolding part to shake within a small-angle range, and the shake causes great negative influence on the attitude control precision. For the parts with larger unfolding mass, the rigidity after unfolding is smaller, the overall frequency of the unfolding assembly is very low, the whole assembly is easy to form a coupling effect with the attitude control action system, resonance is generated, the attitude of the whole spacecraft is unstable, and the on-orbit task is influenced. That is, the unfolded structure can maintain a substantially locked angle depending on the locking action of the unfolding drive mechanism after being unfolded, but at the same time, since the unfolded diameter after being unfolded is large, it is greatly affected by the outside, resulting in poor structural stability and structural rigidity. In this regard, in the present application, it is proposed that the main hinge unit and the sub hinge unit act in combination to enhance structural stability and structural rigidity of the unfolded structure after unfolding. After the auxiliary hinge unit is driven to act, the auxiliary hinge unit forms a large bearing interface in the unfolding direction of the main hinge unit, so that the rigidity after unfolding can be greatly improved.

The first auxiliary hinge 3 and the second auxiliary hinge 4 are rotatably connected through a main hinge torsion spring 5 and a force adjusting plug 12. The force-adjusting plug 12 is mounted on the secondary hinge unit at an end remote from the primary hinge unit for easy adjustment. The main hinge torsion spring 5 between the first and

second sub-hinges

3, 4 is configured to be in a compressed state when the unfolded structure is in the folded posture.

The first main hinge 1 and the first auxiliary hinge 3 are rotatably connected through an auxiliary hinge torsion spring 6 and two force adjusting plugs 12. The two force-adjusting plugs 12 are respectively arranged at two sides of the auxiliary hinge torsion spring 6, and two ends of the auxiliary hinge torsion spring 6 are respectively and fixedly connected to the two force-adjusting plugs 12. The secondary hinge torsion spring 6 is configured to be in an extended state when the unfolded structure is in the folded posture. The force adjusting plug 12 can be used as a part for adjusting torsion and a fastener for adjusting non-torsion, so that the types of parts required to be adopted during assembling and unfolding the structure are reduced, the parts on multiple parts can be used in common, the assembling efficiency can be greatly improved, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

The first main hinge 1 comprises a first hinge 33, a first main hinge arm 14 and a second main hinge arm 15, wherein the first main hinge arm 14 and the second main hinge arm 15 are fixed on the same side of the first hinge 33 and are spaced from each other, and first through holes 35 which are coaxial with each other are arranged inside the first main hinge arm 14 and the second main hinge arm 15.

The second main hinge 2 comprises a second hinge 34 and a third main hinge arm 16, wherein the third main hinge arm 16 is fixed to a side of the second hinge 34 facing the first and second main hinge arms, and a second through hole 36 is formed inside the third main hinge arm. The spacing formed between the first main hinge arm 14 and the second main hinge arm 15 allows the third main hinge arm 16 to be inserted with its second through hole 36 coaxially opposite the first through hole 35.

The third main hinge arm 16 is inserted into the space formed between the first main hinge arm 14 and the second main hinge arm 15 with its second through hole 36 coaxially opposite the first through hole 35. There is a first gap between the third main hinge arm 16 and the second main hinge arm 15 in the axial direction of the first through hole 35. Between the third main hinge arm 16 and the first main hinge arm 14 there is a fourth gap 37 in the axial direction of the first through hole 35.

The cavity of the first main hinge arm 14 is fitted with a first pivot shaft, one end of which extends into the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16, the other end of which is fixed to the first main hinge arm 14.

A second pivot shaft, one end of which extends into the cavity of the second main hinge arm 15, is fitted in the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16, the other end of which is fixed to the third main hinge arm 16.

The first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are rotatably connected to each other by a first rotating shaft and a second rotating shaft which are coaxially arranged with each other. The first rotating shaft and the second rotating shaft can be force-adjusting plugs or fixed pins.

The first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 which are rotatably connected with each other are observed from the direction perpendicular to the plane of the first hinge 33 of the first main hinge 1, a rectangular coordinate system is established by taking the axial direction of the first through hole 35 as the Y axis and the transverse direction perpendicular to the Y axis as the X axis, the first main hinge 1 is positioned in a second quadrant defined by the positive direction of the Y axis and the negative direction of the X axis, the second main hinge 2 and the first main hinge 1 are overlapped and positioned in the second quadrant, and at the moment, the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are in a folded state. The second main hinge 2 can rotate to a second quadrant around the Y axis towards a direction away from the first main hinge 1 relative to the first main hinge 1 by taking the Y axis as a central axis, and at the moment, the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are in an unfolding state.

The second pivot/fixing pin 8 is fixed to the third main hinge arm 16, and has a fixing pin opening 13 at its end facing away from the cavity of the third main hinge arm 16, the fixing pin opening 13 having a vertically downward wedge-shaped opening for locking the sliding pin 9 at least in the circumferential direction.

In the application, the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 respectively realize the rotary connection between the two main hinges by means of a single short shaft body instead of a long shaft body which is usually adopted in the prior art and penetrates through all hinge arms simultaneously, the short shaft body has smaller weight relative to the long shaft body, and the single short shaft body can be stably assembled on the main hinge only by adopting a single fixing screw, compared with the prior art which realizes the limit in a through hole by means of an end cover with two end surfaces with larger area than the cross section of the through hole, the stability of screw assembly is higher, the gap size can be better controlled, the precision is greatly improved, based on the arrangement, the rotary connection between the two main hinges is realized, the whole weight of the device is also reduced, and under the condition that a large-scale expandable antenna structure has the large requirement on the using amount of connecting parts, the carrying load of a rocket can be greatly reduced, the method is beneficial to the smooth proceeding of the lift-off task and the smooth unfolding on-orbit, and realizes higher attitude control precision. Preferably, the stub shafts can be distinguished according to their respective two rotationally connected to each other, which are mainly referred to as force-adjusting plugs and/or fixing pins.

A slide pin 9 is provided in the through hole of the second main hinge arm 15, and the slide pin 9 can slide back and forth along the axial direction of the through hole. The axially inner end of the slide pin 9 is complementary in shape to the wedge-shaped opening of the fixed pin opening 13.

A sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 is arranged in a through hole of the second main hinge arm 15, and one end of the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 is fixed in the first through hole 35 in a mode that the compression direction of the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 is coaxial with the first through hole 35. One end of the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 is fixed on the inner wall of the bottom opening of the first through hole 35 on the second main hinge arm. The other end of the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 abuts against one end of the sliding pin 9, and the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 is pre-configured to be in a compression posture.

When the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are in the folded state, the sliding pin 9 and the fixed pin opening 13 are displaced from each other, the sliding pin pretension compression spring 10 is in the first compression posture to drive the sliding pin 9 to abut against the fixed pin opening 13, and the first main hinge 1 moves in the negative direction of the Y axis along the axial direction when viewed in the coordinate system, so that the first main hinge arm and the third main hinge arm abut against each other to eliminate the fourth gap 37, and simultaneously, the first gap between the second main hinge arm and the third main hinge arm is increased, and the gap is changed to be the width distance of the fourth gap 37 in the axial direction.

When the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are converted from the folded state to the unfolded state, the sliding pin 9 and the fixed pin opening 13 are in an aligned state, and the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 releases elastic potential energy and is converted to a second compression posture, so that the sliding pin 9 is driven to move and butt-joint into the fixed pin opening 13.

The slide pin 9 comprises a first pin body 27, a second pin body 28 and a third pin body 29, which are arranged in succession in the axial direction and are fixed to one another. The axially inner end of the first pin body 27 as slide pin 9 is complementary to the wedge-shaped opening of the fixed pin opening 13.

The second pin 28 is shaped to match the inner wall of the first through hole 35 so that it can slide axially within the first through hole 35 under the action of an external force. The second pin 28 may be cylindrical or disc-shaped. The slide pin pretensioning compression spring 10 is confined in a compressed position in a partial space defined between the second pin body 28 and the bottom opening of the first through hole 35 in the second main hinge arm.

The third pin 29 has a bar-shaped column shape, and a free end thereof penetrates the first through hole 35. The third pin body 29 has its upper and lower end surfaces removed, and either side surface is parallel to the axial direction, and at least one of the first side end surfaces 38 is a flat surface.

As a preferred embodiment, the free end of the third pin body 29 passes through the bottom opening of the first through hole 35 in the second main hinge arm, which bottom opening is shaped to just allow axial movement of the third pin body 29 relative thereto, and has an inner wall surface corresponding to the side surface of the third pin body 29 that is planar, so that the third pin body 29 has freedom in the axial direction but its rotation in the circumferential direction is limited.

As another preferred embodiment, the bottom opening may be a shape sufficient to allow the third pin 29 to move axially relative to the bottom opening, but is not limited to a shape complementary to the third pin 29, and the bottom end of the second main hinge arm in the axial direction is provided with an end cover, and the end cover is provided with an end cover through hole which just allows the third pin 29 to move axially relative to the end cover. The outer shape of the end cap may be cylindrical or disc-like to match the second hinge arm. In this arrangement, one end of the third pin 29 extends through the end cap through hole and this end can be connected to an external drive mechanism by which a driving force can be provided to the device sufficient to cause the device to deploy with the mechanism to be deployed.

Preferably, the components such as the sliding pin 9 and the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 can be assembled into the first through hole 35 along the bottom opening of the first through hole 35 on the second main hinge arm, and after the components are placed into the first through hole 35, the end cover is packaged at the bottom opening of the first through hole 35 on the second main hinge arm in a manner that the end cover through hole is sleeved outside the third pin body 29. The encapsulation may be by a snap connection, an adhesive connection, a screw connection, or the like.

The second pin body 28 has a bottom surface 31 on the side facing the third pin body 29. The cross-section of the pin body at any position on the third pin body 29 in the axial direction thereof is smaller than the area of the bottom surface 31. An extension of the central axis of the third pin body 29 may pass through the physical center of gravity of the bottom surface 31. Based on this, the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 is sleeved outside the third pin body 29, and one end of the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring abuts against the bottom surface 31 of the second pin body 28, and the other end abuts against the inner wall of the bottom surface of the first through hole 35 or the end cover. Under the arrangement, the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 can uniformly exert a thrust action on the position on the bottom surface 31 of the second pin body 28 contacted with the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring, and is favorable for driving the second pin body 28 to slide in a mode that the friction force between the second pin body and the inner wall of the first through hole 35 is weak and the sliding direction of the second pin body is certain under the stable and uniform thrust action, so that the reliability is enhanced.

As a preferred embodiment, the first pin body 27 is located at an edge position of the end face of the second pin body 28, i.e., the first pin body 27 is not provided at a central axis position of the second pin body 28. In this arrangement, in the folded position, the sliding pin 9 corresponds to a first position of the bottom end face of the securing pin, which is an eccentric position and does not or not completely contain the securing pin opening. In the process of converting the folding posture to the unfolding posture, the sliding pin 9 always keeps the tight abutting relation between the sliding pin and the bottom end face of the fixed pin and slides around the local edge end face of the bottom end face of the fixed pin, and the edge area does not or does not completely contain the opening of the fixed pin until the sliding pin 9 slides to the second position corresponding to the opening of the fixed pin on the bottom end face of the fixed pin. The local edge surface may be formed in a spiral surface shape having an inclination such that a first axial height of the fixing pin corresponding to the first position in the direction of the central axis is higher than a second axial height of the fixing pin corresponding to the second position in the direction of the central axis. In the unfolding process, the sliding pin 9 is subjected to the thrust action along the vertical axial direction of the sliding pin pre-tightening compression spring 10 positioned at the bottom of the sliding pin, because the local edge end surface where the sliding pin 9 slides is in the inclined spiral surface shape, the thrust action along the vertical axial direction, which is subjected to by the sliding pin 9, on the point or line or surface where the sliding pin 9 is contacted with the local edge end surface, can be decomposed into two directions, wherein one is the thrust action in the normal direction of the position where the sliding pin 9 is contacted with the local edge end surface, and the other is the thrust action in the tangential direction of the position where the sliding pin 9 is contacted with the local edge end surface, the thrust action in the tangential direction has the direction extending from the first position to the second position, namely the thrust action in the tangential direction drives the sliding pin 9 to move towards the second position where the sliding pin 9 is continuously close under the driving of the unfolding mechanism, in other words, the sliding friction action between the sliding pin 9 and the bottom end surface of the fixed pin is reduced, the thrust action of the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 along the vertical axial direction synchronously drives the sliding pin 9 and the fixed pin to slide relatively, and the sliding pin 9 is guided to move to the second position matched with the opening of the fixed pin actively, so that the requirement of the unfolding process of the unfolding mechanism on the external driving action is reduced, and under the condition that the large-scale expandable antenna structure has the great requirement on the using amount of the connecting part, the driving energy consumption can be greatly reduced.

As another preferred embodiment, the first pin body 27 is located at a central position of the end surface of the second pin body 28, i.e., the first pin body 27 is disposed at a position corresponding to the central axis of the second pin body 28. In this arrangement, unlike the case where the first pin body 27 is eccentrically arranged, the first position and the second position both correspond to the positions of the fixed pin openings and only the relative positions between the first position and the fixed pin openings are different from each other, and the local edge end surface does not mean a region near the outer edge on the bottom end surface of the fixed pin, but means a region near the opening of the fixed pin opening on the bottom end surface of the fixed pin. In this arrangement, the local edge end surface is still arranged to extend continuously from the first position toward the second position around the central axis of the fixing pin, and the local edge end surface may be in a tilted spiral shape so that the first shaft height of the fixing pin corresponding to the first position in the central axis direction is higher than the second shaft height of the fixing pin corresponding to the second position in the central axis direction.

In use, with the first sub hinge 3 and the first main hinge 1 as one unfolding side of the unfolding structure and the second sub hinge 4 and the second main hinge 2 as the other unfolding side of the unfolding structure, the two main hinge torsion springs 5 are compressed, and the unfolding structure is in a folded posture, as shown in fig. 2 and 3. When the unfolding is needed, the two unfolding sides of the unfolding structure are driven to rotate relatively, the torsion springs 5 of the main hinges release elastic potential energy, and all the main hinges and the auxiliary hinges are located on the same plane, as shown in fig. 4. When the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are unfolded to the preset posture, the movement trend of the main hinge unit can be locked through the main hinge limiting structure. The sub hinge unit reaches the coaxial condition. Then the auxiliary hinge unit is driven to act, the auxiliary hinge torsion spring 6 releases elastic potential energy, and the auxiliary hinge unit rotates relative to the main hinge unit. The auxiliary hinge unit and the main hinge unit form a 90-degree folding posture. The movement tendency of the sub hinge unit can be locked by the sub hinge limiting structure. At this point, the deployed configuration is deployed to a locked state, as shown in FIG. 5. Therefore, the auxiliary hinge unit forms a large bearing interface in the unfolding direction of the main hinge unit, so that the rigidity after unfolding can be greatly improved. In the unfolding process, before the unfolding is in place, the sliding pin 9 and the fixed pin opening 13 are in a dislocation state; when the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are to be unfolded to a preset posture, the sliding pin 9 corresponds to the fixed pin opening 13, the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 releases elastic potential energy, and the sliding pin 9 enters the fixed pin opening 13 under the action of driving force provided by the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10; as long as a gap exists between the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2, the sliding pin pre-tightening pressure spring 10 continues to push the sliding pin 9 to advance until the gap disappears, so that the first main hinge 1 and the second main hinge 2 are promoted to be unfolded to a preset posture.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments are exemplary, and that those skilled in the art, having benefit of the present disclosure, may devise various arrangements that are within the scope of the present disclosure and that fall within the scope of the invention. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the present specification and figures are illustrative only and are not limiting upon the claims. The scope of the invention is defined by the claims and their equivalents. The present description contains several inventive concepts, such as "preferably", "according to a preferred embodiment" or "optionally", each indicating that the respective paragraph discloses a separate concept, the applicant reserves the right to submit divisional applications according to each inventive concept.

Claims

1. A deployment structure, characterized by comprising at least:

a main hinge unit (101) which can be folded and unfolded and is used for realizing the connection between two unfolding sides of the mechanism to be unfolded;

a sub hinge unit (102) for limiting the degree of freedom after the main hinge unit (101) is folded and unfolded,

a backlash eliminating unit (103) for providing a preload load and eliminating a backlash existing in the main hinge unit (101),

wherein the sub hinge unit (102) is mounted on the main hinge unit (101) in such a manner that it can move synchronously or asynchronously with the main hinge unit (101), and the backlash eliminating unit (103) is provided on the main hinge unit (101).

2. The unfolding arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the secondary hinge unit (102) is assembled to the main hinge unit by means of at least two secondary hinge torsion springs (6), the secondary hinge torsion springs (6) having a torque capable of urging the secondary hinge unit (102) to fold towards the main hinge unit (101) and limiting the degree of freedom of the main hinge unit (101) after folding and unfolding.

3. The deployment structure of claim 2, wherein the rotation angle between the secondary hinge and the primary hinge is 90 ° -180 °.

4. A deployment structure according to claim 3, characterized in that the main hinge unit (101) comprises at least two main hinges, and the anti-backlash unit (103) comprises at least:

a fixing pin (8) disposed in a main hinge arm corresponding to a main hinge;

an elastic part which is movably arranged in the main hinge arm corresponding to the other main hinge and has a first working posture and a second working posture formed relative to the fixed pin (8),

wherein the elastic member eliminates the gap by switching from the first working posture to the second working posture when the unfolding structure is unfolded in place.

5. A deployment structure according to claim 4, characterized in that the elastic means comprise at least a sliding pin (9) and a sliding pin pre-tensioning compression spring (10), the sliding pin (9) being held in abutting relationship with the fixed pin (8) by means of the sliding pin pre-tensioning compression spring (10) in a compressed state to provide a pre-tensioning load to the main hinge unit.

6. The unfolding arrangement according to claim 5, wherein the secondary hinge unit (102) further comprises two secondary hinges connected to each other by a primary hinge torsion spring (5), the axis of rotation between the two secondary hinges being co-located on the first axis with the axis of rotation between the two primary hinges.

7. A deployment structure according to claim 6, characterized in that the rotation axes respectively corresponding to the two secondary hinge torsion springs (6) are co-located on a second axis, perpendicular to the first axis.

8. The unfolding arrangement according to claim 7, further comprising at least one force-regulating plug (12), the force-regulating plug (12) being fitted on at least one hinge in such a way that it can regulate the torsion of the secondary hinge torsion spring (6) or the primary hinge torsion spring (5).

9. A method of deploying a deployed structure, comprising at least one of the following steps:

when the foldable bicycle is not unfolded, the main hinge unit and the auxiliary hinge unit are both in a folding posture, two main hinges in the main hinge unit are mutually overlapped, and two auxiliary hinges in the auxiliary hinge unit are mutually overlapped;

the main hinge unit is driven to unfold, and the auxiliary hinge unit is unfolded synchronously with the main hinge unit;

keeping the unfolding posture of the main hinge unit and driving the auxiliary hinge unit to be folded relative to the main hinge unit;

and driving the auxiliary hinge unit to be folded to a preset position and keeping the auxiliary hinge unit until the unfolding is completed.

10. The deployment method of claim 9, further comprising:

when the unfolding structure is unfolded in place, the elastic component in the anti-backlash unit is switched from the first working posture to the second working posture.