Natural escapement

• US 9,927,773 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2014
• Issued: 03/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Swatch Group Research And Development Ltd (The Swatch Group AG)
• Original Assignee: The Swatch Group Research And Development Ltd (The Swatch Group AG)
• Inventors: Di Domenico, Gianni, Favre, Jerome
• Primary Examiner(s): Johnson, Amy Cohen
• Assistant Examiner(s): WICKLUND, DANIEL PM
• Application Number:
  US15/028,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20160266546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,204 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G04B 15/00 Escapements in striking mechanisms G04B21/06; electric or magnetic means for converting oscillatory to rotary motion in electromechanical time-pieces G04C5/005
• CPC Class Codes: G04B 15/04 Cylinder escapements
• CPC Class Codes: G04B 15/14 Component parts or constructional details, e.g. construction of the lever or the escape wheel assembly and manufacture of the spring G04B1/145; assembly and manufacture of components, e.g. pinions, spindles G04B13/02; lubrication of clockwork bearings G04B31/008; oils for clockwork bearings in general G04B31/08
• CPC Class Codes: G04C 3/04 wherein movement is regulated by a balance construction thereof G04B17/063
• CPC Class Codes: G04C 3/06 using electromagnetic coupling between electric power source and balance
• CPC Class Codes: G04C 3/066 Constructional details, e.g. disposition of coils
• CPC Class Codes: G04C 3/067 Driving circuits with distinct detecting and driving coils
• CPC Class Codes: G04C 5/00 Electric or magnetic means for converting oscillatory to rotary motion in time-pieces, i.e. electric or magnetic escapements regulators G04C3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G04C 5/005 Magnetic or electromagnetic means

Abstract

An escapement mechanism including a stop member between a resonator and two escape wheel sets each subjected to a torque, and each including a magnetized or ferromagnetic track over a period. The stop member includes at least one magnetized or ferromagnetic pole shoe, transversely movable with respect to travel of a surface of the track. The pole shoe or the track creates a magnetic field between the pole shoe and the surface, and the pole shoe is confronted by a magnetic field barrier on the track just before each transverse motion of the stop member actuated by the period action of the resonator. The escape wheel sets are each arranged to cooperate alternately with the stop member, and are connected to each other by a direct kinematic connection.

Claims

1. An escapement mechanism for a timepiece comprising:

a stop member between a resonator and a first escape wheel set and a second escape wheel set, each subjected to a torque;

wherein each escape wheel set includes at least one magnetized or ferromagnetic, or respectively, electrically charged or electrostatically conductive track with a period of travel over which the magnetic, or respectively, electrostatic characteristics thereof are repeated, the stop member including at least one magnetized or ferromagnetic, or respectively, electrically charged or electrostatically conductive pole shoe, the pole shoe being movable in a transverse direction relative to a direction of travel of at least one element of a surface of the track, and at least the pole shoe or the track creating a magnetic or electrostatic field in an air-gap between the at least one pole shoe and the at least one surface,

wherein the pole shoe is confronted with a magnetic or electrostatic field barrier on the track just before each transverse motion of the stop member actuated by periodic action of the resonator,

wherein the first escape wheel set subjected to a first torque and the second escape wheel set subjected to a second torque are each arranged to be configured to cooperate alternately with the stop member, and

wherein the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set pivot about distinct axes and are connected to each other by a direct kinematic connection.

2. The escapement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the first torque is equal to the second torque.

3. The escapement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set pivot about respective axes thereof, in a synchronous motion and with an opposite pivoting direction.

4. The escapement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein at every moment at least one of the pole shoe of the stop member is in interaction with a surface of one of the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set.

5. The escapement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the barriers comprised in the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set are uniformly distributed therein at a same pitch, and are shifted by a half-step between the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set.

6. The escapement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein at least on one of the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set, the track includes, before each barrier, a ramp extending in a curvilinear ramp direction and interacting in an increasing manner, from a ramp bottom towards a ramp top located in proximity to the barrier, with the pole shoe having a magnetic or respectively electrostatic field, whose intensity varies to produce increasing potential energy, the ramp taking energy from the escape wheel set.

7. The escapement mechanism according to claim 6, wherein on the one first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set, each the track includes, before each barrier, a ramp extending in a curvilinear ramp direction and interacting in an increasing manner, from a ramp bottom towards a ramp top located in proximity to the barrier, with the pole shoe having a magnetic or respectively electrostatic field, whose intensity varies to produce increasing potential energy, the ramp taking energy from the escape wheel set.

8. The escapement mechanism according to claim 6, wherein the escape wheel set includes, between two of the successive ramps, a magnetic, or respectively, electrostatic field potential barrier, to trigger a pause of the escape wheel set prior to a tilt of the stop member under the periodic action of the resonator.

9. The escapement mechanism according to claim 8, wherein the at least one escape wheel set includes, at the end of each ramp and just before each barrier, a radial variation in the magnetic or electrostatic field distribution when the surface is magnetized, or respectively, electrically charged, or a variation in profile when the surface is ferromagnetic, or respectively, electrostatically conductive, to cause a draw on the pole shoe, an effect of which is to maintain the stop member in one of stable positions thereof before tilting is triggered.

10. The escapement mechanism according to claim 9, wherein the resonator includes a pin configured to cooperate with a fork or an actuator comprised in the stop member, to cause unlocking followed by a tilt of the pole shoe of the stop member, in a tangential direction to a plane defined by the axes of the first escape wheel set and of the second escape wheel set.

11. The escapement mechanism according to claim 10, wherein during a tilt, the pole shoe of the stop member is brought from a high ramp level of a first ramp to a low ramp level of a second ramp adjacent to the first ramp, so that the pole shoe is subjected to a thrust force of magnetic or respectively electrostatic origin.

12. The escapement mechanism according to claim 6, wherein, between two successive ramps of the same track or two neighbouring tracks in a direction of travel, the at least one escape wheel set includes the magnetic, or respectively, electrostatic field potential barrier, for triggering a pause of the escape wheel set prior to a tilt of the stop member under the periodic action of the resonator.

13. The escapement mechanism according to claim 12, wherein potential gradient of each of the potential barrier is steeper than that of the ramp.

14. The escapement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the pole shoe of the stop member is movable, at the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set between and at an equal distance from two symmetrical surfaces having identical magnetic or respectively electrostatic features to each other.

15. The escapement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the escapement mechanism accumulates potential energy received from at least one of the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set during each half of the period, and returns energy to the resonator between half-periods during transverse motion of the stop member actuated by periodic action of the resonator, wherein the pole shoe changes from a first relative transverse half-travel in relation to the escape wheel set to a second relative transverse half-travel in relation to the escape wheel set, or vice versa.

16. The escapement mechanism according to claim 15, wherein each of the two opposing components, formed by the pole shoe and the track bearing the surface that faces the pole shoe over at least part of their relative travel, includes active magnetic, or respectively, electrostatic portion, configured to create a magnetic, or respectively, electrostatic field in a direction substantially parallel to the axial direction, at an interface thereof in the air-gap between the pole shoe and the surface opposite thereto.

17. The escapement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the stop member pivots about a real or virtual pivot, and comprises a single of the pole shoe configured to cooperate with primary areas comprised in the surfaces, located on different diameters of the at least one escape wheel set with which the pole shoe has a variable interaction during rotation of one of the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set, the primary areas being arranged alternately on a periphery of the at least one of the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set, to restrict the pole shoe to a radial motion, relative to an axial direction which is orthogonal both to a transverse direction substantially parallel to the transverse direction of the shoe and to a direction of travel of the track.

18. The escapement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein one of the first escape wheel set and the second escape wheel set is an escape wheel.

19. The escapement mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the stop member is a pallet fork.

20. A timepiece movement comprising at least one escapement mechanism according to claim 1.

21. A timepiece comprising at least one movement according to claim 20.