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United States Patent (19) (11) 4,228,533 Siefert (45) Oct

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United States Patent (19) (11) 4,228,533 Siefert (45) Oct United States Patent (19) (11) 4,228,533 Siefert (45) Oct. 14, 1980 54 AUTONOMOUSPENDULUMMECHANISM adapted to be attached as a unit to a clockwork, com FOR CLOCKWORKS prises a supporting plate adapted to be attached to a clockwork casing in overlying spaced relationship to (75) Inventor: Roland Siefert, Bad Durrheim, Fed. the front face of the casing. The supporting plate is Rep. of Germany fastened to the casing by a fastening device which is (73) Assignee: Kienzle Uhrenfabriken GmbH, concentric with the spindles for the clock hands and Schwenningen, Fed. Rep. of through which said spindles may project to the exterior Germany of the plate. A pivot bearing is provided on the support (21) Appl. No.: 23,365 ing plate vertically above the spindles adjacent the upper edge of the casing, and the lower edge of the 22 Filed: Mar. 23, 1979 supporting plate carries a circuit board having an elec (30) Foreign Application Priority Data trically energizable coil thereon located immediately Fed. Rep. of Germany ... 78.09694U) below the clockwork casing comprising a portion of an Apr. 1, 1978 (DE) electrical drive mechanism. A pendulum arm extends 51) Int. C. ...................... G04B 15/00; G04B 17/02; from the pivot bearing for swinging motion across the G04B 37/00 front face of the casing in the region between the sup 52 U.S. C. .................................... 368/134; 368/179; porting plate and casing, and has, at its lower end, a 368/278 permanent magnet which cooperates with the coil to 58 Field of Search ................... 58/129, 131, 132, 29, drive the pendulum. The pendulum arm is shaped to 58/30, 3, 32 define two portions which are disposed in angular rela (56) References Cited tion to one another so that the upper portion of the arm U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS swings in a limited region between the clockwork spin dles and one side of the clockwork casing while the 4,043,118 8/1977 Haag et al.............................. 58/129 lower portion of the arm below the spindles swings 4,073,130 2/978 Jauch ......................................... 58/9 between points which are substantially equidistant from Primary Examiner-Wit W. Miska the opposite sides of the clockwork casing. Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Pollock, Wande Sande & Priddy 57 ABSTRACT An autonomously operating pendulum mechanism, 12 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures U.S. Patent Oct. 14, 1980 Sheet 1 of 2 4,228,533 !!!!! ZZZ FG.1 U.S. Patent Oct. 14, 1980 Sheet 2 of 2 4,228,533 ***------~-----+ F. G.2 4,228,533 1 2 ing structure, preferably taking the form of a vertical AUTONOMOUS PENDULUM MECHANISM FOR supporting plate of generally U-shaped configuration in CLOCKWORKS both its horizontal and vertical cross sections, which is adapted to be attached to the clockwork casing in out BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 5 wardly spaced relation to the front face thereof, and in The present invention relates to a pendulum mecha overlying relation to the top, bottom, and both side nism, adapted to be attached to the casing of a clock edges of the clockwork casing. work for use together with the clockwork, which oper The inwardly extending leg of the supporting plate, ates independently of the clockwork, and which com adjacent the top of the clockwork casing, has a pivot prises a pivot bearing, a pendulum arm mounted on the O bearing thereon from which a pendulum arm can be bearing for swinging motion, and an electrical drive suspended for swinging motion in the region between mechanism for the pendulum comprising a permanent the inner surface of the supporting plate and the front magnet carried by the pendulum adjacent its lower end face of the clockwork casing. The inwardly extending and cooperating with a coil mounted on a circuit board leg at the bottom of the supporting plate has a circuit located below the clockwork casing and carrying the 5 board mounted thereon which includes an electrically electronics for driving the pendulum. energizable coil that cooperates with a permanent mag An autonomously operating pendulum arrangement, net carried by the lower end of the pendulum arm for which can be attached to a crystal-controlled clock driving the pendulum arm in a swinging motion. Such work, is discussed in Haag et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,118, electrical drive mechanisms are known per se and are assigned to the assignee of the instant application. This 20 accordingly not described in detail. known arrangement consists of a pendulum housing The pendulum arm is of special shape, and comprises adapted to be fastened to the lower side of the clock a first portion adjacent the upper end of the arm which work casing and carrying a circuit board on which are extends downwardly from the pivot bearing at an angle mounted the electrical components required to drive to the line between the pivot bearing and the clockwork the pendulum. The arrangement includes a bearing 25 spindles into the region between said spindles and one device for the pendulum arm which bearing device is attached as a separate element to the upper side of the side of the clockwork casing, and a second portion clockwork casing, and a device for suspending the pen which is angled in the direction opposite to that of said dulum is provided at the lower side of the pendulum first portion and which extends downwardly from the arm. The housing is also provided with a lateral arm on 30 lower end of the first portion to a position below the which the bell of a clock-striking system can be lower end of the supporting plate. The dimensions and mounted. angular orientations of the two portions of the pendu This known arrangement has the disadvantage that lum arm are such that the swinging motion of the first the proper functioning of its various components, i.e., or upper portion of the pendulum arm across the front the overall pendulum arrangement as well as the associ 35 face of the clockwork casing occurs entirely in the ated chime system, can be checked out for proper oper region between the spindles and one side of the clock ation only when all of the separate parts of the pendu work casing, while the lower end of the second portion lum have been assembled on the clockwork casing. of the pendulum arm swings between points which are There is, in addition, the disadvantage that the pendu substantially equidistant from the opposite sides of the lum arm is substantially U-shaped and envelopes the 40 clockwork casing in the region below the spindles. As a clockwork laterally, and this requires a comparatively result, the lower end of the pendulum arm, which is the large amount of space for the swinging motion of the only portion visible when the pendulum mechanism is pendulum. The known arrangement, moreover, cannot mounted on the clockwork casing, swings uniformly be used in conjunction with comparatively small pendu across the casing from a pivot point which is located on lum clocks, for example table clocks; and the lateral 45 the supporting plate adjacent the top of the casing with placement of the bell of the clock-striking system pre out, however, any interference between the swinging cludes use of the arrangement in small-sized classic pendulum arm and the spindles for the clock hands. clocks. The pendulum mechanism may further include a The present invention is intended to obviate these chiming system as an integral portion thereof. In the disadvantages of the prior art, and is concerned with a SO preferred embodiment of the invention, the chiming novel autonomous pendulum mechanism which can be system comprises a bell which is mounted on the in connected to the casing of the clockwork in the form of wardly extending leg of the supporting plate immedi a completely separate assembled structural unit whose ately above the top edge of the clockwork casing, a functioning can be checked out independently of the clapper which is pivotally mounted on the supporting clockwork. Moreover, the unitary pendulum mecha 55 plate and which cooperates with a return spring for nism of the present invention is so arranged that a chim striking the bell, and a cam arrangement for driving the ing system can be incorporated therein as part of the clapper and comprising a pinion which extends from a pendulum unit, so that its proper operation can also be cam into mesh engagement with a portion of the clock checked out independently of the clockwork. work through an opening in the clockwork casing. 60 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention relates to a pendulum mecha The foregoing objects, advantages, construction and nism, for use with a clockwork of the type comprising operation of the present invention will become more a clockwork casing the front face of which has spindles readily apparent from the following description and thereon for the clock hands, and which pendulum 65 accompanying drawings in which: mechanism is adapted to be attached as a unit to the FIG. 1 is a side cross-sectional view of a pendulum clockwork for operation independently of the clock mechanism constructed in accordance with the present work. The pendulum mechanism comprises a support invention and mounted on a clockwork casing; and 4,228,533 3 4. FIG. 2 is a rear view of the pendulum mechanism of so that, when the pendulum is swinging, the lower end the present invention. of the pendulum arm 11 swings across the front face of the clockwork casing between points which are sub DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED stantially equidistant from the opposite sides of the EMBODIMENTS clockwork casing 4 in the region below said spindles.
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