Description
The objective of the activity is to develop a breadboard of a flexible pivot a with large range of rotation angle (goal90 degrees),which features a hollow inner shaft to route an optical beam for optical communications or cables/waveguide in other applications.Targeted Improvements:One order of magnitude improvement in operating lifetime of coarse pointing mechanisms in optical communication terminals compared to ball bearing mechanisms, and also applicable to antenna pointing mechanisms to route cables and waveguides.Description:Course pointing mechanisms for optical communication terminals as well as conventional antenna pointing mechanisms would benefit from a longer life and lower torque noise by replacing ball bearings by flexible pivots. However, existing flexible pivots do now allow for routing of e.g. optical beams or waveguides through them. This activity aims to develop a large-range flexible pivot (approximately 90-deg rotation range) with a hollow shaft. Existing large range flexible pivots can reach a rotation range of 120 degrees, but they do not have hollow shaft; hence the confidence that a flexible pivot with a hollow shaft can be achieved, in exchange of a rotation range lower than 120 degrees. This activity will investigate the market need in terms of innerdiameter and rotation range, define the requirements for such a flexible pivot, and design and test one (or multiple) component breadboards to verify performance.