GB1142738A - Cooling travelling wave tubes - Google Patents

Abstract

1,142,738. Cooling travelling wave tubes. STANDARD TELEPHONES & CABLES Ltd. 24 Aug., 1967, No. 39054/67. Heading H1D. [Also in Division E2] A cooling and support assembly for the collector of a travelling wave tube is fixed to a centring member on a mount for the tube, the centring member defining a reference axis and being radially adjustable for aligning the tube with the axis of a magnetic field provided by a magnetic focusing system provided on the mount, the cooling and support assembly including a set of at least three similar chuck members, each carrying at least one cooling fin, which set is arranged to surround the collector and contact it over substantially the whole of its periphery; means for urging the chuck members radially against the collector; and means for pivotally supporting each of the chuck members in such a manner that the travelling wave tube together with the set of chuck members may pivot freely to a limited extent about a point which is restrained to lie on the reference axis. As shown in Fig. 2, the centring member 3, adjustable with respect to the tube mount 8 by screws 7, carries bars 9 each of which supports a chuck member 12 and urges it into contact with the collector 11 by means of the protrusion of the spring-loaded pivot pins 16 within the blind bores 15, the hemispherical bases of which are situated close to the centres of mass of the corresponding chuck members. The chuck members support corresponding fin sectors 13, and can pivot, through a limited angle determined by the flanges 18 and 19, by reason of the clearance between the pivot pins 16 and the walls of the bores 15. The tube may be lined up with respect to the focusing magnetic field by transverse movement of the gun end of the tube, with consequent tilting of the tube about the point on the axis 4 defined by the intersection of the lines of the pivot rods 16. In other embodiments the support rods 9 and springs 17 are dispensed with, each pivot rod being secured at its outer end to one or a pair of leaf springs which are themselves supported at either one or at both ends (Figs. 4 to 8, not shown). In a further embodiment Fig. 9, in which the fins are not shown, each chuck member is supported by a springy wire 27 threaded through it, or by a pair of wires having their free ends attached to it, the wires being supported-by brackets 29 attached to the centring member 3-such that the outer ends of adjacent wires are closer together than the receiving apertures for the wires in the chuck members, to bias the latter towards the collector. Three chuck members are preferably employed.