BladeDrive Patented Guillotine Drive System

Historically, guillotine damper blades were moved by dual chain and sprocket drives. Being the least cost actuating system, dual chain drives were often unreliable and costly to maintain.

Guillotine dampers are often exposed to corrosive conditions and infrequent use. Chains must drive blades into ash deposits on closing producing uneven loads between the chains. Stalling actuators into obstacles exposes chains to uneven high-tension loads resulting in uneven elongation of each chain. Loose chains cause blade misalignment and eventual binding. On occasion, loose chains slip completely from sprockets causing severe binding.

The rack and pinion system incorporates tandem racks (pins separated by parallel bars) fixed to the damper blade. Coupled pinion gears engage the racks to drive the damper blade up and down. The rack and pinion drive is much more reliable but the increased reliability comes with a substantial increase in initial cost over the chain drive system.

Senior Flexonics Pathway has developed the BladeDrive guillotine actuating system that is lower in cost than the chain drive and equal to the rack and pinion in simplicity and reliability. The Blade Drive is essentially a rack and pinion drive. However, with the BladeDriveTM the conventional pinion gear teeth are cut into the edge of the damper blade and the rack is a set of pins fixed to a rotating pinion.

The teeth are cut into the blade with an involute pattern to minimize wear in service. The pinion is designed such that at least 2 pins are engaged with the blade involutes at any one time. The depth of the involute is designed to accommodate thermal growth of the damper blade without binding.

Other than the components associated with the actuator, the BladeDriveTM only has 3 moving parts, the two pinion wheels and the blade itself.

The simplicity of the BladeDriveTM system results in a substantial reduction in cost even when compared to the chain drive. That product simplicity also eliminates the maintenance headaches associated with conventional guillotine drives.