Gyroscope, Ring, Zerodur
Saturday, September 09, 2006
A Ring Gyroscope has been designed and developed based on a 1.2 meter by 1.2 meter block of Zerodur. The Zerodur is a glass ceramic material with a thickness of 180 mm weighing approximately 600 kg. The block has four one-meter longitudinal bores providing for the laser light beam paths. Folding mirrors are mounted at each of the four corners of the Zerodur block. This creates a closed square shaped resonator in which the laser light beams can travel in both directions.
The machining process consists of cutting the blocks corners to prepare for the mounting of the folding mirrors. The surfaces for the mirror mounting are optically polished allowing the folding mirrors to be attached directly to the Zerodur by optical contact rather than with bonding.
The Gyroscope principle is based on the small frequency difference produced between two laser light beams traveling in opposite direction around the four-mirror square shaped resonator. When the Gyroscope rotates about its axis, this frequency difference between the two laser light beams is measured. The data is processed to determine the angular rotational velocity (rotated angle), change in angular rotation and direction of rotation with high accuracy and repeatability.
Source: Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany and the Institute of Applied Geodesy, Frankfurt, Germany
Reference: Zeiss Glaswerke, Mainz, Germany
Industrial Products
posted by JD52 @ 1:15 PM,
