Moments of elastic power supply lead tapes in gyroscopes

A method is given for computing the spring characteristic of leads, supplying power to gimbals with low friction bearings in gyroscopic instruments. They are frequently made of small and thin metallic tapes, being straight in their dismantled state. They are clamped at both ends, and the torque exerted on the gimbal is required to be as small as possible. Therefore they are arranged in a way, acting against each other. This results in a low spring restraint of the gimbal. The essential part of this computation gives the static deflection curve. From the deflection curve the expressions for the material stresses are derived. The influence of temperature variations on the spring characteristic is considered. Some configurations of tapes are investigated in more detail.