Constant volume joint

Claim 1

IN A SPACE SUIT, A FLEXIBLE JOINT ASSEMBLY COMPRISING: A PAIR OF TUBULAR ELEMENTS, BELLOWS MEANS COMPRISING A TUBULAR SECTION MADE OF FLEXIBLE MATERIAL ADAPTED TO FORM CONVOLUTIONS INTERCONNECTING SAID TUBULAR ELEMENTS, A PLURALITY OF RIBS ARRANGED BETWEEN SAID CONVOLUTIONS, PIVOT MEANS COMPRISING PIVOTS MOUNTED ON EACH TUBULAR ELEMENT ADJACENT THE END THEREOF, SAID PIVOTS HAVING AXES WHICH ARE PARALLEL TO EACH OTHER, LINK MEANS BETWEEN SAID PIVOTS FOR CONSTRAINING THE FREEDOM OF RELATIVE ROTATIONAL MOTION OF SAID TUBULAR ELEMENTS TO PIVOTING MOTION ABOUT TWO SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL AXES SUBSTANTIALLY PERPENDICULARLY INTERSECTING THE CENTERLINE OF SAID BELLOWS SECTION, AND FURTHER MEANS FOR CONSTRAINING SUBSTANTIALLY ALL OF THE RIBS TO PIVOT ABOUT AXES WHICH AXES EXTEND THROUGH SAID LINK MEANS, SO THAT THE RIB PIVOTING AXES ALSO SUBSTANTIALLY PERPENDICULARLY INTERSECT THE CENTERLINE OF SAID BELLOWS SECTION AT FIXED POINTS, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE TWO AXES ABOUT WHICH SAID ELEMENTS ARE FREE TO PIVOT, AS DETERMINED BY SAID LINK MEANS, BEING SUBSTANTIALLY CONSTANT AND SO PROPORTIONED WITH RESPECT TO THE SHAPE AND THE DIMENSIONS OF THE BELLOWS MEANS THAT THE VOLUME WITHIN SAID BELLOWS MEANS REMAINS CONSTANT WITH CHANGES IN RELATIVE ANGULAR POSITION OF SAID PAIR OF TUBULAR ELEMENTS.