US 12,411,456 B2
Method of making a timepiece spring from monocrystalline material and timepiece spring obtained by this method
Jean-Luc Bucaille, Présilly (FR)
Assigned to PATEK PHILIPPE SA GENEVE, Geneva (CH)
Appl. No. 17/761,976
Filed by PATEK PHILIPPE SA GENEVE, Geneva (CH)
PCT Filed Sep. 8, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IB2020/058319
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 18, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/053454, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 25, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 19198559 (EP), filed on Sep. 20, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0326657 A1, Oct. 13, 2022
Int. Cl. G04B 17/32 (2006.01); C30B 29/06 (2006.01); C30B 29/66 (2006.01); C30B 33/08 (2006.01); G04B 17/06 (2006.01); G04B 21/06 (2006.01)
CPC G04B 17/32 (2013.01) [C30B 29/06 (2013.01); C30B 29/66 (2013.01); G04B 17/06 (2013.01); C30B 33/08 (2013.01); F16F 2224/02 (2013.01); F16F 2226/04 (2013.01); F16F 2230/24 (2013.01); G04B 21/06 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of making a timepiece spring from monocrystalline material comprising the following steps:
a) drawing the spring,
b) identifying one or more zones of weakness of the spring in which or in at least one of which the spring will break in the event of excessive deformation,
c) fabricating the spring from a wafer of monocrystalline material, while orienting the spring in the wafer in such a way that the direction of macroscopic stresses in the or each zone of weakness when the spring is deformed is substantially parallel to a plane of cleavage of the monocrystalline material, the plane of cleavage intersecting a plane in which the wafer extends.