Anti-Cocking Flange
Understanding Anti-Cocking Flange
Anti-cocking flanges use two or four precision dowel pins that engage corresponding holes in the mating flange. This prevents the flanges from tilting relative to each other during assembly, which would create gaps and increase VSWR.
Common anti-cocking flange standards include UG-style flanges with alignment pins. These are critical at millimeter-wave frequencies where even slight misalignment causes significant performance degradation due to the small waveguide aperture dimensions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are anti-cocking flanges important at mmWave?
At millimeter-wave frequencies, waveguide apertures are very small (e.g., 3.1 x 1.5 mm for WR-12), so even minor angular misalignment creates significant signal reflections.
How do anti-cocking flanges differ from standard flanges?
Standard flanges rely only on bolt holes for alignment, while anti-cocking flanges add precision dowel pins for angular alignment control.