swash plate

American  

Or swashplate

noun

Machinery.

1. an inclined circular plate on a rotating shaft for transferring force and motion to or from parts reciprocating in a direction parallel to the axis of shaft rotation.

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swash plate British  

noun

1. Also called: wobble plate.  engineering a collar or face plate on a shaft that is inclined at an oblique angle to the axis of rotation and either imparts reciprocating motion to push rods parallel to the shaft axis as in a swash plate pump or, conversely, converts reciprocating motion to rotation as in a swash plate motor

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Etymology

Origin of swash plate

from swash (obsolete n) an oblique figure or ornament, from aswash: see _{swash letter}

Example Sentences

As the gas shuttles between interconnected cylinders, the pistons move back and forth and piston rods push against a so-called swash plate, or disk.

From Time Magazine Archive

The swash plate, in turn, forces a drive shaft to rotate.

From Time Magazine Archive

The vertical shaft at D is rotated by action of wheels H and J on cam, or swash plate, ABC.

From Kinematics of Mechanisms from the Time of Watt by Ferguson, Eugene S.