Wheel substitutes for land vehicles – Track guide or alignment mechanism
Patent
1997-07-14
2000-03-07
Swann, J. J.
Wheel substitutes for land vehicles
Track guide or alignment mechanism
305139, B62D 5512, B62D 5518
Patent
active
060330430
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a crawler type drive apparatus which is suitable for application as a vehicular base carrier for various crawler type construction machines such as hydraulic power shovels, hydraulic cranes and the like.
Normally, construction machines such as hydraulic power shovels and hydraulic cranes, which are required to run on rough and muddy terrains of construction sites are equipped with a crawler type drive apparatus.
Crawler type drive apparatus of this sort generally include a truck frame having a pair of side frames at the opposite lateral sides of a center frame, front and rear brackets provided at the front and rear ends of each side frame for supporting thereon a drive sprocket and an idler wheel or vice versa, and a crawler belt wrapped between and around the drive sprocket and idler wheel. Upon rotationally driving the drive sprocket, the crawler belt, which is meshed with the drive sprocket, is driven by the drive sprocket to turn over around the drive sprocket and idler wheel via guide rollers, which are provided between the drive sprocket and idler wheels, putting the base carrier of a vehicle in travel.
In this connection, it has been well known in the art that, when put in travel, the vehicular base carrier with crawlers of this sort generates loud percussive or striking noises as crawler belts are turned around between the drive sprocket and idler wheel. These noises can be largely classified into intermittent striking noises and continuous striking sounds. Of these two kinds of noises, the intermittent percussive noises are attributable to undulatory vibrations which occur to each crawler belt which is turning around between the drive sprocket and upper rollers, causing the crawler belt to hit itself intermittently against the drive sprocket and idler wheel. On the other hand, the continuous striking noises are produced by a large number of crawler belt links as they are successively taken up onto the drive sprockets and meshed therewith in a polygonally bent shape.
In this regard, Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Application 55-127678, 63-182981 and 6-6182 disclose crawler type vehicular drive apparatus employing guide roller bodies which are arranged to support lower side of a crawler belt between an upper roller and a drive sprocket. According to the crawler type drive apparatus described in these publications, by the provision of guide rollers which support lower side of a crawler belt, it becomes possible to suppress undulatory vibrations of the crawler belt between the upper roller and drive sprocket and thereby to minimize the intermittent striking noises as would be generated at a louder level by the undulatory vibrations.
However, although the crawler type drive apparatus of the above-mentioned prior art can reduce the intermittent striking noises as caused by undulatory vibrations of the crawler belt, there still remains the problem of continuous percussive or striking noises which are generated by the respective links of crawler belts when they are successively taken up onto the drive sprocket in a polygonally bent shape as mentioned hereinbefore.
Here, a reference is had to FIG. 11 to explain the reason why continuous striking noises are produced by a crawler belt when it is taken up onto a drive sprocket.
In FIG. 11, indicated at 1 is a drive sprocket, and at 2 a crawler belt which is passed around the drive sprocket 1 and an idler wheel (not shown). The crawler belt 2 is formed by successively connecting a plural number of links 3 pivotally by the use of connecting pins 4, which are each fitted with a bush 5. As the drive sprocket 1 is put in rotation in the direction of arrow A, the bushes 5 on the crawler belt 2 are successively meshed with the drive sprocket 1 as the links 3 are taken up onto the drive sprocket 1 progressively from time point T1 to T5.
In this instance, the links 3 are taken up onto the drive sprocket 1 in a polygonally bent shape, so that the bushes 5 are moved in the arrowed direction along a locus of moveme
REFERENCES:
patent: 1946660 (1934-02-01), Baker
patent: 4191431 (1980-03-01), Roley
patent: 4402555 (1983-09-01), Ogaki
Higuchi Takeshi
Nishimori Hiroyuki
Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Ltd.
Ririe Andrew J.
Swann J. J.
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