Wheel substitutes for land vehicles – With means to remove or exclude foreign matter – With self-cleaning sprocket or drive wheel
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-18
2004-03-02
Morano, S. Joseph (Department: 3617)
Wheel substitutes for land vehicles
With means to remove or exclude foreign matter
With self-cleaning sprocket or drive wheel
C305S195000, C305S199000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06698850
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an elastic crawler traveling apparatus used for traveling, for example, on a soft ground in construction, civil engineering, agriculture or the like and a sprocket for a crawler belt used in the elastic crawler traveling apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An elastic crawler traveling apparatus having an elastic crawler formed by an elastic material of rubber or the like is currently used widely in an agricultural machine such as a combine and a construction operation machine such as a back hoe.
Conventionally, the elastic crawler traveling apparatus is mainly constituted by an elastic crawler formed in a shape of an endless belt, a sprocket for a crawler belt to be brought into contact with an inner face of the elastic crawler, a driven wheel, and a rolling wheel.
The sprocket for the crawler belt, the driven wheel and the rolling wheel are arranged at predetermined center distances therebetween and the elastic crawler can be circulatingly run by a transmission of driving force by the sprocket for the crawler belt.
An explanation will be given as follows of the elastic crawler and the sprocket for the crawler belt, the driven wheel and the rolling wheel in reference to FIG.
13
through FIG.
15
.
FIG. 13
shows a state in which an elastic crawler and a sprocket for a crawler belt are brought into contact with each other.
An elastic crawler
42
shown in
FIG. 13
is mainly constituted by a belt main body
47
in a shape of an endless belt, a plurality of projections
48
formed to project from an inner face of the belt main body
47
and a tension member
49
of a steel cord or the like embedded at an inner portion of the belt main body
47
for restricting elongation of the belt main body
47
.
A plurality of the projections
48
are arranged at constant intervals over an entire periphery of the inner face of the belt main body
47
.
The tension member
49
is provided for restricting elongation caused by an outwardly pushing force (hereinafter, referred to as extending tension force) exerted by a sprocket
43
for a crawler belt, the driven wheel
45
and the rolling wheel
46
to extend the elastic crawler
42
on the inner face of the elastic crawler
42
.
A plurality of the tension members
49
are embedded within a constant embedding width (width designated by notation A, hereinafter, referred to as embedding width A) in a belt width direction (direction indicated by notation X, hereinafter, the direction is defined as a reference direction and the direction is simply referred to as belt width direction) of the belt main body
47
.
The sprocket
43
for a crawler belt for driving the elastic crawler
42
is constituted by a drive tooth portion
51
in a rod-like shape fitted to a valley portion between the projections
48
for transmitting the driving force to the elastic crawler
42
and a pair of barrel portion main bodies
50
in a shape of a circular disk for sandwiching the drive tooth portion
51
.
As shown by
FIG. 13
, a length of the drive tooth portion
51
in a longitudinal direction thereof and a root width (width indicated by notation D) of the projection
48
in the belt width direction are made to be substantially equal to each other and the barrel portion main bodies
50
are disposed so as to sandwich the drive tooth portion
51
therebetween.
A contact width in the belt width direction of a portion
56
of the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt in contact with the inner face of the crawler main body
47
is constituted by adding the length in the longitudinal direction of the drive tooth portion
51
and widths in the belt width direction of the barrel portion main bodies
50
, and the contact width is indicated by notation E (hereinafter, the width is referred to as contact width E in the sprocket
43
of the crawler belt).
When the length in the longitudinal direction of the drive tooth portion
51
and the root width of the projection
48
are made to be substantially equal to each other as described above, and the drive tooth portion
51
are sandwiched by the barrel portion main bodies
50
, in the case in which the elastic crawler
42
and the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt are shifted from each other in the belt width direction, a face on an inner side of the barrel portion main body
50
is brought into contact with the projection
48
to thereby enable to restrict the shift of the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt.
However, since a thickness (a width in the belt width direction) of the drive portion main body
50
is made to be as small as possible for light-weighted formation of the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt and a reduction in material cost, the contact width E in the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt is made smaller than the embedding width A.
A difference between the contact width E of the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt and the embedding width A is indicated by notation F, which is hereinafter referred to as a noncontact width F.
FIG. 14
shows a state in which the driven wheel
45
or the rolling wheel
46
and the belt main body
47
are brought into contact with each other.
In
FIG. 14
, either of the driven wheel
45
and the rolling wheel
46
constitutes a so-to-speak riding rolling wheel which rolls on an inner peripheral face of the belt main body
47
by riding over the projection
48
. A contact width of a portion of the driven wheel
45
(or rolling wheel
46
) in contact with the inner face of the belt main body
47
in the belt width direction is indicated by notation G (hereafter, referred to as contact width G in the driven wheel or the like).
Further, in
FIG. 14
, the contact width E of the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt is shown for comparison.
When the contact width E of the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt is compared with the contact width G of the driven wheel or the like, the contact width E of the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt and the contact width G of the driven wheel or the like are not completely coincident with each other although there are coincident portions thereof.
In this case, the tension member
49
disposed in a range in which the contact width E of the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt and the contact width G of the driven wheel or the like are coincident with each other (overlap each other) (hereinafter, referred to as coincident range) undergoes the extending tension force from the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt, the driven wheel
45
and the rolling wheel
46
. However, the tension member
49
disposed outside of the coincident range undergoes the extending tension force only from the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt or only from the driven wheel or the like.
FIG. 15
is a sectional view taken along arrow marks Q—Q of
FIG. 13
, showing a state in which the elastic crawler
42
is wrapped around the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt.
The elastic crawler
42
is mounted around the sprocket
43
for the crawler belt with being pulled (being applied with tension) in a peripheral direction (direction indicated by notation Y) of the elastic crawler
42
(belt main body
8
).
In this case, the rate of elongation caused by the pulling force differs between a portion of the belt main body
47
formed with the projection
48
and a portion thereof between the projections
48
.
More specifically, the portion provided with the projection is difficult to elongate since the thickness of the belt main body
47
is thicker by an amount of the projection, while the portion of the belt main body
8
between the projections
48
is readily elongated.
Therefore, when tension is applied along the peripheral direction of the elastic crawler
2
, a portion of the tension member
49
which is readily elongated (portion between the projections
9
) is pulled to be linear to thereby constitute a form in which the linear portions are connected at the portion difficult to elongate. Accordingly, as shown by
FIG. 15
, the tension member
49
is deformed into a polygonal shape.
When the tension me
Bellinger Jason R.
Morano S. Joseph
Nixon & Peabody LLP
Safran David S.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd.
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