Wheel substitutes for land vehicles – Tracks or treads – With street plate
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-01
2001-04-10
Robinson, Ellis (Department: 1712)
Wheel substitutes for land vehicles
Tracks or treads
With street plate
C305S188000, C305S111000, C428S099000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213573
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rubber pad post-fitted to an iron shoe crawler.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, a shoe pad is widely used in a traveling portion of a construction machine, earth-moving machine or the like. Since the shoe pad is formed by covering an iron shoe plate fixed to a link with a rubber pad, there are many advantages in that the shoe pad does not damage the road surface, and vibrations transmitted to an operator are reduced, and the like. Furthermore, if the rubber pad is broken, only the broken rubber pad is replaced with a new rubber pad.
In general, the rubber pad is fixed to the iron shoe plate by utilizing a bolt produced from the rubber pad through a nut. However, it is difficult to attach the rubber pad to the iron shoe plate at a state of fixing the iron shoe plates to a machine body. Also, the detachment of the nut from the bolt becomes frequently difficult.
Particularly, it is difficult to conduct the attachment or detachment between the bolt and the nut at the inside of the machine body and also it is difficult to remove the rubber pad from the iron shoe plate in the replacement of the broken rubber pad. Thus, there is a need to facilitate the replacing operation. Because, the attaching or detaching operation between the bolt and the nut must be carried out at a narrow space, and further substantial labor is taken in the operation of removing mud and the like from the nut potion before the detachment of the nut.
Additionally, a mudhole is formed in the iron shoe plate between lugs of the plate. The mudhole is a path of removing mud that has invaded into a back face of the shoe plate. When the rubber pad having no mudhole is fixed to such an iron shoe plate, a support plate for the rubber pad is deformed by an invasion force of mud into the back face of the shoe plate, so that the combination of the shoe plate and the rubber pad does not come into a practical use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to solve the aforementioned drawback of the conventional technique and to provide a rubber pad capable of reducing vibrations transmitted to an operator without damaging a road surface and attaching or detaching to an iron shoe plate without causing deformation of a support plate for the rubber pad through mud, small stones and the like invaded from a mudhole of the shoe plate.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is the provision of a rubber pad comprising a support plate having substantially the same shape as an outer surface of an iron shoe plate provided on its outer surface with lugs, a rubber block vulcanized and adhered to the support plate and having substantially the same shape as the outer surface of the iron shoe plate, a bolt or a female member fixed to at least one side face of the support plate, an idle hole formed on a side face of tho rubber block at a position corresponding to the bolt or female member, a hook member fixed to the support plate at a position opposite to the bolt or female member and provided with a flange extending toward an inner face of the iron shoe plate, and a fastening member securing the rubber pad to the iron shoe plate through another female member or bolt.
In a preferable embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the fastening member is provided with a counterboring portion for the bolt or female member.
In another preferable embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the fastening member is provided with a flange having a length enough to engage with the inner face of the iron shoe plate.
In the other preferable embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, at least a part of an engaging portion of the hook member with one end portion of the iron shoe plate is coated with a rubbery elastomer. In this case, a thickness of the rubbery elastomer is gradually increased toward an engaging end of the hook member.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is the provision of a rubber pad comprising a support plate having substantially the same shape as an outer surface of an iron shoe plate provided on its outer surface with lugs and a mudhole formed in a portion between the lugs, a rubber block vulcanized and adhered to the support plate and having substantially the same shape as the outer surface of the iron shoe plate, in which a recess portion communicating with the mudhole is formed in the support plate so as to extend in a direction perpendicular to the mudhole and toward the outside of the support plate.
According to a third aspect of the invention, there is the provision of a rubber pad comprising a support plate having substantially the same shape as an outer surface of an iron shoe plate provided on its outer surface with lugs and a mudhole formed in a portion between the lugs, a rubber block vulcanized and adhered to the support plate and having substantially the same shape as the outer surface of the iron shoe plate, in which a hooking member is secured to a convex portion of the support plate at a position corresponding to the mudhole so as to engage with an edge portion of the mudhole.
In a preferable embodiment of the third aspect of the invention, a protruding portion is formed on a side face of the convex portion of the support plate in a direction opposite to an extending direction of a top of the hooking member.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is the provision of a rubber pad comprising a support plate having substantially the same shape as an outer surface of an iron shoe plate provided on its outer surface with lugs, a rubber block vulcanized and adhered to the support plate and having substantially the same shape as the outer surface of the iron shoe plate, cap nuts welded to the iron shoe plate at given positions and embedded in the rubber block, a female member fixed to an end of the support plate, a hook member fixed to the other end of the support plate provided with a flange extending toward an inner face of the iron shoe plate, and a fastening member securing the rubber pad to the iron shoe plate through a male member.
In the rubber pad according to the invention having the aforementioned structure, the attachment or detachment of the rubber pad to the iron shoe plate is carried out in a wider operating space located at a side of a machine body securing the iron shoe plates, so that the operation of attaching or detaching the rubber pad becomes very easy. Particularly, the rubber block attached to the iron shoe plate through the hook member is secured to the iron shoe plate with the fastening member, so that the operation in the attachment of the rubber pad is improved. Also, when a load is applied to the rubber pad during the traveling of the machine body, or when the fastening member is pushed to a curbstone or rides thereover, looseness or clattering is not caused between the rubber pad and the iron shoe plate to prevent the separation of the rubber pad from the iron shoe plate.
Since the fastening member is provided with the counterboring portion, a head of the nut or bolt for securing the fastening member to the rubber block is housed in the counterboring portion to prevent the contact with stones or curbstones, so that the looseness, clattering or deformation of the bolt or nut is not caused and hence there is caused no inconvenience that it is impossible to detach the bolt or nut in the replacement thereof. Furthermore, the fastening member is provided with the flange having a length sufficient to engage with the inner face of the iron shoe plate, so that a gouging angle to the curbstone can be reduced when the fastening member rides on the curbstone and hence the looseness or deformation of the bolt or nut can be prevented to control the falling off of the rubber pad.
Particularly, when the hook member welded to the support plate in the rubber pad is located toward the inside of the machine body in the attachment to the iron shoe plate, the attaching operation is very easy to facilitate the replacement of the rubber pad to
Bridgestone Corporation
Chevalier Alicia
Robinson Ellis
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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