Land vehicles – Skates – Wheeled skate
Patent
1993-10-15
1995-08-22
Focarino, Margaret A.
Land vehicles
Skates
Wheeled skate
280 1128, 301 57, A63C 1706
Patent
active
054432774
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a sporting device steerable by weight displacement as defined in the preamble of claim 1 and to a steerable wheel assembly suitable for use in such a sporting device as defined in the preamble of claim 13.
A sporting device and a steerable wheel element of this kind is known from international application PCT/EP89/00896 published under the number WO 90/01359.
The aforementioned application describes a variety of different chassis designs having either two, three or more wheels which are generally arranged in-line in the longitudinal direction of the sporting device. With a two wheel arrangement only one wheel needs to be steerable. In the case of a rear wheel the steering axis is inclined downwardly and forwardly and extends (when projected) through the contact patch of said wheel with the ground. In the case of a front wheel the steering axis is inclined downwardly and rearwardly through the contact patch of the wheel with the ground. With a three wheel device the center wheel would typically be fixed or, according to a proposal made for the first time herein, positioned with the steering axis disposed in a generally horizontal plane above or below the axis of rotation of the center wheel. The center wheel would be typically arranged between steerable front and rear wheels. Through this arrangement the center wheel can be constructed identically to the steerable front and rear wheels, but is however placed in such a way that movement of the center wheel about the steering axis does not primarily result in steering but simply assists in improving the handling characteristics of the sporting device.
It is also possible for the center wheel to be mounted so that it can slide in a generally horizontal direction generally perpendicular to the fore and aft longitudinal direction of the roller skate, preferably against a resilient restoring force tending to align the center wheel in the fore and aft direction of the roller skate. Such a resilient restoring force could for example be generated by resilient cushions of rubber or synthetic rubber placed on one or both sides of the wheel or by some other spring means of equivalent effect. It should be noted that it is also possible to provide more than three wheels, e.g. four or five wheels, in which case all "center wheels", i.e. wheels other than the front and rear wheels can be executed as described immediately above with the possibility of horizontal sliding transverse to the longitudinal direction of the skate. It is also entirely possible to provide the center wheels with inclined steering axes in the same way as for the front and/or rear wheels.
Wheel assemblies of the kind described above with inclined steering axes are also disclosed in European patent application No. 90 120 928.8 and the present steerable wheel assemblies can also be used in chassis of that kind and indeed in a wide variety of other possible applications.
Generally speaking, the steerable wheel assemblies already proposed by the present applicant involve two roller bearings per wheel. There is however one embodiment of the aforementioned international application PCT/EP89/00896 which uses only a single bearing but then requires a bearing with a specially designed inner race to support gimbal pins which define the steering axis.
Since rolling element bearings are relatively expensive, and since it is certainly not necessary to use two bearings per wheel to carry the loads involved, there would be substantial benefit in a design which uses only a single roller element bearing per wheel and which enables a standard bearing to be used in place of a special bearing with a special inner race. It is therefore a first object of the present invention to provide such a design.
Furthermore, the existing designs, while very compact, essentially restrict the inclined steering axis to the space available within the inner race of the bearing. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a steerable wheel assembly and a sporting device incorporating such a st
REFERENCES:
patent: 3501162 (1970-03-01), Toone
patent: 4132425 (1979-01-01), Lehner et al.
patent: 4403784 (1983-09-01), Gray
patent: 5199727 (1993-04-01), Lai
Focarino Margaret A.
Mar Michael
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