Land vehicles – Wheeled – Articulated vehicle
Patent
1995-11-29
1997-12-23
Hurley, Kevin
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Articulated vehicle
2804111, B62D 5300
Patent
active
057000239
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to an articulated vehicle composed of a series of several modules interconnected by a composite articulated connection comprising at least one elastic articulation with controlled movement.
The development of road transport, notably the transport of goods and transport of people in an urban or semiurban environment, has led to the need for vehicles with a high loading and passenger capacity.
However, these vehicles must also comply with legal requirements, notably with respect to their size, and with handling constraints related to their use.
A design in the form of several interconnected articulated modules forming a train offers significant advantages, notably as regards the total length obtained with identical or different modules of reduced length, but also driving comfort, in particular on curves.
This is particularly true for urban transport, which must sometimes follow a path in traffic lanes that is often narrow and tortuous, and which includes horizontal and vertical curves.
However, production in the form of articulated modules presents design and production difficulties, these difficulties increasing with the number of modules.
The relative positions of the sets of wheels, both in a straight line and on a bend, must be controlled so as to avoid shifts and divergences from the trajectory, slipping, phenomena of oscillation or deflection in certain modules, notably intermediate modules or the end module.
Another problem relates to irregularities in the roadway, for example bumps, banking or localized subsidence. The relative positions of the modules must also be controlled in this type of movement between the modules.
To this end, various devices for controlling the relative positions of the modules of a modular vehicle and its wheel sets are known. But devices using rams or automated control, for example electronic, are costly and complicated.
There exist devices which are simply mechanical or with variable geometry, for example the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 5 052 707, in the name of Timan, which relates to a device with articulated arms for controlling the position of an intermediate module for intercommunication between the other two parts of an articulated vehicle.
But this device comprising several deformable parallelograms placed in the upper position proves to be particularly bulky. Moreover, it requires the end structure of at least one of the modular elements to be asymmetrical, resulting in reduced suitability for modularity, and production complications.
Furthermore, the EP publication No. 0 519 813 in the name of GEC ALSTHOM describes a connection device for a vehicle articulated at the intercommunication passage, formed by oblique links connected by connection elements, forming a parallelogram able to be deformed in the upper part.
This device provides control of the position of the intercommunication passage only in one type of movement, that resulting from horizontal curves. Its principal function is limited to centering the upper part of the intermediate element between the two cars.
The aim of the invention is to overcome these drawbacks by proposing a vehicle articulated in a simple mechanical fashion, making it possible to ensure better relative maintenance in position of the modules of which it is composed, near-perfect following of the curves and irregularities in the roadway, and a substantial limitation of extraneous movements of the modules relative to each other, even for road trains composed of two or more modules.
To this end, the invention consists of an articulated vehicle comprising a plurality of modules interconnected by a composite articulated connection with a movable articulation support, provided with wheels and with an oblique connection, the front end module having a steering set of wheels and the rear end module a fixed or following rear set of wheels, a vehicle in which each movable articulation support is connected to one of the modules by a connection with three degrees of freedom, and to the other module by a double connection f
REFERENCES:
patent: 3290058 (1966-12-01), Ellerd
patent: 4235451 (1980-11-01), Leriverend
patent: 4441730 (1984-04-01), Damm
patent: 4586578 (1986-05-01), Brown et al.
patent: 5052707 (1991-10-01), Timan
Hurley Kevin
Lohr Industrie
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