Elastic crawler and elastic crawler drive mechanism
AssigneeBridgestone Corporation
InventorTakashi Mizusawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an elastic crawler (10) and an elastic crawler drive mechanism (100), at least a portion of the outer edge of an engaging portion (12) has a cross-sectional arc shape such that both the trajectory drawn by the outer edge of the engaging portion (12) from when the engaging portion (12) starts to enter a tooth groove of a sprocket (20) until engagement between the engaging portion (12) and teeth (22) is complete and the trajectory drawn by the outer edge of the engaging portion (12) from when the engaging portion (12) starts to disengage from the teeth (22) until disengagement is complete do not project further outward than the outer edge of the engaging portion (12) when the engagement is complete.
Claims12
An elastic crawler comprising a plurality of engaging portions on an elastic endless belt, the engaging portions being capable of engaging with teeth of a sprocket, wherein
- at least a portion of an outer edge of each engaging portion has a cross-sectional arc shape such that both a trajectory drawn by the outer edge of the engaging portion from when the engaging portion starts to enter a tooth groove of the sprocket until engagement between the engaging portion and the teeth is complete, and a trajectory drawn by the outer edge of the engaging portion from when the engaging portion starts to disengage from the teeth until disengagement is complete do not project further outward than the outer edge of the engaging portion when the engagement is complete,
- wherein each engaging portion has a central axis, and
- wherein each cross-sectional arc shape and a center point of each cross-sectional arc shape are positioned on opposite sides of a corresponding central axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.