Track system for a vehicle
AssigneeCamso Inc.
InventorsFrederic Couture, David Gingras, Martin Tremblay
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A resistance to wear, “edge-cutting” or other deterioration of a track for a vehicle and/or other aspects of the track may be enhanced, including by enhancing internal reinforcements (e.g., cores) of the track, such as by providing certain flexibility characteristics to these internal reinforcements of the track, and/or by monitoring the track and controlling the vehicle, notifying a user, etc.
Claims34
A track for a vehicle, the track being mountable around a track-engaging assembly comprising a plurality of wheels, the track comprising:
- a ground-engaging outer side;
- an inner side opposite to the ground-engaging outer side and comprising a plurality of wheel-contacting projections for contacting the wheels;
- elastomeric material allowing the track to flex around the track-engaging assembly;
- and
- a plurality of cores disposed in the elastomeric material, extending transversally to a longitudinal direction of the track, and spaced apart in the longitudinal direction of the track, each core comprising:
- a wheel engager for engaging the wheels;
- and
- a pair of wings extending from the wheel engager in a longitudinal direction of the core, the wheel engager being disposed between the wings in the longitudinal direction of the core, each wing being configured to flex in the longitudinal direction of the core to allow the wing to deflect in a thicknesswise direction of the track;
- wherein each core comprises a material that is flexible and makes up at least most of the wheel engager of the core and each of its wings of the core and wherein the material of the core is anisotropic and has mechanical properties that are different in the longitudinal direction of the core than in a widthwise direction of the core.
A track for a vehicle, the track being mountable around a track-engaging assembly comprising a plurality of wheels, the track comprising:
- a ground-engaging outer side;
- an inner side opposite to the ground-engaging outer side and comprising a plurality of wheel-contacting projections for contacting the wheels;
- elastomeric material allowing the track to flex around the track-engaging assembly;
- and
- a plurality of cores disposed in the elastomeric material, extending transversally to a longitudinal direction of the track, and spaced apart in the longitudinal direction of the track, each core comprising:
- a wheel engager for engaging the wheels;
- and
- a pair of wings extending from the wheel engager in a longitudinal direction of the core, the wheel engager being disposed between the wings in the longitudinal direction of the core, each wing being configured to flex in the longitudinal direction of the core to allow the wing to deflect in a thicknesswise direction of the track;
- wherein a longitudinal stiffness of the core is variable during use of the track and wherein the core comprises a mechanical joint movable to allow flexion of a given one of the wings of the core in response to a lateral part of the track contacting an object.
A track for a vehicle, the track being mountable around a track-engaging assembly comprising a plurality of wheels, the track comprising:
- a ground-engaging outer side;
- an inner side opposite to the ground-engaging outer side and comprising a plurality of wheel-contacting projections for contacting the wheels;
- elastomeric material allowing the track to flex around the track-engaging assembly;
- and
- a plurality of cores disposed in the elastomeric material, extending transversally to a longitudinal direction of the track, and spaced apart in the longitudinal direction of the track, each core comprising:
- a wheel engager for engaging the wheels;
- and
- a pair of wings extending from the wheel engager in a longitudinal direction of the core, the wheel engager being disposed between the wings in the longitudinal direction of the core, each wing being configured to flex in the longitudinal direction of the core to allow the wing to deflect in a thicknesswise direction of the track;
- wherein a longitudinal stiffness of the core is variable during use of the track and wherein the track further comprises a sensor, wherein the longitudinal stiffness of the core is variable based on an output of the sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.