Ramp assembly for guiding an electrical conductor system
AssigneeCaterpillar Inc.
InventorsIgor STRASHNY, Jason SCHAFER, Bhaskara DADDUPADUVARI, Zhaoxu DONG, Brian WELLER, Roopa RAJESH
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Abstract
A ramp assembly for guiding an electrical conductor system for a mobile machine onto a conductive rail assembly. The ramp assembly may include an ingress ramp assembly with a variable width, located at one end of the conductive rail assembly, and extend to a height above the conductive rail assembly, where a transition section guides the electrical conductor system onto the conductive rail assembly. The ramp assembly may also include an egress ramp for removing the electrical conductor system from the conductive rail assembly.
Claims20
An electrical conductive system for a free-steering mobile machine, comprising:
- a conductive rail assembly including a plurality of conducting rails extending generally parallel to the ground, the plurality of conducting rails configured to provide electricity to the free-steering mobile machine;
- and
- an ingress ramp assembly located at one end of the conductive rail assembly, the ingress ramp assembly including:
- a plurality of non-conducting rails detached from the plurality of conducting rails, and extending to a height above the conductive rail assembly.
An electrical conductive system for a free-steering mobile machine, comprising:
- a conductive rail assembly including a plurality of conducting rails extending generally parallel to the ground, the plurality of conducting rails configured to provide electricity to the free-steering mobile machine;
- and
- an ingress ramp assembly located at one end of the conductive rail assembly, the ingress ramp assembly including:
- a plurality of non-conducting rails extending to a height above the conductive rail assembly and
- wherein a width of the ingress ramp assembly provided by the plurality of non-conducting rails narrows in a direction toward the conductive rail assembly.
A method of using an ingress ramp assembly to align a contactor assembly of a free-steering mobile machine onto a conductive rail assembly, comprising:
- aligning the contactor assembly onto an upstream portion of the ingress ramp assembly;
- sliding the contactor assembly on a top surface of the ingress ramp assembly and up the ingress ramp assembly to a height above the conductive rail assembly;
- and
- lowering the contactor assembly onto the conductive rail assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.