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US 4,343,338 AGranted
Tire cooling system and method
AssigneeCaterpillar Tractor Co.
InventorCullen P. Hart
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeCaterpillar Tractor Co.
InventorCullen P. Hart
Estimating the term…
A tire cooling system (10) for a vehicle having a wheel (12) with a tire (14) mounted on a rim (16). A heat transfer device (22) is positioned in a central cavity (18) defined by said rim (16) and tire (14). A first fluid (20) is contained in said central cavity (18) while a second fluid (25) is circulated through said heat transfer device (22), said second fluid (25) being in fluid isolation from said first fluid (20). Said second fluid (25) is circulated through a rotating wheel seal (28) to a heat exchanger (38) and back to said heat transfer device (22). Use of an intermediate heat exchanger, such as said heat transfer device (22), permits use of oil as said second fluid (25) permitting leakage from said rotating wheel seals (28) to be contained by and made up from said final drive sump (42). Oil has, of course, a deleterious affect on rubber. Through use of oil in an isolated cooling loop, relatively simple liquid cooling with an external heat exchanger (38) is achieved.
In a wheel assembly having a wheel (12) mounted on a vehicle, said wheel (12) having a rim (16), a tire (14) mounted on said rim (16), and a central cavity (18) defined by said tire (14) and rim (16), the improvement comprising:
A tire cooling system (10) for a vehicle, comprising:
A tire cooling system (10) for a vehicle having wheels (12), said system (10) comprising:
A method for cooling a tire of a work vehicle, said vehicle having a non-rotating body portion and a wheel (12), said wheel (12) having a tire (16) mounted on a rim (14) amd a central cavity (18) defined by said tire (16) and rim (14), the method of cooling the wheel (12) comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.