Anti-skid chain for vehicle tires
AssigneeAcciaierie Weissenfels S.p.A.
InventorCharles R. Franklin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An anti-skid chain for a vehicle tire comprises an inner and outer harness. The outer side harness comprises a closed loop harness line with elastic expansion members acting as a damping elements. A locking device is attached at one end of the harness line and a tensioning chain at the other end passes through the locking device, which permits movement of the tensioning chain for tensioning and prevents movement in the opposite direction. The inner side harness comprises a ring-shaped resilient stirrup which can be elastically spread apart for slipping across the tire tread. Closure members on the free ends of the stirrup lock the stirrup closed on release of the stirrup.
Claims30
An anti-skid chain for a vehicle tire which allows for rapid and simplified mounting on a tire while the vehicle bearing the tire is in place, comprising:
- a first side harness having a harness line extending between two ends, said harness line is a non-interrupted and a non-interruptable line,
- at least one elastic expansion member being provided in the harness line, at least one of the expansion members acting as a damper,
- locking means being connected to one end of the first side harness line
- a tensioning chain for tensioning the first side harness line, the tensioning chain being connected to the other end of said first side harness line, and passing through the locking means for closing said harness line,
- a releasable locking element mounted in the locking means for releasably locking the tensioning chain in the locking means in a direction opposite to a direction in which a tensioning force is applied to the tensioning chain for tensioning said harness line,
- stop means provided in the tensioning chain to prevent disengagement of the tensioning chain from the locking means, said stop means comprising a stop member provided on the free end of said tensioning chain, the stop member comprising an elastically expandable tightening member having a securing element at an end thereof for hooking onto said first side harness, said tightening member acting as a damping element and having dimensions to prevent it from being pulled through the locking device,
- a second side harness comprising an open ring-shaped resilient stirrup having two free ends biased towards each other to a closed position, the stirrup, being elastically openable to an open position with the free ends spaced apart to slip over the tire tread,
- closure members mounted on the respective ends of the stirrup, the closure members being lockable together by bringing the ends of the stirrup towards each other to the closed position, and
- chain line sections connected to the first and second side harnesses to, in use, extend over the tire tread so that when the chain is mounted on a tire which is on a vehicle, said first side harness line is on an outer side of the tire and said second side harness is on an inner side of the tire.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.