Articulated joint
AssigneeDosco Overseas Engineering Ltd.
InventorMichael Etherington
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An articulated joint for pivotally connecting adjacent sections of a vehicle. The joint includes a first slewing ring and a second slewing ring and each slewing ring has an outer member connected to an inner member. A bearing race is located between the outer member and the inner member to permit relative rotation of the members. The outer member of each slewing ring is constructed for connection to one section of a vehicle and the inner member of each slewing ring is constructed for connection to another section of the vehicle. Location sleeves are located radially inwardly of the inner members of the slewing rings and a shim is located between the ends of the location sleeves.
Claims11
An articulated joint adapted to pivotally connect two adjacent sections of a vehicle, said joint comprising an upper slewing ring and a lower slewing ring, each of said slewings rings having an outer annular member and an inner annular member connected to said outer annular member, a bearing race located between said outer annular member and said inner annular member of each of said slewing rings to permit relative rotation of said outer and inner annular members of said slewing rings, means for connecting said outer annular member of each of said slewing rings to one section of a vehicle including an annular vertical cylinder attached to said one section of said vehicle and a substantially horizontal radially inwardly extending annular tongue attached to and coaxial with said annular vertical cylinder, said tongue having an upper surface and a lower surface and a plurality of circumferentially spaced threaded blind bores extending from said upper surface and from said lower surface of said tongue parallel to the central axis of said annular vertical cylinder, said outer member of each of said slewing rings having a plurality of circumferentially spaced through bores formed therein aligned with said threaded blind bores in said upper and lower surfaces of said tongue and threaded connecting bolts passing through said through bores in said outer member of each of said slewing rings into said threaded blind bores extending from said upper and lower surfaces of said tongue to secure said outer member of each of said slewing rings to said tongue and means for connecting said inner annular member of each of said slewing rings to another section of the vehicle to form a rotatable connection between said two adjacent sections of the vehicle.
In a vehicle having a first section and a second section the improvement comprising an articulated joint pivotally connecting said first section to said second section wherein said first section of the vehicle is formed as a male half of said articulated joint and said second section of said vehicle is formed as a female half of said articulated joint, said female half of said articulated joint being formed by two vertically spaced substantially parallel horizontally extending plates and said male half of said articulated joint being formed by two vertically spaced horizontally extending plates and an annular vertical cylinder extending between and connected to said spaced horizontally extending plates, said articulated joint including a first slewing ring and a second slewing ring, each of said slewing rings having an outer member and an inner member connected to said outer member and a bearing race located between said outer member and said inner member whereby said inner and outer members of each of said slewing rings are rotatable relative to each other, means for connecting said inner member of each of said slewing rings to said female half of said joint and means for connecting said outer member of each of said slewing rings to said male half of said joint to rotatably connect said sections of the vehicle, whereby said first section of the vehicle can pivot about a vertical axis relative to said second section of the vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.