Short track wheel
OwnerJoost Batelaaninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A track wheel having a self supporting track (1) mounted on a pair of load bearing rollers (2, 3). The track (1) comprises a continuous resilient band having a preformed transverse and longitudinal curvature for resisting flattening to a larger radius under load but substantially free to bend to a smaller radius of curvature for passage around the rollers. The radius (8) of transverse curvature is made approximately equal to the radius (7) of said rollers, and the radius (15) of longitudinal curvature is made not greater than 20 times the radius (8) of the transverse curvature to provide a short track wheel having a high load capacity and large surface contacting area or footprint.
Claims5
A self supporting track (1) for mounting on a pair of load bearing rollers (2,3), said track comprising a continuous resilient band (1) having a preformed transverse and longitudinal curvature for resisting flattening to a larger radius under load but substantially free to bend to a smaller radius of curvature for passage around said rollers (2,3), and the radius (8) of said transverse curvature is approximately equal to the radius (7) of said rollers, and the radius (9) of said longitudinal curvature is from 2.2 to 20 times the radius (8) of said transverse curvature, in the unmounted and unconfined state of the track;
- wherein the band (1), in its unloaded and unconfined state, defines two opposite large radius arc portions (12, 13) and two opposite smaller radius are portions (10, 11), and wherein the large radius portion (12) between the rollers defines an arc (15) of less than 15.degree..
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.