JP7648440B2 - Crawlers and vehicles - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a crawler and a vehicle equipped with the same.

Vehicles such as transporters that travel on rough ground may be equipped with crawlers as their travelling devices. The crawlers are provided, for example, in pairs on the left and right sides of the vehicle body, and include a drive wheel and a free wheel provided at the front and rear of the frame, a number of wheels (hereinafter referred to as "ground wheels" in this specification) arranged between the drive wheels and the free wheels in the fore-and-aft direction, and tracks surrounding the drive wheels, the free wheels and the ground wheels. The multiple ground wheels are attached, for example, below the frame, and come into contact with the ground via the tracks to support the weight of the entire vehicle. Then, as the drive wheels rotate, the free wheels and the ground wheels move together with the tracks wrapped around the drive wheels, causing the vehicle to move.

Note that examples of prior art documents related to this type of crawler and vehicles equipped with it include Patent Document 1 below.

JP 2011-68267 A

In the crawler described above, the multiple ground wheels are generally spaced at equal intervals in the front-to-rear direction. However, in the case of a transport vehicle carrying a load such as soil and sand, the load is not necessarily distributed evenly when the load is loaded. In other words, in most cases, the load from the load is applied unevenly to the multiple ground wheels that are evenly (visibly) positioned on the vehicle. This causes the load to concentrate on the ground wheels that are close to the center of gravity of the entire vehicle (including the load) when the load is loaded, resulting in a problem of the lifespan of certain ground wheels being shortened.

In light of this situation, the present invention aims to provide a crawler and vehicle that can correct the uneven load applied to the ground contact wheels.

The present invention relates to a crawler having eight ground contact wheels arranged in a front-rear direction and supporting a vehicle body via a crawler belt, and a loading platform at the rear of the vehicle body ,
The front two of the grounding wheels are called front grounding wheels and the rear six are called rear grounding wheels, and the two rear grounding wheels closer to the front of the six rear grounding wheels are attached to a second swing beam, and the two middle rear grounding wheels of the six rear grounding wheels are attached to a third swing beam,
Among the ground contact rings, the rear six ground contact rings are arranged more rearward than when all eight ground contact rings are arranged evenly in the front-rear direction,
For the distance between the lowest point of the front ground wheel and the lowest point of the rearmost ground wheel,
the rear grounding wheels are arranged such that the ratio of the distance between the lowest point of the front grounding wheel and the lowest point of the rearmost grounding wheel is 0.6 or more and 0.7 or less;
The position of the center of gravity including the load is configured to be the midpoint between the swing pin forming the swing axis of the second swing beam and the swing pin forming the swing axis of the third swing beam;
The term "loaded" refers to a state in which cargo is loaded onto the loading platform so as to be transportable,
The center of gravity is the center of gravity of the entire vehicle including the cargo.
The present invention relates to a crawler characterized by the above-mentioned.

In addition, the crawler of the present invention includes a frame attached to the vehicle body, a ground contact wheel supported by the frame, and a crawler belt wound around the ground contact wheel,
The ground contact wheel may be configured as a swing roller supported swingably on the frame.

The present invention also relates to a vehicle equipped with the above-mentioned crawler.

The vehicle of the present invention may be a transport vehicle.

The crawler and vehicle of the present invention have the excellent effect of correcting uneven loads on the ground-contacting wheels.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a side view showing a reference example of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a side view showing a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a side view showing a third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 13 is a side view showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

The following describes an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the attached drawings.

Figure 1 shows an example of the configuration of a crawler and vehicle according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The vehicle 1, which is a transport vehicle for rough terrain, has a platform 3 at the rear of the body 2, and a pair of crawlers 4 as running devices on both the left and right sides of the body 2 (only the crawler 4 on the left side of the body 2 is shown in Figure 1). The crawler 4 has a frame 5 attached to the body 2 so as to extend in the fore-and-aft direction, a drive wheel 6 and an idler wheel 7 supported respectively on the front and rear ends of the frame 5, a number of ground wheels 8 arranged between the drive wheels 6 and the idler wheels 7 in the fore-and-aft direction, and a track 9 wrapped around the entire drive wheels 6, the idler wheels 7, and the ground wheels 8.

In the first embodiment, the ground wheels 8 are configured as oscillating rollers, and a total of eight ground wheels 8a to 8h arranged in the front-rear direction are supported to be oscillatingly on the lower part of the frame 5 via a total of four oscillating beams 10 (10a to 10d) in pairs. That is, the ground wheels 8a and 8b are rotatably attached to the front and rear of the first oscillating beam 10a, the ground wheels 8c and 8d to the front and rear of the second oscillating beam 10b, the ground wheels 8e and 8f to the front and rear of the third oscillating beam 10c, and the ground wheels 8g and 8h to the front and rear of the rearmost fourth oscillating beam 10d, and the upper part of each oscillating beam 10 (10a to 10d) is oscillably attached to the frame 5 via an oscillating pin 11 (11a to 11d).

When the vehicle 1 is traveling, the driving wheels 6 are driven, and the rotational force is transmitted to the idling wheels 7 and the eight ground wheels 8 via the track 9, and the driving wheels 6, idling wheels 7, and ground wheels 8 rotate together with the track 9. The vehicle 1 moves relative to the ground as the track 9 rotates along the outer circumference of the driving wheels 6, idling wheels 7, and ground wheels 8 while the ground wheels 8 support the entire weight of the vehicle 1. At this time, the ground wheels 8, which are configured as oscillating rollers, can oscillate relative to the vehicle body 2 around the oscillating pin 11. As a result, when traveling on rough ground, even if the ground is slightly uneven, the individual ground wheels 8 can oscillate up and down to absorb the unevenness and suppress vibrations applied to the vehicle body 2.

The above configuration is similar to that of a typical transport vehicle, but the vehicle 1 and crawler 4 of this first embodiment are characterized by the arrangement of the ground contact wheels 8a to 8h.

First, an example of a typical arrangement of the ground contact wheels 8a-8h is shown as a reference example in Figure 2. In the example shown here, a total of four oscillating beams 10a-10d are evenly spaced in the front-to-rear direction, and a total of eight ground contact wheels 8a-8h attached to them are also evenly spaced in the front-to-rear direction.

In contrast, in the case of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, among the oscillating beams 10a to 10d, the distance between the first oscillating beam 10a and the second oscillating beam 10b is set to be larger than the distance between the second oscillating beam 10b and the third oscillating beam 10c, and the distance between the third oscillating beam 10c and the fourth oscillating beam 10d. In other words, among the grounding wheels 8a to 8h, the grounding wheels 8a and 8b (these are referred to as the front grounding wheels) attached to the first oscillating beam 10a are positioned forward relative to the other grounding wheels 8c to 8h (these are referred to as the rear grounding wheels).

In this way, the present invention is characterized in that when three or more ground wheels are provided along the front-rear direction on the crawler 4, more than half of the ground wheels (rear ground wheels) located at the rear are arranged closer to the rear than when all ground wheels are arranged evenly in the front-rear direction. Note that in some crawlers, multiple wheels are installed coaxially in the left-right direction as ground wheels, but in the definition in this specification, these wheels are treated as one ground wheel. That is, for example, in a crawler 4 as shown in Figure 1, three wheels, an outer wheel, an inner wheel, and a middle wheel, may be installed coaxially in the left-right direction (direction perpendicular to the paper) at the position shown as ground wheel 8a, but in this specification, these are collectively treated as one ground wheel 8a.

The arrangement of the grounding wheels 8 in the first embodiment will be described in more detail based on the numerical values. When the swing beam 10 is evenly arranged as in the reference example shown in FIG. 2, the position of the lowest point _P1 of the third grounding wheel from the front (the grounding wheel located at the front of the rear grounding wheels) 8c is such that, if the distance between the lowest point _P0 of the front grounding wheel 8a and the lowest point _P2 of the rearmost grounding wheel 8f is _d0 , and the distance between _P1 and _P2 is d, then d/ _d0 = 5/7 ≒ 0.71. In contrast, in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, d/ _d0 = 0.65 or so. In this way, when two grounding wheels 8a and 8b are set as front grounding wheels and six grounding wheels 8c to 8h are set as rear grounding wheels among the eight grounding wheels 8, it is preferable to arrange each grounding wheel 8 so that d/ _d0 is 0.6 or more and 0.7 or less.

The effects of the above-mentioned arrangement of the ground-contact wheels 8 will now be described. In the case of the vehicle 1 which is a transport vehicle, as shown by the dashed line in Figures 1 and 2, a load C such as soil or sand is loaded onto the loading platform 3. At this time, the center of gravity of the entire vehicle 1 including the load C is located at the position indicated by the symbol G in the figures, for example.

In the case of the reference example shown in Figure 2, the position of the center of gravity G in this state is slightly forward of the swing pin 11c that forms the swing axis of the third swing beam 10c, and a particularly large load is applied to the ground wheels 8e, 8f attached to the third swing beam 10c. As a result, the lifespan of some of the ground wheels 8e, 8f and the third swing beam 10c becomes shorter than that of the other ground wheels 8 and swing beam 10a, and the service life of the entire crawler 4 becomes shorter.

On the other hand, in the case of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the position of the center of gravity G is near the midpoint in the front-rear direction between the swing pin 11b forming the swing axis of the second swing beam 10b and the swing pin 11c forming the swing axis of the third swing beam 10c, and the load is applied almost evenly to the ground wheels 8c, 8d attached to the second swing beam 10b and the ground wheels 8e, 8f attached to the third swing beam 10c. Of course, the position of the center of gravity G varies forward and backward depending on the loading condition of the cargo C, so it is not strictly equal, but compared to the reference example shown in FIG. 2, the load imbalance is greatly corrected. As a result, the service life of the entire crawler 4 is improved.

In other words, in a conventional crawler 4 as shown in FIG. 2, the ground contact wheels 8 are arranged evenly in appearance, but this arrangement is not necessarily appropriate for the load distribution when loaded. In this first embodiment, the position of the center of gravity G when the load C is loaded is taken into consideration, and the arrangement of the ground contact wheels 8 is changed accordingly, and the rear ground contact wheels are arranged further rearward, making it possible to distribute the load to each ground contact wheel 8 when loaded more evenly.

As described above, when the crawler 4 has eight ground contact wheels 8 in the front-rear direction, the value of d/ _d0 shown in Fig. 1 is preferably 0.6 to 0.7. If d/ _d0 is less than 0.6, the rear ground contact wheels will be too far rearward relative to the center of gravity G, which may impair the uniformity of the load distribution. Conversely, if d/ _d0 is more than 0.7, the above-mentioned effects will not be fully achieved.

When no cargo C is loaded, the center of gravity G shifts forward from the position shown in Figure 1. However, since the load applied to the grounding wheels 8 is small when the vehicle is unloaded, this does not significantly shorten the lifespan of any particular grounding wheel 8 or swing beam 10.

In addition, although the above example shows a case where the ground contact wheels 8 are configured as oscillating rollers, the configuration of the present invention is not limited to this. The ground contact wheels (wheels that contact the ground via tracks and support the weight of the vehicle) that make up the crawler may be attached so as not to oscillate relative to the vehicle body or frame. It is also possible for the drive wheels or idling wheels to also function as ground contact wheels.

In addition, while a transport vehicle carrying cargo C on the loading platform 3 is used as an example of the vehicle 1 here, the application of the above-described arrangement of ground contact wheels is not limited to such transport vehicles. For any vehicle that carries heavy parts or machinery at the rear of the vehicle body, the load can be similarly corrected by arranging the ground contact wheels as described above.

As described above, in this first embodiment, the crawler 4 has three or more ground contact wheels 8 arranged in the fore-and-aft direction that contact the ground via the tracks 9 and support the vehicle body 2, and of the ground contact wheels 8, more than half of the rear ground contact wheels 8c-8h are positioned further rearward than when all ground contact wheels 8a-8h are positioned evenly in the fore-and-aft direction. In this way, by appropriately positioning the ground contact wheels 8 in relation to the load distribution, it is possible to correct the load imbalance and improve the service life of the crawler 4.

In the first embodiment, eight ground contact wheels 8 are provided in the front-to-rear direction, of which the front two are front ground contact wheels and the rear six are rear ground contact wheels, and the ground contact wheels 8 _are arranged _so that the ratio of the distance d between the lowest point _P1 of the ground contact wheel 8c located at the forefront among the rear ground contact wheels 8c-8h and the lowest point _P2 of the rear ground contact wheel to the distance d0 between the lowest point _P0 of the front ground contact wheel 8a and the lowest point P2 of the rearmost ground contact wheel 8h is 0.6 or more and 0.7 or less. In this way, the load imbalance can be preferably corrected for the crawler 4 having eight ground contact wheels 8.

In addition, in the crawler 4 of this first embodiment, the ground contact wheel 8 is configured as an oscillating roller supported so as to be able to oscillate relative to the frame 5.

In addition, the vehicle 1 of this first embodiment is equipped with the above-mentioned crawler 4, and therefore can achieve the same effects as those described above.

In addition, since the vehicle 1 of this first embodiment is a transport vehicle, the same effects as those described above can be achieved in a transport vehicle that transports cargo C.

Therefore, according to the first embodiment, it is possible to correct the unevenness of the load applied to the ground contact wheel.

3 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. In the example shown here, of the six grounding wheels 8 attached to the crawler 4 along the front-rear direction, the front two grounding wheels 8a and 8b are called front grounding wheels, and the rear four grounding wheels 8c to 8f are called rear grounding wheels. In this case, if the lowest point of the grounding wheel 8c located at the forefront of the rear grounding wheels is _P1 , the distance between the lowest point _P0 of the foremost grounding wheel 8a and the lowest point _P2 of the rearmost grounding wheel 8f _{is d0} , and the distance between _P1 and _P2 is d, it is preferable to arrange each grounding wheel 8 so that d/ _d0 is 0.5 to 0.6.

4 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. In the example shown here, of the five grounding wheels 8 attached to the crawler 4 along the front-rear direction, the front two grounding wheels 8a and 8b are called front grounding wheels, and the rear three grounding wheels 8c to 8e are called rear grounding wheels. In this case, if the lowest point of the grounding wheel 8c located at the forefront of the rear grounding wheels is _P1 , the distance between the lowest point _P0 of the foremost grounding wheel 8a and the lowest point _P2 of the rearmost grounding wheel 8e _{is d0} , and the distance between _P1 and _P2 is d, it is preferable to arrange each grounding wheel 8 so that d/ _d0 is 0.4 to 0.5.

5 shows a fourth embodiment of the present invention. In the example shown here, of the seven grounding wheels 8 attached to the crawler 4 along the front-rear direction, the front two grounding wheels 8a and 8b are called front grounding wheels, and the rear five grounding wheels 8c to 8g are called rear grounding wheels. In this case, if the lowest point of the grounding wheel 8c located at the forefront of the rear grounding wheels is _P1 , the distance between the lowest point _P0 of the foremost grounding wheel 8a and the lowest point _P2 of the rearmost grounding wheel 8g _{is d0} , and the distance between _P1 and _P2 is d, it is preferable to arrange each grounding wheel 8 so that d/ _d0 is 0.55 to 0.66.

The second to fourth embodiments above can also correct uneven loads on the ground-contacting wheels.

The crawler and vehicle of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment. For example, the number of ground wheels per crawler and the combination of the number of front and rear ground wheels can be other than those given above. Of course, various modifications can be made to the configuration of each part without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

1. Vehicle (transport vehicle)
4 Crawler 5 Frame 6 Drive wheel 7 Idle wheel 8 Ground wheel 8a Ground wheel 8b Ground wheel 8c Ground wheel 8d Ground wheel 8e Ground wheel 8f Ground wheel 8g Ground wheel 8h Ground wheel 9 Track C Load d Distance d ₀ Distance P ₀ Lowest point P ₁ Lowest point P ₂ Lowest point

Claims (4)

A crawler that is in contact with the ground via a crawler belt and has eight ground contact wheels along a front-rear direction to support a vehicle body, and has a loading platform at a rear of the vehicle body ,
The front two of the grounding wheels are called front grounding wheels and the rear six are called rear grounding wheels, and the two rear grounding wheels closer to the front of the six rear grounding wheels are attached to a second swing beam, and the two middle rear grounding wheels of the six rear grounding wheels are attached to a third swing beam,
Among the ground contact rings, the rear six ground contact rings are arranged more rearward than when all eight ground contact rings are arranged evenly in the front-rear direction,
For the distance between the lowest point of the front ground wheel and the lowest point of the rearmost ground wheel,
the rear grounding wheels are arranged such that the ratio of the distance between the lowest point of the front grounding wheel and the lowest point of the rearmost grounding wheel is 0.6 or more and 0.7 or less;
The position of the center of gravity including the load is configured to be the midpoint between the swing pin forming the swing axis of the second swing beam and the swing pin forming the swing axis of the third swing beam;
The term "loaded" refers to a state in which cargo is loaded onto the loading platform so as to be transportable,
The center of gravity is the center of gravity of the entire vehicle including the cargo.
A crawler characterized by: A frame attached to the vehicle body, a ground contact wheel supported by the frame, and a crawler belt wound around the ground contact wheel,
2. The crawler according to claim 1, wherein the ground contact wheel is configured as an oscillating roller supported so as to be oscillable relative to the frame. A vehicle equipped with the crawler according to claim 1 or 2. The vehicle according to claim 3, characterized in that it is a transport vehicle.

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