Development of an all terrain vehicle suspension with an efficient, oval track

A band track for a tracked vehicle having enhanced resistance to mines includes a plurality of track pad units disposed on the bearing surface of the track band. The track pad units have extended end walls of sufficient height to distance the vulnerable portion of the band track from the shearing force of an exploding mine. These end walls are sufficiently strong to support the vehicle as it traverses terrain, but are configured to collapse in controlled manner under the force of an exploding mine. Such explosion forces a specifically configured front end wall of a trailing track pad to engage the matingly configured end wall of the leading track pad. The resulting mating juxtaposition of the adjacent end walls forms a relatively continuous physical barrier protecting the vulnerable section of the band track from shrapnel and other entrained ejecta of the explosion.

Mine resistant band track

The invention provides an anti-PMD system comprising: an anti-PMD pulley ( 1 ) over which an optical fiber ( 4 ) is to roll and which is mounted to rotate about an axis of rotation (ar); and at least two optical fiber guide devices ( 2, 3 ) situated on either side of the anti-PMD pulley ( 1 ); the axis of rotation (ar) of the anti-PMD pulley ( 1 ) being stationary; the only degree of freedom of the anti-PMD pulley ( 1 ) being rotation about the axis of rotation (ar) of the anti-PMD pulley ( 1 ); and at least one of the guide devices ( 2, 3 ) being movable in translation in a translation direction (dt) that is not orthogonal to the axis of rotation (ar) of the anti-PMD pulley ( 1 ).

Anti-PMD system

A reduction in vehicle rolling resistance is one of the goals of a partially developed vehicle suspension, called a band wheel or a track wheel. Instead of a pneumatic tyre, a band wheel uses an oval thin spring steel band with a very low hysteresis energy loss. The lower segment of the oval band acts like a leaf spring suspension. The current status of this suspension development is summarized. The rolling loss of the band wheel is calculated and estimated. New details describe the steps in producing and forming the critical thin steel spring-loaded band structure. Bonding of a rubber tread to the steel requires close attention to tread design to minimize its rolling resistance. A development project is needed to produce highly uniform and durable spring bands to demonstrate and measure the band wheel rolling resistance.

Thin spring steel band wheel with a rubber tread, a development proposal with potential to reduce fuel consumption on some road vehicles

An anti-PMD system comprises a pulley which oscillates in rotation and applies a torsion torque alternately in the clockwise direction and in the counterclockwise direction to an optical fiber during drawing of the optical fiber to reduce its PMD. A portion of a peripheral external surface of the pulley intended to be in contact with the optical fiber during drawing is convex.

Anti-PMD system for optical fibers

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 (14) 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.

Joost Batelaan

Papers

Short track wheel