US1228709A - Traction-engine. - Google Patents

Description

W. 0. STARK.

TRACTION ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED APR; 5, l9l6.

i WK mo W. 0. STARK.

TRACTION ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR-5, 1916.

1,228,709. Patented June 5, 1917 4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

INVENTOR: W 0. STERIC ATTORNEYS.

W. 0. STARK.

TRACTION ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 5. ms.

Patented June 5, 1917 4 SHEETS-SHEET 3- INVEN TOR: IS'T/YRK,

Wa /a4 You ATTORNEYS.

W0. BY

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4- Patented June 5, 1917.

w. 0. STARK. TRACTION ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR-$1916.

" ATTORNEYS.

TAT FATE FREQ WILLIAM O. STARK, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 IBULLOCKTRACTOR CO., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

- TRACTION-ENGINE.

Continuation in part of application Serial To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM O. STARK, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements on Traction-Engines, for which I have made application for Letters Patent of the United States, filed August 20, 1913, Serial No. 785,675., and of which this present application is in part a continuation; and I do hereby declare that the following description of my said invention, taken in connection with the accompanying sheets of drawings, forms a full, clear, and exact specification, which will enable others skilled in the art to which my said invention appertains to make and use the same.

Ths invention has general reference to traction engines, and especially that type of tractors having endless tracks on which the machine is designed to travel; and it con sists, essentially, in the novel and peculiar combination of parts and details of construction, as hereinafter first fully set forth and described, and then pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings already mentioned, which serve to illustrate this invention more fully, and Whichform a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a tractor em bodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan of the chassis of the machine. Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 33 of Fig. 2. Fig.4 is a similar view on line 4-4 of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is apside elevation of one of the trucks detaclied; and Fig. 6 is a plan of the same.

Fig. 7 is a longitudinal sectional view of several articulated members forming a part of the endless track, the figure being drawn on line 77 of Fig. 8. Fig. 8 is a sectional plan of two adjacent members of said endless track, on line 88 of Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a side elevation of a fragment of a track member; and Fig. 10 is a transverse section thereof on line 1010, of Fig. 8.

ike parts are designated by the same characters and symbols of reference in all the figures.

The object of this invention is the production of an eflicient, serviceable, and durable traction engine in which endless tracks are employed for both, propelling and steering.

the machine.

In the drawings, A, deslgnates the chassis Specification of Letters Patent.

No. 785,675, filed August 20, 1913. This application filed April 5, 1916. Serial No. 89,202.

or subframe of this machine. It includes longitudinal sills 12, 13, preferably formed of channel -bars, and I- beams 14, 15, four longitudinal beams 16, 17 18, 19, connecting the end I- beams 14, 15, two transverse channels 20, 21, connected to the longitudinal I- beams 17, 18, and two longitudinal channels 22, 23, located upon, and connecting the channels 20, 21. In the rear of the transverse channel 21, there are located two-transverse I- beams 24, 25, also connected to the two longitudinal I-beams .17, 18, and upon these beams there is placed an open bed plate 26, upon which is mounted the friction drive, constructed substantially like the friction drive shown and described in a specification, which I have prepared and filed August 20, 1913, Serial No. 785,674, and to which reference may be had for a full disclosure of the said invention.

Upon the longitudinal channels 22, 23, there is mounted a motor B, preferably of the internal combustion type, the engine shaft of which actuates the driving mechanism, as will hereinafter more fully appear.

Near the forward ends of the sills 12, 13, there are pendant plates 28, 28 29, 29, the lower ends of which afford guides for truck frames hereinafter described, in conjunction with further pendant plates 30, 30 31, 31*, at the rear end of the chassis A, all of said plates having braces 32, to afford stiifeners for said plates to prevent lateral movement.

The propelling or traction mechanism proper, includes two endless track bands C, mounted in truck frames occupying the spaces 33, 34, Fig. 2, formed by the longitudinal sills and I- beams 12, 16, 19, and 13, of the chassis, one of said truck frames and its appurtenants being shown in detail in Figs. 5, and 6, "and comprise two side bars 35, 35 in parallel spaced relation, said side bars having at their rear ends bearings 36, 36 for the reception of a shaft 37, upon which shaft there is mounted a two-part sprocket wheel 38, which constitutes the shaped link sections are hingedly connected by pins or bolts 75. From the side walls of the link sections 73 project laterally, cylindrical bosses 76, which bosses form, as it were, racks which are engaged by the cogs or teeth 77,. of the twin driver sprocket 38, and thereby cause the forward, or rearward movement, as the case may be, of the machine. It will thus be seen that inasmuch as the bosses 76 project from both sides of the box-shaped link sections 73, and are engaged'by the twin driving sprockets, the movement of the machine on its endless track is greatly facilitated.

The twin sprocket 38 is preferably formed in two parts each of which has one of said sprockets, and one half of a drum 78, which drum runs on the track surface 74, of the link sections 73, and which drum carries its portion of the superposed weight of the machine, said drum and the bearings or track-- surfaces 74 being made rather wide for obvious reasons, there being no weight or load whatever imposed upon the sprocket portion of said twin driving sprocket. And for the same reason, the bearing rollers 45, and supporting guiding rollers 48, are made with correspondingly wide faces.

The cogs or teeth 77 of the sprocket wheels are outwardly flared, as shown at 79, in Fig. 6, and terminate in nearly sharp edges, which in rotation of the sprockets, function as knives to cut away any solid matter that may adhere to the link sections.

I have shown in the drawings, the driving twin sprocket wheel provided with only four sprocket teeth each, but it is evident that any other, larger number, of sprocket teeth may be employed if desired or found advisable.

At their forward ends, the side bars of the trucks are slotted as indicated at 38 to receive bearings 39, 39 in which there is rotating a shaft 40, upon which there is mounted a two-part sprocket wheel 41, constituting the driven sprocket, said endless track band C, being trained over both, driver and driven "sprockets.

The shaft 37 passes through. bearings 42, 42*, Fig. 4, formed in the rearwardly located plates 30, 30 (and 31, 31 respectively) so that the truck frames are pivotally connected to the chassis at their rear ends, thereby permitting the forward ends of the same to rise and fall to follow the undulations of theground over which the tractor is being moved.

Pending from the side bars 35, 35 there are a series of bearings 43, in which rotate shafts 44, on which are mounted the rollers 45, which sustain the endless track band at its lower run; and from said side bars there project, upwardly, similar bearings 46, in which rotate shafts 47, on which are mounted guide rollers 48, that sustain the upper run of the chain C, these, and several or all of the guide rollers being flanged to prevent the chain 0, from swinging sidewise.

At the forward ends of the side bars 35, 35 of the truck frame there are located screw bolts 49, one end of each being fastened to the corresponding bearing 39; nuts 50, being located on said screw bolts, which when rotated in one direction, will draw the bearings 39 in one direction, and when rotated in the opposite direction, allows the bearings 39 to move correspondingly. By means of this device I am enabled to take up any slack in the chains C that will occur in course of time by wear of the moving parts.

In order to relieve the machine from the effects of jars and jolts when moving over rough roads, I provide, preferably elliptical, springs 51, fastened to the forward end of each side bar. These elliptical springs are connected at their extremities to one end of upstanding links 52, Fig. 1, the other ends of said links being pivoted, in pairs, to shafts 71, having hearings in brackets or bosses 70, secured to the under side of the longitudinal beams 12, 16, 19, 13, respectively. By thus flexibly supporting the forward end of the main frame, I relieve the machine of most of the jars, jolts, and other severe usage to which this class of machines is especially subjected.

Referring to Fig. 1, there is mounted on the bed plate 26, an arcuate standard 53, having bearings 54, for the reception of the engine shaft 27; and between the uprights of this standard there are mounted on engine shaft 27, two, oppositely facing driver friction disks 55, 55 These friction disks engage two friction driven disks 56, mounted on shaft 57 which carry, at their ends gear pinions 58, that mesh into spur wheels 59,

fastened to shafts 60, together with pinions 61, that engage spur wheels 62, fastened to shaft 37, to rotate these shafts, and through them, move the endless track band C, as already described.

In order to steer this machine by varying the speed of the endless track bands, I employ mechanism which forms the subject matter of a separate application for Letters Patent, filed by me August 20, 1913, Serial No. 785,674, and which include; hand wheel 63, which, when rotated, causes a lateral movement of the driven friction disks, as fully described in said application; while a handle bar 64, and associated mechanism affords means for reversing the movement of the tractor.

I have hereinbefore described but one of the trucks, but have already stated the fact that there are two of these devices, one on each side of the machine; the one shown in Figs. 1 and 5 being the one located on the right side of the machine.

masses I shall now call attention to the fact that an imaginary line drawn horizontally through the center of the shaft 37 forwardly, will show that the center of the shaft 40 on which the forward sprocket wheels 4L1 are mounted, is located some distance above this horizontal line, or in other words, that the centers of these two shafts are not in horizontal alinement, while the centers of the bearing rollers 45 are in horizontal alinement.. It thus follows that at the forward part of the lower run of the endless track there are several links between the first bearing roller 45, and the point where a link of the endless track belt engages the forward sprocket, which are upwardly inclined, thereby forming an incline in the track by which the ma chine isenabled to readily mount obstructions, etc., in the road, while all of the remaining links of the ground run of the endless track between the first bearing roller 45 and'a vertical central line through the rear sprocket shaft are normally in horizontal alinement, thereby combining with ease of mounting obstructions, a maximum traction efiiciency, which is suflicient tosustain this machine upon soft ground on which other tractors of the same weight, but having alesser area of tractor surface would be mired. This feature of my tractor is an important feature in traction enfgmes and contributes largely to its success tion.

I have hereinbefore disclosed the preferred mode of practising my invention, but I reserve the right to make such and any changes as might occur to one skilled in the art to which this invention appertains, or to make any-and all such alterations as may be permitted under the doctrine of equiv alents. V

Having thus fully described my invention I claim as new, and desire to secure to myself by Letters Patent of the United States 1. In a tractor of the type described, an endless track band constructed of articulated members, each member having two oppositely extending bosses, said members being substantially box shaped, said members 111 operacomprising top and bottom members, said top members aflording a wide smooth uninterrupted track, and a driving sprocket,

said driving sprocket comprising a drum, said drum being constructed to run on said smooth upper surface, said drumhaving on its two margins radially projecting teeth, said teeth being constructed to overlap the sides of said box-shaped members, to engage the oppositely extending bosses'of said articulated members.

2. In a tractor of the type specified, an

endless track bandcomprising a series of shoes, each shoe having wide box-shaped member, the upper surface of said member being constructed to form a track, said boxshaped members being hingedly connected one to the other, there being a boss laterally projecting from opposite sides of said boxeach of said members having lateral, axiallyalined projections, said projections extending from the sides of said box-shaped members, and a driving element for said endless band, said driving member being a wide 7 drum constructed to roll on the said wide surface of said track, there being at the opposed margins of said drum radlally projecting teeth, said teeth being constructed to engage said projections at a point medi-' 4 ally of the length of said teeth, there being no contact of said projections with sand teeth at the jointure of said teeth with said drum.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I have hereunto set my hand.

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