Crawler Pad Segmented Steel Core and Rubber Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Typical rubber crawlers and crawler pads face issues with durability due to foreign material intrusion, reduced turning capability, and weak adhesive strength between components, leading to shortened lifespan and compromised ride comfort and stability.
Innovation Solution
The crawler pad design incorporates stop bumps and overlap inclines to prevent foreign material intrusion, non-ground contact surfaces to reduce frictional resistance, reinforcing bumps to enhance steel core strength and adhesive ability, and rubber thickness enlargements for improved cushioning and stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the crawler pad uses a simple flat design, then manufacturing is easier, but foreign materials can easily enter between pad bodies reducing durability
Solution Approach 1:
The crawler pad is divided into multiple modular pad bodies that can be manufactured separately and then assembled together using coupling members, making manufacturing easier while allowing durability improvements through modular design
Solution Approach 2:
The invention adds vertical dimension elements (protrusions and recesses) to the otherwise flat pad design. These dimensional features prevent foreign material intrusion without significantly complicating the manufacturing process
2Stability of the object's composition
If the ground contact part is made wide in area, then stability is improved, but turning capability deteriorates due to increased frictional resistance
Solution Approach 1:
The crawler pad uses non-uniform rubber thickness distribution, with thicker regions at front and rear ends for stability and thinner regions in the middle for reduced friction during turning. This local variation in thickness optimizes both stability and turning capability
3Device complexity
If the steel core is made with simple flat structure, then manufacturing is simpler, but strength and adhesive force are insufficient leading to separation risk
Solution Approach 1:
The steel core is segmented into multiple sections with different thicknesses and profiles along its length, allowing optimized strength distribution without requiring a completely new complex structure
Solution Approach 2:
The invention combines the steel core with rubber material in a composite structure, where the steel core provides tensile strength and the rubber provides adhesive bonding and cushioning, preventing separation
4Device complexity
If uniform rubber thickness is used, then manufacturing is easier, but cushioning ability is insufficient when equipment is inclined during turning
Solution Approach 1:
The rubber thickness is varied locally throughout the crawler pad, with thicker regions positioned at the front and rear ends to provide enhanced cushioning when the equipment is inclined during turning, while maintaining simpler manufacturing overall
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design significantly extends the lifespan of crawler pads by preventing foreign material intrusion, improving turning capability, increasing steel core strength, and enhancing ride comfort and stability during operation.
Implementation Method 1
These are all surrounded by rubber, and are integrally fixed by vulcanization of the rubber, thereby to form the rubber crawler with flexible and endless track shape
Implementation Method 2
a non-ground contact surface inclinedly formed on the back surface of the ground contact part may function to reduce the rotation frictional resistance with the ground when the apparatus turns toward one side
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a crawler pad with improved durability for preventing foreign materials from coming through between crawler pads, greatly improving the strength of steel cores and improving the integrity of a pad body and a steel core. In the prior one, the typical crawler pad had a problem that its life time keeps shortened because foreign materials such as sands, etc. penetrate through into the space between neighboring crawler pads, and the rubber-made pad body was damaged. Foreign material prevention stops are formed on with protruded from the front and back surfaces of the ground contact part, and function to firstly prevent foreign material from coming into space between two neighboring pad bodies, and overlap inclines are formed on the front and the back lower surfaces of the pad body respectively with inclined downwards so as to be overlapped with those of neighboring another pad body and thereby to form an overlap region and secondly prevent foreign material from coming into.