Flangeless Wheel Assembly with Guide Cage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing support wheel assemblies for heavy loads in construction, such as tunnel formwork carriages and mobile scaffolding, face issues with high costs, complexity, and maintenance challenges due to the use of flange wheels, which are heavy, prone to derailment, and require extensive replacement processes.
Innovation Solution
A support wheel assembly featuring a wheel carrier with a rotatably mounted wheel and a guide cage with non-rotatable side parts that attach to the wheel carrier, providing lateral guidance on both sides of the rail, allowing for safe and flexible operation without a flange, enabling easy replacement and weight reduction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If flange wheels are used to prevent derailment, then reliability is improved, but weight increases and device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wheel assembly is divided into separate functional components: a simple cylindrical wheel for rolling and a guide cage with lateral guide elements for preventing derailment. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently, reducing overall weight while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide cage acts as an intermediary structure between the wheel and rail, providing lateral guidance without requiring the wheel itself to have flanges. The guide elements of the cage engage with the rail to prevent derailment, separating the guidance function from the rolling function.
2Reliability
If flange wheels are used to ensure stable guidance, then reliability is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
By separating the guidance function into a distinct guide cage component, the main wheel can be manufactured as a simple cylindrical shape using basic processes. The guide cage can be manufactured separately and attached to the wheel, allowing for simpler, more cost-effective manufacturing of each component.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of adding guide elements to the wheel (traditional approach), the invention inverts the approach by placing guide elements on a separate cage structure that surrounds the wheel. This inversion simplifies wheel manufacturing while achieving the same guidance effect.
3Strength
If cast flange wheels are used, then structural strength is improved, but reliability worsens due to risk of flange failure
Solution Approach 1:
The guide elements are separated from the wheel structure and placed on an independent guide cage. This segmentation means that if guide elements are subjected to excessive stress, only the cage components are affected, not the entire wheel structure, reducing the risk of catastrophic failure.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide cage is designed as a replaceable component that can be easily replaced if damaged, rather than integrating guide elements into the permanent wheel structure. This allows for economical replacement of wear-prone components without replacing the entire wheel assembly.
4Reliability
If one-sided flange wheels are used with specially shaped rail profiles, then guidance reliability is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The guide cage with lateral guide elements can work with standard rail profiles without requiring specially shaped rails. This universal design allows the same wheel assembly to be used on conventional rails, eliminating the need for complex custom rail profiles while maintaining reliable guidance.
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
The solution results in a lighter, cost-effective, and low-maintenance wheel assembly that ensures stable guidance on rails, reducing wear and allowing for versatile use across different rail profiles, with a weight reduction of approximately 30% compared to traditional flange wheels.
Implementation Method 1
The guide structures are moved laterally next to the driving profile. In other words, the guide structures extend to below the contact surface (the contact surface) of the wheel on the running rail. If the wheel threatens to run off (jump off) from the running rail, one of the guide structures comes into contact with the running rail, so that the wheel is guided on the running rail.
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
The invention relates to a load-bearing wheel assembly (20a) with a wheel (26) guided on a wheel carrier (24). The load-bearing wheel assembly (24) has statically projecting guide structures to the left and right of the wheel (26) for guiding the load-bearing wheel assembly (20a) on a guide rail (16a). The wheel (26) preferably has a flat running surface (27) without projections. The guide structures are preferably each part of a removable side panel. The side panels can be mounted laterally to the wheel carrier (24). Preferably, the side panels partially engage behind a section of an axle bolt for supporting the wheel (26).