Pivot Joint Roadway Track for Smooth Turning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional windable vehicle tracks face difficulties in making turns without forming transverse folds or bumps due to their high lateral stiffness, which hinders smooth vehicle movement on uneven or soft ground.
Innovation Solution
A pivotable track system with a rotary junction connection between track portions, allowing for easy deviation from the trajectory while maintaining track continuity, using a hinge piece with a low-friction sliding material to facilitate pivoting and prevent fold formation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If traditional windable tracks are used with high lateral stiffness, then the track maintains structural strength, but transverse folds and bumps appear when making turns
Solution Approach 1:
The track is divided into multiple straight portions connected by rotary junctions. Each straight portion maintains high lateral stiffness for structural strength, while the rotary junctions enable smooth turning by allowing relative rotation between portions. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by localizing flexibility to the junctions rather than the entire track structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The rotary junction acts as an intermediary element between straight track portions. It includes a connection element with a pivot axis perpendicular to the track plane, allowing controlled rotation while maintaining structural continuity. This intermediary component enables turning smoothness without compromising the structural strength of the straight portions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the track is bent to form curves, then the track can follow curved trajectories, but transverse folds appear due to high lateral stiffness
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of bending a single continuous track, the track is segmented into straight portions connected by rotary junctions. The segmentation allows trajectory flexibility through rotation at junctions rather than bending, eliminating the harmful transverse folds that would otherwise form in high-stiffness materials.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention inverts the traditional approach by using rigid straight portions connected by rotational joints rather than flexible bent portions. This inversion achieves trajectory flexibility through the mechanism of connection (rotation) rather than through material flexibility (bending), thereby eliminating fold formation.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the track uses high lateral stiffness material, then the track maintains structural integrity, but deviation from straight trajectory becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The track is segmented into rigid straight portions that maintain structural integrity and rotary junctions that enable trajectory deviation. Each segment maintains high stiffness for stability, while the junctions provide the necessary flexibility for easy deviation from straight trajectories through rotation about a perpendicular pivot axis.
Solution Approach 2:
The rotary junction introduces dynamic capability to an otherwise static rigid structure. The connection element allows the track to dynamically adjust its trajectory by rotating about the pivot axis, enabling easy deviation while the straight portions maintain their rigid structural integrity.
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
Enables smooth vehicle movement through turns without transverse folds, ensuring continuous and robust track performance on uneven surfaces by allowing the track to conform to ground topography and maintain smooth rolling.
Implementation Method 1
the overlapping zone is shaped to ensure an overlap, both when the first and second track portions are in alignment with one another, as when they are pivoted one by one
Data Source
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AI summary
The application relates to a roadway track (10) for a vehicle (T), said roadway track having a face for driving on and being able to be rolled up on itself and intended to be laid on the ground and having a rolled-up position and a deployed position in which said roadway track extends substantially parallel to the ground. The roadway track comprises at least one first track portion (14) and one second track portion (16), the first and second track portions being connected to one another by a pivot connection (18) having a pivot axis (A) that extends in a direction substantially perpendicular to the face for driving on, by virtue of which pivot the first track portion can pivot with respect to the second track portion about the pivot axis so as to form a bend (V).