Pivot Wheel Suspension for Stable Floor Cleaning Machines
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Solution Overview
Problem
Floor cleaning or burnishing machines often tip or move unpredictably due to wheel misalignment, uneven floors, and debris, posing risks to operators and causing damage.
Innovation Solution
A pivot suspension system with two separate wheels and a channel, along with a pivot rod connected to the machine's frame, ensuring a three-point contact with the floor, which stabilizes the machine by allowing wheels to maintain traction and preventing tipping.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If wheels are axially aligned on a common axle or attached without a common axle, then the machine structure is simplified, but the machine tips or moves unpredictably when encountering uneven floors, bumps, or debris
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the wheel alignment dynamic rather than fixed. The rear wheels are mounted on a common axle that can pivot relative to the machine frame, allowing the wheel alignment to adapt dynamically to uneven floors, bumps, and debris. This dynamic adjustment prevents the machine from tipping or moving unpredictably while maintaining structural simplicity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the machine uses a fixed wheel alignment, then the structure is stable and simple, but it cannot compensate for misalignment caused by uneven floors, dirt, and debris
Solution Approach 1:
The suspension structure enables dynamic adaptation by allowing the common axle carrying the rear wheels to pivot relative to the machine frame. This dynamic mechanism automatically compensates for misalignment caused by uneven floors, dirt, and debris without requiring complex active control systems or multiple independent suspension components for each wheel.
3Reliability
If one wheel grips the floor while another spins or has diminished grip, then the machine can tip or move in undesired directions, but this provides information about floor conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The pivoting common axle allows the wheel assembly to dynamically adjust its orientation in response to differential grip conditions. When one wheel encounters resistance or spins, the axle can pivot to redistribute the load and maintain stable three-point contact, preventing the machine from tipping or moving in undesired directions while maintaining safe operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A pivot suspension has two separate wheels and a channel, which has two ends axially extending across a floor cleaning or burnishing machine. One wheel is attached to a first end of the channel and the other wheel is attached to a second end of the channel. The pivot suspension further has a pivot rod that is pivotably attached to and is in line from front to rear with the machine. The pivot rod is fixedly connected to the channel at a location between the two channel ends. As a result, the wheels and channel are pivotably attached to the machine, by way of the pivot rod. In combination with at least one wheel or caster that is attached to a frame of the machine, the two channel wheels form three points of contact with a floor, even if there is dirt, debris, and unevenness on or in the floor.