Snowmobile Wear Strip with Polybenzimidazole Inserts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional wear strips on tracked vehicles, such as snowmobiles, experience melting or deformation due to increased pressure and velocity, leading to reduced performance and increased horsepower requirements, especially in low-lubricant conditions like snow or ice.
Innovation Solution
A wear strip assembly with inserts made of a more wear-resistant polymer, such as polybenzimidazole, is integrated into the rail beam, providing improved limiting pressure velocity and hardness, reducing friction and heat buildup, and allowing for reduced horsepower requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional wear strip material is used, then low friction and low wear properties are achieved, but melting or deformation occurs due to increased pressure and velocity
Solution Approach 1:
The wear strip combines two different polymer materials with complementary properties: a base low-friction polymer and inserts of a harder, more wear-resistant polymer. This composite structure allows the strip to simultaneously achieve low friction from the base material and high heat/pressure resistance from the inserts, resolving the contradiction between wear resistance and temperature resistance.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of making the entire wear strip from a single material, the invention applies different materials to different locations: the base polymer provides low friction across the entire surface, while localized inserts of harder polymer are placed in high-stress areas to provide enhanced heat and pressure resistance where needed most.
2Reliability
If wear-resistant inserts are added to the wear strip, then durability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wear strip is segmented into a base material and discrete insert elements. This segmentation allows the harder, more durable material to be applied only in specific locations where it is most needed, rather than requiring the entire strip to be made from complex composite materials or multiple components, thus improving durability while controlling structural complexity.
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 wear strip assembly with inserts enhances the durability and efficiency of tracked vehicles by reducing friction and heat, enabling higher speeds with less lubrication and cooling, and eliminating the need for bogey wheels, resulting in quieter and more efficient operation.
Implementation Method 1
The wear strips are made of a low friction and low wear material to facilitate sliding of the track relative to the rail beams
Implementation Method 2
The plurality of inserts includes a second wear-resistant polymer that is more wear resistant and harder than the first wear-resistant polymer
Implementation Method 3
enabling higher speeds with less lubrication and cooling
Data Source
AI summary
A wear strip assembly for a snowmobile includes a wear strip comprising a first wear-resistant polymer securable to a skid rail beam of a snowmobile. Inserts are fastened within the wear strip such that lower surfaces of the inserts are substantially flush with a lower surface of the wear strip. Each of the inserts includes a second wear-resistant polymer that is more wear resistant than the first wear-resistant polymer. Between 40 and 50 percent of the lower surface of the portion of the rail is occupied by the inserts. The skid rail beam includes a straight portion and an angled portion, the inserts being positioned along the straight portion.