Deere + Company

Donald E Westemeier

Michael Bedis

Joseph F Wagner

A track link assembly in which an outer link end has an annular recess opening towards an inner link end and which further has a track bushing on the connecting pin or link extending through the inner link and fixed thereto. The bushing has an end facing the recess with an annular groove in that end. A comparatively hard seal ring is positioned in the recess and has an annular end portion conforming in shape and seated in the annular groove and extending radially and inwardly from that end to an opposite end that has a pair of annular lips, one of which engages a radial wall surface of the recess and the other of which engages the surface of the pin. The hard seal ring is provided with a comparatively resilient load ring that maintains seating between the lips and their respective surfaces and the one end of the hard seal ring and the annular groove.

Oil seal for lubricated tracks on a crawler tractor

A split master link includes first and second separable sections which are joined together at an overlapping joint comprising a series of interengaged teeth located centrally in the link mass. The link sections have confronting surfaces forming continuations of the opposite ends of the tooth racks of the sections and in one embodiment, one of each set of confronting surfaces at an end of the tooth racks is stepped so that a relief area extends from the tooth rack towards a side of the link through a distance of approximately three-fourths of the disance of the tooth to the side of the link. In a second embodiment, the pair of confronting surfaces at each end of the tooth racks are arranged in converging relationship so that they converge at a side of the track link. A relief area is thus formed at the opposite ends of the tooth racks and each relief area extends to an adjacent side of the link. Relief areas of both the embodiments serve to greatly decrease the cyclic strain that the track link would experience for a given load as compared to a track link having no such relief areas.

Split master link for track of track-laying tractors

The pivot or hinge joints of a track chain assembly of a track laying tractor each include lubricant cavities which are sealed by a pair of spaced apart seals. The seals each include a resilient rubber load member and a relatively rigid polyurethane seal member having an annular sealing lip which is biased into place by the load member when the seal is installed. The effectiveness of the seals is tested by adding a coloring agent or dye to the lubricant in the cavities being sealed, by operating the assembled chain in a mud box for a predetermined time, by disassembling the chain and then by inspecting the seal members to see whether or not surfaces thereof normally outside the sealed cavity have been contacted by leaking lubricant as evidenced by the presence of the dye.

Growing community of inventors

Dubuque, IA, United States of America

Donald E Westemeier