Railway Technical Research Institute

Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd.

Bridgestone Corporation

Hideyuki Takizawa

Kazuhiro Oda

Fumio Iwamoto

Masayoshi Azakami

Shoji Iwai

Masahiro Kuroda

Yukimasa Yamada

Masamichi Yamada

In a leg apparatus with which a supporting wheel for the magnetically levitated vehicle can be lifted up and down freely, a supporting wheel is positioned and hung by a swing arm and a lifting actuator. Usage of only the lifting actuator flat spring having a damper and coil spring or a combination thereof offer a buffer-supporting to enhance better comfortable feeling of riding. The leg can be completely retracted with a short stroke by a contracting action of the lifting actuator having the internal lock. Moreover the vehicle height can be adjusted. The leg apparatus is also designed and constructed in such a way that a damper or spring is installed inside the preventive wall against fire or foreign obstacles. The shock caused on the wheel when a cruising speed is changed from a high speed to a low speed can be mechanically absorbed by coil spring and damper, or coil spring, the flat spring or damper which is provided horizontally and is connected through the connecting such as the bell crank or the like, so that the operational friction force can be minimized when compared to the conventional type of the apparatus using only damper, hence the comfortable feeling of riding is enhanced.

Leg apparatus for the magnetically levitated vehicle

According to this invention, wheels are pivotally supported by a fork arm comprising a lever-type supporting component, an expandable lifting actuator having damper serially arranged to buffer and support thereof at other end end of arm of said supporting component. With this structure, a complete retraction of wheels can be achieved. Hence the supporting component can be used both as the supporting leg apparatus to vertically support the magnetically levitated vehicle and the guide leg apparatus to mechanically guide the vehicle along the guideway side wall. It is, therefore, characterized with the simple structure, light weight, small storage space, and easy to perform maintenance. This invention also discloses the guide leg apparatus in which the stopper ring apparatus guides mechanically the vehicle in place of the guide leg apparatus, when the guide leg apparatus malfunctions or in emergency when magnets are turned off while magnetically levitating at high speed and said leg apparatus mentioned is separately placed. It enables for the guide leg apparatus to retract while levitating and cruising the vehicle magnetically at high speed. Remarkable reduction of running resistance and the running noise as well can be achieved and the storage space for the guide leg apparatus can be smaller with less weight.

In a tire for a levitation-type vehicle for supporting a load which varies depending upon a change in speed of the levitation-type vehicle at landing and during subsequent traveling thereof, a configuration of a crown and rigidity of the crown are set so as to have a ground-contact configuration in which, when a load of the levitation-type vehicle is equal to or less than 45% at its full load, a ratio of a ground-contact length of a pair of shoulders in a circumferential direction of the tire with respect to a ground-contact length, in the circumferential direction of the tire, of a central portion of the crown in the widthwise direction is 0.6.about.1.5. Accordingly, the tire for the levitation-type vehicle has a wide ground-contact area at an initial stage of landing and traveling.

Radial tire for levitation-type vehicle

Growing community of inventors

Kokubunji, Japan

Hideyuki Takizawa