Railway Technical Research Institute

Bridgestone Corporation

Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd.

Masayoshi Azakami

Kazuhiro Oda

Hideyuki Takizawa

Masahiro Kuroda

Fumio Iwamoto

Yukimasa Yamada

Shoji Iwai

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

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

Masayoshi Azakami