The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 01, 1985
Filed:
Dec. 03, 1982
Allen D Myers, Decatur, IL (US);
Caterpillar Tractor Co., Peoria, IL (US);
Abstract
In the very large hauling vehicles (10) it is desirable to provide the front and rear wheels (20,16) with multiple disc brake assemblies (32) that have retarding capabilities. It has long been a problem to route a conduit (34,36) of a size large enough to carry the required volume of cooling oil, between a frame (12) of the vehicle (10) and the front wheels (20). The front wheels (20) present a particular problem in that they usually move vertically along an axis (28) of a suspension strut (22) to which they are mounted, as well as pivoting about the axis (28) for steering functions. A conduit (34,36) that has sufficient length to accommodate the extremeties of the compound motion will often come in rubbing contact with the surrounding structural members which results in wear and premature failure of the conduit. The fluid connecting apparatus (33) of this invention utilizes a mounting arrangement for flexible conduits (34,36) that provides sufficient volume of cooling oil to allow the front brakes (32) of a vehicle (10) to be utilized for retarding. The conduits (34,36) are mounted directly between the frame (12) and the wheels (20) utilizing specific mounting parameters to direct the slack portions (130,132) of the conduits (34,36) away from surrounding structures (12,20). They also utilize a twist or dressing, that exists in the conduits (34,36) as a result of their mounting, to guide the slack portion (130,132) away from the surrounding structure during the extremes of the compound movement of the wheels (20) and struts (22).