Electric power plant for vehicles

• US 4,325,451 A
• Filed: 09/03/1980
• Issued: 04/20/1982
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/1977
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu Seisakusho
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu Seisakusho
• Inventors: Umeda, Haruhiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Mitchell, David M.
• Application Number:
  US06/183,764
• Time in Patent Office: 594 Days
• Field of Search: 180/65 C, 180/65 F, 180/291, 180/292, 180/294, 180/298, 180/299, 180/312, 180/68.5, 180/89.13, 180/54 F, 248/639, 248/647, 248/681, 248/678
• US Class Current: 180/294
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 17/356 having fluid or electric motor, for driving one or more wheels disposition of motor in, or adjacent to, traction wheel B60K7/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 6/40 characterised by the assembly or relative disposition of components
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 6/46 Series type
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2200/14 Trucks; Load vehicles, Busses
• CPC Class Codes: F02B 3/06 with compression ignition compression ignition engines using air or gas for blowing fuel into compressed air in cylinder F02B13/02
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/951 Assembly or relative location of components

Abstract

In a wheeled vehicle such as a dump truck propelled by electric motors built into the respective wheels, a power plant is provided on a removable base for the generation of electric energy to be fed to the motors. The power plant comprises an electric generator and a pair of prime movers such as diesel engines on the opposite sides of the generator. This generator has its armature and magnetic field structure coupled directly to the respective prime movers thereby to be rotated in opposite directions relative to each other for increased power output.

Claims

1. In a wheel vehicle having front and rear wheels and a body mounted thereon, said vehicle being driven by electric motors and having a power plant enclosure mounted on a removable base, characterized in that said removable base is arranged wholly forwardly of the front wheels and transversely of the vehicle and is formed by a hollow shaped member comprising an upper plate, a lower plate, opposite vertical side plates supportingly connecting the upper and the lower plates, and vertical front and rear plates fixedly connecting the upper and the lower plates also, said removable base being mounted through at least two locking means on a pair of box-like frame units which are integrally secured to the bottom of a vehicle body and extend in parallel to each other along the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body, wherein each of the locking means comprises a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder within which a piston is slidably accommodated, the cylinder being fixedly secured to a side plate member of each frame unit and the piston being always urged in one direction by a compression spring interposed between the piston and bottom of the cylinder, a piston rod fixedly connected at one end thereof to the piston on the opposite side of the compression spring, the other end of the piston rod extending through a pressure chamber of the cylinder and projecting out thereof, a rockable lever pivotally connected at one end thereof to the said other end of the piston rod and having a spline hole formed at a boss part of the other end of the rockable lever, a spline shaft vertically extending through the spline hole of the rockable lever from a lower plate member of the frame unit to which the lower end of the spline shaft is fixedly secured through a nut and projecting the upper end thereof through a substantially rectangular opening formed in the lower plate of the removable base, into a hollow space thereof, the projected upper end of the spline shaft having a head which is formed in a similar shape in cross section to the rectangular opening, but slightly smaller than the opening, wherein in order to lock the removable base on the frame units, the head of the spline shaft is engaged with an upper surface of the lower plate of the removable base when the spline shaft is rotated through the piston rod and the rockable lever by the resilient force of the compression spring, while in order to remove the removable base from the frame units the head is disengaged from the upper surface of the lower plate of the removable base when the spline shaft is rotated in the opposite direction by a pneumatic or hydraulic pressure counteracted to the resilient force of the compression spring.

2. The invention of claim 1, wherein the vertical front plate has openings into which forks of a forklift truck are inserted for removing the power plant enclosure from the vehicle body.

3. The invention of claim 1, wherein the head of the spline shaft is engaged with the upper surface of the lower plate of the removable base through a pair of wedge-shaped cam members which are fixedly secured to the upper surface of the lower plate of the removable base in the vicinity of each side end of the rectangular opening, respectively, in a symmetrical manner with each other with respect to the center of the opening.

4. The invention of claim 1, wherein each of the locking means further comprises a pair of positioning members fixedly provided at the locations on the upper surface of the upper plate member of the frame unit which respectively correspond to both longitudinal ends of the rectangular opening oppositely to each other.