Wheel and ground engaging emergency brake

The emergency brake comprises an elongated flexible skid member which is held within a tray-like support member above the wheels of a vehicle upon which it is used. During an emergency situation, the tray is dropped to a position proximate the vehicle wheels and a free end of the skid is fed out of the tray under the power of an electric motor which is engaged with the skid. The skid then becomes entrapped between a wheel and its support surface. A stop member on the skid abuts a cooperating stop member on the support tray at which time further advance of the skid from the tray is halted. Hardened steel tips are included on the skid pointing in a direction away from the vehicle wheel and into the support surface of the vehicle wheel. These hardened steel tips dig into the support surface and, together with the cooperating stop elements, cause cessation of the forward movement of the vehicle. The vehicle may be backed off the skid, whereupon the motor may be activated in reverse to reintroduce the elongated skid into the support tray.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
This invention relates to improvements in emergency brakes and more 
specifically to improvement in emergency brakes of the skid type including 
an elongated flexible skid member which may be held in a retracted 
position or moved into an extended position beneath a vehicle wheel by 
means of a motorized control mechanism to effect emergency braking of a 
vehicle. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Various types of emergency brake mechanisms for vehicles have heretofore 
been designed and used with varying degrees of success. Some of these 
emergency brakes are provided for engagement with various portions of the 
drive train of a vehicle and are most ineffective unless there is a 
failure of the drive train between the emergency brake mechanism and the 
support wheels of the vehicle. If such a failure does occur, the support 
wheels of the vehicle are then free wheeling and incapable of stopping 
forward movement of the vehicle. 
Accordingly, certain emergency brake assemblies have been proposed which 
rely solely upon the rolling contact of one of more of the vehicle wheels 
with the supporting surface. Such emergency brakes include that shown in 
U.S. Pat. No. 3,078,963, issued Feb. 26, 1963 to Shea. The Shea patent 
shows an elongated flexible skid member which is maintained in a support 
tray which is disposed above a vehicle wheel. Upon actuation, the tray 
drops down upon the wheel and vibratory motion created by the wheel 
together with the force of gravity causes the skid to slide to a position 
beneath the wheel. Such a mechanism may be less than desirable in that the 
force of gravity constitutes the major means of causing initial movement 
of the skid. If the emergency brake has not been used for long periods of 
time, the skid may become stuck within its support tray and thus causing 
the emergency brake to be ineffective. Also, the vibrating motion created 
by engagement of the support tray with the wheel may cause undesirable 
side effects such as damage to the skid at the point of contact with the 
vehicle wheel. 
Other emergency brake devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,887,185, issued May 
19, 1959 to Lee, 2,868,333, issued Jan. 13, 1959 to Willison, 2,818,939, 
issued Jan. 7, 1958 to Benn, 2,806,556, issued Sept. 17, 1957 to Norris, 
and 2,746,570, issued May 22, 1956 to Stahmer. Each of these devices, 
however, also relies upon the force of gravity for actuation thereof and 
in that respect, has some of the inherent deficiencies of the Shea patent. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention includes a support tray which is pivotally attached 
at one point to a vehicle body or frame. The opposite end of the support 
tray is held above the vehicle wheels by means of a pair of solenoid 
supports. Upon actuation of the solenoid supports, the tray is allowed to 
pivot downwardly and is held above the vehicle wheels by a pair of support 
springs. An elongated flexible skid is slidingly disposed within the tray 
and engages with a motor actuated gear which, when operative, may move the 
skid longitudinally along the tray. A first switch located within the cab 
is operative to release the solenoids and allow the tray to fall. A second 
switch, also located within the cab, may energize the motor to move the 
skid along the tray and thus expose a free end of the skid which moves 
downwardly alongside the vehicle wheels and becomes entrapped between a 
vehicle wheel and its support surface thus causing the vehicle to come to 
a sudden stop. Once the vehicle has stopped, it may be backed off the skid 
and the skid may be returned to the support tray by reverse energization 
of the motor and the gear drive. 
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an emergency 
brake for motor vehicles which includes a positive actuation system to 
insure operation of the emergency brake device even after it has remained 
inactive over a great length of time. 
A further object of the present invention is to provide an emergency brake 
which may be used on a variety of motor vehicles, including trucks, buses, 
automobiles, etc. 
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an emergency 
brake for vehicles which includes an elongated flexible skid element which 
is retained within a support tray and which includes a plurality of 
hardened spikes for engaging the support surface upon which the vehicle 
rides, thus enhancing the frictional engagement which ultimately stops the 
vehicle. 
Yet a still further object of the present invention is to provide an 
emergency brake for vehicles wherein the aforementioned support tray is 
pivotally mounted upon the vehicle body and has a free end which is 
engaged with the vehicle body through attachment to a pair of solenoid 
elements which serve to maintain the support tray in a position spaced 
above the vehicle wheels. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide an emergency brake 
for vehicles wherein the aforementioned support tray may be released by 
the solenoids whereupon it may pivot to a position proximate to but 
slightly spaced from the vehicle wheels and will be held in that position 
by a pair of support springs which insure that no engagement between a 
support tray and wheels will occur until the skid element has been 
released. 
These, together with other objects and advantages which will become 
subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation 
as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to 
the accompaying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals 
refer to like parts throughout.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Now with reference to the drawings, the emergency brake, generally referred 
to by the numeral 10, will be described in detail. With specific reference 
to FIGS. 1-4, it will be seen that the emergency brake 10 is utilized upon 
a vehicle 12 which may be any wheeled vehicle such as a tractor trailer, 
bus, automobile, or the like. The emergency brake is normally attached to 
the vehicle body 14 at a position above the drive wheels, tandem wheels 16 
and 18 or the like. 
The emergency brake assembly 10 includes a pair of rear inverted L brackets 
generally referred to by the numeral 20. The brackets 20 each include a 
horizontal leg 22 and a vertical leg 24, and it will be noted that each of 
the horizontal legs 22 is fixedly secured to the body 14 in any convenient 
manner. A cover plate generally referred to by the reference numeral 26 is 
also secured to the body 14 in any convenient manner. The cover plate 
includes an upper wall 30 and a pair of opposite side depending flanges 
32. The cover 26 is disposed between the mounting brackets 20 and the 
outside surface of the depending flanges 32 are disposed in 
surface-to-surface contact relation to the inner surfaces of the vertical 
legs 24. 
A support tray generally referred to by the reference numeral 34 is 
provided and includes a bottom wall 36 and a pair of upwardly directed 
side flanges 38 which each terminate at their upper ends in an inturned 
flange 40. 
With attention now directed to FIGS. 1, 3, 4 and 6, it will be noted that 
each of the vertical legs 24 has a pivot joint generally referred to by 
the reference numeral 42 attached thereto. Each of the pivot joints 42 
includes a pivot shaft 44 which is fixedly attached to the vertical leg 24 
and extends inwardly through a bore 46 formed in the side flange 38 of the 
support tray 34. Each pivot joint also includes a bushing 48 which is 
disposed upon shaft 44 to inhibit lateral movement of the support tray 34. 
With the connection as described, the support tray is allowed to have 
vertical pivotal motion around the shaft 44. 
Also, it will be noted that a pair of solenoids generally referred to by 
the reference numeral 60 as seen in FIGS. 1, 2 and 5, are carried by front 
mounting brackets 61 which are secured to the body 14 and the outer 
surfaces of the forward ends of the depending flanges 32. Each of the 
solenoids 60 includes an armature shaft 62 and each of the side flanges 38 
is provided with a bore 64 which is registrable with the inner end of the 
corresponding armature shaft 62. Accordingly, it may be observed that the 
support tray 34 has its rear end pivotally secured to the mounting bracket 
20 for movement about a horizontally disposed axis extending transversely 
of the vehicle 12 and that the forward end of the support tray may be 
swung from an upper horizontally disposed inoperative position to a 
forwardly and downwardly inclined operative position with the forward end 
of the bottom wall 36, which has a curved forward end portion 66, held 
just slightly above the tread surface of wheel 16 by springs 68 which have 
their ends attached respectively to the vehicle body 14 and the side 
flanges 32 of support tray 34. In this manner, the support tray may be 
dropped to an operative position proximate to but spaced from the wheels 
of the vehicle in preparation for the extension of skid 70 therefrom. 
Skid 70 comprises an elongated and flexible skid member which includes a 
plurality of link sections 72 which are pivotally secured by means of 
pivot shafts 74 in longitudinally spaced and transversely staggered 
relation. A retaining bar generally referred to by the reference numeral 
76, as seen in FIGS. 5 and 6, is carried by the rear end of the elongated 
flexible skid member 70 and a shaft 78 extends through the retaining bar 
76 and is provided with a roller 80 on each of its opposite ends. Each of 
the rollers 80 is disposed in rolling contacting relation with the upper 
surface of the bottom wall 36. 
Again with reference to FIGS. 1-4, it will be seen that an electric motor 
82 is connected by a bracket 84 to the side flanges 38 of support tray 34 
and thus the motor 82 is held in a surmounting position over the skid 70. 
The motor 82 has a shaft 86 which has mounted thereto a gear 88. Gear 88 
includes gear teeth 90 which are spaced to fit between adjacent pivot 
shafts 74 on the skid 70. Of course, if desired, a separate track may be 
established for connection with the gear teeth 90. Motor 82 may be 
designed with a high moment of inertia or may include a mechanical brake 
such that when the motor is not energized it acts to prevent the extension 
of skid 70 from support tray 34. When energized, the motor and gear 
combination is effective to feed out the skid 70 from support tray 34. As 
the skid 70 is entrapped between wheels 16 and 18 and the ground surface, 
the tray is pulled downwardly against the force of spring 68 and rests 
upon the tread surface of wheel 16. 
It will be also noted that extensions or spike 92 are included on the skid 
70 for engagement with the support surface 94. These spikes may be made of 
a high carbon steel material to reduce sliding of the skid along the 
support surface. Once the skid 70 makes contact with the support surface 
and becomes wedged beneath the wheels of the vehicle, the force of the 
moving vehicle will pull the free end of the skid in cooperation with 
motor 82. With reference to FIG. 5 of the drawings, it will be seen that 
each side of the support tray 34 is provided with an inwardly directed 
abutment flange 100 and that a compression spring 102 is secured to the 
rear surface of each abutment flange 100. Thus, it is clear that upon 
forward movement of the elongated flexible skid member 70, the rollers 80 
will be moved into engagement with the rear ends of the compression 
springs 102 whereupon the springs 102 serve as shock absorber means to 
absorb the stopping shock of the skid member 70. 
The emergency brake of the present invention may be configured to 
accommodate either single or dual wheeled vehicles. As described thus far, 
the emergency brake has been configured for use with a dual wheeled 
vehicle having a plurality of axles. The skid is designed to extend 
beneath both wheels 16 and wheels 18 so as to provide maximum braking 
ability. As seen in FIG. 7, an emergency brake may also be configured for 
use with a vehicle having only one rear axle. In FIG. 7, a bus generally 
designated by the numeral 110 includes a body 112 to which are attached 
forward mounts 114 and the rear mounts 116. An arcuately shaped support 
tray 118 is pivotally attached to the rear mount 116 and is attached to 
the forward mount 114 by the use of solenoid as discussed with reference 
to support tray 34. Support tray 118 and the skid 120 disposed therein 
function in the same manner as support tray 34 and skid 70 previously 
discussed. The major distinction between these two embodiments of the 
invention is that support tray 118, being arcuately shaped, will present a 
larger surface area to wheel 122 when the support tray is forced into 
engagement with that wheel upon skid 120 becoming entrapped between the 
wheel and the support surface. In this manner, the stopping force felt by 
the skid 120 may be transferred partially to the wheel 122 as well as to 
the hinge connection of rear support element 116. 
Now with reference to FIG. 8, the circuit represented by numeral 124 will 
be described. Circuit 124 includes a battery 126, which may be the vehicle 
battery or may constitute a battery maintained exclusively for use with 
the circuit. Battery 126 is connected at one end to ground and at the 
other end connected through switch 128 to solenoids 60. Solenoids 60 are 
connected at their opposite ends to ground. Thus, it can be seen that by 
depressing switch 128, which is physically placed within the cab of the 
vehicle in a location easily accessible by the vehicle driver, the 
solenoids 60 will be activated thus allowing support tray 34 to assume its 
lowered position whereat it is supported by springs 68. Connected in 
parallel to switch 128 and solenoid 60 is switch 130, which is a double 
pole double throw switch also located within reach of the vehicle driver 
and is operative for placing motor 82 either in a forward or a reverse 
mode of operation for respectively extending skid 70 from the support tray 
under power or to reposition the skid back into said support tray 34 after 
the braking operation is completed and the vehicle is backed off the skid. 
The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the 
invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily 
occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the 
invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and 
accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, 
falling within the scope of the invention.