Abstract:
An undercarriage wear measurement tool includes a housing with an elongated passage. A sleeve is attached to the proximal end of the housing for centering over a component, such as, a bolt head therewith and includes a fastener magnet for attaching to a metal component. The undercarriage wear measurement tool includes an elongated measurement pin slidably disposed within the elongated passage.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/843,290, filed Jul. 5, 2013, which application is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Excavators, dozers, and backhoes are a few examples of heavy equipment commonly used at, for example, mining, forestry or construction sites. Most types of heavy equipment are mobile, and the drive system may include wheels or a track-type undercarriage. A continuous track undercarriage is typically used to move the heavy equipment and large amounts of material over dirt or natural type terrain. Track undercarriages include a track assembly underneath the equipment on each side in place of axels and wheels on wheeled equipment. Depending on the environment, the undercarriage track can be exposed to hard rock that can infiltrate into the undercarriage causing damage to the components. To reduce damage to the lower rollers caused by rooks, the undercarriage may be equipped with roller guards sometimes referred to as rook guards. Roller guards are heavy metal shields that cover the rollers of an undercarriage and reduce the ability for rocks and/or other foreign debris from entering the roller areas causing premature wear and damage to the undercarriage. To maintain the safety and performance of the heavy equipment manufacturers suggest that the undercarriage be inspected as part of the routine maintenance. During the routine maintenance of a machine, it is necessary to check the condition of individual undercarriage components by measuring the amount of wear. To measure undercarriage rollers with roller guards installed, the bucket of the machine is pushed into the ground to lift the equipment and expose the rollers. Once the machine is lifted and the rollers are exposed, a hand held caliper is used to manually measure the diameter of the roller. As a result of the inherent dangers of measuring undercarriage rollers with roller guards, roller wear is rarely measured. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In accordance with the purposes of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention includes an undercarriage wear measurement tool having a housing with an elongated passage. A sleeve is attached to the proximal end of the housing for centering over a component bolt head therewith and includes a fastener magnet for attaching to a metal component. The undercarriage wear measurement tool includes an elongated measurement pin slidably disposed within the elongated passage. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The description herein makes reference to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the views, and wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic view of an exemplary undercarriage wear measurement tool including a sleeve: 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic view of an exemplary undercarriage wear measurement tool having a flat surface; 
         FIG. 3  is a side cross-sectional view of the undercarriage wear measurement tool taken along section  2 - 2  of  FIG. 1 , illustrating a measurement pin removed; 
         FIG. 4  is a side cross-sectional view of the undercarriage wear measurement tool taken along section  2 - 2  of  FIG. 1 , illustrating a measurement pin installed; 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic view of a portion of a track type undercarriage, including a schematic view of an exemplary undercarriage wear measurement tool; 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring now to the discussion that follows and also to the drawings, illustrative approaches to the disclosed invention are shown in detail. Although the drawings represent some possible approaches, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and certain features may be exaggerated, removed, or partially sectioned to better illustrate and explain the present invention. Further, the descriptions set forth herein are not intended to be exhaustive or otherwise limit or restrict the claims to the precise forms and configurations shown in the drawings and disclosed in the following detailed description. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-4 , an exemplary undercarriage wear measurement tool  10  may include a housing  20  having an elongated internal passage  30  extending lengthwise along a longitudinal axis A-A of housing  20 . Internal passage  30  may extend entirely through housing  20  from a proximal end  32  to an opposite flat surface distal end  28 . Attached to proximal end  32  of housing  20  is a sleeve  22  configured for receiving a component, for example, a conventional bolt head  52 , as illustrated in  FIG. 5 . The sleeve  22  may be fixedly attached to housing  20 , such as by welding, brazing, soldering and gluing, to name a few, or integrally formed with housing  20 . For purposes of discussion, sleeve  22  is illustrated as being integrally formed with housing  20 . The exemplarily configuration for housing  20  are shown in  FIGS. 1-5  as cylinder shaped and may alternatively employ other non-circular shapes, for example, square, rectangular, triangular and polygonal, to name a few. 
     With continued reference to  FIGS. 1-4 , undercarriage wear measurement tool  10  may include one or more fastener magnets  24  disposed within internal passage  30  of housing  20  for reasonably securing the undercarriage wear measurement tool to the component being measured. Alternatively, fastener magnet  14  may not extend the complete length of internal passage  30  or may be outside the internal passage  30 . For purposes of discussion, fastener magnet  24  is illustrated as within the complete length of internal passage  30 . 
     Undercarriage wear measurement tool  18  may include an elongated measurement pin  28  disposed within internal passage  30  of housing  20 . A longitudinal axis of measurement pin  26  may substantially coaxially align with longitudinal axis A-A. 
     Exemplary undercarriage wear measurement tool  10  may be used in a variety of applications, including but not limited to, measuring wear of lower roller  60  of a heavy equipment track type undercarriage  70 , as illustrated in  FIG. 5 . A portion of a track type undercarriage  70  which is schematically illustrated in  FIG. 5  may include components such as a track shoe  66 , a track link  68 , and a lower roller  10 . An exemplary undercarriage lower roller  60  may be attached to a heavy equipment undercarriage  70  by a lower roller bolt  52 . The lower roller  60  of an undercarriage  70  may be enclosed within a roller guard  64  for protection. 
     The need to calculate lower roller  60  wear is essential to determine the life remaining of lower roller  60 . To calculate the wear of lower roller  60  the diameter of the lower roller  60  must be measured. To measure the diameter of lower roller  60  with lower roller guard  64  installed, the heavy equipment is lilted, causing the undercarriage  70  to sag allowing access to the lower roller  60 . Measuring the lower roller  60  with rock guard  64  installed without lifting the heavy equipment can be accomplished using the undercarriage wear measurement tool  10 . 
     As illustrated in  FIG. 5 , sleeve  22  of undercarriage wear measurement tool  10  is positioned over a lower roller bolt  52 . The undercarriage wear measurement tool  10  fastener magnet  24  securely attaches the undercarriage wear measurement tool  10  to the lower roller bolt  52 . The measurement pin  26  is now aligned with the center of the lower roller bolt  52  creating a centered reference point of the lower relief  60  extending beyond the lower roller guard  64 . The distance between the center point of the measurement pin  26  and the lower track shoe  66  is measured, illustrated by Measurement B. The track link  68  is measured to determine the track link  68  height, illustrated by Measurement C. The lower roller  60  diameter can now be determined by subtracting Measurement C from Measurement B and multiplying by a factor of 2. 
     It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Many embodiments and applications other than the examples provided would be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the above description. The scope of the invention should be determined, not with reference to the above description, but should instead be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It is anticipated and intended that future developments will occur in the arts discussed herein, and that the disclosed systems and methods will be incorporated into such future embodiments. In sum, it should be understood that the invention is capable of modification and variation and is limited only by the following claims. 
     All terms used in the claims are intended to be given their broadest reasonable constructions and their ordinary meanings as understood by those skilled in the art unless an explicit indication to the contrary is made herein. In particular, use of the singular articles such as “a,” “the,” “said,” etc. should be read to recite one or more of the indicated elements unless a claim recites an explicit limitation to the contrary. 
     The foregoing description relates to what is presently considered to be the most practical embodiment. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, which scope is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures as is permitted under the law.