Endless Belt Toy Accelerator

Abstract

A continuously moving endless belt is mounted in a housing so that an upper elongated surface of the moving belt is adjacent and in registration with an elongated open channel centrally disposed in a roadway section supported by the housing. Also, a mechanism is provided which raises the upper elongated surface of the endless belt through the channel and into contact with the undersides of selected unpowered toy vehicles traveling on the roadway section in order to provide an acceleration force on the vehicles in the direction of travel. The height of the belt above the roadway section is adjustable to vary the ratio of the vehicles' weight shared by the belt and that of the raodway--the higher the proportion of the vehicles' total weight supported by the belt, the greater will be the acceleration thereof.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The background of the invention will be set forth in two parts.

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention pertains generally to the field of toys and more particularly to the field of unpowered toy vehicles and means for accelerating such toys along a roadway without utilizing the force of gravity.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Over the years toy vehicles have become more sophisticated and elaborate in their construction. From the simple push-type toys, the art advanced to include internal mechanical motors, and later, self-contained battery-operated electric motors. Then came the popular electrified track vehicles which include an electric motor that derives its electric power from an external source connected to the track or conductors on the surface of or in a notch below the roadway. The speed of these miniature machines can be controlled by varying the source potential supplied to the roadway conductors, much in the same manner as toy electric trains have long been controlled. Being much lighter and having a lower center of gravity, these newer toys can accelerate very quickly and attain greater stable speeds than was theretofore possible. The main disadvantage of this newly developed art is the relatively high cost of manufacturing of both the vehicles and the electrified roadway.

More recently, a new vehicle toy was developed which does not utilize electrified roadways and has no self-contained arrangement for motivation power. These devices utilize the force of gravity to accelerate relatively heavy vehicles having newly developed vary low friction wheel bearings. The tracks or roadways upon which these unpowered toys traveled are fabricated from relatively inexpensive plastic material that is easily bent into many configurations. The basic disadvantage of this type toy is its dependency on gravity for acceleration. This requires that the roadway be elevated where the toy is to start its run.

In order to eliminate the need for elevation, several techniques have been developed which engage and accelerate the toys anywhere along the track. These devices are either mechanically or electrically powered and generally include rather intricate and fragile reciprocating and triggered mechanisms which may prove not to be reliable under continuous and strenuous usage. More importantly, the prior art devices generally are sensitive to variation in width, height, weight and the presence or absence of fenders and thus do not have the ability to accommodate a wide variety of toy vehicles and to accelerate them to very high speeds without loss of stability. Accordingly, it should be evident that a simple yet rugged toy vehicle accelerator that can accommodate and stably accelerate to high speeds a great variety of freely rolling toy vehicles would be a significant advancement of the art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing factors and conditions characteristic of this art, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a new and improved unpowered toy vehicle accelerator utilizing an endless belt assembly utilizing a moving endless belt assembly capable of supporting a desired portion of weight of the vehicle.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a simple and relatively inexpensive endless belt toy accelerator capable of accelerating selected ones of a group of toy vehicles.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an endless belt toy accelerator which can greatly accelerate such toys without causing instability in the vehicles' travel along a roadway.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide an endless belt toy vehicle accelerator which may be powered by an inertia-aided mechanical drive mechanism.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an endless belt toy accelerator which accelerates the vehicles over relatively long distances compared to accelerators using rotating wheels or catapult levers, and allows a more modest level of acceleration to be employed and thereby can achieve very high terminal velocities without loss of stability.

These and other objects are provided in an endless belt toy vehicle accelerator for accelerating unpowered toy vehicles along a roadway constructed in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention comprising a housing including a section of roadway having an elongated open channel centrally disposed therealong and motivation means including spaced end pulleys disposed in the housing below the surface of the roadway and also including an endless belt supported by and between the pulleys, the belt having an upper portion adjacent and centered in the roadway channel and movable with the rotation of the pulleys. Motor means is coupled to the motivation means for continuously moving the upper portion of the endless belt in the direction of vehicle travel. Also, engagement means is operatively coupled to the motivation means for moving the upper portion of the belt upwardly through the channel portion and into contact with the underside of the vehicles only when vehicle acceleration is desired.

The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims.

The invention and specific embodiments thereof will be described hereinafter by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements or parts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electric-motor-powered embodiment of the invention in a dual track arrangement;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, taken along line 2--2;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional illustration of the invention taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional representation of the view of the device shown in FIG. 3 taken along line 4--4;

FIG. 5 is a view showing an inertia-aided mechanical motor for use in an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the mechanical motor of FIG. 5 taken along line 6--6.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring again to the drawings and more particularly to FIG. 1 and 2 and 3, there is shown a dual track or roadway embodiment of the invention. The features of each of the accelerator portions is identical to the other and, accordingly, reference will be made only to a single roadway section and its associated parts. It should therefore be understood that a single track accelerator embodiment of the invention may be fabricated instead of the dual arrangement shown.

The invention illustrated, includes an accelerator housing 11 including a base 13, sidewalls 15 and track or roadway surfaces 17. The sidewalls 15 and a center wall 19 extend above the roadway surfaces 17. Alternately, the roadway surfaces 17 may include raised guides in order to guide toy vehicles 21 along the predetermined path in the direction indicated by arrows 23. The housing 11 also includes, at each of its ends, track-joining tabs 25 which fill into appropriate grooves 27 in the undersides of conventional flexible track sections 29. For a more detailed discussion of the tabs and flexible track, reference may be made to a copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 779,874, assigned to the assignee of the present invention.

Symmetrically positioned along the roadway surface 17 is an elongated slot 31 leaving a pair of spaced roadway strips 33 upon which tires 35 of the toy 21 travel (see FIG. 4). As can be seen from the drawings, an endless belt 37 is supported on a pair of end pulleys 39 and 41 in such a manner that an upper belt portion 43 is adjacent and registers with the slot 31. The pulley 39, adjacent an entrance end 45 of housing 11, is rotatably mounted on an axle 47 while the pulley 41 is fixedly mounted on a drive axle 49 which is rotatably held in apertures 51 in the sidewalls 15 of the housing 11.

The endless belt 37 is caused to continuously rotate so that its upper portion 43 moves in the direction of arrows 23 preferably by an electric motor 53 having a motor shaft 55 with an attached motor gear 57. This gear is meshed with a drive gear 59 carried by the axle 49 which is located adjacent the exit end 61 of the housing 11. The drive pulley 41 is preferably supplied with a soft tire 62 of a resilient material such as rubber. The tire may have a tread pattern for more efficient coupling to the belt 43 to avoid slipping.

In order to lessen speed changes of the belt with varying loads, a flywheel 63 may be mounted on the motor shaft 55 as shown in FIG. 2, or on the axle 49. Of course, where a powerful motor is used, no flywheel is needed. A motor housing 65 with a motor mount 67 is also provided which attaches to or is integral with the housing 11 and carries an on-off switch 69 connected in series with the motor 53 and its conventional power source such as batteries or an AC line cord, not shown.

The accelerator further includes an adjustable belt-raising arrangement having a displaceable bed plate 71 with a longitudinally grooved belt supporting surface 73. Although not essential for operation, the grooves in the surface 73 provide for high efficiency so that less power is needed to move the belt. The bed plate as well as the housings 11 and 65, may be fabricated by any conventional process from synthetic materials, but any suitable metal or wood could be used.

A lower-forward edge 77 of the bedplate 71 rides on a cam surface 79 of a cam block 81 molded as part of or attached to the housing 11, as best seen in FIG. 3. The aft portion of the bedplate 71, on the other hand, includes a hole 83 wherein a shaft 85 is movably disposed. The shaft 85 is attached to and eccentrically protrudes from a plug 87 which is rotatably held in an aperture 89 and an annular lip 91 in the sidewall 15. The rotatable plug 87 may be an integral part of or attached to an outer drum 93 having an arm 95 and handle 97. It also includes a groove 99 wherein an integral protrusion 101 extending therein from the sidewall 15 acts as a retainer clip to restrict axial and allow rotational movement of the assembly. It should be understood that the arm 95 and handle 97 are shown in FIG. 3 displaced above their actual location in order to more clearly illustrate the features of the invention.

The endless belt 37 is rotated about the pulleys by the action of the electric motor 53 and its associated gearing arrangement, previously described. Once the electric circuit to the motor is completed by the closing of the on-off switch 69, the belt moves continuously at a relatively constant rate of speed and the amount of acceleration imparted to any selected vehicle is governed by the position of the arm and handle arrangement. This eliminates the need for motor speed controls and intricate and unreliable trip mechanisms to actuate the accelerator.

In operation, a toy vehicle 21 moves along the track 29 in the direction 23 onto the roadway section 17 and over the elongated notch 31. With the arm 95 approximately perpendicular to the surface 17, the shaft 85 will be in the position indicated by the dashed outline 85' in FIG. 3, and accordingly, the bedplate 71 will be at its lowest position 71' and will not exert a lifting force on the upper belt portion 43 sufficient for the belt to contact the underside 103 of the vehicle 21. Thus, the toy 21 will not contact the continuously moving belt 37 with the handle and arm in this position.

However, as the arm is manually moved by an operator in the direction indicated by arrow 105, the bedplate is forced by the movement 107 of the eccentrically mounted shaft 85 to move in the direction of arrow 109 both to the right and upwardly, the lower forward edge 77 riding diagonally upward on the surface 79 of the block 81. This movement raises the upper belt portion 43 eventually into contact with the vehicle's underside 103. In this manner, the amount of the vehicle's weight shared by the belt and the roadway is varied--the higher the proportion of the vehicle's total weight supported by the belt, the greater will be the acceleration provided. Conversely, moving the arm 95 in the direction indicated by arrow 111 in FIG. 1 lowers the bedplate 71 and the upper belt portion 43 out of contact with passing vehicles and lessens the acceleration.

As mentioned above, the accelerating force applied to the toy may be chosen by an operator. The speed at which the vehicle leaves the accelerator will depend upon several factors among which are, (1 weight of vehicle, (2 ) speed of vehicle entering accelerator, (3 ) speed of belt, (4 ) coefficient of friction between outer belt surface and underside of vehicle, and (5 ) the amount of the vehicle's weight supported by the belt, which is determined by the position of the arm 95. Generally speaking, the higher the upper portion 43 of the belt is raised by positioning of the arm 95, the closer the speed of the vehicle leaving the accelerator will be to the speed of the endless belt 37. Accordingly, the speed of the vehicles may also be adjusted by changing the belt speed through use of a motor speed control (not shown), such as a rheostat in series with the source of electrical power of the motor 53.

The endless belt 37 may be fabricated from any suitable material having the necessary characteristics of flexibility and durability, such as nylon, mylar or cloth, for example. Also, the belt may include a more suitable adhesive outer surface 113 such as a polyester urethane foam layer or a nylon hooked or cut pile layer attached to a part thereof. What is now commonly referred to as "Velcro" may be utilized. Furthermore, a like adhesive surface may be provided at the underside 103 of the vehicles 21 in order to still further aid in the application of accelerating forces to the toys to be accelerated.

The accelerator may also be provided with means to maintain tension in the belt in order to, for example, compensate for stretching of the endless belt 37. This may be accomplished by mounting the axle 47 holding the entrance pulley 39 on a movable support structure 115, a vertical portion of which is seen in FIG. 3. The tension is provided by a spring 117 attached to the structure 115 and a block 119 at the entrance end 45 of the housing 11.

The rotational movement of the belt 37 about the end pulleys may also be provided by a purely mechanical motor 201 such as illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, for example. This eliminates the need of a readily available AC electric outlet, and in the case of a DC motor, the need for and cost of the replacement of batteries. The type of motor shown includes flywheel means so that the device may be operated for a relatively long period of time after it is started manually.

The motor 201 includes a gear sector 203 having an attached manually operated crank lever 205 and rotatably held in place in a frame 205 by frame bosses 207 holding a gear axle 209. The gear sector 203 drives a small-diameter gear 211 of the first cluster gear 213 which has an axle 215 captured in hollow elliptically shaped bosses 217 in the frame 205. A larger diameter gear 219 of the cluster gear 213 engages a smaller diameter gear 221 of a second cluster gear 223 rotatably supported by its axle 225 in the frame 215 by suitable bosses. The bosses 217 are oriented in such a manner that the small-diameter gear 211 meshes with the sector gear 203 regardless of the position of the axle 215 within the bosses 217 and so that the large-diameter gear 219 will only mesh with the small-diameter gear 221 when the shaft or axle 215 is moved to the upper ends of the bosses 217 by the action of the sector gear teeth engaging the teeth of the small-diameter gear 221, and will be moved to the lower end of the bosses 217 when the sector gear is rotated in a clockwise direction by a return spring 229. Thus, a larger diameter gear 231 of the second cluster gear 223 is free to rotate without interference from the gear 213 and the gear sector 203 during periods of inactivity of the crank lever 205.

The larger diameter gear 231 drives an intermediate gear 233 mounted on a shaft 235 also holding a flywheel arrangement 237. The intermediate gear 233 also drives an output gear 239 which in turn engages a drive gear 241 mounted on the end of the drive axle 49 to turn the pulley 41 and to move the belt 37. A more complete description of the mechanical motor 201 may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,286,395, assigned to the assignee of the present invention.

The materials used in the fabrication of the embodiments of the invention are not critical and any generally considered suitable material may be substituted for the particular materials described.

From the foregoing, it will be evident that the invention provides a new and useful toy which may be used to stably accelerate miniature unpowered toy vehicles moving along a track or roadway.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described in detail, other organizations of the embodiments shown may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. An endless belt toy accelerator for accelerating freely rolling toy vehicles along a roadway, comprising:

a housing including a section of said roadway and a lead-in track at one end and a lead-out track at the other end thereof; and

motivation means including a continuously moving endless belt arrangement associated with said section of said roadway for engaging the undersides and increasing the speed of toy vehicles between said lead-in track and said lead-out track.

2. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 1, wherein said motivation means also includes engagement means for only engaging desired ones of the vehicles.

3. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 2, wherein said engagement means includes speed-determining means for increasing the speed of the toy vehicles by a desired amount.

4. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 1, wherein said motivation means further includes electric motor means for driving said continuously moving endless belt arrangement.

5. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 1, wherein said motivation means further includes mechanical motor means including a flywheel for driving said continuously moving endless belt arrangement.

6. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 1, wherein two adjacent and parallel sections of said roadway with associated ones of said lead in and lead out track are included in said housing, and wherein one of said continuously moving endless belt arrangements is associated with each of said sections of said roadway.

7. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 6, wherein said motivation means also includes independent engagement means associated with each of said roadway sections for only engaging desired ones of said vehicles.

8. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 7, wherein each of said engagement means includes independent speed-determining means for increasing the speed of the toy vehicles by a desired amount.

9. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 6, wherein said motivation means further includes motor means operatively coupled to both of said continuously moving endless belt arrangements.

10. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 1, wherein said endless belt is nylon.

11. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 1, wherein said endless belt is mylar.

12. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 1, wherein said endless belt is cloth.

13. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 1, wherein said endless belt has a vehicle-gripping outer surface.

14. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 13, wherein said outer surface is nylon loop pile.

15. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 13, wherein said outer surface is nylon cut pile.

16. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 13, wherein said outer surface is polyester urethane foam.

17. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 13, further including a belt-gripping surface adapted to be applied to the underside of the toy vehicle.

18. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 17, wherein said gripping surface is nylon loop pile.

19. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 17, wherein said gripping surface is nylon cut pile.

20. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 17, wherein said gripping surface is polyester urethane foam.

21. An endless belt toy accelerator for accelerating unpowered toy vehicles along a roadway, comprising:

a housing including a section of said roadway, said section having an elongated open channel centrally disposed therealong;

motivation means including spaced end pulleys disposed in said housing below the surface of said roadway and including an endless belt supported by and between said pulleys, said belt having an upper portion adjacent and centered in said channel and movable with the rotation of said pulleys;

motor means operatively coupled to said motivation means for moving said upper portion of said belt in the direction of travel of the vehicles; and

engagement means operatively coupled to said motivation means for moving said upper portion of said belt upwardly through said channel portion and into contact with the underside of the vehicles.

22. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 21, wherein said engagement means includes speed-determining means for increasing the speed of the toy vehicles by a desired amount.

23. An endless belt toy accelerator according to claim 22, wherein said engagement means also includes a movable bedplate mounted in said housing, said bedplate being movable in a direction having a vertical component to contact and raise the underside of said upper portion of said belt.