Caterpillar track

Caterpillar tracks are large (modular) tracks used on tanks, construction equipment and certain other off-road vehicles. Unlike the rubber-made Kegresse tracks used on snowmobiles, the Caterpillar tracks are made of metal or some rigid material. The tracks help the vehicle to distribute its weight more evenly over a larger surface area than wheels can, keeping it from sinking in areas where wheeled vehicles of the same weight would sink. For instance, the ground pressure of a car is equal to the pressure of the air in the tires, perhaps 30 PSI (207 kPa), whereas the seventy-tonne M1 Abrams tank has a ground pressure of just over 15 PSI (103 kPa).

History

A crude caterpillar track was designed in 1770 by Richard Edgeworth, and steam powered tractors using a form of caterpillar track were reported in use during the Crimean War.

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An effective caterpillar track was invented and implemented by Alvin Lombard, for the Lombard steam log hauler. He was granted a patent in 1901. He built the first steam powered log hauler at the Waterville Iron Works in Waterville, Maine the same year. In all, eighty-three Lombard steam log haulers were built. In 1903, the founder of the Holt Manufacturing, Benjamin Holt, paid Lombard $60,000 so they could produce vehicles under his patent.

Related Topics:
Alvin Lombard - Benjamin Holt

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At about the same time a British agricultural company Hornsby based in Grantham, UK developed and patented a caterpillar track in 1905. The design differed from modern tracks in that it flexed in only one direction, and the links locked together to form a solid rail on which the road wheels ran. Hornsby's tracked vehicles were used as artillery tractors by the British Army from 1906. Their patent was also purchased by Holt.

Related Topics:
Hornsby - Grantham - UK - 1905 - British Army

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Following a merger and name change, The Holt Manufacturing Company became the Caterpillar Tractor Company in 1925. Caterpillar tracks have since revolutionized construction vehicles and land warfare. Track systems have been developed and improved during the years. The first tanks to be fielded were developed from Holt tractors which were already in use towing artillery over the difficult terrain of the Western Front of the First World War.

Related Topics:
Caterpillar Tractor Company - 1925 - Warfare - First World War

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Perhaps the oldest implementation of something like tracks is to be found in theories of prehistoric erection of large stone monuments, when megaliths may have been slid atop rounded wooden logs. The logs are carried from the back of the procession to the front in an endless chain, like caterpillar track. Attempts by experimental archaeologists to reconstruct these methods have met with varying success. The system is a pre-cursor to development of the axle which keep a rotating cylinder fixed to its cargo.

Related Topics:
Prehistoric - Megalith - Experimental archaeologists

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George Cayley in the early 1800s invented a precursor to modern Caterpillar tractor, which he called the "Universal Railway".

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The Israeli Defence Forces have developed an improved suspension system, called Mazkum ????"? (or ????? for short), which enables greater mobility than regular tracks. The Mazkum is installed on the Israeli Merkava tank which helps improve mobility and speed, some of the Israeli patents were sold to Caterpillar Tractor.

Related Topics:
Israeli Defence Forces - Merkava

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