Wheel assembly for an irrigation system

摘要

A wheel assembly for traversing a path along a ground surface having a layer of soil, the wheel assembly comprising a central support and an airless flexible covering mounted on the central support and having a plurality of rigid sections and a plurality of flexible sections. The outwardly protruding spokes urge the rigid sections into the layer of soil when the rigid sections contact the ground surface. The flexible sections include a set of traction lugs for gripping peaks of a corrugated pattern in the ground surface for improved traction.

主权项

1. An airless flexible covering configured to be mounted on a central support of a wheel assembly for traversing a path along a ground surface having a layer of soil, the airless flexible covering comprising:
an outer surface; an inner surface opposite the outer surface; a plurality of rigid sections each including an inwardly facing mounting boss on the inner surface for aligning with and engaging outwardly protruding spokes of the central support; a plurality of flexible sections for aligning with recesses of the central support; and a plurality of primary traction lugs and a plurality of secondary traction lugs disposed on the outer surface, each primary traction lug being configured to be substantially aligned with a center of one of the recesses, each secondary traction lug being spaced from the primary traction lugs and spaced from adjacent secondary traction lugs a greater distance than from the primary traction lugs, the rigid sections being configured to be urged into the layer of soil by the outwardly protruding spokes of the central support when the rigid sections contact the ground surface and the flexible sections being configured to flex inwardly towards the recesses when the flexible sections contact the ground surface so that the rigid sections and the flexible sections cooperatively form a corrugated track in the ground surface without urging the soil to side margins of the airless flexible covering, the corrugated track having a plurality of valleys formed by the rigid sections and a plurality of spaced peaks formed by the flexible sections, and the primary traction lugs and the secondary traction lugs being configured to grip the peaks when the flexible sections contact the ground surface.