| 摘要 |
An apparatus for cutting highway rumble strips comprises a vehicle that includes a supporting framework, e.g., a framework formed from steel channels welded together and having four ground-engaging wheels, one mounted at each corner of the framework for supporting the vehicle and allowing it to move freely under its own power or to be towed down the highway. A cutter, e.g., a cutting head or cutting wheel with carbide steel cutting teeth, is supported on the framework for producing a series of spaced apart transverse cuts in the pavement as the vehicle travels, usually at a uniform speed along the shoulder of the highway. The cutter can be a toothed wheel that is rotated on an axis at its center by a drive motor, engine, or other prime mover. Connected to the cutter is a mechanism for periodically imparting retrograde motion to the cutter relative to the framework to enable the cutter to temporarily discontinue its forward movement relative to the highway as each cut is made such that the cutter moves bodily relative to the vehicle at substantially the same speed that the vehicle moves on the highway but in the opposite direction. This enables the vehicle as a whole to move much more rapidly down the road without jeopardizing the quality of the cuts being produced. In addition, it enables a cutting wheel of a given size to produce a smaller, more effective and more well defined cut in the pavement than would be produced by an ordinary rumble strip cutter provided with a similar cutting wheel.
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