Sprag starters

Posted on December 30th, 2006 in Uncategorized by admin

A sprag is a one-way freewheel clutch used in a number of applications. It resembles a roller bearing with rollers shaped like a figure eight and cocked with a spring. When the unit rotates in one direction, the rollers stand up and bind because of oil friction, and when the unit is rotated in the opposite direction, the rollers slip or freewheel.

Sprag, when used as a verb, is a commonly used way of describing the way a tracked vehicle moves, i.e. to sprag left or to sprag across a construction site, (see also “to Track”). This use of Sprag is in common use in the UK Construction industry.

Contents


Applications


Automatic transmissions

A sprag clutch is used in some automatic transmissions as a method of allowing the transmission to smoothly change gears under load. Various models of general motors turbo-hydramatic gearbox have used this system.

The process of changing up gears involves preparing for the change by releasing a clutch that prevents the transmission from turning faster than the gear that it is currently in and engaging the sprag such that it is freewheeling. The gearchange occurs by engaging the higher gear through the sprag to change from freewheeling to driving. Once the sprag has engaged drive in the higher gear, a clutch is engaged to place the transmission in that gear without the need for the sprag, which is then disengaged. By engaging and disengaging the various clutch packs within the transmission, one sprag can be used for all gearchanges.

This can also be used exclusively in first gear (transmission shift lever in D, but auto valve body or management selecting 1st) on some autos. that way it will automatically provide forward drive, but will _not_ provide any engine braking. This is done not so much to avoid engine braking per se, but rather to allow a low throttle opening 2-1 downshift as a car decelerates, to avoid a loud (and potentially abrupt) and unnerving jolt as a result of the downshift. On transmissions so equipped, manual selection of 1st gear typically engages an additional band that grips the same section as the one way clutch would engage, and thus allows for engine braking (and conceptually possible use of first gear in the event of a sprag failure that somehow didn’t also either coincide with or cause other terminal damage to the transmission.


Helicopters

A sprag clutch is used in many helicopter designs to transfer power from the engine to the main rotor. In the event of an engine failure, the sprag allows the main rotor to continue rotating so that the helicopter can enter autorotation.


Motorcycle applications


Starters

A sprag is used in the electric starters of modern motorcycle engines to replace the “bendix” common to auto starters.


Primary drive

Many modern sport and racing bikes use sprags in the primary drive between the engine and transmission. This prevents the rear wheel from losing traction during rapid downshifts when the engine speed is not matched to road speed. If a sprag is not present, much greater care is required when downshifting because losing rear wheel traction can cause dangerous highside accidents.


Conveyors

On conveyor drives, a sprag clutch is used for indexing and anti-runback.


Overrunning

Overrunning occurs when two or more motors can be used to drive the same machine, including through the same shaft. A typical setup is as follows. The service drive, or prime mover, provides a combination of high speed and high power for normal operation. The secondary drive, or pony drive, can be run at low speed and low power, usually to position the conveyor for maintenance.

The overrunning clutch allows the secondary drive to remain stationary during normal high speed operation of the conveyor drive.


Indexing

An indexing motion provides for accuracy in the drive system. A link is installed between the prime mover and one race of the sprag clutch. The reciprocating motion of the prime mover is converted to an indexing movement on the other race of the sprag clutch.


Backstopping

Backstopping prevents a loaded inclined conveyor from running back when the drive system is stopped. The outer race of the sprag clutch is fixed to the machine frame, usually via a torque arm. The inner race rotates freely in the forward direction of the conveyor drive. When the machine tries to run backward, the sprag clutch prevents this motion. In this application the sprag clutch is often called a ‘’’backstop’’’ or ‘’holdback’’’.


Hoist Load Brake

Used as a secondary brake to prevent industrial hoists from catastrophically dropping their loads in the event of mechanical failure.


Lubrication

Sprag clutches may be oil or grease lubricated. Most sprag clutch manufacturers do not allow the use of lubricants containing extreme pressure additives.


See also

  • Freewheel
  • Slipper clutch

Word ladder start

Posted on December 30th, 2006 in Uncategorized by admin

Word Ladder is a word game invented by Lewis Carroll, the author of books such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. It was originally known as a “doublet” or “word-links“.

Contents


Rules

The player is given a start word and an end word. In order to win the game, the player must change the start word into the end word progressively, creating an existing word at each step. To do so, the player can do one of the following on each step.

  • Add a letter
  • Remove a letter
  • Change a letter
  • Use the same letters in different order (an anagram)


Example

In this example, the player is given the start word peaks and the end word roman.

peaks
speak     (different letter order)
peak      (removed a letter)
peat      (changed a letter)
meat      (changed a letter)
mat       (removed a letter)
man       (changed a letter)
mane      (added a letter)
mine      (changed a letter)
miner     (added a letter)
minor     (changed a letter)
manor     (changed a letter)
roman     (different letter order)


Process

Usually, the best and quickest way to change one word into another is to simplify the start word into a three-letter word (there are many in the English language), change that three-letter word into a word that suits the needs of the player and then build on it until the end word is achieved.


Others

Generally, some scoring system is used to favour few-word transitions over many-word transitions, so a word ladder with fewer words gets more points than one with a lot of them, provided they have the same start and end words.

Some other versions of the games only allow letters to be changed (that is, no adding or removing letters or changing letter order—this version has been called word golf) or demand that the end word has some kind of relationship with the start word (synonymous, antonymous, semantic…). This was also the way the game was originally devised by Lewis Carroll when it first appeared in Vanity Fair. <ref>[1] Gutenberg project article</ref>


Notes

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External links

America at 10 mph scooter

Posted on December 30th, 2006 in Uncategorized by admin

America at 10 mph is a documentary film directed by Hunter Weeks and starring Josh Caldwell with his Segway HT, the two-wheeled electronic scooter. This film records his 101-day, coast to coast journey across the United States riding the 10 mph “Human Transporter”. The trip started in Seattle, Washington on August 8, 2004 and ended in Boston, Massachusetts on November 18, 2004.


External links

  • The official website
  • DVD Talk Review of “10 MPH”

Start start

Posted on December 29th, 2006 in Uncategorized by admin

Start can refer to multiple topics:

  • Takeoff, the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground to flying through the air
  • Start signal, in telecommunications
  • Start date, in filmmaking
  • Start Button and Start Menu, elements in the Windows GUI
  • Start, Louisiana, a town
  • I.K. Start, a Norwegian football club from the town of Kristiansand
  • Start (newspaper), a daily tabloid published in Serbia
  • START I, strategic arms reduction treaty
    • START II
  • START-1, a Russian launch vehicle
  • Simple triage and rapid treatment
  • Small Tight Aspect Ratio Tokamak, a nuclear fusion experiment
  • START natural language system, SynTactic Analysis using Reversible Transformations
  • Start (cereal), Popular breakfast cereal produced by Kelloggs since 1980s. (UK Mainly)
  • START Windows DOS commandline command

In music:

  • theSTART, an American punk rock band
  • Start (Bada album), a single album by Korean singer Bada
  • START (album), an album by Stefanie Sun


See also

  • Starting line, disambiguation page
  • Start Point, disambiguation page
  • Start-up, disambiguation page

Western Scheldt moped

Posted on December 27th, 2006 in Uncategorized by admin

The Western Scheldt (Westerschelde) in the province Zeeland in the southwestern Netherlands, is the estuary of the Scheldt river. This river once had several estuaries, but the others are disconnected from the Scheldt, leaving the Westerschelde as it’s only direct way to the sea. It is an important shipping route to the Port of Antwerp, Flanders. Therefore, unlike the other sea arms, it is not closed by a dam as part of the Delta Works. Instead, the dykes around it have been heightened and reinforced.

Many ships have sunk in the Western Scheldt. Following an agreement between the Netherlands and Flanders governments in 1995, many of these wrecks have been removed to improve shipping access to Antwerp. It was expected that the last 38 wrecks in the shipping channel would be removed during 2003. The largest wreck was the 131 metre long Alan A. Dale which was removed during June 2003.


Western Scheldt Tunnel

Mid-March 2003, a 6.6 km tunnel under the Western Scheldt was opened, the Western Scheldt Tunnel, from Ellewoutsdijk (mun. Borsele) in Zuid-Beveland to Terneuzen in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. It is the longest road traffic tunnel of the Netherlands. The toll fee is €4.50 (2007) for cars and motorcycles. Motorcyclists have protested against the fact that their fee is the same as for cars. Payment is at the Tolplein on the north bank, for both directions.

The tunnel is not accessible for pedestrians, cyclists or moped riders; however, there are bus services, and upon request (one hour in advance) bicycles and mopeds can be transported in the bus and a trailer, respectively. New public transport nodes are Tolplein (mun. Borsele) on the north bank and Terneuzen Busstation on the south bank. Bus services through these nodes are:

  • Bus 20: Goes-Tolplein-Terneuzen Busstation-Sluiskil-Sas van Gent-Zelzate (Flanders)
  • Bus 50: between Middelburg and Hulst

Bus passengers do not have to pay a supplement over the regular bus tariff.


Ferry

The ferry between Flushing and Breskens, formerly a car ferry, is now accessible for pedestrians and cyclists only. It is now operated by BBA Fast Ferries Zeeland, part of Connex. First with the existing ships, but as of 2 May 2004 with two “small waterplane area twinhulls” (swaths, similar to catamarans), built at the Royal Schelde Group in Flushing, and named “Prins Willem Alexander” and “Prinses Máxima”.

The ferry Kruiningen-Perkpolder has been discontinued.


External links

  • Ferry
  • Tunnel
  • Ferry and Tunnel (in Dutch, pdf, 1MB)

Three wheeler the cheap two-wheelers

Posted on December 26th, 2006 in Uncategorized by admin

A three wheeler is a vehicle with three wheels, either “human or people-powered vehicles” (HPV or PPV or velomobiles) or motorized vehicles in the form of a motorcycle, ATV or automobile. Other names for three-wheelers include Trikes, Tricars and Cyclecars. The term Tricycle is used somewhat interchangeably, but the term three-wheeler is more often applied to motor vehicles.

Many three-wheelers which exist in the form of motorcycle-based machines are often called trikes and often have the front single wheel and mechanics similar to that of a motorcycle and the rear axle similar to that of a car. Often such vehicles are owner–constructed using a portion of a rear–engine, rear–drive Volkswagen “Beetle” in combination with a motorcycle front end. Other trikes include “All Terrain Vehicles” (ATV) that are specially constructed for off road use. Three-wheeled automobiles can have either one wheel at the back and two at the front, (for example: Morgan Motor Company) or one wheel at the front and two at the back (for example: Reliant).

Three-wheeler cars, usually microcars, are often built for economy reasons, or as was the case in the UK, to take advantage of tax advantages, or as in the US to take advantage of the lower safety regulations, they are being classed as motorcycles. As a result of their light construction and often relaxed pollution reqirements, leading to higher efficiency, three-wheeled cars are usually very economical to run.

A company ZAP manufactures an electric three wheeled all electric car known as the Xebra


Safety

When the single wheel is in the front (the “delta” form, as in a child’s pedal tricycle), the vehicle is inherently unstable in a braking turn, as the combined tipping forces at the center of gravity from turning and braking can
rapidly extend beyond the triangle formed by the contact patches of the wheels. This type, if not tipped, also has a greater tendency to spin out (”swap ends”) when handled roughly. As with any vehicle, it is only as safe as the rider.

With two wheels in the front (the “tadpole” form) the vehicle is far more stable in braking turns, but remains more prone to overturning in normal turns compared to an equivalent four–wheeled
vehicle.

Due to the incidence of injuries related to their use, a 10-year ban was placed on the sale of new three-wheeled ATVs in the United States in January of 1988.


See also

  • Auto rickshaw
  • Bubble car
  • Goliath
  • Microcar
  • Reliant Robin
  • Tricycle
  • Tri-Magnum
  • T-Rex (automobile)
  • Volkswagen GX3
  • Corbin Sparrow
  • CityEl
  • Three wheeled car
  • Tilting three wheeler
  • Velomobile
  • Xebra


External links

  • All about 3-wheeled ATVs
  • Online A-Z of 3-wheeled cars
  • Article on three-wheeled ATV safety from The American Academy of Pediatrics
  • Gallery of Japan three-wheelers
  • Pictures, videos and information about 15 green three-wheelers
  • Theory and Practice of Three Wheel design. (English & Français)
  • Photo catalog of past and present three wheel motor vehicles. (street driven)
  • “Three Wheel Cars; Primary Factors that Determine Handling & Rollover Characteristics” at Robert Q. Riley’s website.

Chip race to be smaller and

Posted on December 25th, 2006 in Uncategorized by admin

A chip race is an event that takes place in poker tournaments, especially those with an escalating blinds (such as Texas hold ‘em), in which chips of denominations that are no longer needed (as the current and upcoming blinds are more easily played with larger chip values) are removed from play. This has the effect of reducing the number of physical chips in front of any player, and makes it easier for the players to count their stacks and their bets.

In a typical chip race:

  1. All players color up their lesser-valued chips into greater denominations. For example, if the blinds have increased to a level where $5 chips are no longer needed to post blinds, each five $5 chips will be exchanged for a $25 chip. Players will temporarily keep any leftover chips that cannot be fully colored up to larger chips (less than 5 $5 chips in the above example).
  2. All leftover chips are counted, and equivalent chips in the larger denomination are presented to the table. Continuing the example, if there are 15 $5 chips remaining among 6 players, 3 $25 chips are prepared. In the event the remaining smaller chips do not add up to a whole larger chip, an extra larger chip should be added as long as the leftover smaller chips total more than half a single larger chip.
  3. Each player with leftover chips in the smaller denomination will receive one card for each chip. The cards are typically dealt face up, starting from seat one, to the dealer’s left. Each player due to receive cards will receive all of his cards before the next player, rather than a “traditional” card deal; the player on the little blind, for example, who is due to receive three cards for his three chips, will receive all three of his cards before the big blind receives any.
  4. The larger chips are issued to the players with the highest single cards showing (poker hands do not count). No player is issued more than one chip. Ties (cards of the same rank) are broken by suit, using the same bridge (ascending alphabetical) order of the suits: Spades are highest, followed by Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs. All remaining lesser-value chips are removed from play.

A chip race cannot eliminate a player from the game. In the event a player’s last smaller-denomination chips are removed from play as part of the chip race, he automatically gets one colored up chip if one is available. Any leftover colored up chips go to the winner(s) of the chip race as described above.

Wellie wanging boot

Posted on December 25th, 2006 in Uncategorized by admin

Wellie wanging, or wellie throwing, is a sport that originated in Britain, most likely in the county of Yorkshire. Competitors are required to hurl a Wellington boot as far as possible within boundary lines, from a standing or running start. A variation requires participants to launch the wellie from the end of their foot as if they were kicking off a pair of shoes.

Note that the word wellie is also often spelt as welly.

The New Zealand and Finnish equivalent is gumboot throwing. The town of Taihape, on the Rangitikei River, styles itself the world gumboot-throwing capital, while Finland hosts a yearly Boot-Throwing World Championship.


See also

  • Shoe flinging


External links

  • BBC Article on mechanical “welly wanger”

Start Lublin start

Posted on December 24th, 2006 in Uncategorized by admin

Start Lublin is a Polish basketball team, based in Lublin, playing in Era Basket Liga.

Contents


2003/2004 season

Start Lublin has won 12th place in Era Basket Liga


2004/2005 season

The team will be dropped from EBL next season.


Best achievements

to be written yet


Team history

to be written yet

Cossack motorcycle some motorcycles produced that

Posted on December 23rd, 2006 in Uncategorized by admin

The term Cossack motorcycle can apply to any number of motorcycles, made in the former Soviet Union, a reference to the semi-nomadic mounted Cossacks who lived in Eastern Europe. Some are derived from the design of the 1938 BMW R71 sidecar motorcycle. Examples include the Ural or the Ukrainian Dnepr.

Cossack was also the brand name applied to all Soviet motorcycles distributed by SATRA, (originally located in Surrey, later moving to Carnaby,) from 1973 to 1979, and used by the Australian importer, Capitol Motors until May 1976 when their motorcycle division shut down. These included the flat twins, but also smaller capacity machines, like the Voskhod 175 cc which was rebadged as a “Cossack”. Ural, Dnepr, IZh, Voskhod and Minsk were some of the former Soviet Union manufacturers whose bikes were imported and rebadged. <ref>[1]RussianMotorcycles Cossack Motorcycles (Retrieved 30 November 2006)</ref>


References

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External Links

  • http://www.cossackownersclub.co.uk/cossack_tradenamed_bikes.pdf
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