Flip-Flop

By the time John F. Kopczynski graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology ten years ago, he was thinking seriously about wheels. Why, he asked himself, should they always be round? Maybe oval wheels would do some jobs better. Last week, Kopczynski (now 31 and president of Buffalo's Pivot Punch and Die Corp.) displayed a set of something he calls "Walk Wheels." They are oval in shape and can flip-flop through mud or sand that would founder conventional round wheels.

The oval wheels are hitched together in pairs, two of them replacing each drive wheel of a vehicle. Between their hubs is a longitudinal bar. The real axle is pivoted on the bar's center. The wheels are geared together in such a way that one of them is always on end when the other is on its side. As the wheels revolve, the bar moves like a seesaw. Its center, carrying the axle, does not move up or down, so the vehicle can ride as smoothly as if it had round wheels.

Obvious advantage of the oval wheels: they do not spin themselves into the mud, as round wheels do. They are "geared to the mud": the pointed ends dig into it while the flat sides, whose curvature is like that of a much larger round wheel, support the weight of the vehicle. Inventor Kopczynski says his experimental unit has about twice as much pulling power as if its wheels were round.

At least twelve traction-machinery companies have shown interest in walk wheels, and a U.S. Army engineer has recommended them for further testing. Last week Inventor Kopczynski left for England to discuss his wheels with British manufacturers.

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