US PATENT CLASS 188
Class Notes
Current as of: June, 1999
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DEFINITION
Classification: 188/
This class includes means for retarding the motion of or stopping machines, including vehicles, both rail and road, and shafts, wheels, pulleys, or other moving mechanisms, by friction, by positive engagement of elements, or by the internal resistance of a fluid or a field of force. Citations from other classes indicating the limits of this class will be found under the various subclass definitions.
LINES WITH OTHER CLASSES
Class 192 is the generic locus for clutches and brakes, and see the Class Definition of Class 192 for further discussion of clutches and brakes.
Vehicle shock-absorbers are included in this class unless of the type which flex or put stress upon a spring or springs. These latter are found in Class 267, Spring Devices.
REFERENCES TO OTHER CLASSES
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS
3, Artificial Body Members,
26, and 28 for knee joints equipped with brakes. 74, Machine Element or Mechanism,
813+, for indexing assemblies of general utility including means to prevent or hold against rotation, and appropriate subclasses, especially subclasses 640+ for brakes and/or clutches used to modify or control a gearing organization, where specific gearing structure is claimed.
92, Expansible Chamber Devices, appropriate subclasses for an expansible chamber device, and particularly
8+, for a means to control the flow of a nonworking arresting fluid for a working member, subclasses 15+ for a releasable stop or latch means to arrest the movement of a working member. For a statement of the line between Class 92 and Class 188, see References to Other Classes, in the Search Class note for Class 188, in the class definition of Class 92.
180, Motor Vehicles,
6.2+, for a motor vehicle which is steered by creating a difference between the driving effort developed by one or more traction elements located on one side of the vehicle and the driving effort developed by one or more traction elements located on the other side thereof (e.g., by braking the element or elements on one side); and subclass 197 for a motor vehicle which is provided with means for detecting wheel slip during vehicle acceleration and controlling it by reducing the power applied to the wheel, and see (1) Note thereof regarding the possible involvement, additionally, of a change in a braking condition.
182, Fire Escape, Ladder, or Scaffold,
5+, 72, 191, and 192 for brakes or retarders which engage a strand of a device of that class, and subclasses 75, 231, and 236+ for brakes or retarders associated with a winding reel of a supple escape.
242, Winding, Tensioning or Guiding,
243+, 285+, 381+, 382+, 385+, 396+, 419+, 421+, and 422+ for a brake in a winding, unwinding, or similar environment.
305, Wheel Substitutes for Land Vehicles,
9, for brakes combined with wheel substitutes. Class 305 takes the combination of a wheel substitute and a brake therefor if some wheel substitute structure is claimed. The mere nominal recitation of a wheel substitute in the claim is not sufficient wheel substitute structure to be classified in Class 305.
310, Electrical Generator or Motor Structure,
93, for brakes wherein the braking force is transmitted solely by means of an electromagnetic field between the brake and the braked elements.
318, Electricity: Motive Power Systems,
362+, for motor braking control. This class (318) takes braking arrangements for electric motors and includes friction braking, plugging, dynamic braking and magnetic braking.
475, Planetary Gear Transmission Systems or Components, for brakes and/or clutches used to modify a planetary gearing organization.
477, Interrelated Power Delivery Controls, Including Engine Control, for interrelated control between an engine and a transmission, clutch, or brake.