Patent Application
20170313526
The disclosure relates to drive shaft engagement devices and more particularly pertains to a new drive shaft engagement device for engaging a drive shaft of a motor with a drive shaft of a bin sweep.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a housing having a first wall, a second wall and a perimeter wall attached to and extending between the first and second walls to define an interior space bounded by the first, second and perimeter walls. The housing has a first end, a second end, a first lateral side and a second lateral side. The housing has a first aperture therein extending through the first and second walls adjacent to the first end and a second aperture therein extending through the first and second walls adjacent to the second end. The first aperture is configured for receiving a motor drive shaft and the second aperture is configured for receiving a sweep drive shaft. A pair of sprocket hubs each is rotatably mounted in the housing. One of the sprocket hubs is aligned with the first aperture and another one of the sprocket hubs is aligned the second aperture. Each of the sprocket hubs includes an outer face facing away from the second wall, wherein the second wall faces a bin sweep when the housing is engaged with the sweep drive shaft. The outer face of each of the sprocket hubs includes a plurality of slots therein. Each of the slots is arcuate along a circle extending around a centrally located hole in the sprocket hubs. The centrally located hole is configured to receive the motor drive shaft or the sweep drive shaft. A pair of drive hubs each has an opening extending therethrough. Each of the openings in the drive hubs has a geometric shape comprising a non-round shape configured for engaging one of the motor or sweep drive shafts. Each of the drive hubs has an inner surface facing the second wall. The inner surfaces each have a plurality of pins thereon each is extendable into one of the slots such that each of the sprocket hubs is engaged by one of the drive hubs. A continuous belt is positioned on and engages the pair of sprocket hubs. Each of the slots has a length to allow limited rotation of the sprocket hubs with respect to the drive hubs.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
The assembly 10 includes a housing 26 having a first wall 27, a second wall 28 and a perimeter wall 29 that is attached to and extends between the first 27 and second 28 walls to define an interior space bounded by the first 27, second 28 and perimeter 29 walls. The housing 26 has a first end 31, a second end 32, a first lateral side 33 and a second lateral side 34. The housing 26 has a first aperture 35 therein extending through the first 27 and second 28 walls adjacent to the first end 31 and a second aperture 36 therein extending through the first 27 and second 28 walls adjacent to the second end 32. As will be understood from the Figures, the first 35 and second 36 apertures may only extend through the second wall 27. The first aperture 35 is configured for receiving the motor drive shaft 20 and the second aperture 36 is configured for receiving the sweep drive shaft 22. The housing 26 may be formed into two sections, each section including one of the first 27 and second 28 walls, held together by fasteners as shown in
A pair of sprocket hubs 40 is each rotatably mounted in the housing 26. One of the sprocket hubs 40 is aligned with the first aperture 35 and another one of the sprocket hubs 40 is aligned the second aperture 36. The sprocket hubs 40 may extend into bearing holders 41 placed in the first 35 and second 36 apertures in the second wall 28. Bearings 42 may be positioned between the sprocket hubs 40 and the bearing holders 41 to facilitate rotation of the sprocket hubs 40 relative to the housing 26. A belt 44 is positioned in the housing 26 and extends around the sprocket hubs 40. The belt 44 is continuous and may comprise a chain engaging teeth 45 on the sprocket hubs 40. Each of the sprocket hubs 40 includes an outer face 46 facing away from the second wall 28, wherein the second wall 28 faces the bin sweep 16 when the housing 26 is engaged with the sweep drive shaft 22. The outer face 46 of each of the sprocket hubs 40 includes a plurality of slots 47 therein, though a single slot 47 may be utilized. Each of the slots 47 is arcuate along a circle extending around a centrally located hole 48 in the sprocket hubs 40. The centrally located hole 48 receives the motor drive shaft 20 or the sweep drive shaft 22, depending on the location of the sprocket hub 40.
A pair of drive hubs 50 is provided and each of the drive hubs 50 has an opening 51 extending therethrough. Each of the openings 51 in the drive hubs 50 has a geometric shape, comprising a plurality of planar surfaces 52, which corresponds to a head 24 of one of the motor drive shaft 20 or the sweep drive shaft 22 and therefore is configured for engaging the heads 24 of the drive shafts 20, 24. The geometric shape generally is comprised of the planar surfaces 52 each having a same size and being positioned such that all angles between adjacent planar surfaces 52 are equal. As such, the geometric shape will typically comprise a triangle, a square, a pentagon, a hexagon, an octagon, other non round shapes or the like. As stated above, splined and key ends may also be utilized. Each of the drive hubs 50 has an inner surface 53 facing the second wall 28. The inner surfaces 53 each have a plurality of pins 54 thereon which correspond to and are extendable into one of the slots 47 such that each of the sprocket hubs 40 is engaged by one of the drive hubs 50. The number of pins 54 may be one pin 54 and up to four pins 54, though at least two pins 54 may be preferred.
In order to allow freedom of the drive hubs 50 to slightly, but freely rotate with respect to the sprocket hubs 40 and therefore accommodate the drive shafts 20, 22 being rotationally misaligned with each other, each of the slots 47 is elongated. The length of the slots 47 is at least equal to 360°/x wherein x is the number of planar surfaces 52 in one of the openings 51. Thus, if the head 24 and the planar surfaces 52 form a hexagon, x is equal to six and length of the slot(s) 47 would be such to allow the drive hubs 50 to freely rotate independently of the sprocket hubs 40 at least 60°. This freedom of rotational movement, or indexing, will generally never be more than 10% greater than 360°/x, or 1.1(360°/x). It should be understood that the freedom of movement may be less than 20° if the shafts 20, 22 have splined ends. In general, the freedom of movement is required to be greater than a single indexing of one of the drive shafts 20, 22 as the drive hubs 50 themselves will be indexed. For this reason, it should further be contemplated that only one of the drive hubs 50 needs to rotate with respect to its associated sprocket hub 40. However, utilizing a pair of drive hubs 50 each being rotatably engaged to a sprocket hub 40 will facilitate the expeditious mounting of the drive hubs 50 to the drive shafts 20, 22.
As can be seen in
To facilitate removal of the motor 14 from the bin sweep 16, the motor 14, as previously stated may be mounted on a sled 18 which engages rails 70 mounted on the bin sweep 16. The rails 70 may comprise elongated tubes or shafts spaced from each other and oriented parallel to each other. The rails 70 are vertically positioned above a housing of the bin sweep 16 and the sled 18 includes a plurality of wheels 71 which are rolled upon the rails 70 during the movement of the sled 18 towards or away from the sweep drive shaft 22. Stops 72 may be provided which engage the rails 70 and the sled 18 to prevent movement of the sled 18 relative to the rails 70. More particularly, the stops 72 may include a lower section 73 which are abuttable against a lower surface of the rails 70 and an upper section 74 abuttable on an upper surface of the sled 18. The upper surface of the sled 18 may include a bracket 75 for receiving the stop 72. The upper 73 and lower 74 sections are movable towards each other to urge the upper surface, or bracket 75, towards the rails 70. This will prevent both lateral and vertical movement of the sled 18 relative to the rails 70. A saddle 76 is formed on the sled 18 for receiving the motor 14 and retaining the motor 14 in a static position relative to the sled 18.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
