Patent Application
20160024920
Degradation picks are known to be used in such fields as road milling, mining and trenching to engage and degrade tough materials such as asphalt, concrete and rock. Such degradation picks may be secured to an exterior of a movable support such as a rotatable drum or continuous chain so as to be repeatedly brought into contact with a surface of a material to be degraded. Each degradation pick may comprise a hardened tip disposed on a distal end thereof and designed for repeated impact with a tough material. Such repeated impact may break up the tough material into aggregate pieces. To secure such degradation picks to the movable support, a generally cylindrical shank opposite the hardened tip may be disposed within a bore within a block that is rigidly fixed to the movable support.
As this repeated contact may cause significant wear, it may be desirable to increase the number of degradation picks in an operation to reduce the wear on each individual degradation pick and, consequently, extend its functional life. It may be especially desirable to position additional degradation picks in strategic locations around the movable support where wear is likely to occur. For example, the edge of a rotatable drum when viewed along a rotational axis thereof may engage tough materials not only around a perimeter of the drum but also beyond the edge of the drum. In such cases, it may be desirable to position additional degradation picks proximate the edge of the drum to engage this additional material. Traditional blocks, however, comprise a given footprint requiring a certain amount of space on the exterior surface of the movable support thus limiting the tightness of any degradation pick placement.
For example, degradation picks may be disposed proximate an edge of a rotatable drum by attaching a ring to an end of the drum to hold additional degradation pick blocks. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,190 to Hoffmann describes a mining auger which is used in the underground mining of coal comprising an end ring along its outer periphery. A plurality of tool holders is provided along a free edge of the end ring. The longitudinal axis of each tool holder coincides with the longitudinal axis of each cutting tool bit arranged in the respective tool holder.
By way of another example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,475 to Best et al. describes a cutting drum for an extracting machine assembled of a base body having a frustoconical configuration and an end ring which is detachably mounted to a major end face of the base body. The end ring is provided along its periphery with a plurality of tool holders for accommodating picks.
Despite these advancements in the art, the need for even tighter formations of degradation picks than those possible by arranging tool holders around the periphery of an end ring is still desirable.
In such fields as road milling, mining and trenching it is often desirable to engage and degrade tough materials such as asphalt, concrete and rock. To do so, degradation picks comprising hardened distal tips may be secured to an exterior of a movable support such as a rotatable drum or continuous chain so as to be repeatedly brought into contact with a material to be degraded. To secure such degradation picks to the movable support, a block comprising a body with a base surface rigidly attachable to a movable support is disclosed. A first receptacle with a first central axis may be disposed on an external surface of the body and formed to receive a first removable degradation pick. A second receptacle with a second central axis may also be disposed on the external surface and formed to receive a second removable degradation pick where the first and second central axes are nonparallel.
The block body may comprise a sagittal plane passing from a posterior end to an anterior end thereof such that it separates the body into two sides. The first receptacle may be disposed proximate the posterior end and comprise a central axis falling substantially on the sagittal plane while the second receptacle sits proximate the anterior end with a central axis extending away from the sagittal plane.
When degradation picks are disposed within the first and second receptacles a distal tip of one of the degradation picks may extend beyond a footprint of the body's base surface while a distal tip of the other degradation pick lies within the footprint. Additionally, when the body is rigidly attached to a movable support, one of the distal tips may extend beyond an edge of the movable support while the other distal tip lies within the edge.
The receptacles of the block body may provide access to proximal ends of the degradation picks such that they may be forced from the receptacles from the rear. Furthermore, the base surface of the body may be shaped such that access to the proximal ends is available even when the body is attached to a movable support.
A rotatable drum or continuous chain may form the movable support to which the block body may be attached. In embodiments where a rotatable drum is employed, the block body may be rigidly attached proximate an edge of the rotatable drum when viewed along a rotational axis thereof. An end ring may also be disposed proximate the edge with the block body rigidly attached to the end ring. Such a rotatable drum may have a number of degradation picks arranged thereon in a helical pattern where the receptacles of the block body continue the helical pattern.
In some embodiments, the block body may be formed of a unitary mass. Furthermore, in certain situations, the receptacles may be integrally formed of the unitary mass comprising a bore hole formed in the unitary mass and a supporting structure encompassing each bore hole.
In various embodiments, the block body may further comprise additional receptacles. Such receptacles may all have nonparallel central axes. A central axis of at least one of the receptacles may extend away from a sagittal plane passing through the body on one side while a central axis of another extends away on an opposite side.
A plurality of degradation picks 110 may be secured to an exterior of the rotatable drum 190. As the rotatable drum 190 is rotated the degradation picks 110 may be repeatedly brought into contact with a surface of a material 105 to be degraded. Such repeated impact may break up the material 105 into aggregate pieces 106 that may be removed. While the embodiment shown depicts a rotatable drum 190 as part of a mining operation it should be understood that the present invention may also comprise degradation picks secured to a continuous chain to engage various materials as the chain is set in motion.
Adjacent an edge 292 of the rotatable drum 290 the degradation picks 210 may experience wear from both material normal to the rotatable drum 290 as well as beyond the edge 292 of the drum when viewed from along a rotational axis thereof. For this reason, or for a variety of others, it may be desirable to increase the number of degradation picks 210 adjacent this edge 292 or in other parts of the rotatable drum 290. This may reduce the wear experienced by each individual degradation pick and, consequently, extend its functional life.
An end ring 415 may be secured adjacent an edge 492 of the body 491. At least one high capacity block 485 may be attached to the end ring 415. The high capacity block 485 may comprise at least two receptacles capable of receiving degradation picks 410. This may allow for additional degradation picks 410 to be placed in a strategic location on the rotatable drum 490 while occupying a reduced footprint. Furthermore, the degradation picks 410 disposed in the high capacity block 485 may continue the helical pattern set by the helical flanges 470 thus aiding the channeling away of aggregate pieces of material. While the present embodiment depicts high capacity blocks on an end ring 415, other embodiments may comprise high capacity blocks disposed in a variety of locations or patterns.
A first degradation pick 520, 620 and a second degradation pick 521, 621 may be removably secured to the first receptacle 530, 630 and second receptacle 531, 631, respectively. As can be seen in the embodiments shown in
As seen in
As seen in
The first and second receptacles 730, 731 may be arranged such that a first central 732 axis of the first receptacle 730 may be nonparallel with a second central axis 733 of the second receptacle 731. Rather than aligning degradation picks along a single plane with each subsequent pick at a greater radial distance from a rotatable drum as described in the prior art, the configuration shown in the embodiment of
Additionally, this configuration may allow picks to impact a formation at distinct points to more fully distribute forces among the plurality of picks. A cutting width of the drum may also be increased as a result.
Whereas the present invention has been described in particular relation to the drawings attached hereto, it should be understood that other and further modifications apart from those shown or suggested herein, may be made within the scope and spirit of the present invention.
This patent application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Pat. App. No. 62/029,249 entitled “Block Capable of Supporting Multiple Attack Tools” and filed Jul. 25, 2014, which is incorporated herein by reference for all that it contains.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62029249 | Jul 2014 | US |
