Hinge elements, particularly for rope shovels for mining.
In rope shovels, a bucket is hingedly connected to a bucket handle and separately hingedly connected to a receiver for a hoist rope. These connections cooperate to move and support the bucket. The hinged connection between the bucket and the receiver for the hoist rope conventionally comprises a lug attached to the bucket, and an element referred to herein as a padlock which connects to the receiver for the hoist rope, the padlock having two lugs, one on each side of the lug of the bucket. A pin, referred to herein as a padlock pin, is inserted through the lugs to form a hinge. The pin may also be referred to as a bail pin and for the purposes of this disclosure and the claims these terms should be considered interchangeable and the use of a particular term should not be considered to be limiting. This hinge is exposed to a great deal of force during normal use of the rope shovel. Conventionally, to provide bearing surfaces for the pin, bushings are provided within the lugs. In the conventional design, the pin can rotate with respect to the bucket and the associated bushing (main lug bushing), causing wear due to the rotational friction of the pin with the bushing.
There is provided a retainer for a padlock pin, the padlock pin being adapted to connect a padlock to a lug of a bucket of a rope shovel, the retainer having a pin attachment portion adapted to rigidly attach to the padlock pin, and an arm portion adapted to connect to a connecting element attached to the bucket to restrain rotation of the padlock pin relative to the bucket.
In various embodiments, there may be included any one or more of the following features: the retainer may be adapted to be attached to an end of the padlock pin, the retainer may be adapted to be welded to the padlock pin, the connecting element may be a pair of stops configured to restrain the padlock pin arm between the stops of the pair, and the arm portion may extend perpendicular to an axis defined by the padlock pin when the retainer is attached to the padlock pin.
There is provided a padlock pin adapted to connect a padlock to a lug of a bucket of a rope shovel, the padlock pin comprising a pin portion, and an arm portion rigidly attached to the pin portion, the arm portion adapted to connect to a connecting element attached to the bucket to restrain rotation of the padlock pin relative to the bucket. In various embodiments, there may be included any one or more of the following features: the arm portion may be attached to an end of the pin portion, the arm portion may be welded to the pin portion, the connecting element may be a pair of stops configured to restrain the arm portion between the stops of the pair, and the arm portion may extend perpendicular to an axis defined by the padlock pin.
These and other aspects of the device and method are set out in the claims, which are incorporated here by reference.
Embodiments will now be described with reference to the figures, in which like reference characters denote like elements, by way of example, and in which:
The embodiments shown here are shown in the context of the bucket of a Bucyrus™ 495 rope shovel, but the invention is not limited to any particular variety of rope shovel and could also be applied to hinges in contexts other than rope shovels.
The novel aspects of
The retainer arm restrains rotation of the padlock pin relative to the bucket. In this embodiment, the connecting element is a pair of stops that restrains the retainer arm between the stops. The stops in this embodiment are formed of 3 in×3 in square stock welded to the bucket 10. Other connecting elements could be used. Preferably, the connecting element allows some degree of motion of the retainer arm in directions other than rotation around the axis of the pin. Preferably, the retainer arm is rigidly attached to the padlock pin, for example permanently attached by welding. Preferably, the retainer arm extends perpendicularly to the axis of the padlock pin, so that it is subject to only bending and not twisting forces and doesn't apply forces to the padlock pin that are outside the plane perpendicular to the axis of the padlock pin. In a less preferred embodiment, a retainer arm bent away from a direction perpendicular to the axis of the padlock pin could be used, for example to connect to a connecting element on the lug of the bucket, either on the side 28 of the lug or end 30 of the lug.
Immaterial modifications may be made to the embodiments described here without departing from what is covered by the claims.
In the claims, the word “comprising” is used in its inclusive sense and does not exclude other elements being present. The indefinite articles “a” and “an” before a claim feature do not exclude more than one of the feature being present. Each one of the individual features described here may be used in one or more embodiments and is not, by virtue only of being described here, to be construed as essential to all embodiments as defined by the claims.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20160289920 A1 | Oct 2016 | US |