Information
-
Patent Grant
-
6811292
-
Patent Number
6,811,292
-
Date Filed
Monday, February 3, 200321 years ago
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Date Issued
Tuesday, November 2, 200420 years ago
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Inventors
-
Original Assignees
-
Examiners
Agents
- Nikolai & Mersereau, P.A.
- Mersereau; C. G.
-
CPC
-
US Classifications
Field of Search
US
- 366 41
- 366 54
- 366 45
- 193 10
- 193 17
- 193 14
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International Classifications
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Abstract
A two-piece charge hopper assembly for a concrete transit mixing vehicle of the rear-discharge type is disclosed in which a lower, movable portion including the hopper discharge lip is enabled to swing out of the way of discharging concrete while the upper body of the charge hopper remains in a fixed position which is accomplished by the use of a simple pivot mechanism.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to transit concrete mixing trucks and, more particularly, to charge hoppers associated with such trucks. The charge hoppers of the present invention are provided with lower segments which have the ability to pivot and swing free of the path of concrete discharged from the mixing drum.
RELATED ART
Current transit concrete mixing vehicles include a drum having an inclined axis and an opening on the raised end which serves both to receive materials to be mixed and to discharge concrete during a pour. These drums are typically provided with fixed spiral mixing blades which move the ingredients toward the lower end of the drum for mixing when the drum is rotated in a first direction and discharge the mixed ingredients when the drum is rotated in the opposite direction. To facilitate the loading of the drum, a funnel-shaped charge hopper is mounted in relation to the drum opening and is used to introduce materials into the drum for mixing. An outlet collector chute is also provided to collect and control the concrete as it is being discharged from the drum.
Typically, outlet end of the charge hopper is positioned into the drum a short distance to prevent spillage during the loading process. Unfortunately, this lower end of the charge hopper may impede the flow of concrete as it is being discharged, particularly if the concrete is quite stiff and viscous, such as that used in forming predetermined shapes such as curbing along streets, for example.
A fragmentary side view of the rear portion of a typical transit concrete mixer truck with the charging hopper in the lowered or loading position is depicted generally at
10
in FIG.
1
and includes a chassis frame
12
which includes heavy structural side rails as at
14
and is normally supported on road engaging wheels as at
16
. An auxiliary tag axle assembly is shown generally at
18
attached to the rear end of the frame
12
with the tag axle assembly in the lowered ground engaging, truck supporting position. That system is operated by a linear actuator
20
operating on a horn arm
22
which, in turn, pivots a pair of primary torque arms, one of which is shown at
24
, about pivotal connections, one of which is shown at
26
.
Rotatably supported above the frame is a cement or concrete carrying transit mixing drum
28
having a rear support which includes a pair of heavy support pedestal members, one of which is shown at
30
. The drum
28
rides and rotates in the rear support structure on a drum support ring
32
. A front support and drive mechanism are also provided which are well known in the art and need not be shown here. The edge of the open end (and thus, the opening) of the drum
20
is depicted by ring
34
. A charging hopper is shown at
36
having a lower portion which extends into the open end of the drum at
38
and which assembly pivots about a pivot joint at
40
. A lower stop support assembly is shown at
42
and a hollow discharge or outlet collector chute is shown at
44
. This concrete transit mixing vehicle also includes a folding discharge chute as is shown generally at
46
for receiving the concrete material discharged from the collector chute
44
and directing the flow of concrete to the desired discharge location while avoiding the tag axle system.
The conventional charge hopper assembly is better depicted in the enlarged fragmentary views of
FIGS. 2
and
3
.
FIG. 2
depicts a charge hopper assembly similar to that shown in
FIG. 1
in the normal lowered charge or loading position. Note that the lower end portion
46
of the charge hopper
36
protrudes well into the open end of the drum
28
beyond line
34
. A linear operator, generally at
48
, is provided including a cylinder
50
and piston
52
, pivotally mounted between the hopper
36
at
54
and a pivotal joint
56
attached to the structural support for the drum at
56
.
As can be seen in
FIG. 3
, extending the piston
52
of the cylinder
50
pivots the entire charge hopper
36
up a sufficient distance so that the outlet end of the hopper is pivoted away from the open end of the mixer drum, depicted by
34
, a sufficient distance so that the outlet end
46
of the charge hopper no longer interferes with the flow of material out from the drum through the discharge chute
44
. In addition to facilitating the discharge of concrete from the drum, particularly highly viscous concrete, the ability to swing the entire hopper out of the way has the added advantage of facilitating cleaning of the outlet of the drum.
While the raising of the entire charge hopper may successfully deal with the problem associated with the discharge of low slump, highly viscous concrete and may facilitate the cleaning of the outlet area of the drum, it adds several feet to the necessary possible clearance height of the vehicle as it adds to the overall height of the vehicle when it is in the raised position. It also requires one or more linear actuators which have the capacity to raise and lower the entire hopper which may weigh several hundred pounds. For these and other reasons, it would be advantageous if the same clearance could be achieved with regard to discharging concrete and cleaning the outlet end of the drum without changing the overall height dimension of the transit concrete mixing vehicle.
One such approach has been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 6,350,051 to Cain which involves a front discharging readymix concrete truck. That patent depicts a charge hopper assembly having a main chute portion and a movable portion located adjacent to the concrete truck mixing drum. The movable portion is attached to the main chute assembly and is movable between an open position and a closed position utilizing a linear actuator and a rather complicated linkage system necessary to enable the movable portion to swing free of the fixed main chute portion of the charge hopper.
Thus, it would present a definite advantage to provide a system in which the lower portion of the charge hopper including the bottom lip could swing out of the way of discharging concrete while the upper body of the charge hopper remained in a fixed position in a manner which is accomplished by a simplified rather than a complicated mechanical pivot system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
By means of the present invention, there is provided a two-piece charge hopper assembly for a concrete transit mixing vehicle of the rear-discharge type in which a lower, movable portion including the hopper discharge lip is enabled to swing out of the way of discharging concrete while the upper body of the charge hopper remains in a fixed position which is accomplished by the use of a simple pivot mechanism. The pivot mechanism of the invention includes a pair of simple pivot connections located one on each side of the upper hopper body, each of which has a connected pivot or lever arm member which, in turn, is attached at its free end to one side of a generally conical movable lower section of the charge hopper. The two pivot or lever arm members flank the upper section. A pair of simple linear actuators, preferably fluid operated actuators such as hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder, are connected, one each between a central part of each lever arm, preferably at a location closer to the lower section, and the mixing drum support in a manner such that extension of the linear operators pivots the lever arms and so the movable portion of the charge hopper a sufficient distance to clear discharging concrete of any viscosity.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the drawings wherein like numerals are utilized to designate like parts throughout the same:
FIG. 1
depicts a fragmentary side view of the rear portion of a typical prior art transit concrete mixing vehicle shown with the charging hopper lowered in the charge or loading position;
FIG. 2
is an enlarged view of a charge hopper assembly as in
FIG. 1
;
FIG. 3
is a view similar to
FIG. 2
showing the charge hopper in the lifted, unloading or cleaning position;
FIG. 4
is an enlarged fragmentary view of a charge hopper assembly implemented according to the present invention with the swing-away lower section shown in lowered or loading disposition;
FIG. 5
is a view similar to
FIG. 4
with the swing-away lower section in the raised or discharge position;
FIG. 6
is a top view of the charge hopper assembly of
FIGS. 4 and 5
with parts removed for clarity; and
FIG. 7
depicts a rear view of a charge hopper assembly as shown in FIG.
4
.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
An example of the swing-away lower section charge hopper assembly of the present invention is depicted in
FIGS. 4-7
that accomplishes swinging away of the lower end of the charge hopper assembly including the discharge lip utilizing a mechanically simple and uncomplicated system which eliminates intermediate linkage members which are subject to corrosion, wear and clogging over the course of the operating life of the device and which may increase maintenance costs.
As seen in the figures, the charge hopper of the invention shown generally at
60
includes a hollow upper section or charge hopper inlet body
62
for material receiving having an open top and an open bottom; and a swing-away lower charge hopper section or fill-guiding section
64
having an open semi-circular top that aligns with the open bottom of the upper section
62
and an outlet opening that directs material received by the upper section into the mixer drum
28
and which includes at the lower end, a discharge lip shown extending inside the opening in the drum
28
is depicted by the broken line
66
in FIG.
4
.
The upper charge hopper inlet body
62
is provided with a pair of flanking pivot connections shown at
68
(see
FIG. 6
) and each of which carries a lever arm, shown at
70
, and each of which have an additional pivot joint as at
72
which connects to the piston end
74
of a linear actuator
76
, the blind end of which is connected to a pivot joint (which may be a clevis connection) at
78
. The lower end of lever arm
70
is connected to the swing-away lower section of the charge hopper
64
which is provided with a hoop frame
80
provided in the swing-away lower section
64
.
In
FIG. 5
the linear actuator
76
is shown with piston
74
fully extended and the lower swing-away section of the charge hopper is in the discharge or clear position leaving the discharge chute
44
clear to receive concrete discharge from the opening at
34
. Thus, the entire mechanism operating the lower swing-away section of the charge hopper requires only a pair of cylinders and a pair of swing arms to accomplish the task. Also, note that only a small relatively light weight open-sided portion of the charge hopper need be moved. The small fill-guiding portion can swing directly away from the main loading chute
62
. This leaves the opening clear for discharging materials as needed. Thus, it can be seen that access to the fill-discharge opening can be controlled by a simple manipulating system for swinging a small fill-guiding chute section out of the way for discharge and back into a nesting arrangement for loading.
This invention has been described herein in considerable detail in order to comply with the patent statutes and to provide those skilled in the art with the information needed to apply the novel principles and to construct and use such specialized components as are required. However, it is to be understood that the invention can be carried out by specifically different equipment and devices, and that various modifications, both as to the equipment and operating procedures, can be accomplished without departing from the scope of the invention itself.
Claims
- 1. A charging hopper assembly for a transit concrete mixer vehicle including a rotatable mixing drum comprising:(a) a hollow upper section for material receiving having an open top and an open bottom; (b) a generally conical swing-away lower section having an open top that aligns with said open bottom of said upper section in a charge position and an outlet opening that directs material received by said upper section into said mixing drum; (c) a pair of lever arms flanking said upper section and pivotally attached thereto at a fixed end and attached to said lower section at a free end thereby carrying said lower section in a pendulum relation to said upper section; and (d) a pair of linear actuators pivotally connected between said pair of lever arms and said mixer vehicle for controlling the relative angular position between said upper section and said lower section such that extension of said linear operators swing said lever arms and said lower section out of alignment with said upper section and away from said drum.
- 2. A charging hopper assembly as in claim 1 wherein said linear actuators are fluid operated cylinders.
- 3. A charging hopper assembly as in claim 2 wherein said fluid operated cylinders are double-acting hydraulic cylinders.
- 4. A charging hopper assembly as in claim 3 wherein said linear actuators are pivotally connected to said lever arms at a location closer to said lower section.
- 5. A charging hopper assembly as in claim 1 wherein said linear actuators are pivotally connected to said lever arms at a location closer to said lower section.
US Referenced Citations (25)