Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
One aspect of the present invention relates generally to an excavator for breaking-up hard soils, rock, or concrete into manageable sized pieces for subsequent handling or processing. The excavator acts on an existing ground surface, acting on a layer of material to define a new ground surface that is below the original. The process is used for road construction and mining. This aspect of the present invention relates more particularly the apparatus, which allows control of the depth of cut and of the orientation of the resulting new ground surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Road Bed Preparation
In the preparation of a road bed one critical function is to establish the proper lateral grade. In most cases the desired lateral grade is level, with the exception of regions where the road curves and a banking effect is desirable. In both cases, when constructing new roads the grade of the native topography will typically need to be modified to achieve the desired grade. Certain ground conditions prohibit excavation in a manner wherein very fine adjustments can be made. These include conditions of rock and very hard soils. In these conditions the surface is typically excavated below the desired level, and finer more manageable materials backfilled to bring the grade to the desired level.
The process of replacing a damaged road surface often begins with the step of removing the existing road surface. The current methods of removing existing road surfaces of concrete are complicated by the existence of steel reinforcing rod that is integral to the concrete road surface. Current techniques of breaking up the road surfaces are slow and labor intensive often including the use of some form of impact wherein the existing road surface is struck from the above and broken into smaller pieces, and at the same time separating the reinforcing rod.
Mining
Many types of non-metallic rock are mined from shallow open-pit mines called quarries. The process is known as quarrying, open cast or surface mining. One quarrying technique involves drilling and blasting to break the rock. When usable rock is found, the surface is cleared to expose the desired rock. The area being mined is then drilled and blasted, a large number of low-powered explosives detonated at the same time to shatter the rock. The drillings are controlled to a depth to stay within the strata of desirable rock, as may have been determined by preliminary exploratory drillings. A single blast produces as much as 20,000 tons of broken stone. The broken stone is then loaded by handling equipment and transported to additional equipment to be crushed into smaller pieces and separated into uniform classes by screening methods. During that time the broken stone is exposed to the elements and some may be affected by weathering damage. This process is relatively labor intensive, produces work-in-process subject to damage. New techniques are recently being developed.
One such technique of quarrying is labeled as percussive mining in U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,102. In this reference a percussive mining machine is utilized to successively strike or impact the material with a cutting tool. In this case the cutting tools are mounted to a rotating drum that is propelled on a mining machine. The mining machine illustrated includes components representative of many machines which have recently been developed for this application. The machines typically include some form of ground drive, supporting frame for the drum, power unit to provide power to rotate the drum, a conveyance mechanism and some form of height control, to control the position of the drum. Examples of other machines, built specifically for this application, can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,092,659; 5,577,808; and 5,730,501. These machines are highly specialized, with limited additional use.
An example of a more versatile machine, built on a more generic platform, can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,755,001. This reference discloses an excavating machine that consists of a digging head mounted to an elongated digging member, both mounted to a main frame. The main frame resembles machines currently known as track trenchers.
Track trenchers, as is illustrated in
The power unit 40 provides power to the driven/drive components of the machine. This is typically comprised of a diesel engine and a hydraulic system. The hydraulic power is transferred to various actuators mounted on the machine to perform the desired operations including:
In trenching the primary parameter that needs to be controlled is the depth of the trench. The machine provides this control by controlling the position of the boom relative to the ground engaging tracks, typically allowing the boom to pivot around an axis defined by the machine frame. This pivot is designed robustly to handle the severe loading, particularly experienced when excavating rock. Typically the only movement of the boom relative to the frame is provided by pivoting about this axis.
Controlling the height of each ground drive unit, track, independently allows the frame to be kept level and thus the orientation of the resulting trench can also be controlled. However, this technique of orientation is not ideal in that the entire machine is being controlled resulting in higher power requirements and reduced responsiveness.
The present invention relates generally to an excavation machine having a frame and an excavation boom. The excavation boom is rotatably mounted to the frame at a boom mount pivot axis. The excavation boom includes an excavating chain that drives an excavating drum, both rotating about an excavation axis. The boom further includes an integral pivot that allows the position and/or orientation of the excavating drum to be independently adjusted, relative to the frame and the boom mount pivot axis. The excavating drum and the excavating chain both include cutters mounted in a predetermined pattern. The predetermined pattern involves the placement of the drum cutters in relation to the chain cutters. The predetermined pattern does not change as the chain and drums are operated.
Road Bed Preparation
The apparatus of the present invention is particularly useful for the preparation of a road bed with its ability to control the orientation of the final ground surface along with the excavation depth. In addition the excavating drum's width, relative to the width of the ground engage tracks and the arrangement of the cutting teeth on the excavating drum make it particularly useful in demolition of an existing road surface in preparation to install a new road surface.
Mining
The apparatus of the present invention is particularly useful for certain types of mining operations with its ability to control the excavating drum to optimize the orientation of the ground surface and the excavating parameters.
Referring now to the drawings, like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the several views.
The current invention includes a track trencher with a new excavation boom. A preferred embodiment is illustrated in
The new excavation boom 100 is illustrated in
Outer pivot rings 113 attach to the main frame 30 with bolts 115 that are mated with bolt holes defining bolt pattern 32. Inner pivot rings 116 mate with the outer pivot rings 113, in a manner that they can freely rotate relative to the outer pivot rings 113 and frame 30. The inner pivot rings 116 attach to the mount frame 112 at bolt pattern 117 defined by pilot hole 317 and an array of tapped holes 217. There are two bolt patterns 117, one on each side of mount frame 112, that define an axis that passes through the centers of the two bolt patterns 117. This joint is assembled by first inserting the mount frame 112 into the main frame 30, then installing the inner pivot rings 116 into the pilot holes 317 though the sides of the frame 30. The inner pivot rings 116 are then attached to the mount frame 112 by installing bolts 118 that mate with tapped holes 217. The outer rings 113, which are constructed in 3 sections, are then installed and attached to the main frame 30 by installing bolts 115 that engage tapped holes 232. The excavation boom is thus able to pivot around the axis 114 to allow control of its position relative to the main frame.
As illustrated in
Excavation chain 142 comprises external flanged side bars 141 and internal side bars 143 and rollers 143a, as illustrated in
Following one row 160a, the first cutter 154a is on column 162h. As the chain and drums are rotated this first cutter 154a will contact the ground surface, fracturing the surface and creating a groove. At column 162i the second cutter 154b is longitudinally spaced, away from the center of the base plate 156, towards the outer edge, as compared to the first cutter 154a. This longitudinal spacing defines the angle of the rows 160. The material contacted by the second cutter 154b will have been previously affected by the first cutter 154a on one side while on the other side the material will be less affected by any previous cutters. Thus, if any material fractures, there is a higher probability that it will be material between the groove created by the first cutter 154a and the groove now being created by the second cutter 154b, material on the inside of the second cutter 154b, than on the outside of the second cutter 154b. Thus material fractured by the second cutter 154b will tend to fracture towards the center of the base plates. As the chain and drum continue to rotate the cutters impacting the ground continue to move closer to the edge of the drum, in this case to the edge of drum 148R. As that row 160 approaches the edge, the longitudinal spacing of the last few cutters is decreased to approximately zero. This is necessary due to the fact that the loading at the ends will be influenced by the sides of the excavated trench. When plunge cutting there will be walls on each side of the excavation assembly 140. These walls will tend to force material against the outside teeth in such a manner that the loading is higher on these outside teeth.
The speed of the outer surface of excavation chain 142 must be coordinated with the speed of the outer surface of the drums 148R and 148L in order to maintain the relationship between the cutters mounted to the chain and the cutters mounted to the drums. To achieve this coordination the drums are sized to a specific outer diameter such that the one revolution of the excavation chain results in exactly an integer number of revolutions of the excavation drums. The pattern shown as 148R includes 28 cutters 154 and represents one complete rotation of the excavation drum 148. The pattern shown in
This cutter spacing and the coordination of the excavation chain length with outer diameter of the excavation drums results in consistent placement of the cutters 154 on the excavation drums relative to the cutters 154 on the excavation chain 142. There is an identical number of cutters 154 in each vertical row, and slightly increased density of cutters 154 on the two outside edges of the excavating drums 148L and 148R. Many patterns can be developed, the disclosed pattern comprising a V wherein the legs of the V-pattern pass from the chain to each of the drums, is one example but many others are possible.
In operation the track trencher with the new excavation boom of the present invention is useful in surface mining or in surface preparation for road construction. The use of the track trencher for these applications is enhanced by the fact that the excavation assembly 140 always cuts wider than the tracks. One configuration is illustrated in
Another configuration is illustrated in
Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.
This application is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/236,104 filed Sep. 26, 2005, now U.S. Pat No. 7,152,348 which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20070119078 A1 | May 2007 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11236104 | Sep 2005 | US |
Child | 11535830 | US |