BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is an isometric view of one embodiment of the frame assembly 10 of the present disclosure.
FIG. 2 is a top view of the frame assembly 10 of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a side view of the frame assembly 10 of FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is a front end view of the frame assembly 10 of FIG. 1.
FIG. 5 is an isometric view of one embodiment of the material handler 100 comprised of a frame assembly 10 rotatably connected to an excavator 80.
FIG. 6 is an isometric view of the material handler 100 of FIG. 5 wherein the width of the front wheel mount 30 and the rear wheel mount 20 has been increased.
FIG. 7 is a side view of the material handler 100 on top of a gondola car 200.
FIG. 8 is an isometric view of the material handler 100 on top of a gondola car 200.
FIG. 9 is a side view of the material handler 100 running on the ground using crawler tracks 50.
FIGS. 10A-10G depict the material handler 100 traversing between a first rail car 250 to second rail car 300 having a higher wall height than the first rail car 250.
FIGS. 11A-11D depict the material handler 100 being lowered into a gondola car 200 for transportation to another location.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS
Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below as they might be employed in the use of a material handler adapted to unload or load an open top rail car, such as a gondola car. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiments, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
Further aspects and advantages of the various embodiments of the invention will become apparent from consideration of the following description and drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a frame assembly 10 that is comprised of a frame member 11, a front wheel mount 30, and a rear wheel mount 20. The front wheel mount 30 is connected to the frame member 11 by a front linkage 35. In one embodiment, the linkage 35 may be a parallelogram linkage. The front linkage 35 is pivotably connected to both the frame member 11 and a front hydraulic cylinder 36. As shown in FIG. 1, the lower connection 12 connects the front linkage 35 to the frame member and the upper connection 13 connects the front linkage 35 to a power unit such as the front hydraulic cylinder 36. By activating the power unit, such as the expansion contraction of the front hydraulic cylinder 36, the front linkage 35 and the front wheel mount 30 is made to raise or lower with respect to the frame member 11. The front linkage 35 pivots about the lower connection point 12 when the front hydraulic cylinder 36 is actuated. The use of a parallelogram linkage 35 helps to keep the front wheels 31 level while the front wheel mount 30 level is raised or lowered. The frame assembly 10 of FIG. 1 illustrates two power units as two front hydraulic cylinders, but the number of power units, such as hydraulic cylinders, could be varied as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. The front wheel mount 30 includes a front clamp 32, which helps hold the material handler on top of an open top rail car. A front clamp 32 may be located on both ends of the front wheel mount 30. The front clamp 32 may be adapted to be moved between an outward disengaged position and an inward engaged position. A front cylinder 37 may be used to move the front clamp 32 between the engage and disengage positions.
The rear wheel mount 20 is identically connected to the frame member 11 as the front wheel mount 30. The rear linkage 25 is connected to both the frame member 11 and the rear wheel mount 20. The movement of the rear hydraulic cylinder 26 causes the rear linkage 25 to pivot about connection point 14 which raises or lowers the rear wheel mount 20. The rear wheel mount 20 also includes a rear clamp 22 that may be moved between an outward disengaged position and an inner engaged position. A rear cylinder 27 may be used to move the rear clamp 22 between the disengaged and engaged positions.
The front wheels 31 on the front wheel mount 30 may be driven by a hydraulic motor. Alternatively a different type of motor, such as an electric motor, could be used to drive the wheels of the frame assembly as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. A number of different configurations could be used, such as a gear or belt drive, in connection with a hydraulic motor to drive the front wheels 31 as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. The rear wheels 21 may also be driven by a hydraulic motor. In some embodiments, a separate motor may be used to drive each individual wheel on the material handler. The motor may be mounted to the frame assembly. In one embodiment, the motor may be mounted to a gearbox mounted to the inside of the wheel. The width between the front wheels 31 may be adjustable. For example as shown in FIG. 1, adjustable telescopic tubing 33 may connect the front wheels 31 of the front wheel mount 30. A second power unit, such as a hydraulic cylinder 34 may be used to retract or expand the adjustable telescopic tubing 33 to selectively adjust the width between the front wheels 31. Adjustable telescopic tubing 23 and a hydraulic cylinder 24 may be used to selectively adjust the width between the rear wheels 21 of the rear wheel mount 20.
FIG. 2 shows a top view of the frame assembly 10 of FIG. 1. The frame member 11 is connected to the front wheel mount 30 and the rear wheel mount 20 via the front linkage 35 and the rear linkage 25. The front wheels 31 of the front wheel mount 30 may be driven by a motor and the rear wheels 21 of the rear wheel mount 20 may be driven by a motor. The motor may be mounted to a gear box mounted on the inside of each wheel, but alternatively one motor could be used to drive multiple wheels. FIG. 2 shows adjustable telescopic tubing 33, 23 extended away from the centerline of the frame member 11 to increase the distance between the front wheels 31 and to increase the distance between the rear wheels 21. The maximum distance between the wheels is limited by the length of telescopic tubing 23, 33 and the length of hydraulic cylinders 24, 34 which could be varied to need as would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. In one embodiment, the width between the wheels may vary from 8 feet up to 10.5 feet.
FIG. 2 shows the front clamp 32 and the rear clamp 22 both in the inward engaged position. The material handler may include power units, such as cylinders 27, 37, to move the clamps 22, 32 between the inward engage position and the outward disengage position. When in the engaged position, a portion 38 of the clamp extends towards the center of the frame assembly as shown in FIG. 4. The portion 38 of the clamp is positioned under the top cord of the open top rail car and prevents the material handler from falling from the rail car. FIG. 3 shows the side view of the embodiment of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 illustrates the pivotable connection 12 between the front linkage 35 and the frame assembly 10. FIG. 3 also illustrates the pivotable connection 14 between the rear linkage 25 and the frame assembly 10. A power unit, which may be a front cylinder 36 for example, may be connected to the front linkage 35 at an upper connection point 13 and be used to pivot the front linkage 35 about the pivotable connection 12. Likewise, a power unit, such as a rear cylinder 26 for example, may be connected to the rear linkage 25 at an upper connection point 15 and be used to pivot the rear linkage 25 about the pivotable connection 14.
FIG. 5 shows an isometric view of one embodiment of the material handler 100. The material handler 100 includes an excavator 80 that is connected to a frame assembly 10. The frame assembly 10 may be pinned to the chassis of the excavator 80. The excavator includes an operator cab 40, means for moving the excavator when on the ground such as a pair of crawler tracks 50, a boom 60, and means for loading or unloading material such as a magnet or a grapple 70 as shown in FIG. 5. The connection of the excavator 80 to the frame assembly 10 is adapted such that the excavator cab 40 and boom 60 may swivel 360 degrees. This allows the reach of the boom to be extended to the side of a rail car in comparison to a fixed point excavator.
The cab 40 of the excavator 80 includes controls to operate the boom 60, grapple 70, and to swivel the cab 40. Additionally, the cab 40 includes controls to operate the hydraulic cylinders 26, 36 of the frame assembly 10 to raise or lower the wheel mounts 20, 30 and to actuate the hydraulic cylinders 24, 34 in order to change the width of the front wheels and the rear wheels. The cab 40 also includes controls to engage or disengage the wheel clamps 22,.32 and controls to operate the motors in order to rotate the wheels to move the material handler 100 along the top of an open top rail car. These controls could be in various forms, such as pedals, buttons, toggle switches and/or joystick controls, as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
The wheels 21, 31 of the material handler 100 are adapted to ride along the top of an open top rail car. The wheels are adapted to prevent the material handler 100 from falling off of the rail car. The front and rear clamps 22, 32 are also adapted to prevent the material handler from falling off of the rail car. When engaged a portion 28, 38 of the clamps 22, 32 is located underneath the top cord of the open top rail car which prevents the material handler 100 from falling off the rail car as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. The frame assembly 10 is also adapted to provide stability to the material handler 100 by the location of the wheel mounts 20, 30. The front wheel mount 30 and rear wheel mount 20 are both located outside of the excavator 80 and as such provide adequate stability to the material handler 100. As the boom 60 of the excavator 80 operates, a large force may be applied to the boom pivot point 65 of the excavator 80. As shown in FIG. 5, the boom pivot point 65 is located in between the front wheel mount 30 and rear wheel mount 20. The location of the pivot point 65 aids in decreasing instability due to the unloading and loading operation of the boom 60.
The telescopic tubing 23, 33 of the material handler 100 shown in FIG. 6 may be retracted minimizing the width of the front and rear wheels 21, 31, as shown in FIG. 5. The material handler may be transported inside an open top rail car when its wheels have been filly retracted. In FIG. 6, the telescopic tubing 23, 33 has been extended by the extension of hydraulic cylinders 24, 34 increasing the width of the front and rear wheels 21, 31. The excavator 80 is adapted to rotatably connect to the frame assembly 10. The frame assembly 10 may be pinned to the excavator 80 or may be connected by other suitable means that would allow the excavator to swivel with respect to the frame assembly 10. In addition to the excavator shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the material handler 100 could be comprised of various excavators connected to the frame assembly 10 as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
FIG. 7 shows the material handler 100 positioned on top of a gondola car 200. The excavator 80, including the cab 40, boom 60, and grapple 70 may swivel to allow the operator to load or unload material into multiple areas of the gondola car 200. While on top of the gondola car 200, clamps 22, 32 may be moved to an inward position to engage the top cord 210 of the gondola car as shown in FIG. 8. The wheels 21, 31 are adapted to ride along the top of the walls of the gondola car 200 and may move the material hander 100 from one end of the gondola car 200 to the other end. The wheels allow the material handler to move in either direction while loading and/or unloading material. The boom 60 is hydraulically controlled by the operator from the cab 40 of the excavator 80 and may be extended to reach material located away from the material handler 100. The material handler 100 shown in FIG. 7 includes a grapple 70 on the end of the boom 60, but a number of different material handling apparatus could be attached to the boom to move material as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
FIG. 8 is an isometric view of the material handler 100 positioned on top of a gondola car 200. Clamps 22, 32 engage the top cord 210 of the gondola car 200 to ensure that the material handler 100 does not fall off the gondola car 200. The wheels 21, 31 are adapted to ride along the top of the gondola car 200 and are positioned outside of the excavator 80 to provide adequate stability of the material handler 100 while operating on top of an open top rail car. The wheels 21, 31 and swivel action of the excavator 80 provide the material handler 100 with sufficient mobility to efficiently unload the gondola car 200 even if the load of material shifts within the gondola car 200 while being unloaded.
FIG. 9 shows the material handler 100 using the crawler tracks 50 to move along a flat surface such as the ground. The front wheel mount 30 and rear wheel mount 20 are raised to allow the material handler 100 to rest on the crawler tracks 50. The crawler tracks 50 may then be activated to move the material handler 100 to a desired location. The front boom 60 and grapple 70 may still be operated to move material while the material handler 100 is resting on the crawler tracks 50. Additionally, the cab 40 of the excavator 80 may also swivel while in this this mode.
FIGS. 10A-10G show that material handler 100 traversing from a first rail car 250 to a second rail car 300 that has a higher wall height than the first rail car 250. As shown in FIG. 10A, the material handler 100 is moved until the front wheels 31 are located at the end of the first rail car 250 that is adjacent to the second rail car 300 with the boom 60 extended over the opening of the second rail car 300. Upon reaching the end of the first rail car 250, the hydraulics of the front wheel mount 30 and the rear wheel mount 20 are actuated to lower the wheel mounts 20, 30 such that the excavator 80 is raised above the rail car 250. The wheel mounts 20, 30 are lowered until the material handler 100 is level and the crawler tracks 50 of the excavator 80 are positioned higher than the top of the second rail car 300.
The boom 60 is then lowered into the second rail car 300 until the grapple 70 is positioned on the floor of the second rail car 300 as shown in FIG. 10B. Typically the boom 60 is placed approximately five feet from the first end of the second rail car 300. The boom 60 is then lowered into the second rail car 300 such that the material handler 100 is supported by the boom 60 and the rear wheal mount 20 raising the front wheels 31 off of the first rail car 250. Hydraulics 36 are then actuated to raise the front wheel mount 30 to a position that is the same height or possibly even higher than the height of the second rail car 300. The boom 60 is then curled or retracted towards the excavator 80 moving the material handler 100 towards the second rail car 300 as depicted in FIG. 10C. The rear wheels 21 of the rear wheel mount 20 will travel along the top of the first rail car 250 while the boom 60 is curled. The boom 60 is curled until the front wheels 31 of the front wheel mount 30 are positioned over the second rail car 300.
Once the front wheels 31 are over the second rail car 300, the front wheel mount 30 is lowered by hydraulics 36 until the front wheels 31 rest on the second rail car 300 lifting the boom 60 off the bottom of the second rail car 300. The heights of the front wheel mount 30 and rear wheel mount 20 may then be adjusted to level the material handler 100. The wheels 21, 31 then may be actuated to move the front of the material handler 100 forward along the second rail car 300 until the rear wheels 21 are positioned at the end of the first rail car 250 as shown in FIG. 10D. The boom 60 may then be raised and the excavator cab 40 may be rotated such that the boom 60 is positioned over the first rail car 25 also shown in FIG. 10D.
The boom 60 is then lowered into the first rail car 250 until the grapple 70 is positioned on the floor of the first rail car 250. The boom 60 is then lowered into the first rail car 250 such that the material handler 100 is supported by the boom 60 and the front wheel mount 30 raising the rear wheels 21 off of the first rail car 250 as shown in FIG. 10E. Hydraulics 26 are then actuated to raise the rear wheel mount 20 to a position that is the same height or possibly even higher than the height of the second rail car 300. The boom 60 is then uncurled or extended away from the excavator 80 moving the material handler 100 towards the second rail car 300. The front wheels 31 of the front wheel mount 30 will travel along the top of the second rail car 300 while the boom 60 is uncurled. The boom 60 is uncurled until the rear wheels 21 of the rear wheel mount 20 are positioned over the second rail car 300.
Once the rear wheels 21 are over the second rail car 300, the rear wheel mount 20 is lowered by hydraulics 26 until the rear wheels 21 rest on the second rail car 300 lifting the boom 60 off the bottom of the first rail car 250 as shown in FIG. 10F. The boom 60 may then be raised out of the first rail car 250 as depicted in FIG. 10G. The heights of the front wheel mount 30 and rear wheel mount 20 may then be adjusted to level the material handler 100. The wheels 21, 31 then may be actuated to move the material handler 100 along the second rail car 300 until the material handler 100 is located at the desired position to load or unload the second rail car 300. The wheel clamps 22, 32 may then be moved inward to engage the top cord of the second rail car 300 upon reaching the desired position.
FIGS. 11A-11D depict the material handler 100 being lowered into a gondola car 200 for transportation. The first step to lower the material handler 100 is to lower the boom 60 into the rail car 200 until the grapple 70 is positioned on the floor. The boom 60 is lowered into the rail car 200 such that the material handler 100 is supported by the boom 60 and the rear wheel 20 raising the front wheels 31 off of the first rail car 200 as shown in FIG. 11A.
Hydraulics 34 can then be actuated to retract the telescopic tubing 33 of the front wheel mount 30 decreasing the width between the front wheels 31 of the front wheel mount 30. Hydraulics 36 are then actuated to lower the front wheel mount 30 below the top of the rail car 200 into the open cavity as shown in FIG. 11B. The front wheels 31 are lowered until the boom 60 is raised off of the floor of the rail car 200.
The excavator 80 may then be rotated 180 degrees such that the boom 60 is over the rear mount 20. The boom 60 is then lowered into the rail car 200 until the rear wheels 21 are lifted off of the rail car 200 as shown in FIG. 11C. Hydraulics 24 can then be actuated to retract the telescopic tubing 23 of the rear wheel mount 20 decreasing the width between the rear wheels 21 of the rear wheel mount 30. Hydraulics 26 are then actuated to lower the rear wheel mount 20 below the top of the rail car 200 into the open cavity. The boom 60 may then be uncurled moving the material handler 100 away from the grapple 70 thus, lowering the material handler 100 into the rail car 200. The boom 60 is uncurled until the rear wheels 21 rest on the floor of the rail car 200 as shown in FIG. 11D.
Although various embodiments have been shown and described, the invention is not so limited and will be understood to include all such modifications and variations as would be apparent to one skilled in the art.
Patent Application
20070297882
