Patent Application
20250236002
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The disclosure relates to piledrivers and more particularly pertains to a new piledriver for driving stakes or posts into the ground.
The prior art relates to piledrivers, including those designed to be held and operated by a user. However, the prior art fails to describe such a device that uses hydraulics to control a ram, a head adapted to 2×4 stakes, and controls for controlling the direction, speed, and force of the head.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a housing and a ram mounted in the housing. The ram comprises a base and a piston rod which is movably coupled to the base. The base is positioned in the housing, and the piston rod extends away from the base through a bottom end of the housing. The ram is operable to urge the piston rod alternately away from and toward the housing. A head is coupled to a distal end of the piston rod of the ram with respect to the base. The head defines a cavity in the head with a size and a shape such that the cavity is configured to be complementary in shape to a perimeter of a stake.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
In embodiments in which the ram 16 comprises a hydraulic cylinder, a hydraulic pump 30 is mounted in the housing 12 and is operatively coupled to the ram 16 via a control valve 32. A reservoir 34 is mounted in the housing 12 and contains a volume of hydraulic fluid 35 which the hydraulic pump 30 selectively urges through the control valve 32 to the ram 16 to selectively move the piston rod 20 alternately toward and away from the base 18. A motor 36 is mounted in the housing 12 and operatively coupled to the hydraulic pump 30. The motor 36 comprises an internal combustion engine but may comprise an electric motor or the like. The control valve 32 is in fluid communication with the hydraulic pump 30 and the ram 16 and is operable to direct the hydraulic fluid 35 from the hydraulic pump 30 to the ram 16 to selectively move the piston rod 20 of the ram 16 alternately toward and away from the base 18.
A handlebar 38 is mounted to the housing 12 and has an inverted U-shape with a pair of lateral portions 40 and a top portion 42. The top portion 42 is coupled to and extends between the pair of lateral portions 40. Each one of a pair of grips 44 is slidably mounted to an associated lateral portion 40 of the pair of lateral portions 40 of the handlebar 38. Each grip 44 is slidable alternately upwardly and downwardly with respect to the housing 12. A plurality of springs 46 is coupled to the pair of grips 44 and the handlebar 38. The plurality of springs 46 is configured to absorb sudden impulses exerted on the pair of grips 44 relative to the housing 12. The springs 46 are coil springs 46 which act alternately in compression and tension to absorb shocks produced by impulses exerted on the housing 12 when the piston rod 20 of the ram 16 moves suddenly upwardly or downwardly and when the ram 16 impacts the stake 52 or another object. In other embodiments, the springs 46 may be flat springs, torsion springs, gas springs, elastic members, or other suitable shock absorbing devices.
A directional switch 48 is operatively coupled to the control valve 32 and is mounted on one grip 44 of the pair of grips 44. The directional switch 48 is actuatable to selectively direct the piston rod 20 of the ram 16 to move alternately toward and away from the base 18. The control valve 32 or another control mechanism may be configured to direct the hydraulic fluid 35 back to the reservoir 34 or the hydraulic pump 30 when the piston rod 20 reaches a bottommost or uppermost position such that the hydraulic pump 30 is not caused to urge the piston rod 20 beyond the bottommost or uppermost positions. A speed control 50 is operatively coupled to the motor 36 and is operable to control a speed of the motor 36. The speed control 50 is mounted on another grip 44 of the pair of grips 44. When the directional switch 48 is actuated, the hydraulic pump 30 will be caused to urge the piston rod 20 in the direction selected via the directional switch 48 with a force and a speed associated with the speed for the motor 36 selected via the speed control 50.
In use, the piledriving apparatus 10 is used to drive stakes into a ground surface 54, such as during the construction of a fence or other structure. The grips 44 are grasped by a user's hands, and the direction, force, and speed of the piston rod 20 is controlled via the directional switch 48 and the speed control 50. Unlike other devices for driving stakes, posts, or the like, which only cause their rams to vibrate or move in automated reciprocal fashion, the motion of the piston rod 20 of the present invention may be controlled by the user as herein described.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
