Patent Application
20250146250
The present disclosure generally relates to a work attachment associated with a motor grader.
Motor graders include a work attachment that is mounted between a pair of front wheels and a pair of rear wheels of the motor grader. The work attachment includes a moldboard that is coupled to a Drawbar-Circle-Moldboard (DCM) assembly of the motor grader. When a motor grader is used for a work operation, such as a grading operation, the motor grader typically moves quickly with the moldboard forcing against a ground surface or in float. A cutting edge of the moldboard can become worn, or damaged, from scraping the ground surface or contacting objects such as debris. Typically, the worn cutting edge on a moldboard needs to be replaced which is a time consuming process that involves manually undoing many mechanical fasteners, such as bolts, screw, rivets, or the like, which attach the moldboard to the cutting edge.
U.S. Pat. No. 10,458,081 discloses a work attachment for a motor grader. According to the reference, a work plate is attached to the grader by the help of mechanical fasteners. Mechanical fasteners are disclosed as to be a bolt, a screw, a rivet, a pin, etc. that the user can remove for replacing the plates. A trip edge assembly having a pivoting mechanism is used to lessen physical damage to a cutting edge by allowing the cutting edge to pivot when an object is struck by the cutting edge.
While effective, there remains a need for improved work attachment designs for work machines used in high wear applications, such as construction and mining.
In accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure, a work attachment for a work machine is disclosed. The work attachment has a moldboard that includes a plurality of moldboard apertures and a plurality of moldboard fasteners that extend from a bottom portion of a surface of the moldboard. The work attachment also has a clamp bar that has a first set of clamp bar apertures and a plurality of wedge structures on a surface of the clamp bar. Each moldboard fastener extends through their respective clamp bar aperture for connecting the clamp bar to the moldboard. When connected, the clamp bar is able to slide along a longitudinal axis of the moldboard from an open position to a closed position.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a clamp bar for attaching a cutting edge to a moldboard is disclosed. The clamp has an oblong shaped aperture that receives a moldboard fastener attached to a bottom portion of the moldboard for attaching the clamp bar to the moldboard. When attached, the clamp bar is able to slide in an axial plane of the moldboard to an open position from a closed position. The clamp bar also has a second clamp bar aperture that has a first radius portion and a second radius portion, with the first radius portion having a larger radius than the second. The first radius portion is used to receive a cutting edge fastener of a cutting edge, after the cutting edge fastener first passes through a moldboard aperture, for attaching the cutting edge to the moldboard. The clamp bar further has a wedge structure that is used to slide under a head portion of the cutting edge fastener when the clamp bar is slid to the closed position.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a motor grader that has a frame, a drawbar-circle moldboard system coupled to the frame, and a work attachment coupled to the drawbar-circle moldboard system. The work attachment includes a moldboard that has moldboard aperture and a moldboard fastener used to attach a clamp bar to the moldboard. The moldboard fastener extends from a bottom portion of a surface of the moldboard. The clamp bar has an oblong shaped clamp bar aperture that surrounds the moldboard aperture when the moldboard fastener when the clamp bar is attached. The clamp bar also has a wedge structure on a surface of the clamp bar, and the clamp bar is able to slide along the longitudinal axis of the moldboard to an open position from a closed position.
These and other aspects and features of the present disclosure will be more readily understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Referring to
The front frame 116 also supports a work attachment 124. The work attachment 124 may be used to perform work operations, such as grading or now removal. The work attachment 124 is positioned between the rear wheels 114 and the front wheels 120. More particularly, the work attachment 124 is supported by a drawbar 126 and a circle 128 of a Drawbar-Circle-Moldboard (DCM) assembly 129. The drawbar 126 and the circle 128 are coupled to the front frame 116. Further, the work attachment 124 includes a moldboard 130 and one or more hydraulic cylinders 131 to support or move the moldboard 130. The moldboard 130 is curved, such as plow shaped, and extends along a longitudinal axis AA to allow for the plowing, or removal, or snow, debris, or the like.
Referring to
As best shown in
Turning to
For attaching a clamp bar 150, attached to the rear surface 146 of the moldboard 130 at the bottom portion 138, may be a plurality of moldboard fasteners 152. The moldboard fasteners 152, such as bolts or the like, may be attached to the moldboard 130 by welding, are screwed into the moldboard 130, or completely extend through the moldboard 130 for attachment by a nut on both sides of the moldboard 130 (not shown), extend away from the rear surface 146 of the moldboard. The clamp bar 150 has a first set of clamp bar apertures 154 through which the moldboard fasteners 152 are extended through, such that each clamp bar aperture 152 of the first set of clamp bar apertures 152 surrounds their respective moldboard fastener 152 when the clamp bar 150 is attached. Each moldboard fastener 152 has a smaller diameter, or width, than a diameter, or width, of the clamp bar apertures 154 to allow for the insertion of the moldboard fastener 152 through the clamp bar apertures 154. Once inserted through, the clamp bar fasteners 152 are topped with a stopgap 156, as shown in
The clamp bar apertures 154 may have an oblong, or oval, shape as depicted in
For attaching the cutting edge 135 to the moldboard 130, the clamp bar has a second set of apertures 162, depicted in
Further for attaching the cutting edge 135, as shown in
For quickly attaching the cutting edge 135, the cutting edge fasteners 166 are first inserted through their respective moldboard apertures 132. After passing through the moldboard apertures 132, the first head 167 of the cutting edge fasteners 166 then passes through the first aperture portion 164 of their respective second clamp bar aperture 162 of the second set of clamp bar apertures 162. Thus, the first head 167 has a smaller radius, or diameter, than the radius or diameter of the both the moldboard apertures 132 and the first aperture portions 164 of the second set of clamp bar apertures 162. Once the first head 167 has passed through the moldboard aperture 132 and the second clamp bar aperture 162, the clamp bar 150 is slide along the longitudinal axis from the open position to the closed position to securely attach the cutting edge 135 to the moldboard 130.
The clamp bar 150 also has a plurality of wedge structures 170 attached on its top surface 158. The wedge structures have a wedge, or diameter or radius, which is smaller than any width, diameter, or radius, of the first head 167 of the cutting edge fastener, but a larger width, diameter, or radius than a shaft 172 of the cutting edge fasteners. The wedge structures 170 are U shaped that surround the second aperture portion 165 of each of the second clamp bar apertures 162. The wedge structures have a height that increases, relative to the top surface 158 of the clamp bar 150, as the wedge structure moves away from the first aperture portions 164 of the second clamp bar apertures 162. As the clamp bar 150 is slid to the closed position, each wedge structure 170 is slid underneath each of their first heads 167 of each cutting edge fastener 166. Thus, a shaft 172 of each of the cutting edge fasteners 166 goes from being surrounded by the first aperture portion 164 to being surrounded by the second aperture portion 165 as the clamp bar 150 is slid to the closed position, and due to the increasing height of the wedge structures 170, the clamp bar 150 becomes securely attached to the moldboard 130. To put it another way, the increasing height of the wedge structures 170 is equal to, or greater than, any remaining shaft 172 length of the cutting edge fasteners 166 that is not surrounded by their respective apertures of the moldboard 130 or the clamp bar 150 such than no remaining slack is left to allow the cutting edge fastener 166 to slid, and the cutting edge fastener 166 is under tension between the wedge structure 170 and the second head 168 (or from the cutting edge 135 if no second head 168 is present).
For removing the cutting edge 135, the clamp bar 150 is slid back to the open position, and the wedge structure 170 is slid from underneath and away from the first head 135 of the cutting edge fastener 166. The first head 167 is then allowed to freely pass through the first aperture portion 164 and the moldboard aperture 132 to remove the cutting edge 135 from the moldboard 130.
The clamp bar 150 may further have a handle 174 extending from the top surface 158 of the clamp bar 150. This handle allows a user to push/pull the clamp bar 150 to the open and closed positions. The handle, in another exemplary embodiment may further act as a hitting point for a blunt object, such as a hammer, to tighten the system to drive the wedge structures 170 underneath the first heads 167 of the cutting edge fasteners 166.
Although the present figures depict the clamp bar 150 attached to the rear surface 146 of the moldboard 130, it is to be understood that the present invention further encompasses the attachment of the clamp bar to the front of the moldboard 130, or work attachment 124, as well. In an exemplary embodiment where the clamp bar 150 is attached to the front, the entire process above is reversed, and the cutting edge 135 may be attached from the rear of the moldboard 130 rather than the front.
In general, the teachings of the present disclosure may find applicability in many industries including, but not limited to, motor graders. For example, the teachings of the present disclosure may find applicability in any industry using moldboards to flatten or smooth, or for debris removal, on a ground surface.
The present disclosure relates to a work attachment that has moldboard 130 having a clamp bar 150. As the moldboard 130 design disclosed herein allows the clamp bar 150 to slide from open to closed positions to quickly remove and attach cutting edge 135, the amount of downtime caused from wear and tear of the cutting edge 135 may be reduced. For example, changing of the cutting edge 135 does not require manual removal of any fastener devices.
The work attachment design provides a solution for limiting impact of the cutting edge 135 with objects present in a drive path of the motor grader 100. Also, the clamp bar 150 disclosed herein can be retrofitted on an existing work implement without modification of the existing work implement. Further, the cutting edge 135 can be easily coupled with the work attachment 124 in the field by simply sliding the clamp bar 150 in a longitudinal direction, with respect to the moldboard 130.
While the preceding text sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legal scope of protection is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment since describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims defining the scope of protection.
