Patent Application
20110232254
The present invention relates to a garden machine. More specifically, the present invention relates to a pedal-driven lawn mower.
Currently, a small garden machine such as a portable bush cutter, a gasoline type mower or an electric type mower is commonly used to cut grass. When operating such garden machines, an operator stands on a lawn to control the cutting and movement of the garden machine the driving force of which comes from either combustion of gasoline or consumption of electric power.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a pedal-driven lawn mower that negates the necessity for consumption of gasoline or electric power. Additionally, the present invention also provides the lawn mower with new functions such as for sports and recreation.
The pedal-driven lawn mower of the present invention comprises a carriage, a mechanism for driving the lawn mower and a cutting hob mechanism arranged on said carriage; said cutting hob mechanism is transmission connected to said mechanism for driving the lawn mower.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a handle, front wheels, a seat, rear wheels, a pedal, a pedal centre shaft and a gear box connected to the pedal centre shaft is each arranged on said carriage, and said pedal centre shaft is connected to said rear wheels by a transmission chain.
The cutting hob mechanism is hinged to the front end of the carriage and can be readily seen and manipulated by an operator. The hinge joint enables lifting or laying down of said cutting hob mechanism as required. When the pedal-driven lawn mower is just for entertainment or being moved to another place, the cutting hob mechanism can be lifted and fixed to the carriage making the same above the ground so as to ease the efforts of the operator. When the pedal-driven lawn mower is used for cutting, said cutting hob mechanism can be laid down and fixed at a predetermined height that is appropriate for the cutting operation.
Said cutting hob mechanism comprises a shell; and a roller, a cutting hob, a transmission shaft arranged in order from the front end to the rear end of the shell; a transmission gear train is arranged between the cutting hob and the transmission shaft; a gear box connected to the pedal centre shaft is arranged on the carriage, a first chain wheel is fixed on the transmission shaft; said first chain wheel is transmission connected to an output chain wheel of said gear box via a driving chain thereby the driving force can be transmitted to the first chain wheel via the gear box and thus the cutting hob can be activated for cutting through the gear train. Additionally, a clutch can also be fixed to the transmission shaft, thereby facilitating run/stop of the cutting hob.
For the purpose to adjust the remaining height of the grass after cutting, said cutting hob mechanism can further include a cutting height adjuster.
In order to control the speed of the lawn mower, a brake hand lever can be fixed to the handle and said brake hand lever is connected to the rear wheels via a brake cable to control the rear wheels.
Two rear wheels are preferably used to improve the stability of the lawn mower. Said two rear wheels are connected to each side of the rear wheel shaft, which is attached to the carriage via bearings. A walking chain wheel is fixed to the rear wheel shaft wherein said walking chain wheel is connected to said pedal centre shaft via a driving chain. A brake mechanism is arranged on the two rear wheels and said brake mechanism is connected to the brake cable.
Said rear wheel shaft is directly fixed to one of the rear wheels and is attached to the other rear wheel by a bearing so as to facilitate that one rear wheel runs due to being driven by the driving chain and the other rear wheel follows when changing direction. In the present invention, when the lawn mower changes direction, the two rear wheels can run in different speeds or directions thus avoiding the sliding friction between the outer surface of the rear wheels and the lawn thereby effectively reducing hurts to the grass caused by the lawn mower.
The brake mechanism can be a brake drum or a brake disc to provide a reliable braking effect.
For the purpose of further improving the stability of the lawn mower, a front wheel support is connected to the front end of the carriage and on each side of the front wheel support, a front wheel is hinged to the support. In addition, a short link is extended from each hinge and the other end of each short link is connected to a link. A steering link is attached to said front wheel support and said link by hinges. When an operator turns the handle, the two front wheels can be driven to move to the same direction thereby the change of direction can be carried out.
Preferably, a motor can be arranged on the carrier. The output shaft of said motor can be used to provide extra power to drive the mechanism for driving the lawn mower via a chain wheel and a chain.
In another embodiment of the present invention, said pedal-driven mechanism for driving the lawn mower comprises a pedal, a pedal centre shaft, a gear box, said pedal centre shaft is connected to an input of the gear box; at the rear end of the carriage two bearing seats are fixed the inner holes of which is each inserted a rotation shaft and said two rotation shafts are both fixed to a swing support; a driving rear axle having a left half-axle, a right half-axle and a differential is fixed to said swing support; said two rear wheels are respectively connected to said left half-axle and the right half-axle; the input of the differential is flexibly connected to one end of a transmission shaft the other end of which is flexibly connected to the output of the gear box.
A motor, and a battery for supplying power to the motor can also be arranged on the carriage. Said motor is connected to the gear box via a clutch.
The present invention combines cutting hob mechanism with the pedal-driven vehicle whereby an operator can sit on the seat of the lawn mower to control the direction and drive the lawn mower and the cutting hob mechanism by pedaling. The present invention functions both sports entertainment and grass cutting but uses no fuel and power thus is healthy and environment-friendly.
The present invention will be further described by referring to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the embodiments depicted in the drawings are for description of the invention only and shall not be construed as any limitation to the present invention. The scope of the invention would rather be defined by the appended claims.
As shown in
At the rear end of the carriage 2, a rear driving shaft 25 is arranged via a bearing 26. The rear wheel 5.2 is fixed to one end of the rear driving shaft 25 and the rear wheel 5.3 is connected to the other end of the driving shaft 25 via a bearing 27. A driving chain wheel 22 is fixed to the rear driving shaft 25. When the lawn mower moves and changes direction, a driving chain 21 drives the rear wheel 5.2 directly and the rear wheel 5.3 would follow via the bearing 27 which is installed on the rear driving shaft 25 to offset the difference of the rotating speeds of the two rear wheels. On each of the rear wheels 5.2, 5.3, a braking mechanism 13 is installed. When a braking is required, the braking mechanism is activated by the brake line one end of which is connected thereto. The other end of the brake line is connected to a brake hand lever 9 which is operated manually by the operator. By this way, the moving speed of the two rear wheels can be reduced, even stopped when required.
The cutting hob mechanism 1 comprises a shell 35; and a roller 36, a cutting hob 15, a driving shaft 23 which are arranged respectively via bearings from the front end to the rear end of the shell 35; a driving gear group 30 is arranged between the cutting hob 15 and the driving shaft 23 and a first chain wheel 16 is fixed to the driving shaft 23. A gear box 4 is installed on the carriage 2 and connected to the pedal central shaft 19. The first chain wheel 16 is transmission connected to an output chain wheel 18 of the gear box 4 via a driving chain 17.
A transmission clutch 23.1 can also be fixed to the driving shaft 23. The transmission clutch 23.1 can be used to carry out the running or stop of the cutting hob 15.
A cutting height adjuster 14 having a graduation can also be arranged on the outside surface of the cutting hob mechanism 1. When the cutting hob adjuster 14 is adjusted, the cutting hob mechanism 1 which is hinged to the front end of the carriage 2 would be drawn to rise or descend to a predetermined height to meet the cutting requirements of different lawns. A moving speed adjuster 7 may be arranged adjacent to the handle 8 of the steering mechanism. The moving speed adjuster has a handle which can be pulled to different positions to control the rotating direction of the cutting hob 15 as well as the moving speed of the lawn mower. For convenience, the moving speed adjuster 7 can also be arranged under the seat 10 adjacent to the gear box 4.
A seat 10 for an operator was fixed to the middle part of the carriage 2 by a vertical steel tube. The height of the seat 10 can be adjusted by releasing a locker 11 arranged under said seat 10 to satisfy different operators. The gear box 4 is arranged under the seat 10 and the central shaft 10 of the two pedals 12 is the input shaft of said gear box 4. When cutting is required, the operator can just step on the pedals 12 to drive the lawn mower. The operator can change the speed of the lawn mower by using different frequency of pedaling in combination with different positions of the gears.
The driving force is transmitted to the rear driving shaft to drive the lawn mower forward via the chain wheel 22, chain 21. Meanwhile, the driving force is transmitted to the front cutting hob 15 for cutting.
When the lawn mower is idle, the cutting hob mechanism 1 can be lifted from the grass and fixed to the front support 6.
The part of the gear box 4 for driving the rear axle has different positions which can be used to obtain different moving speeds to satisfy cutting requirements of different lawns. The neutral position of the gear box 4 is used for pushing ahead by people. The cutting hob mechanism 1 can also be lifted to reduce resistance when the lawn mower is required to move to another place.
The present invention can be used for grass cutting as well as sports and entertainment. The present invention does not consume fuel or power and is thus healthy and environment-friendly.
Despite of what has been described as above, from the aspect of humanization, the present invention can also designed as a power-assisted lawn mower. As shown in
By turning on the switch for power-assisting, the lawn mower can be changed from the mode “sports” to “entertainment”, regardless of that the lawn mower is cutting or moving from one place to the other.
As shown in
As further shown in
The structure of another lawn mower the rear wheels of which are directly driven by a transmission shaft is shown in
Two bearing seats 56 which are arranged respectively at the front and the rear of the same axis are fixed to the rear end of the carriage 2. One end of each of two rotating shafts 58 is connected respectively to the inner hole of one of said two bearing seats 58, and the other end of each of the two shafts is respectively fixed to a swing support 61, wherein the rotating shaft 58 arranged adjacent to the gear box 4 is a hollow shaft in which a transmission shaft 59 is inserted.
A driving rear shaft comprising a left half-axle 33, a right half-axle 31 and a differential 32 is fixed to said swing support 61. Each of the two rear wheels 5.2 is respectively connected to said left half-axle 33 and said right half-axle 31. One end of the transmission shaft 59 is connected to the input of the differential 32 via a universal coupling and the other end of the transmission shaft 59 is connected to an output of the gear box 4.
As shown in
A transmission clutch 23.1 can also be fixed on the driving shaft 23. The transmission clutch 23.1 can be used to carry out the running or stop of the cutting hob 15.
As shown in
For the sake of braking, the braking mechanism depicted in
The handle 8 may also be replaced by other steering means, such as a steering wheel, which are known in the art. While said braking mechanism and said switch can also be replaced by a foot step type braking mechanism and a foot step type switch respectively.
Having described the preferred embodiments of the invention, it is understood that the invention defined by the appended claims is not to be limited by particular details set forth in the above description, as many apparent variations thereof are possible without departing from the spirit or scope thereof.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200920255249.1 | Nov 2009 | CN | national |
| 201020184350.5 | Apr 2010 | CN | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2010/001222 | 8/12/2010 | WO | 00 | 5/30/2011 |
