The present invention relates to a screening bucket. In particular, the present invention relates to a screening bucket that can be actuated by means of an articulated arm of an earthwork machine. In more detail, the present invention relates to a screening bucket that can be actuated by means of an articulated arm of an earthwork machine in order to separate elements of different sizes from heterogeneous excavated material.
As known, screening buckets are excavating equipment that, coupled to the end of an excavating arm, allow to take heterogeneous material and to select it, separating the fine fractions from the rough fractions, and keeping these latter inside a basket provided with fixed or rotating grids. In case of rotating grids, the screening of the material is performed by means of a rotating cylindrical basket, usually driven into rotating by means of a hydraulic rotary actuator carried by the bucket frame at opposite side from the bucket blade, that is usually provided with teeth for crushing the surface of the area to be excavated.
It is easily understood that the size of the openings of the grid of the rotating basket determine the granulometry (size) of the material kept in the basket; moreover, it is clearly apparent that, in order to filter the excavated material to obtain fractions of different sizes, it is necessary to perform a screening in more steps (fractionated screening), and this is possible only by changing the basket after having loaded the material, that has been subjected to a first screening step, into a hopper, so that to change the grid and replace it with a rougher one, to load the residual material in the basket, and so on until to have only the material of greater size than the grid of maximum screening size.
It is clearly understood that this operation requires very long times, and therefore high operating costs. Alternatively, it is possible to have a plurality of buckets, each of which provided with a basket with holes of given dimension, different than the dimension of the holes of the other baskets.
It is clearly understood that none of these two solutions is satisfactory, as it is necessary to have available many baskets or buckets, which means very high costs for both the solutions.
In view of the situation described above, it would be desirable to have available a screening bucket that, in addition to allow limiting and possibly overcoming the drawbacks of the prior art, defines a new standard for this kind of equipment, both from the viewpoint of the product and of the method of use, and therefore of the method performed for fractionated screening without losing material during the operation of the screening basket and eliminating the shutdown times necessary to replace the current basket with a basket with different screening capability.
The present invention relates to a screening bucket. In particular, the present invention relates to a screening bucket that can be actuated by means of an articulated arm of an earthwork machine. In more detail, the present invention relates to a screening bucket that can be actuated by means of an articulated arm of an earthwork machine in order to separate elements of different sizes from excavated material.
An object of the present invention is to provide a rotating screening basket for a screening bucket, allowing an adjustable screening of the heterogeneous material that has been excavated, in order to separate therefrom fractions of given size continuously definable at will.
According to the present invention a rotating screening basket for a screening bucket is provided, whose main features will be described in at least one of the appended claims.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a screening bucket provided with a rotating basket allowing to excavate heterogeneous material and to screening it in an adjustable manner, in order to separate therefrom fractions of given size continuously definable at will.
According to the present invention a screening bucket is provided, whose main features will be described in at least one of the appended claims.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method for continuous fractionated screening of incoherent excavated material by using a screening bucket.
According to the present invention a method is provided for screening incoherent excavated material by separating fractions of different size definable at will by using a screening bucket, wherein the main features of the method will be described in at least one of the appended claims. Moreover, in view of what above illustrated, a screening basket will be described below according to an embodiment, suitable for a screening bucket, the basket comprising a first cylindrical body having a central axis and a plurality of first holes, an actuating unit being provided for driving the first cylindrical body into rotation around the central axis; wherein the basket comprises a second cylindrical body housed inside the first cylindrical body; the second cylindrical body having a plurality of second holes, actuating means being associated with the first and second cylindrical bodies in order to move them with respect to each other so as to overlap the first and second holes.
An embodiment will be also described, wherein the first and second cylindrical bodies are so reciprocally associated, and the actuating means are so designed, that the rotation of one of the first and second cylindrical bodies through the actuating means results in a change in both the reciprocal position of the first and second cylindrical bodies along the longitudinal direction (parallel to the axis) and in their reciprocal position in rotational direction, wherein therefore, by means of the actuating means, one of the two cylindrical bodies is both translated and rotated with respect to the other body.
An embodiment will be also described, wherein the second cylindrical body, arranged inside the first cylindrical body, has a second diameter that is slightly smaller than a first diameter of the first cylindrical body and/or the first holes and the second holes have substantially the same width, so that, in use, when they perfectly overlap one another, the filtering capability exerted by the combination of the first and second cylindrical bodies is equal to the filtering capability of the first or second cylindrical body.
According to a further embodiment described herein, the basket comprises first centring means associated with the first cylindrical body in order to keep it coaxial with the central axis.
According to a further embodiment described herein, the second cylindrical body has a bottom closing it at the side of said centring means.
According to a further embodiment described herein, the centring means comprise a spoke-member coaxial with the central axis; the bottom portion being coupled to the spoke-member by means of a plurality of pins parallel to the central axis so as to be longitudinally movable with respect to the spoke-member.
According to a further embodiment described herein, the actuating unit comprises a first case supporting a second case in a freely rotatable manner; the first case and the second case being hydraulically coupled; the actuating unit and the actuating means are hydraulically coupled; the actuating means comprising a first linear actuator coaxial with the central axis to move the bottom axially with respect to the spoke-member.
According to a further embodiment described herein, each of the first and second holes is delimited by a first polygonal perimeter and by a second polygonal perimeter respectively, that are provided with first and second edges orthogonal to each other and having substantially constant width.
According to a further embodiment described herein, at least some first and second holes are square in shape and have substantially equal extension.
According to a further embodiment described herein, the case has, at the rear, hydraulic valves.
According to a further embodiment described herein, the actuating unit and the actuating means are hydraulically coupled; the actuating means comprising a second linear actuator arranged between the second cylindrical body and the first cylindrical body, so as to couple them together in a way that is axially fixed and can be angularly set at will within a given angular interval.
According to a further embodiment described herein, the second cylindrical body comprises a cylindrical element coupled to the second case in an axially and angularly rotatable way; the respective cylindrical element and second case having respective projections and recesses conjugated together so as to be, in use, reciprocally movable in a helical manner.
Below, a bucket will be described, provided with a basket according to any one of the embodiments illustrated, as well as a method for adjusting and/or setting a basket according to any one of the embodiments illustrated.
Further characteristics and advantages of the screening bucket, the screening basket and the method for fractionated screening according to the present invention will be more apparent from the description below, set forth with reference to the attached drawings, that illustrate some examples of embodiment, where identical or corresponding parts of the equipment are identified by the same reference numbers. In particular:
In
The bucket 100 (
With reference to
The space 20 is so shaped as to house the basket 1 and a respective roto-translatory actuating unit 50, for example of the fluid-dynamic type, better described below, coaxially with the axis 22. In particular, the actuating unit 50 comprises an actuator 50′, for instance an hydraulic actuator of the type CPR-8 produced by Baltrotors, which has an interface rotatable around a given axis and is designed to control a hydraulic device, for instance a hydraulic actuator associated with the same interface. The actuating unit 50 is provided with a first cylindrical case 52 (
With particular reference to
The first cylindrical body 30 is coaxial with the central axis 51 and is rigidly coupled to the spoke-member 42 extending radially from the hub-shaped portion 420. The cylindrical body 30 is therefore pivoted to the frame 10 through the centring unit 40 provided with the spoke-member 42 and with the hub-shaped portion 420, coaxially with the central axis 51. The centring unit 40 is so designed as to be kept coaxial with the pivot axis 22 cooperating with each roller 242 having a respective peripheral portion 2420 externally adjacent to the same first cylindrical body 30. Therefore, each roller 242 is arranged at a radial distance from the pivot axis 22 that is quiet equal to an outer radius of the first cylindrical body 30. Therefore, the spoke-member 42 of the centring unit 40 keeps the first cylindrical body 30 and the second cylindrical body 60 coaxial with the axis 22/51.
The cylindrical body 30 has a plurality of first holes 32 (square-shaped in the embodiment illustrated, but they may have different shape), better shown in
Similarly to the first cylindrical body, the second cylindrical body 60, provided with a bottom 624, reinforced anteriorly by means of a plurality of ribs 621, has a plurality of second holes 62 arranged, like the first holes 32, on the first cylindrical body 30, and therefore longitudinally at a second given pitch P2. Therefore, the first and second holes 32/62 are respectively delimited by a first square perimeter 320 and by a second square perimeter 620, provided with first and second edges 320′ and 620′ that are orthogonal to each other and have constant width.
The second cylindrical body 60 is arranged inside the first cylindrical body 30 and has a second diameter D2 that is slightly smaller than a first diameter D1 of the first cylindrical body 32; the first holes 32 and the second holes 62 have substantially the same width, so that, in use, when they overlap each other, the filtering capability resulting by combining the first and second cylindrical bodies 30/60 is equal to the filtering capability of the single first or second cylindrical body 30/60, so as to act together as the basket 1 would comprise only one of them (one of the two cylindrical bodies 30 and 60).
Each of the first and second holes 32/62 is delimited by a first square perimeter 320 and by a second square perimeter 620, polygonal and delimited by first and second edges that are orthogonal to each other and have constant width.
In view of the above description, the integral coupling between the second cylindrical case 54 and the hub-shaped portion 420 of the spoke-member 42 allows driving the first cylindrical body 30 (and therefore the second cylindrical body 60) into rotation with respect to the frame 10. Again with reference to
The bottom 624 of the second cylindrical body 60 has the function of protecting the actuating unit 50 against the material contained in the basket 1 and each roller 242 is coupled to the front portion 11 in a releasable manner, so that the basket 1 can freely access the space 20 from the bottom through the opening 170 for mounting/removing operations.
The operation of the basket 1 and of the bucket 100 is clearly apparent from the description above and does not require further explanations. However, it is useful to specify that, with references to
Lastly, it is clearly apparent that variants and modifications can be done to the basket 1 and the screening bucket 100 comprising it, described and illustrated herein, without however departing from the protective scope of the invention.
For example, it should be specify that the holes 32 and 62 of the first and second cylindrical bodies 30 and 60 may have the same shape, as well as different shape according to the operating needs. Usually, without however limiting the protective scope of the invention, these holes may have round, triangular, pentagonal shape.
Moreover, the relative motion between the first and second cylindrical bodies 30 and 60 for adjusting the overlapping degree of the respective first and second holes, and therefore the screening degree of the basket 1 resulting from the different overlapping degree of the holes 32 and 62, may be also different than an axial movement, as it is shown in
The truncated-conical portion may be replaced with a flat portion, provided with holes of any shape.
With particular reference to
With reference to
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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UB2015A005668 | Nov 2015 | IT | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/IB2016/056900 | 11/16/2016 | WO | 00 |