U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,244 discloses a truck body structure and driven moving floor for self unloading, where a self unloading load hauling box for use on a towed carriage or carried by a powered motor vehicle is provided where the box is a rigid unit having a bottom wall with the floor plate and side walls and front end wall projecting up from the rigid bottom wall. An endless belt is looped around the bottom wall and runs on a driven roller at the rear end and an idler roller at the front end of the box. The endless belt is driven through an arc of selected length at spaced apart intervals to unload contents from the box. The jerky action from intermittently driving the belt has a tendency to cause a vibration, which loosens the contents in the box and thus results in a relatively even discharge during unloading.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,082 discloses a rolling floor for a truck or trailer box for hauling and unloading objects. The rolling floor includes a floor portion and a pair of wall portions upwardly extending from lateral sides of the floor portion. The floor portion has a plurality of rollers extending across. An endless belt wraps around the floor portion and rests on the rollers of the floor portion. A drive mechanism drives the belt.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,285 discloses a trailer with continuous conveyor bed, where a trailer assembly is provided for receiving, transporting and discharging flowable bulk material. Trailer assembly includes a pair of opposing generally vertical sidewalls which are secured to a frame member and converge downwardly and inwardly. Flexible flat members extend downwardly from the bottom edges of the sidewalls. The sidewalls are joined by a front end wall and a rear wall to define a bin having an open floor. The conveyor is provided as the floor for the bin with the conveyor extending beneath the sidewalls and having a width greater than the distance between the bottom edges of the sidewall and positioned closely adjacent to the terminal edges of the flexible flat members. The conveyor includes a pair of opposing endless chains which are mounted about sprockets with the chains connected by cross members.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,226 discloses a material metering device for particulate matter where backups and caking of the material is inhibited by the provision of a live metering gate which consists of an upper blocking section and a lower material contacting surface. The lower surface is continually moved in the direction of material flow at a speed approximately equal or slightly greater than the material flow speed. An elongated rotatable rod carried at the lower end of the blocking plate preferably provides the material contacting surface. The gate is vertically adjustable so that the volumetric flow rate of material can be controlled.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,389 discloses a combined dump truck and spreader apparatus, for selectively dumping and spreading material. The apparatus includes a truck chassis and body for receiving and dispensing the materials. The body has a first and second end and a first and second curved sidewall. The body is secured to the chassis and the tailgate which is secured to the first end of the body. A conveyor is disposed within the body and extends between the first and second ends thereof for conveying the materials along the body. The tailgate defines an opening which cooperates with the conveyor for permitting the flow of the materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,557,944 discloses a dump truck apparatus with a removable hopper where the apparatus is capable of adapting a vehicle for use in either a dump truck mode or spreader truck mode and includes a dump body unit and a removable hopper. The main frame attaches to the vehicle and supports the dump body. The dump body has a flatbed and a lengthwise channel which contains an embedded conveyor. In the dump truck mode, the conveyor is uncovered and the hopper is attached to the dump body so that an aperture at the hopper's base is aligned over the conveyor. Gravity fed materials may then be conveyed along the body to an attached spreader for dispersion.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,966 discloses a multipurpose dump unit for vehicles where the unit is designed to be mounted on a vehicle for hauling, dumping, spreading and the collection of refuse as well as for distributing salt, sand and other aggregates. The unit has a single dump body with a sloping fixed end gate and a longitudinally extending end gate and a longitudinally extending conveyor along the bottom of the dump body. The unit is provided with a spreader mechanism at the exit gate to facilitate spreading of salt, sand and other aggregates. The unit is pivotably mounted near its rear end so that it can be lifted by hydraulic cylinders for dumping, spreading aggregate, asphalt etc. The dump unit can be sized so that the vehicle can navigate narrow streets and alleys and is mounted to a height with sides of a height to meet the requirements for manual loading.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,090,305 discloses a vehicle dump body elevation device, kit and method relating thereto where the device has at least one hinge assembly for attaching a dumb body to a vehicle frame and at least one hoist having a lower end pivotally attached to the vehicle frame and an upper end pivotably attached to the dump body. The kit permits easy installation without modification of a vehicle's structural components and it permits dumping over the vehicle's bumper and other frame mounted accessories.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,593 discloses a scissor frame lift apparatus for dump trucks, where the scissor frame includes an upper and lower pivotably interconnected leg members which in turn are pivotably connected at opposite ends to the underside of the dumb body and the chassis of the track respectively. Lift cylinders extend along opposite sides of the leg members between the dump body and the chassis to elevate and tilt the dump body. The upper limit of advancement of the dump body is controlled by the frame stop member which defines an angular extension of one of the leg members and moves into engagement with the other of the leg members before cylinders reach their full limit of extension.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,670 discloses a side dump trailer, which has a trailer body pivotably mounted on wheeled frame to enable the material within the trailer body to be dumped from one side of the trailer. The body is pivotably moved with respect to the wheeled frame by means of a plurality of horizontally spaced apart scissor lift assemblies positioned beneath body of the trailer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,159,229 discloses an articulated chassis for a vehicle where the vehicle has a front and rear pair of power driven wheels respectably supported from front and rear chassis portions which are capable of being relatively articulated to steer the vehicle and has particular but not exclusive reference to a vehicle such as dumper or forklift truck. The main object of the invention is to enable such a vehicle to be steered without differential slip between the front and rear wheels.
Generally speaking what is provided is a moving floor hopper which can be placed on a small dump truck or other job site hauling vehicles such as a compact articulated site dumper. The moving floor hopper may have the capacity to carry approximately 3½ yards of payload or approximately 7,700 pounds of material. A range may include anywhere from about 1 to 9 metric tons or about 1.1 to 9.9 US tons. The moving floor hopper combined with say for example, a compact articulated site dumper enables the user to load the moving floor hopper with material, transport the material to another place on the job site, and then operate the moving floor hopper to meter a precise quantity of material onto the new site location.
A description of the present embodiment of the moving floor hopper combined with, in this particular embodiment, a compact articulated site dumper will now be provided. While operation of the moving floor hopper is provided on the compact articulated site dumper, it is readily conceived that additional job site hauling vehicles or site dumpers if properly equipped can be utilized for operation of the moving floor hopper.
Referring to
There are three main components of the site dumper elevation, rotation, and moving floor implement or in other words moving floor hopper 12. They include the main material bed 13 which includes a bed side wall including two equal but opposite parallel spaced side walls 16 as well as a front bed gate 14 and a rear bed gate 15 where the gates can be operated by a linear gate actuator 74 as seen in
The second main component of the moving floor hopper 12 is the moving floor 20 and the third main component is the undercarriage 21. In this particular embodiment the compact articulated site dumper has an articulating chassis 22 which supports the moving floor hopper 12 as well as provides for the axle and drive end connection with the wheels 24 and 26. All three main components will be discussed in full detail.
In general, the moving floor is designed to transfer material towards and away from the bed gates. Because the moving floor spans from one wall to another, it defines the closed bottom wall of the material bed.
Referring to
The hopper has a tube steel top frame 72 which defines the upper limit of the top wall of the side walls 16 and the front and rear gates 14 and 15 respectively. The sidewalls 16 have a top vertical wall 17 and a sloped wall 19 where the sloped wall enables the carried material to fall onto the moving floor 62. The forward or front gate 14 and the rear gate 15 are each actuated for opening and closing through a 12V linear gate 74 mounted on the frame of the hopper.
In general, the moving floor is an endless loop moving floor which is arranged between the two equal but opposite longitudinally aligned floor supports which span from the forward end to the rearward end of the material bed. The endless loop moving floor rotates about a forward roller bearing arranged at the forward end of the material bed and a rearward roller bearing arranged at the rearward end of the material bed.
The moving floor 62 in this particular embodiment is constructed of a series of floor rollers 64 equidistantly spaced along with the longitudinal length 82 of the hopper at a roller spacing 66 which in this particular embodiment is approximately 12″. The rollers 64 span between two longitudinally aligned floor supports or in this particular embodiment two outside C-channel bed rail frames 90A and 90B as can be seen in
The entire moving floor hopper 10 rotates on a turntable 52 which is hydraulically operated and is attached to the compact articulated site dumper. In order to support and operate the moving floor hopper 10, an undercarriage 21 is provided for cantilevered support of the moving floor hopper as well as hydraulic operation for lifting and rotating the hopper on the turntable 52. Directly connected to the turntable 52 is an arm stay 50a & 50b which provides a vertical space between the turntable 52 and the bracket arm or undercarriage bracket arms 54a & 54b (also referred to as 54) supporting the main load of the moving floor hopper. The bracket arm 54 has an equal but opposite bracket arm 54b and they extend longitudinally out from the arm stays 50A and 50B to support the bed tilt hinge 68. The bed tilt hinge 68 provides radial rotation of the moving floor hopper about the hinge for dumping of the material in the hopper bed.
A lift arm which in this particular embodiment is a clamshell hydraulic 44 is provided between the bracket arm's 54A and 54B and the hydraulic 44 provides the radial lift and tilt of the moving floor hopper about the bed tilt hinge 68.
Referring to
As the user actuates the hydraulic controls 32 and specifically the lift component 36, the hydraulic 44 exerts a lifting force on the lifting arm 48 which is attached to the undercarriage at a lower pivot hinge 46 and to the moving floor and specifically the longitudinally aligned floor supports at an upper pivot hinge 49. The lifting force from the hydraulic 44 exerts positive pressure on the left arm 48 of the clamshell hydraulic 44 thus causing the material bed and moving floor to tilt about the bed tilt hinge 68 causing the material in the hopper to spill towards the forward end 16 of the hopper itself. When the operation is complete, the user releases the hydraulic pressure built up in the hydraulic 44 then the moving floor bed and hopper 10 lower back to the original position.
While not shown in the present embodiment, in lieu of a clam shell hydraulic, a scissor lift may be incorporated into the moving floor hydraulic system, or a combination of both the clam shell and scissor lift hydraulics for lift and tilt of the bed.
Referring to
The moving floor hopper 10 may be full of material and the material itself may need to be metered out slowly to meet the quantity requirements during the site placement operation. In order to provide for depositing of the material onto the jobsite at distances which exceed the depositing distance of the main moving floor, a high-speed conveyor as seen in
A brief discussion of the method of utilizing the moving floor hopper 120 as seen in
This may include in addition to driving the compact articulated site dumper to the location, rotating the moving floor hopper 12 about the turntable 52 by actuating the hydraulic controller or joystick and utilizing the rotate component 38 of the hydraulic controls to turn the moving floor hopper in a radial direction plus or minus 90° from the longitudinal direction of the articulated site dumper.
The user can then engage the moving floor 20 for distribution of the material at step 124. This will include actuating the hydraulic controls 32 to start the floor 62 rotating or moving in the either the forward or rearward direction. The floor hydraulic 70 is exerted with positive or negative pressure through the use of the floor component 34 which controls the direction of the moving floor.
The user may wish to dump the material into a site-specific location. The user can optionally lift the moving floor at step 126 by utilizing the joystick or hydraulic controller 32 and actuate the lift component 36 to radially rotate the moving floor hopper 12 about the forward end 16 around the bed tilt hinge 68. The tilt angle 42 may be between 0 and positive 49°. In tilting, the hydraulic 44 exerts pressure against the lift arm 48 which in turn exerts a rotation pressure or force onto the moving floor hopper tilting the hopper about the bed tilt hinge 68.
During this process, the user may be required to further rotate the moving floor hopper radially about the turntable 52. The user can optionally rotate the moving floor at step 128 again by actuating the rotate component 38 included on the hydraulic controls 32 of the joystick.
In alternative embodiment, the material may need to be placed at a distance which is further away than which the moving floor hopper is able to deposit the material just utilizing the main moving floor bed. In such a case, the user can optionally place material onto the second moving floor at step 130. The second moving floor as previously discussed is a high-speed conveyor 94 which can be placed at the forward or rearward ends of the moving floor. The user can move the material from the slow speed moving floor 62 to the high-speed conveyor 94 or 104 which will launch the material to the desired location. An optional funnel wall is configured to be placed on each of the side walls 16a & 16b to direct the material onto the narrower high speed conveyor.
Once the moving floor hopper has started moving the material out of the hopper itself, the users can place material to the ground location at step 132 and complete the installation of material at the site-specific location.
More specifically, a method of operating a moving floor implement 200 as seen in
In addition, the user may actuate the first lift hydraulic control at step 208 to power the first lift arm through a lifting arm hydraulic at step 212. This will tilt the moving floor about the bed tilt hinge at step 214. The user may also actuate a rotation hydraulic control at step 216 to power the undercarriage through the turntable hydraulic at step 218. This in turn will rotate the undercarriage a rotational distance at step 220.
This application claims priority benefit of U.S. Ser. No. 61/222,975 filed 3 Jul. 2009.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61222975 | Jul 2009 | US |