This application claims the priority of European patent application 15 000 052.9, filed Jan. 12, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The invention relates to a snow-clearing vehicle with a sweeper-blower arrangement, wherein the sweeper-blower arrangement is adjustably pivotable around a vertical axis which runs through the snow-clearing vehicle, and which sweeper-blower arrangement has a sweeping-roller brush, rotatingly drivable around its longitudinal axis, as well as a plurality of blow-air openings which are arranged in the direction of travel in front of and along the sweeping-roller brush on both sides of the vertical axis. The invention further relates to a method for operating a sweeper-blower snow-clearing vehicle for snow removal.
From EP-A-0 189 371, a snow-clearing vehicle is known which has an outlet opening for blow-air each on one end of the sweeping-roller brush. Depending on the position of the sweeping-roller brush, one or the other outlet opening is activated, and so an airstream is generated from the corresponding end of the sweeping-roller brush for removing snow. EP-A-0 288 436 shows a snow-clearing vehicle according to the above field, in which a blow-air opening on the end and in the center are activated in front of the sweeping-roller brush in the setting of the sweeper-blower arrangement provided for snow removal. If the aim is to blow the snow to the other side of the sweeper-blower arrangement, two blow-air openings, which face in opposite directions, are activated and the aforementioned blow-air openings are deactivated. Such snow-clearing vehicles have proved to be successful. They are used particularly for snow removal on runways for airplanes, where large amounts of snow have to be removed quickly. A sweeping machine is as well shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,007,191 and in DE 33 35 042 A1.
The invention addresses the problem of providing an improved snow-clearing vehicle. In particular, the aim is to safely and even quicker remove snow from an even larger surface during travel in one direction.
This problem is solved by a snow-clearing vehicle of the initially described type wherein the sweeper-blower arrangement is designed such that blow-air openings arranged on both sides of the vertical axis can be operated for blowing air simultaneously and in an equal or identical manner, respectively, having thus the same effect.
The blow-air openings are understood to acting equally or identically, respectively, if they act by blowing the snow to the same clearing side, either to the right side of the vehicle or to the left side of the vehicle. It has shown that with the improved, achievable blow-air distribution, particularly the more even blow-air distribution along the sweeping-roller brush, a significantly improved removal of the snow left behind by the plow or the snow loosened by the sweeping-roller brush can be achieved. This leads to an improved sweeping result, particularly at high driving speeds. The improved removal of snow by the aligned and identically acting blow-air openings on both sides of the center of the sweeping-roller brush or on both sides of the vertical axis also makes it possible to angle the sweeping-roller brush to a lesser degree, resulting in an enlargement of the work surface. It is further advantageous that, due to a plurality of blow-air openings along the sweeping-roller brush, a greater air volume at a slower speed can be achieved than with the known solution, having only one or two blow-air openings on one side. These have to operate with very high air speed in order to achieve good results. This also increases the risk that snow thrown far away laterally damages airplanes or vehicles or stationary facilities. The solution according to the invention with a plurality of blow-air openings which can be operated simultaneously and identically acting on both sides of the center largely prevents the risk of such damage. Identically or equally acting, respectively, refers to the movement of the snow in the same general direction to the left or to the right as seen from the snow-clearing vehicle and, in other words, the blowing of the blow-air openings not being directed toward each other.
It is preferred that in a snow-clearing vehicle, two or more blow-air openings are provided on each side of the vertical axis which can generate a blow-airstream along the sweeping brush and act in an equal manner. For a sweeping-roller brush with a length of 4 to 6 meters, four blow-air openings along the brush are preferred; for a sweeping-roller brush with a length of more than 6 meters, more than four and particularly six blow-air openings are preferably provided and arranged to act simultaneously and in an equal manner. Particularly with sweeping-roller brushes of such size, for which a continuous uniform pressing against the ground to be cleared is not easy to control, a plurality of blow-air openings on both sides of the vertical axis can significantly improve snow removal. If necessary, it is possible to provide only three blow-air openings, wherein one blow-air opening each is provided on one side of the roller brush and one blow-air opening is provided in the middle of the roller brush or on the vertical axis.
It is preferred that the blow-air openings are substantially spaced apart evenly. The large number of blow-air openings along the sweeping-roller brush spaced apart from each other evenly makes it possible particularly well to generate an airstream that is effective consistently over the entire length of the sweeping-roller brush. It is further preferred that the blow-air openings are arranged pivotably either individually or in groups for changing their blowing direction. The angle of the respective blow-airstream to the longitudinal axis of the sweeping-roller brush can thus be adjusted in a horizontal plane. This allows in a simple manner also for the adjustment of the blow-air openings to the changed direction of removal, when an adjustment is made from removal on the right to removal on the left (with corresponding realignment of the snowplow and the sweeping-roller brush). The pivotability of the blow-air openings also allows for different adjustment of the airstream along the sweeping-roller brush even at a constant direction of removal. The snow can thus be removed more purposefully from the sweeping-roller brush. Each blow-air opening can be adjusted individually, or if necessary, also together in groups of blow-air openings. The adjustment can be made mechanically or manually or by means of an electric motor or a hydraulic drive. In particular, the adjustment can be diverted by means of a mechanical arrangement from the pivoting movement of the sweeping-roller brush and/or mechanically transferred from said sweeping-roller brush to the blow-air openings, for example, by means of a rod system arrangement. In particular, the adjustment can also be determined by an electronic control device. This allows in a simple manner to provide different blow-air distributions for different removal requirements. If the blow-air openings are not arranged pivotably, a second arrangement of blow-air openings with opposite blowing direction must be provided for adjusting the blowing direction to the right or to the left.
It is also possible to provide a tilting of the blow-air openings towards or away from the surface to be cleared; otherwise, the angle of the blow-air openings is non-adjustable. It can be the same for all blow-air openings or different for individual blow-air openings.
A further preferred embodiment is that of blow-air openings, individually or in groups, being slidably arranged along the sweeping-roller brush. With the shifting along or substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the sweeping-roller brush, it is also possible to affect the blow-airstream. It is particularly advantageous if the outermost or first blow-air opening in blow-air direction is slidable such that it is eventually positioned outside the area which is covered by the sweeping-roller brush. As a result, the blow-airstream is effective on the entire length of the sweeping-roller brush. In a preferred embodiment, two or three blow-air openings each are arranged on each side of the vertical axis on a common carrier, wherein the corresponding carrier is slidable along the sweeping-roller brush and the corresponding blow-air openings are arranged pivotably on the carrier. This results in a constructively simple solution with which the aforementioned advantages of pivoting and sliding can be achieved.
It is further preferred that at least one blow-air opening is additionally arranged in the direction of travel behind the sweeping-roller brush, particularly, that at least two pivotable blow-air openings are arranged behind the sweeping-roller brush.
The snow-clearing vehicle can be a vehicle with its own drive and a snowplow in the front. Alternatively, the snow-clearing vehicle can be a pullable vehicle without its own drive, and so it is pulled along as trailer behind a vehicle with a snowplow. A preferred alternative particularly for such a case is that of the blow-air being generated separately for one group of blow-air openings each.
The invention further addresses the problem of providing improved snow removal with a sweeper-blower clearing vehicle.
This problem is solved with a method for operating a sweeper-blower clearing vehicle in that an airstream is generated from overlapping individual blow-airstreams by at least four blow-air openings along the sweeping-roller brush, each acting in an equal manner and simultaneously and each emitting a blow-airstream.
It has showing that with the thus achieved and improved, particularly more even blow-air distribution along the sweeping-roller brush, a significantly improved removal of the snow left behind by the plow or the snow loosened by the sweeping-roller brush can be achieved. This leads to an improved sweeping result. The improved removal of the snow by the aligned blow-air openings, which are acting in an identical or equal manner, respectively, along the sweeping-roller brush or on both sides of the vertical axis also makes it possible to angle the sweeping-roller brush to a lesser degree, resulting in an enlargement of the work surface. It is further advantageous that, due to a plurality of blow-air openings along the sweeping-roller brush, a greater air volume at a slower speed can be achieved than with the known solutions, which have only one or two blow-air openings on one side. These have to operate with very high air speed in order to achieve good results. This also increases the risk that snow thrown far away laterally damages airplanes or vehicles or stationary facilities. The solution with the more than two blow-air openings which can be operated simultaneously and are identically acting on both sides of the center of the sweeping-roller brush results in a diminished risk of such damage.
The blow-air openings are preferably arranged substantially at the same distance from each other along the sweeping-roller brush and are operated such that it results in the best possible even, combined blow-airstream along the sweeping-roller brush. A further preferred operating type is that of pivoting at a greater angle in the direction of travel those blow-air openings which are located at the end of the blow-airstream, particularly the two last blow-air openings in order to deposit the snow more purposefully against the airstream caused by driving. It is preferred that different positions of the blow-air openings are stored in and retrievable from an electronic control of the snow-clearing vehicle.
Further embodiments, advantages, and uses of the invention follow from the dependent claims and from the following description using the drawings:
In the schematic depiction of
According to the invention, openings for blowing air out from the sweeper-blower arrangement or, in other words, blow-air openings are arranged on both sides of the vertical axis 13 along the sweeping-roller brush 4 and are provided for emitting blow-air in an essentially identical manner, or in other words, in a manner that leads to air streams that work in essentially the same direction. This is depicted in
While the basic configuration with a plurality of identically acting blow-air openings was depicted using
The blow-air openings are preferably arranged pivotably, and therefore are pivotable from the position according to
For explanation purposes only,
While preferred embodiments of the invention are described in the present application, it must be clearly pointed out that the invention is not limited to these embodiments and can also be designed in a different manner within the scope of the following claims.
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15000052 | Jan 2015 | EP | regional |
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