Patent Application
20240093447
The present invention relates to heavy equipment and more particularly, relates to a blade accessory for attachment to heavy equipment.
The field of heavy equipment is replete with various types of graders and frontend loaders. A grader usually comprises a tractor from which a generally vertically disposed blade extends downwardly. The blade includes a lower edge which is essentially linear and which is selectively positioned relative to the tractor. Graders are employed in a variety of situations to move materials including snow and also for contouring surfaces such as roads as well as for filling trenches.
In the case of large construction projects, it is common practice to employ a first tractor fitted with a backhoe bucket to move bulk material followed by grading by a second tractor fitted with a pivotably adjustable grader blade. However, for many smaller operations, two separate tractors cannot be economically justified. Therefore, attempts have been made to removably attach adjustable grader blades to the bucket of a loader and/or backhoe. Such an attachment would permit an operator to use a single tractor for both grading and loading. In other circumstances, different types of equipment are used to expedite snow removal. The vehicles used include front end loaders and graders. Ownership of frontend loaders is common since they are relatively simple and inexpensive. These frontend loaders, however, while excellent for their intended purpose, are limited in their functions and it would therefore be useful to have a frontend loader vehicle which could perform in a dual role-either as a frontend loader for scooping up a load of material and lifting and depositing it on the truck or as a bulldozer or grader for either pushing large loads of heavy material or for grading a surface. Unfortunately, however, normal frontend loaders are not properly equipped to permit them to function as a bulldozer.
Other types of Snow removal equipment commonly used include snowplow implements having a hitch mechanism which couples the snowplow blade to smaller vehicles such as pick-up trucks. The main advantage of existing equipment is that considerable time and effort is typically required in order to connect the implement to the truck and to disconnect it therefrom. Prior art equipment is further characterized by excessive complexity which leads to high manufacturing costs and substantial maintenance problems.
In addition, the moldboards of existing grading equipment are susceptible to being damaged due to the manner in which they are mounted. The desirability of providing for the yielding of the moldboard when the blade strikes a stationary obstacle has been recognized. However, even the moldboards which are mounted for yieldable pivoting are permitted to pivot only in a relatively restricted manner. Consequently, the moldboards frequently pivot to such an extent that they bang against the pavement or against the portion of the push-frame, causing damage that requires costly repair or replacement of the moldboard.
The abovementioned graders are particularly well suited for their use. but their construction does not allow for other applications. As a result, conventional graders have a low degree of utilization and frequently are idled over long periods of time. Thus, conventional known machinery such as frontend loaders, graders and grading implements specifically designed so as to be mounted on conventional small vehicles such as pick-up trucks, although quite useful for their intended purpose, suffer from a lack of versatility.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a grader attachment that could allow for the conversion between graders and loader type vehicles. Such a need has been recognized in the past and there exists known grader blade attachments that may be used in conjunction with the buckets commonly employed on front end loaders, backhoes and the like to convert such vehicles into graders, snowplows or the like. However, such prior art attachments suffer from some drawbacks. Indeed, much of the prior art in the field of grader attachments consists of devices that are quite cumbersome to use, structurally complex and that necessarily require a great deal of time to install.
Some of the known grader blade attachment devices are intended to provide means that will avoid the necessity of having the vehicle driver dismount from the main vehicle for installation and removal. However, in using Such devices, care must be taken in driving the bucket vehicle and the device has many small fitting spaces in which ice and snow and other debris can accumulate and from which such debris must be removed before the grader attachment can be connected to a bucket of the vehicle. The grader attachment devices known in the past either have not provided for angulation of the blade with respect to the bucket on which it is mounted to permit changing of the angle of attack of the vehicle when used as a grader, or alternatively have not provided for easy changing of such blade angle. Furthermore, some of the prior art attachments are mounted directly on the lifting arms which are part of the machine and intended for various implements.
The drawbacks of this type of attachment are, on one hand, that it is difficult to control and, on the other hand, that the lifting arms and their mountings have originally been dimensioned for quite different loads, loads of other magnitude and in other directions which may cause fatigue, buckling and fracture during use of the attachment.
Also, most known snowplow mounting attachments rigidly affix the plow to the loader. Accordingly, because the plow blade is well forward of the loader's wheel the blade does not efficiently track the vertical contours of the plowed Surface. Additionally, current mounting attachments are not interchangeable between the wide variety of large highway plows, nearly all of which have standard mounting brackets.
Prior art attachments also suffer from the requirement of requiring either the provision of especially designed buckets or substantial modification to the existing bucket. In addition, prior art devices inherently require a substantial amount of time in mounting and dismounting the attachment. Also, flexibility of the loader equipment provided by the prior art attachments is somewhat negated by required permanent fixture and modifications to the equipment interfering with the normal use and performance of the loader equipment.
One of the most common problems associated with the prior art attachments is that they typically involve close tolerance securing mechanisms that include many moving parts. Experience has demonstrated that, under winter use conditions involving repeated exposure to snow, ice, sand and salt, such complicated mechanisms are subjected to jamming, freezing and rusting.
Consequently, the moving parts often become inoperable, or, even worse, break under excess force applied in attempting to free them. As mentioned previously, many snowplow mounting attachments necessitate bolting or welding fixtures or making modifications to the loader's bucket to assist in securing the plow to the loader. Frequently, however, such changes to the loader will impair normal loader operation.
According to the present invention, a snowplow attachment for a work machine comprises a frame with a front-end portion and a rear-end portion. The front-end portion having an attachment structure pivotally secured to outer ends of the frame. A snowplow mounting plate is pivotally mounted to the work machine frame. A blade assembly including a pair of pivotally mounted supports is pivotally connected at an upper end to the outer ends of the work machine frame. The lower end of the pair of pivotally mounted supports that are pivotally mounted to the frame so that the frame can move towards and away from the work machine. The blade assembly has two sections operatively connected to the attachment structure by at least one operating strut.
Further according to the present invention, a snowplow attachment for a work machine, comprises a frame with a front-end portion and a rear-end portion. An attachment structure is pivotally secured to outer ends of the frame. A blade assembly is pivotally connected to the frame. A pair of supports are pivotally mounted to the frame so that the frame can move towards and away from the work machine. The blade assembly has two sections operatively connected to the attachment structure by at least one operating strut.
In the description that follows, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations of these specific details are possible while still achieving the results of the present invention. Well-known processing steps are generally not described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obfuscating the description of the present invention.
In the drawings accompanying the description that follows, often both reference numerals and legends (labels, text descriptions) will be used to identify elements. If legends are provided, they are intended merely as an aid to the reader, and should not in any way be interpreted as limiting.
In the description that follows, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations of these specific details are possible while still achieving the results of the present invention. Well-known processing steps are generally not described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obfuscating the description of the present invention.
In the description that follows, exemplary dimensions may be presented for an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The dimensions should not be interpreted as limiting. They are included to provide a sense of proportion. Generally speaking, it is the relationship between various elements, where they are located, their contrasting compositions, and sometimes their relative sizes that is of significance.
In the drawings accompanying the description that follows, often both reference numerals and legends (labels, text descriptions) will be used to identify elements. If legends are provided, they are intended merely as an aid to the reader and should not in any way be interpreted as limiting.
In general terms, the present invention relates to a work machine 100, depicted as a compact track loader, with an attachment 102 operatively coupled to the work machine 100. It should be understood, however, that the work machine could be one of many types of work machines, including, and without limitation, a skid steer, a backhoe loader, a front loader, a bulldozer, and other construction vehicles. The work machine 100, as shown in
An important aspect of the present invention is that the improved snowplow attachment or other tool attachment can be operated with electronics but without any new or additional hydraulics. That is, the snowplow 124 as shown in
Referring to
An important aspect of the present invention, as shown in
Referring to
The snowplow mounting plate 122 is pivotally mounted to the work machine frame 104. A blade assembly 124 including a pair of pivotally mounted supports 140 and 142 which are pivotally connected at the upper end 140a and 142a to the arms 104a and 104b of the frame 104. The lower end of the 140b and 142b of the pair of pivotally mounted supports 140 and 142 are pivotally mounted to the frame 104 so that the frame 104 can move towards and away from the work machine 100.
An important aspect of the present invention is that movement of the blade assembly 124 is provided through means of an assembly 144 and reference will now be made to
As shown in
It is within the terms of the present invention for a single operating strut 162 to be connected to the clevis 166. The result is that the angle of the two blades 130 and 132 can be adjusted with respect to the attachment structure 112 to form a V-shaped blade. The ends 104a and 104b of the frame 104 can be raised or lowered to raise or lower the attachment structure 112 and thereby effect the movement of the V-shaped blade.
In an alternative embodiment, as shown in
While the above descriptions contain many specificities, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope, but rather as an exemplification of several embodiments thereof The invention is capable of considerable modification, alteration, and equivalents. Accordingly, the scope should be determined not by the embodiments illustrated, but by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.
Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to a certain preferred embodiment or embodiments, certain equivalent alterations and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon the reading and understanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described components (assemblies, devices, etc.) the terms (including a reference to a “means”) used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component which performs the specified function of the described component (i.e., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary embodiments of the invention. In addition, while a particular feature of the invention may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several embodiments, such feature may be combined with one or more features of the other embodiments as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application.
