Patent Application
20230002980
The present disclosure relates generally to compactor machines, and, more specifically, to cleaner fingers for cleaning debris from between adjacent rows of compactor pads or cleats disposed on an outer surface of a compactor wheel.
A compactor is a type of self-propelled work machine that may be used in a variety of applications, such as compacting fill dirt on a construction site or compacting debris in a landfill. Landfill compactors crush and compact waste and refuse to reduce the size and bulk of the material in order to maximize the landfill's available capacity. To obtain maximum compaction and crushing of refuse and other materials, a typical landfill compactor will include specialized drum with a number of rigid compactor pads or cleats. The compactor pads are circumferentially mounted on the outer surface of the compactor wheels, and are arranged in rows that are generally evenly spaced longitudinally across the outer surface. During operation, residual waste and other materials such as soil can collect on the wheels and between the compactor pads, impeding subsequent compacting. To remove the residual material or soil, a cleaner finger assembly is typically used. The cleaner finger assembly, which includes a number of individual cleaner fingers, is mounted to the compactor proximate the wheel. As the wheel rotates, the cleaner fingers scrape residual material from between the rows of compactor pads or cleats.
U.S. Pat. No. 11,001,234 discloses a notched compactor cleaner finger. However, the cleaner finger is straight and has a consistent thickness.
As can be seen, there still exists a need for a cleaner finger system that avoids costly repair in situations where the cleaner finger is not straight or does not have a consistent thickness.
A scraper for use with a compactor wheel assembly is provided according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The scraper may comprise an attachment portion, a scraping portion, and a transition portion connecting the scraping portion to the attachment portion. The transition portion may define a stress concentrator.
A replacement kit for a cleaner finger assembly is provided according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The kit may comprise a scraper including an attachment portion defining an elongated fastener receiving slot, a scraping portion that forms a first oblique angle with the attachment portion, and a transition portion connecting the scraping portion to the attachment portion, the transition portion defining a stress concentrator. The attachment portion may include a rectangular configuration defining a length and a width that is less than the length. The elongated fastener receiving slot may run parallel with the length of the attachment portion, and may define a slot width. A top mounting block may also be provided that defines a top mounting block width that is greater than the slot width, and may define two apertures that extend through the top mounting block.
A compactor wheel assembly according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may comprise a yoke subassembly, a compactor drum subassembly that is rotatably attached to the yoke assembly about an axis of rotation, and a scraper subassembly that is attached to the yoke subassembly proximate to the compactor drum subassembly. The scraper subassembly may include a plurality of scrapers, each of the plurality of scrapers including an attachment portion, a scraping portion that forms a first oblique angle with the attachment portion, and a transition portion connecting the scraping portion to the attachment portion. The transition portion may define a stress concentrator.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. In the drawings:
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. In some cases, a reference number will be indicated in this specification and the drawings will show the reference number followed by a letter for example, 100a, 100b or by a prime for example, 100′, 100″ etc. It is to be understood that the use of letters or primes immediately after a reference number indicates that these features are similarly shaped and have similar function as is often the case when geometry is mirrored about a plane of symmetry. For ease of explanation in this specification, letters and primes will often not be included herein but may be shown in the drawings to indicate duplications of features, having similar or identical function or geometry, discussed within this written specification.
A scraper of a drum associated with a work machine, such as a vibratory soil compactor, is disclosed. The scraper includes a geometric feature, which may be disposed on a bottom/top/side surface or combination thereof. Further, the geometric feature may be a hole or may be a round shape, V notch, square notch, or other variable geometry. Also, a different combination of geometric features may be used on the scraper. The geometric feature may be tuned for a desired loading condition, geometry, material, manufacturing method of the scraper, and/or a supporting structure. The geometric feature may allow the scraper to fracture at a point just prior to an event when damage may occur in a supporting scraper mounting structure, thereby minimizing the cost of repair. That is to say, it may be less expensive to replace the scraper than to repair the scraper mounting structure.
An exemplary embodiment of a compactor machine 100 is shown generally in
The compactor drum wheel assembly 102 includes a yoke subassembly 105 of the compactor machine 100. The compactor wheel assembly 102 may be used to crush materials, such as, for example, soil, as the compactor machine 100 is moved throughout the work site. The machine includes a cab or otherwise known as an operator control station 106. The compactor machine 100 may also include an engine 108, such as an internal combustion engine, and a variety of mechanical, hydraulic and/or electrical systems for performing known functions. Such components and/or systems are well known to those skilled in the art and, therefore, will not be discussed herein in greater detail.
Focusing now on
The scraper subassembly 300 includes a plurality of scrapers 400, each of the plurality of scrapers 400 including an attachment portion 402 (see also
As best seen in
Looking at
Referring to
As best seen in
Still referring to
This attachment structure may be described as follows. At least one of the plurality of scrapers 400 may be trapped below one of the plurality of top mounting blocks 302, and above the top mounting plate 304. One of the plurality of bottom mounting blocks 318 may be disposed below the top mounting plate 304, and may be fastened to the one of the plurality of top mounting blocks 302.
Referring now to
In addition, a linear array of a single scraper repeated at intervals is shown for subassemblies 300, 300a. However, it is contemplated that stacks of scrapers that are repeated as part of a linear array is possible in other embodiments of the present disclosure.
Next, various embodiments of a scraper that may be used with the assemblies and subassemblies described above will be discussed in detail with reference to
In
The attachment portion 402, 502, 602, 702 may be attached to the subassemblies 300, 300a by welding, fastening, etc. Often, fastening is employed to facilitate replacement of the scraper 400, 500, 600, 700. In such a case, the attachment portion 402, 502, 602, 702 defines a fastener receiving aperture 412, 512, 612, 712. One or more fastener receiving apertures may be provided that may be shaped as a cylindrical hole(s) or an elongated slot, etc.
In
Looking at
As shown, the thickness of the scrapers is consistent from the scraping portion to the attachment portion (see
As just alluded to herein, various configurations for the transition portion are possible. In
Referring to
In
The placement of the groove at this location allows the tensile stresses to be focused and concentrated given the direction 214 of the drum in
Alternatively, the groove may be placed on the top surface, or on the top and bottom surfaces simultaneously, taken advantage of compressive stresses as well when fine tuning the performance of the scraper.
Moreover as shown in
For example in
In
In
The mounting blocks, mounting plates, U-shaped plates, and scrapers may be cast or molded from any suitable material including, but not limited to, steel, aluminum, iron, cast-iron, grey cast-iron, and thermoplastics. The mounting plates may be bent using a brake press or a progressive die operation, etc. The mounting blocks may be machine, etc.
Any of the dimensions, configurations, materials, etc. discussed herein may be varied as needed or desired to be different than any value or characteristic specifically mentioned herein or shown in the drawings for any of the embodiments.
In practice, a compactor machine, a yoke assembly, a compactor wheel assembly, a scraper subassembly, a secondary cleaning subassembly and/or a scraper or replacement kit (which will be discussed in detail momentarily herein) constructed according any embodiment disclosed herein may be sold, bought, manufactured or otherwise obtained in an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) or after-market context. In some cases, various components, of the scraper subassembly or secondary cleaning subassembly, etc. may be provided as a kit to repair or retrofit a machine in the field.
The design intent of the stress concentrator of the scraper is to cause failure in the part prior to any damaging occurring in the scraper mounting structure. The stress concentrator may be tuned for the desired loading condition, the geometry of the scraper, the material of the scraper, the manufacturing method of the scraper, and the design of the attachment structure. The stress concentrator may be a combination of features of varying geometry and location on the scraper. The features may be continuous or non-continuous. The properly designed geometric feature will result in the scraper only failing just prior to when damage would occur in the scraper mounting structure. This may minimize the number of instances in which the scraper needs to be replaced in service as well as help to avoid the costly repair of the scraper mounting structure.
A replacement kit for a cleaner finger assembly as described herein may include a scraper 400, 500, 600, 700 including an attachment portion 402, 502, 602, 702 that defines an elongated fastener receiving slot (e.g. see 418, 518, 618, 718, and a scraping portion 404, 504, 604, 704 that forms a first oblique angle 406, 506 with the attachment portion. A transition portion 408, 608, 708, 808 may connect the scraping portion to the attachment portion that has a stress concentrator 410, 510, 610, 710. The elongated fastener receiving slot runs parallel with the length 414, 514, 614, 714 of the attachment portion 402, 502, 602, 702, and defines a slot width W418, W518, W618, W718.
As best understood with reference to
A top mounting plate 304 may be provided that includes a top portion 306 and a front flange 308, as well as a bottom guard plate 310 that includes a rear portion 312 and a bottom flange 314 that defines a series of slots 316. A bottom mounting block(s) 318 may be part of the kit that defines two holes (e.g., 320) that are configured to align with the two apertures of the top mounting block. This may allow fasteners to extend through the bottom mounting block, the top mounting plate, the scraper, and the top mounting block. Once the fasteners are tightened, all the components including the scraper will not move.
The transition portion 808 comprises a horizontally necked down region with angled side surfaces 832, 832a tapering from the mounting portion to the scraping portion, instead of the vice versa as shown in the previous scrapers.
The stress concentrator 810 may comprise a top groove 810a and/or a bottom groove 810b disposed on the upper surface 829 or the lower surface 830 of the transition portion.
Again, other embodiments and configurations of the scraper are contemplated herein and are intended to be within the scope of the present application. For example, the necked down or transition regions of various scrapers may be omitted in some cases.
As used herein, the articles “a” and “an” are intended to include one or more items, and may be used interchangeably with “one or more.” Where only one item is intended, the term “one” or similar language is used. Also, as used herein, the terms “has”, “have”, “having”, “with” or the like are intended to be open-ended terms. Further, the phrase “based on” is intended to mean “based, at least in part, on” unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the embodiments of the apparatus and methods of assembly as discussed herein without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention(s). Other embodiments of this disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the various embodiments disclosed herein. For example, some of the equipment may be constructed and function differently than what has been described herein and certain steps of any method may be omitted, performed in an order that is different than what has been specifically mentioned or in some cases performed simultaneously or in sub-steps. Furthermore, variations or modifications to certain aspects or features of various embodiments may be made to create further embodiments and features and aspects of various embodiments may be added to or substituted for other features or aspects of other embodiments in order to provide still further embodiments.
Accordingly, it is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention(s) being indicated by the following claims and their equivalents.
