Patent Application
20140205380
1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a vibratory compactor used, e.g., to compact asphalt or soil, and more particularly, relates to a ride-on vibratory compactor of the above-mentioned type having a multi-function control lever.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Vibratory compactors are used in a variety of soil and asphalt compaction and leveling applications. Most vibratory compactors have plates or rollers that rest on the surface to be compacted that are excited to vibrate so as to compact and level the worked surface. A common vibratory compactor, and one to which the invention is well-suited, is a so-called “double drum roller” used to compact asphalt or soil.
The double drum roller includes a chassis supported on the surface to be compacted by two (front and rear) rotating drum assemblies, each of which may support a respective subframe of the chassis. Each of the drum assemblies is driven to rotate by a dedicated hydraulic motor. Both hydraulic motors are supplied with pressurized hydraulic fluid from a pump powered by an internal combustion engine mounted on one of the subframes. In addition, each drum assembly is excited to vibrate by a dedicated exciter assembly that is located within the associated drum assembly and is powered by a hydraulic motor connected to a pump. Each exciter assembly typically comprises one or more eccentric masses mounted on a rotatable shaft that is positioned within the drum assembly. Rotation of the eccentric shaft imparts vibrations to the remainder of the drum assembly.
An operator support platform is typically situated on the subframe of the chassis and provides an operator's seat for supporting the operator of the roller. A control assembly for operating travel and operations of the roller is typically located near the operator and may include a steering wheel for controlling directional steering and a control lever for controlling forward and rearward travel by selective movement of the control lever in the forward and rearward directions, respectively. The control lever is typically cable-operated and has a relatively long stroke length between its forward-most and rearward-most positions. During operation, the operator of the roller typically maintains one hand on the steering wheel for steering and the other hand on the control lever to control forward and backward travel.
The control assembly further includes a number of control elements, e.g., buttons, switches, knobs, and the like located on the dash of the roller and configured to be selected for carrying out a multitude of functions of the roller. For instance, the control elements are provided to control the activation and deactivation of the vibratory exciter assemblies, switching between which of the vibratory exciter assemblies is active, controlling the level of vibration, e.g., high and low, operating a spray assembly configured to spray the drum with water, and sounding a horn element to alert individuals to the presence of the roller.
Ride-on rollers are typically used in a cyclical manner, i.e. driving back and forth over a section of soil or asphalt to compact the surface. The cyclical operation of the machine requires a high duty cycle on the control lever. Further, it is often desired to switch between the front and rear vibratory exciters when switching between the forward and rearward movement and vice versa to maximize vibration in the lead drum assembly, i.e., the front drum assembly in the forward direction and rear drum assembly in the rearward direction. The high duty cycle with respect to forward and backward travel and actuation of the lead vibratory exciter results in the operator of the roller repeatedly switching between a forward-facing position for forward travel and rearward-facing position for rearward travel.
The high duty cycle of the control lever for forward and rearward movement and for switching between the lead vibratory exciters hinders roller control because the operator must remove his or her hand from the control lever or steering wheel to actuate the control elements located on the dash. Thus, the operator must repeatedly move his or her hand between the control lever or steering wheel and the controls on the dash, which limits the operator's ability to control movement of the roller. Moreover, when moving in reverse, this process is made even more difficult because the operator must blindly remove his or her hand from the control lever or steering wheel, search for the appropriate control element on the dash, and return his or her hand to the control lever or steering wheel while the roller is in motion. In the alternative, the operator may take his or her eyes off the direction of travel to find the appropriate control element, which is understandably inherently dangerous to the operator as well as others in the area.
While some known ride-on vibratory rollers include a control element on the control lever for turning the exciter assemblies on and off, the rest of the control elements are located on the dash. The operator of such a ride-on vibratory roller still must remove his or her hand from the control lever and/or steering wheel repeatedly to control the various other functions of the roller and most notably to switch between which of the exciter assemblies is activated to correspond to a direction of travel so the lead exciter assembly's vibratory impact on the work surface is maximized.
The need therefore exists to provide a control assembly and control method for a vibratory ride-on roller of the like that eliminates one or more of the foregoing disadvantages.
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, at least one of the above-identified needs is met by providing a ride-on vibratory roller machine supported on front and rear drum assemblies. The drum assemblies include respective exciter assemblies for imparting vibrations to the respective drum assemblies. An operator's seat is supported on the chassis. A control lever, positioned beside the operator's seat, is operably coupled with the vibratory roller and configured to control forward and rearward travel of the vibratory roller by selective movement of the control lever in a forward and rearward direction, respectively.
A number of control elements, e.g., switches, configured for selective actuation to control a number of features of the vibratory ride-on roller, are located on the control lever. The control elements preferably are positioned to be selectable by the operator during movement of the control lever between a maximum forward position and a maximum rearward position of the control lever. At least some of these control elements, and preferably those having the highest duty cycle, preferably are accessible by the thumb of an operator regardless of whether the operator is facing forwardly or rearwardly and regardless of the position of the control lever within its operating stroke.
The control elements preferably include at least a first control element for selectively turning the exciter assemblies on or off and a second control element for switching between activation of the front, rear, or both exciter assemblies. The first and second control elements may be in the form of switches provided on an inboard surface of a handle of the control lever configured for actuation by a thumb of the operator. The second control element may be a toggle switch comprising front and rear toggle elements configured to be selectively depressible between a first position in which the front toggle element is depressed to activate he front exciter assembly, a second position in which the rear toggle element is depressed to activate the rear exciter assembly, and a third, intermediate position in which both the front and rear exciter assemblies are activated. A third control element, also located on the control lever, may be provided to switch the then-active exciter assembly or assemblies between a high and low setting. The third control element may be provided on an inboard end of the handle of the control lever for selective actuation by the thumb of the operator.
Another control element, also provided on the control lever, may be configured to selectively operate a spray assembly for wetting the surface to be compacted by the ride-on vibratory roller. This element may be situated on a front surface of the handle of the control lever.
Another control element, also provided on the control lever, may be configured to selectively sound an audible horn element to alert individuals in the area to the presence of the ride-on vibratory roller. This control element may be located on a rear surface of the handle of the control element.
A method of operating a vibratory compaction ride-on roller according to the present invention is also disclosed herein.
Various other features, embodiments and alternatives of the present invention will be made apparent from the following detailed description taken together with the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration and not limitation. Many changes and modifications could be made within the scope of the present invention without departing from the spirit thereof, and the invention includes all such modifications.
Preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts throughout, and in which:
Referring now to the drawings, and initially to
The roller 10 comprises an articulated chassis having rear and front subframes 16 and 18 connected to one another via a pivot connection 20. The rear subframe 16 includes an operator support platform 22 including an operator's seat 24 positioned to enable an operator to selectively operate a control assembly 26. The seat 24 of this embodiment is mounted over the rear drum assembly 12, but could be located elsewhere on the machine 10. The control assembly 26 of this embodiment includes a steering wheel 28 and a control lever 30. Additional controls and/or indicators (not shown) may be mounted on the dashboard 31 in front of and/or to either side of the steering wheel 28. The front subframe 18 supports an engine (not shown) accessible via a ventilated hood 32. The control assembly 26 of the roller 10 according to this embodiment is operably coupled with the drive assembly of the roller 10 in a manner generally understood in the art to direct forward and backward movement of the roller 10 via the control lever 30 and to turn the roller 10 via the steering wheel 28.
The roller 10 may be steered by an actuator shown here as a linear actuator 34 extending between the rear and front subframes 16 and 18 along a line that is offset from the center of the pivot axis of the articulated subframes 16 and 18. Movement of the linear actuator 34 causes the subframes 16 and 18 to pivot relative to one another, thereby steering the roller 10 as the front and rear drum assemblies 12 and 14 are individually driven. The linear actuator 34 may be driven by way of a solenoid or other similar element known in the art. Alternatively, the linear actuator 34 may be actuated hydraulically.
As is generally understood in the art, each drum assembly 12 and 14 is excited to vibrate by a dedicated exciter assembly 80 and 82, respectively (see
The construction and operation of the front drum assembly 14 will now be described with reference to
The front drum assembly 14 includes an axle housing 36 and a drum 40 that surrounds the axle housing 36 and that is mounted on the axle housing 36 by a driven axle 42. The axle housing 36 is a cast metal housing that is generally tubular in shape and has open ends (not shown). The axle housing 36 additionally includes a mounting frame that extends longitudinally of the machine 10 and that is connected to the front subframe 18 of the machine by a number of mounts (not shown). The drum 40 extends laterally beyond the ends of the axle housing 36 by an amount that determines the compaction width of the machine 10. In the illustrated embodiment in which the machine 10 is configured to compact a 47.2″ (1200 mm) wide strip, each end of the drum 40 protrudes beyond the associated sub-frame 16 or 18 by several inches. Significantly longer and shorter drums and correspondingly wider and narrower compaction widths also are well within the scope of the present invention.
One or both of the front and rear subframes 16 and 18 additionally includes a spray assembly 44 (see
The roller 10 of the present invention may also include a device for presenting a warning to nearby persons such as a horn 84 (see
With additional reference now to
With continued reference to
As shown in
With particular reference now to FIGS. 5 and 7-9, the control lever 30 includes a number of control elements for controlling operation of the exciter assemblies 80 and 82 in the form of first and second exciter switches 64 and 66 and exciter toggle switch 68 situated on the inboard end 56 of the control lever 30 to thereby be positioned for actuation by the operator's thumb during operation of the roller 10. The first exciter switch 64 is provided near the top 58 of the control lever 30 and the second exciter switch is provided near a bottom of the control lever 30. The exciter toggle switch 68 is disposed between the first and second exciter switches 64 and 66, respectively and is generally configured to enable the operator to position his or her thumb over the exciter toggle switch 68 during operation for easily moving between the first and second exciter switches 64 and 66 respectively. The first and second exciter switches 64 and 66 are operably coupled to the front and rear exciter assemblies 80 and 82 and are configured to turn vibration of the exciter assemblies 80 and 82 on and off and to switch between high and low vibration settings, respectively. However, it is understood that either of the first and second exciter switches 64 and 66 may be configured to carry out either of the aforementioned operations.
The exciter toggle switch 68 likewise is operably coupled with the front and rear exciter assemblies 80 and 82 and configured to be positioned in one of three different configurations to control, which of the exciter assemblies 80 and 82 is to be controlled by actuation of the first and second exciter switches 64 and 66. In particular, the exciter switch 68 is configured so the front exciter assembly 80 is activated when the forward toggle element 68a is depressed and the rear exciter assembly 82 is activated when the rear toggle element 68b is depressed. For control of both the exciter assemblies 80 and 82, the exciter switch 68 may be configured to be in its neutral position in which neither the forward or rear toggle element 68a and 68b, respectively, is depressed. In this way, the operator may simultaneously control both of the exciter assemblies 80 and 82 and does not have to switch back and forth between the two. The exciter switch 68 is intuitively constructed to correspond with the operator's expectations. That is, the forward toggle element 68a controls the front exciter assembly 80, while the rear toggle element 68b controls the rear exciter assembly 82, and both of the exciter assemblies 80 and 82 are operated when the exciter switch 68 is in its center position. In this manner, the operator may safely and simply switch between the front, rear, and both exciter assemblies 80 and 82 during operation without having to remove his or her hand from the control lever 30 or the steering wheel 28 and without taking his or her eyes off the direction of travel to locate the correct control element.
As may be readily understood, during operation of the roller 10, the operator seated in seat 24 is continually moving the control lever 30 in the forward and rearward directions to carry out the rolling operation to be performed while also correspondingly activating the front and rear exciter assemblies 80 and 82. Accordingly, the first and second exciter switches 64 and 66 and exciter toggle switch 68 experience relatively high duty cycles. Operating at a high duty cycle is facilitated by positioning the switches at a location on the control lever 30 in which the operator may quickly, easily, and without visual reference thereto, actuate the appropriate switches of the control lever 30 for controlling operation of the exciter assemblies 80 and 82 as he moves the lever 30 back and forth. Moreover, the control lever 30 can have a relatively long stroke length, represented as numeral 70 in
As a consequence of the high duty cycle on the forward and rearward movement of the control lever 30, the operator ideally would like to have his or her hand on the control lever 30 at all times. The vibration controls for the exciter assemblies 80 and 82 also have a high duty cycle. That is, the operator typically switches between front vibration to rear vibration when going from forward to reverse travel and vice versa. Accordingly, in positioning the first and second exciter switches 64 and 66 and exciter toggle switch 68 on the control lever 30 instead of on the dash of the control assembly 26 as is common, the control assembly 26 is more easily and safely operable. Further, when the roller 10 is driven rearwardly, the operator typically is facing, at least partially, rearwardly making actuation of controls on the dash inconvenient as actuation thereof requires the user to turn away from the direction of travel while also removing his or her hand from the control lever 30. In addition, the manner in which the first and second exciter switches and the exciter switch 68 are situated is additionally particularly advantageous. In particular, the operator's thumb is naturally received over the inboard 56 of the control lever 30 in a manner conducive to positioning the high duty cycle controls of the roller 10 nearby. Moreover, the thumb is particularly adept at moving between a number of spaced elements such as the first and second exciter switches 64 and 66 and the exciter toggle switch 68 in a relatively easy manner due to the opposable nature of the thumb, which enables grasping of the control lever 30 while simultaneously enabling movement of the thumb between the first and second exciter switches 64 and 66 and the exciter toggle switch 68.
The spray assembly 44 (
With particular reference now to
In yet another embodiment, the control lever 30 may include one or more additional switches (not shown) for separate control of a front, rear or both spray assemblies 44.
With particular reference now to
The relative locations of the first and second exciter switches 64 and 66, exciter toggle switch 68, spray assembly switch 74, and horn switch 76 serve to provide the operator of the roller 10 with a convenient mechanism in which to carry out the various functions of the roller 10 without having to remove the operator's hand from either the steering wheel 28 or the control lever 30 as is common in known roller designs. The control lever 30 is preferably cable-operated and, as previously indicated, experiences a relatively long stroke length 70 of approximately twelve inches. Because of the long stroke of the control lever 30, it is desirous to provide each of the controls for carrying out the functions of the roller 10 so the operator may easily actuate each of the controls regardless of where the control lever 30 is positioned along the stroke length. That is, the layout of the controls of the control lever 30 is such that regardless of whether the control lever 30 is at its forward-most position, rearward-most position, or any point therebetween, the operator may easily actuate each of the controls for carrying out the functions of the roller 10 without removing the operator's hand from either the steering wheel 28 or the control lever 30. Thus, the controls with a relatively high duty cycle, i.e., the first and second exciter switches 64 and 66 and the exciter toggle switch 68, are positioned so the operator's thumb will be naturally positioned nearby so the operator may easily repeatedly turn the exciter assemblies 80 and 82 on and off, switch between high and low vibration of the selected exciter assembly 80 or 82, and switch between activating the front, rear, or both exciter assemblies 80 and 82. Those controls with lower duty cycles, i.e., the spray assembly switch 74 and the horn switch 76, are located on the front and rear portions of the control lever 30, respectively, whereby they still may be easily actuated by the operator's index finger and thumb, respectively, while not interfering with the operator's forward and rearward movement of the control lever 30 and actuation of the switches 64, 66, and 68.
With additional reference now to
The spray assembly switch 74 is coupled with the spray assembly 44 of the roller 10 and configured to turn the spray assembly 44 on and off as desired. The spray assembly switch 74 is in communication with the controller 78, which relays signals received from the spray assembly switch 74 to the spray assembly 44 for controlling operation thereof. The spray assembly 44 is turned on and off by depressing the spray assembly switch 74 so that, when the spray assembly 44 is turned on, depressing the spray assembly switch 74 turns the spray assembly 44 off and vice versa.
The horn switch 76 is coupled with an audible horn element 84 of the roller 10 of the kind generally known in the art. The horn switch 76 is directly coupled to the horn element 84. The horn switch 76, as previously indicated, is configured to sound the horn element 84 when depressed and to cease sounding of the horn when the operator releases the horn switch 76.
While each of the control elements or switches 64, 66, 68, and 74 is described as being in communication with the controller 78, which relays the signals from the switches 64, 66, 68, and 74 to the appropriate part of the roller 10, it is to be understood that one or more of the control elements may be configured to communicate directly with the part of the roller 10 it is configured to control such that the control assembly 26 may be entirely devoid of the controller 78. Also, the horn switch 76 is shown as being directly coupled to the horn element 84 and may alternatively be interconnected with the controller 78 for relaying communications between the horn switch 76 and the horn element 84. Of course, any number of combinations of switches relaying signals through the controller 78 or being coupled directly with the feature of the roller 10 it is configured to control is envisioned and understandably within the scope of the present invention.
It is understood the roller 10 employing the control lever 30 of the present invention may include one or more additional controls elsewhere on the roller 10. For instance, the roller 10 may include a number of advanced controls for controlling, e.g., spray volume of the spray assembly 44, on the dash thereof. The control lever 30 also may include additional control elements like those described herein for controlling any number of additional features of the roller 10 as may be readily appreciated. Moreover, the roller 10 may include duplicative control elements mounted, e.g., on the dash of the roller 10 to enable the operator to not only control the functions of the roller 10 on the control lever 30 but also via controls on the dash. For instance, the high and low vibration settings for the exciter assemblies 80 and 82 may be controlled at the dash instead of or in addition to at the control lever 30.
Although the best mode contemplated by the inventors of carrying out the present invention is disclosed above, practice of the present invention is not limited thereto. It will be manifest that various additions, modifications and rearrangements of the aspects and features of the present invention may be made in addition to those described above without deviating from the spirit and scope of the underlying inventive concept. The scope of some of these changes is discussed above. The scope of other changes to the described embodiments that fall within the present invention but that are not specifically discussed above will become apparent from the appended claims and other attachments.
