Patent Application
20100109421
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pavement diamond grinder and in particular to a grinder having a greatly reduced water flow for sawing and for blade cooling and dust control.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pavement diamond grinders are well known and used for grinding concrete and asphalt surfaces. The grinding is performed for a variety of purposes, including removing irregularities in the road surface, to provide texture to the surface and to add antiskid properties. Moreover, grinding and grooving may be performed to groove the surface and facilitate water drainage. Grinding, texturing and grooving are used on pavement surfaces including highways, airport runways, bridge decks, industrial plants, stock pens and barns as well as other concrete or asphalt surfaces that may require a particular surface characteristic.
Typically, grinding is performed with diamond tipped blades that grind the concrete or asphalt and are mounted on a rotating arbor. The arbor is typically mounted on an under carriage of the grinder and is power supplied by the grinder. Such grinders typically require large power and great weight to achieve satisfactory grinding of hard materials.
In can be appreciated that the grinding and grooving process creates substantial amounts of debris, which is in the form of concrete dust and particles. In addition, the diamond tip blades generate substantial heat that requires cooling. Water is typically sprayed for cooling as well as dust control and lubrication in conventional grinders. Large amounts of water are currently sprayed at the blades on the arbor. This results in a dust-laden slurry that must be removed from the pavement surface. Suction is used to continually remove debris and water from the pavement in the area where grinding occurs. In some operations, the slurry may be simply left in the ditch on the side of the road. However, regulations now typically prohibit leaving the slurry and the grinding debris in the ditch. Therefore, it is necessary to collect the slurry and haul it elsewhere for disposal. Moreover, the large amount of water must be carried with the grinder and provisions must be made for hauling the slurry away. This requires additional equipment and also raises labor costs.
It can be seen that a new and improved grinder and grinding method are needed that provides for using substantially less water during grinding and that provides for simple and more convenient disposal of grinding byproduct.
The present invention is directed to a grinder. In one embodiment, the grinder is a pavement grinder that may be utilized for grinding pavement surfaces, grooving the pavement surfaces or cutting slots in the pavement. The grinder takes on a conventional configuration, such as shown by U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,146 for example, assigned to Diamond Surface, Inc. incorporated herein by reference. As with conventional grinders, the grinder includes a frame, drive wheels, a grinding carriage, an operator seat and controls, a motor and hydraulic fluid reservoir. The grinder may also include fuel and water tanks.
The grinding assembly includes an arbor with radial blades mounted thereon. Moreover, grinders other than pavement grinders may also be utilized and other blades may be utilized with the present invention. In one embodiment, the grinding assembly includes a sprayer assembly having a spray bar with one or more atomizing nozzles mounted thereto. The spray bar may be mounted on a track that arcs about a portion of a periphery of the axially mounted radial blades. The spray bar may be moved along the arcing mounting track so that it may be positioned at various locations relative to the grinder arbor. In addition, in some configurations multiple spray bars may be utilized for spraying at multiple positions on the periphery of the arbor.
The spray bar utilizes atomizing nozzles that provide an atomized mist directed at the arbor blades to provide cooling and dust control for the grinding operations. It has been surprisingly found that atomized mist, such as water provides greater efficiency as compared to the same volume of normally sprayed water for cooling. Therefore, much less water may be utilized as compared to conventional cooling and dust control systems.
To facilitate even greater cooling, an air manipulator may be utilized in some embodiments to improve the air flow around the arbor and blades so that a greater quantity of atomized air droplets contact the blades, thereby providing improved cooling. The air manipulator is generally mounted along the length of the blades. The air manipulator includes a block that is sufficiently soft to be cut into by the blades and maintain slots for the blades with portions extending between the blades for a close fit between the block of the air manipulator and the blades to reduce the turbulence surrounding the blades in the vicinity of the cooling mist. However, the block is sufficiently soft so that it does not have resistance to the arbor rotation and does not affect the efficiency of the grinding operation. A spring biases the block towards the blades but has a sufficiently small spring constant that it does not unduly affect the arbor's performance.
Moreover, in some embodiments, a cleaner is utilized to remove debris and water from the blades. The cleaner may also be configured as a substantially soft plastic block that may be self cutting by the blades of the grinder to maintain a close fit with notches formed to accept each blade and portions extending between the blades for improved cleaning. The cleaner may include a spring to maintain the cleaner in a favorable use position to maintain its effectiveness for removing the debris-laden slurry from the blades.
These features of novelty and various other advantages that characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and forming a part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, its advantages, and the objects obtained by its use, reference should be made to the drawings that form a further part hereof, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention.
Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals and letters indicate corresponding structure throughout the several views;
Referring now to the drawings and in particular to
Referring again to
As shown in
In addition to using a sprayer assembly with atomizing nozzles, to improve the effectiveness of the atomizing spray, an air manipulator 80 is positioned above the sprayer assembly 60. As shown in
Referring to
It can be further appreciated that the use of the sprayer assembly 60 along with the cleaner 72 and air manipulator 80 provides improved performance over conventional cooling systems that use large quantities of water and have large quantities of debris laden slurry that must be disposed in an environmentally safe manner. The present invention provides for much greater efficiency than is possible with the prior systems. The system of the present invention maintains the grinding assembly 22 and blades 54 at a sufficiently cool operating temperature. The present system also provides environmental advantages through improved disposal of the resultant slurry laden with debris than is possible with the prior art systems.
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61085753 | Aug 2008 | US |
