Patent Application
20230415278
This invention relates generally to welding for metal fabrication, especially in the construction industry. Of particular relevance is the on-site creation and installation of metal pipe and rod fences, especially those constructed with portable welding machine set-ups, these welding set-ups being typically placed in and secured to pick-up truck beds, or to trailers towed by pick-up trucks.
In the industrial arts/non-patent documents, there are:
The disclosed technology comprises a wheeled cart that may be driven, for example, at any wheel or set of wheels or tracks by, for example, a hydraulic pump motor and wheel/track drive motor(s). The hydraulic pump motor may in turn be driven by electricity, which electricity is generated on the cart, for example, by an internal combustion engine, the engine being powered, for example, by petroleum liquid fuel stored in a tank on the cart. Natural gas and LPG may also be suitable fuels. The powered cart may be moved forward and backward and at adjustable rates via, for example, a radio remote controller in communication with a gearbox and possible wheel speed-control on the cart. Also, the radio controller may be in communication with a steering assembly, for example, like a rack and pinion steering mechanism connected to the cart's front and/or back wheel(s). In another steering embodiment, the radio controller may be in communication with, for example, speed-control for an independent plurality of the cart's electric/hydraulic wheels. These ways, the cart may be self-contained in terms of energy and mobility required for its work functions. In preferred embodiments, the controller of the cart is not connected to the cart by any electrical or electronic cable or wire(s). For example, there is no electric or electronic control cable or wire between the hand-held radio or other signal-transmitting controller and the cart or any element of the cart. Therefore, in preferred embodiments, control of the cart may be described as remote control without any connection between the controller and the cart other than radio or other non-wired signals.
Electricity created on the cart may be used also for a carried conventional portable welding system. Cords and hoses for the welding system, as well as welders' tools and supplies, may also be provided in storage spaces on the cart or towed behind the cart, making it a powered-mobile, self-contained welders' cart.
As discussed above, because the subject welders' cart may be made to be remotely drivable and steerable via, for example, a radio remote controller, the cart may be conveniently and quickly loaded on a vehicle such as a pickup truck or a trailer towed by a pickup or other truck or utility vehicle. Then, after driving the truck/trailer loaded with the welder's cart to the worksite, the cart may be conveniently unloaded off the truck/trailer via a ramp and put to use at the worksite, even remote and/or difficult, off-road worksites. The loading and unloading of the preferred cart are particularly convenient due to the cart's remote control and due to the cart's rugged, preferably all-terrain treads or tires and drive systems. This way, the user need not manually maneuver, push, or pull, or even touch the cart during the loading and unloading steps. Once unloaded at the worksite, the cart and its portable welder system are especially beneficial to create or repair horizontally elongated structures that require welding along the length of the structure, for example, for long lengths of remote, on-site welded fence. When working on such elongated structures, progress of fence construction/repair typically extends past the length of the welding system's attached cords/hoses lengths, for example, so that the welder must advance in many increments along the length of the fence line as he/she applies the welding system at many sequential locations along the fence line. For example, a fence line may be many yards, fractions of a mile, or miles long, and advancing along these distances several yards at a time can be very time consuming and tedious if the welder's vehicle is being entered, driven, and stopped again each time advancement is required. On the other hand, by using the disclosed apparatus and methods, the welder operator does not have to stop the welding work, move the welding system that is secured to the truck or trailer by driving the truck to the next location that may be, for example, just 20-60 feet away, and start welding again. In other words, in order to apply the welding system at another location along the fence line whenever progress of the fence construction, for example, extends past the length of the welding system's attached cords and hoses lengths, the welder operator simply remote-control drives the cart to the new location along the fence line. Also, this way when the day's work is done, the operator may remote-control drive the cart and its equipment back from the then current fence construction site and onto the cart's truck/trailer via a conventional ramp.
Controlled movement of the welders' cart is important. First, the cart must have sufficient power in its driven wheel(s) to load itself and its carried engine, fuel tank, generator, hydraulic power system pump(s) and oil reservoir, wheel drives, welder, and tools up onto and down from, for example, pick-up truck beds or trailers via ramps. Depending on the height of the pick-up truck bed or trailer and the length of the ramp, the angle of the ramp may be steep, as much as about 40°, but more typically about 20° and less. Therefore, the loaded-for-work cart must have sufficient approach angle and departure angle to accommodate at least the possibly broad range of expected loading ramp incline or angle.
Also, for work in rougher terrain, for example, the loaded-for-work welders' cart must have sufficient ground clearance height. For example, for off-road use, with heavy duty tires on the wheels, the cart may have as much as about 24 inches of ground clearance, however, the clearance is more typically about 18 inches and less.
Besides ground clearance, the welders' off-road version of the cart must have sufficient breakover angle for convenient loading on steep ramps and for working in rougher terrain. Breakover angle is a result of clearance height and wheelbase length; the more the clearance height and/or the less the wheel-base length, the greater the breakover angle.
However, wheelbase length and clearance height for the welders' cart must, as for all vehicles, be carefully selected because their negative effect on the resulting center of gravity may result in the cart being “tippy” and unstable from relatively short wheelbase and high clearance in some embodiment(s). On the other hand, in other embodiment(s) of relatively long wheelbase and low clearance, the cart may be less “nimble” and less responsive to steering control, and more likely to be blocked by ground obstacles.
Also, the weight and centers of gravity of the cart's installed engine, fuel tank, generator, electric-over-hydraulic pumps and wheel drives, and electric/hydraulic valves and controllers, plus the location of welding hoses, electrical and/or gas lines and other welding supplies and tools, must be considered when designing and manufacturing the cart for maximum effectiveness and safety in expected environments.
Also, convenient and effective dimensions and weight of the welders' cart will be important. First, for transport, some embodiments of the cart preferably must conveniently fit, for example, within the bed of a standard-sized ½ ton-1 ton pick-up truck. Therefore, the outer dimensions of these embodiments of the cart in a top view should be about 6 feet long by 4 feet wide, and less. Smaller dimensions than these may be preferred due to less room in the pick-up truck bed, for example, from interior rear wheel wells and earlier-installed bed boxes in the front and/or side inside of the pick-up truck bed, for example. The overall height of the loaded-for-work cart must be less than local height restrictions for overhead bridges, expected garage and shop doorways and ceilings, and overhead power and communication lines, for example. Again, as for all loaded vehicles, safety considerations of the effect of the weight and center-of-gravity of the loaded-for-work cart, and their effect on the drivability and control of the carrying or towing pick-up truck and/or trailer are important.
Typically, the loaded-for-work cart for most steel fence construction will weigh less than about 1,000 pounds, preferably less than about 600 pounds. Also, from a design point-of-view, the wheel weight distribution of the loaded-for-work cart should be between about 60-40% on the drive track(s) or wheel(s) for one or two-wheel drive versions, and between about on all tracks(s) or wheels for 3-wheel or 4-wheel/track drive versions.
Referring to the Figures, there are shown several, but not all, embodiments of the invention.
Cart 200 features four wheels having heavy duty tires, including driven rear wheels/tires 216, and non-driven, steered front wheels/tires 217, operatively connected to the frame 260 by support and suspensions 282 and 284, respectively. Also, cart frame 260 supports and secures hydraulic oil tank 270 with tank outlet supply line 274, for pump 276, the suction of which is fed by line 274, and pressurized oil line 240 to hydraulic valve body 266 for the rear wheel and the front wheel steering system. Hydraulic valve body 266 directs pressurized hydraulic oil supply 242 to the hydraulic wheel drive motor 262 for rear wheels 216. As described above re the hydraulic system being a circuit even though the “return lines” are not drawn, it will be understood that the unpressurized oil returns to hydraulic oil tank 270. Makeup hydraulic oil is added via filler tube 271, with an opening/cap 272 visible in
It may be noted that an “electric-over-hydraulic pump” comprises an electrically powered motor that mechanically connects and drives a hydraulic fluid pump to provide high pressure hydraulic fluid, which in turn is delivered to hydraulic valve bodies. Thus, the combination of electric motor 277 and hydraulic pump 276 (shown to best advantage in FIG. 4) may be called an “electric-over-hydraulic pump”. Here, via the hydraulic valve bodies, hydraulic pressure is controlled and supplied to hydraulic wheel drive motor(s) connected to each wheel to be driven/powered. Thus, control of the wheel drive motors may be obtained via electrical signals on and off (147 in
For remote control, the electrical wires on the valve bodies may be energized on/off according to instructions received from the remote operator of the cart, via the hand-held remote control 100, at the radio control switching panel or “radio control relay 46, 246. Once positioned at the work site, as per the discussion above, the operator may then take manual control over welding system 32, 232, 52, 252. When a length of welding work has been completed and the welding cords and hoses of the welding system need to extend past their length to do more welding, then the above positioning process of the welders' cart may be repeated without the welder operator having to pack up and transport the welding system, via truck or other vehicle, to begin welding again at the new locations, as he/she would have to do in the prior art method.
Therefore, in certain embodiments, the method for on-site creation of metal fences may be described as comprising: providing a portable welding machine on a movable welders' cart; the cart being made movable by a drive motor powered by a hydraulic pump on the cart; the hydraulic pump being driven by an electric motor powered by electricity from a generator driven by an internal combustion engine with a fuel tank, the electric motor, generator internal combustion engine, and fuel tank also being on the cart; movement of the cart being remotely controlled by a radio or other non-wired controller with the drive motor and a steering system also on the cart, so that, when a length of fence has been created to an extent that is about or equal to the welding machine's capability to weld for a certain length away from the cart, the cart may be remotely moved to enable additional welding at another location. The method may also comprise the welders' cart being constructed to fit within the box (back pick-up bed) of a conventional ½-ton to 1-ton pickup truck.
Although this disclosed technology has been described above with reference to particular means, materials, and embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosed technology is not limited to these disclosed particulars but extends instead to all equivalents within the broad scope of this disclosure, including this description, the drawings, and the claims.
This application claims benefit of Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/355,434 filed Jun. 24, 2022, and entitled “Welders' Cart and Method”, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63355434 | Jun 2022 | US |
