AU2003261551A1 - Improvements relating to wear resistance - Google Patents

Description

53652 HKS:LR P/00/009 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR AN INVENTION ENTITLED Invention Title: IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO WEAR

RESISTANCE

Name of Applicant: BARRY ANTHONY HOLDING Address for Service: COLLISON CO. 117 King William Street, Adelaide, S.A. 5000 The invention is described in the following statement: This invention relates to wear resistance surfaces especially where for instance very demanding applications are involved such as where large rocks are collected as in transport containers or directed as in mining chutes.

Such applications have huge challenges in order to reduce wear and to do this at economic cost.

I have found that a resilient material can be attached or other wise held to a surface so as to significantly improve its wear resistance.

An object of this invention is to provide for an improvement in effecting the resistance to wear of selected materials in arduous conditions.

In one form of this invention there is proposed an arrangement having a surface providing for wear resistance where the surface is provided by the outer surface of a pad of resilient material where the resilient material has had unstressed shape which provides a concave shaped side against a supporting surface the improvement being that the material is caused to be held in a more flattened state by engagement between the pad material and the backing supporting surface such that the outer surface of the pad is then caused to be compressed.

This compression then is in a lateral direction with respect to an otherwise generally planar shape of the pad and it is this effect that seems to give marked improvement in wear resistance.

In preference, the shape of the resilient material is concave in both a lengthwise and a transverse sense so that by being straightened, there is effective lateral compression both in relation to the transverse and longitudinal axes.

In preference, the resilient pad is a material cut from a tyre casing so that on its concave side, there is ply reinforcing.

In preference, the supporting surface is a plate and the resilient material is secured and held down onto the plate by bolts passing mutually through the resilient material and the supporting plate.

In preference, where such bolts are used, these are countersunk beneath an outermost surface of the resilient pad.

The discovery of this invention is that by causing an outermost surface of resilient material to be compressed, this has the result of very significantly improving its resistance to wear.

The application of use of removed portions of tyre is of particular benefit in relation to this invention in that a tread portion of a casing of a tyre will have been moulded so as to define on an inner side at least at a ply level, a concave shape either in one or in most cases two axially crossing directions.

If then, a slab of the tread portion of a tyre is removed and laid out onto a supporting surface, for instance, a steel plate providing a substantially planar surface, then the improvement of the invention is achieved by compressing the cut slab of material so as to have this caused to flatten to conform substantially with the planar surface of the supporting plate and this can be achieved in different ways either, for instance, effecting compression by way of a press and then maintaining the position by way of glue of adequate strength between the then flattened surface of the tyre and the surface of the steel.

It is acknowledged that there are, in some instances, considerable forces that are required to both force this shape change and then, of course, hold this and in another instance then there have been provided a plurality of bolts, typically high tensile bolts, that are mutually engaging through respective apertures in the slab and the base plate.

The results, in accordance with at least the preferred embodiment, have been that in arduous circumstances, such a surface provided with the increased compression is significantly more wear resistant than has been the case with uncompressed surfaces.

In preference, the application in one instance, includes steel containers into which rocks are loaded and, from time to time, emptied.

In this case, where the inner surface of the container is currently a steel surface, by placing a plurality of tread material taken from, in each case, a tyre which is, in each case, also held so as to be forced from an inner concave shape to substantially planar then provides a surface which is firstly very resistant to wear caused by substantial piercing impact that might be occasioned by heavy rocks landing on these, or in other instances, by wear caused by heavy rocks being caused to shift so that the abrasion is the factor causing wear.

In trials conducted so far, it has been shown that significant improvement in the life obtained by such materials can be significantly increased and, in several instances, an improvement of over five times has been observed.

For a better understanding of this invention it will now be described with relation to a preferred embodiment which shall be described with the assistance of drawings wherein: FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view of a pad removed from the tread of a tyre in its relaxed and therefore curved state resting on a planar support surface; FIG. 2 is the same members as in FIG. 1 where, however, these have now been compressed and are held in a flattened state by bolts; FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the embodiment as described in FIG. 1; and FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the embodiment as shown in FIG. 2.

Referring in detail to the drawings, the pad 1 is a portion of the tread of a tyre.

Reference to "tyre" means a tyre or, more particularly, the casing of a tyre including the tread which is made from an appropriate elastomeric material with reinforcing and multiple ply's.

Typically in this application, the tyres or tyre casings that are used are those from large earth working machinery and may have, in their original state diameters of some meters.

The invention itself is not intended in the broadest sense to be restricted to such large tyres or tyre casings but in conjunction with an earlier invention of mine in which I can remove portions of elastomeric material efficiently, I have been able to extract slabs of elastomeric materials which are a portion which include a backing typical to define a ply.

Accordingly, a large slab of elastomeric material comprising a single ply appropriate for the size of the surface to be protected is cut according to previous techniques including inventions of my own and are then placed in their relaxed state so as to define beneath them a concave shape 2.

Typically, this inside surface will have the attached ply 3.

The next stage is to flatten this material and inherently therefore cause the outer part of the material at 4 to compress which is to say compress by reason of laterally directed compression. In other words the upper surface is pushed together and is therefore under this additional pressure.

It is this compression that has the effect of, in a sense, pre-stressing the elastomeric materials and provides very significant increases in wear resistance.

In order to maintain this state of compression, this is achieved by tying the pad 1 down to the surface of the underlying plate 5 and this is achieved in the embodiment by use of bolts 6 which, in each case, are countersunk as at 7 in the 1 5 elastomeric material and are also countersunk in the supporting steel plate The bolt 6 with its appropriately attached and screwed down nut 8 is replicated as appropriate for the strength of the bolt and the degree to which the slab material requires this.

This is one instance of how the material can be held.

However, it has been established that there can be in addition, glues which can act between the respective elastomeric material and the surface of the supporting plate.

While the plate is shown here as planar, it can, of course, be also shaped appropriate for the application and the elastomeric material can be clamped or held down to any such shape, the point of the invention being that there is at least some compression in its external material, especially that approximal to its outer surface.

6 The applications to which the invention can be useful include all of those where substantial abrasive wear or wear caused by impact has been a difficulty in the past.

Further, because the elastomeric materials are shock absorbent the noise which has been a problem can continue to be reject below.

Chutes of a type used typically in mining or in quarry industries are also exemplary examples of where the invention has a substantial application.

The material referred to in relation to the invention has been generally described as elastomeric.

The applicant is aware that tyres are made from elastomeric material and that it is a highly developed industry including the use of rubbers, the use of oil extended rubbers and the like.

The applicant is also aware of the immense difficulty in trying to cut and handle and dispose of materials as a result of tyres, especially large ones, coming to their 1 5 economic end of life.

It is, therefore, of significant advantage that the materials from which these very large tyres are made can have a further long useful application.

A lot of the cost in terms of lining bins or chutes involves cutting the material from the tyre casings and relocating these as inner liners.

The advantage, therefore, even though the base materials come from discarded large tyres, is that the economic investment of the removable and relocation of this material is therefore improved immensely by having such materials provide such an increased wear resistance and impact resistance.

Claims (16)

1. An arrangement having a surface providing for wear resistance where the surface is provided by the outer surface of a pad of resilient material where the resilient material has had unstressed shape which provides a concave side against a supporting surface the improvement being that the material is caused to be held in a more flattened state by engagement between the pad material and the backing supporting surface such that the outer surface of the pad is then caused to be compressed.

2. An arrangement as in claim 1 further characterized in that the shape of the resilient material is concave in both a lengthwise and a transverse sense so that by being straightened, there is effective lateral compression both in relation to transverse and longitudinal axes of the pad.

3. An arrangement as in either one of claims 1 or 2 further characterized in that the resilient pad is a material cut from a tyre casing.

4. An arrangement as in preceding claim 3 further characterized in that the resilient pad has on its concave side ply reinforcing.

An arrangement as in any one of the preceding claims further characterized in that the supporting surface is a plate and the resilient material is secured and held down onto the plate by at least one bolt passing through the resilient material.

6. An arrangement as in any one of the preceding claims 1 -4 further characterized in that the supporting surface is a plate and the resilient material is secured and held down onto the plate by at least one bolt passing fully through both the supporting surface and through the resilient material.

7. An arrangement as in any one of the preceding claims further characterized in that the supporting surface is a plate and the resilient material is secured and held down onto the plate by at least one bolt passing through the resilient material and at least one of these being countersunk beneath an outermost surface of the resilient pad.

8. A method of manufacture of an arrangement for provision of a surface providing for wear resistance where the steps of the method includes compressing a pad of resilient material so as to have this caused to flatten to conform substantially with at least a more planar surface of a supporting plate and effect a holding of the material in such a state so that at the least the upper surface of the material is kept in the compressed state

9. A method as in the immediately preceding claim further characterized in that compression is effected by way of a press and then maintained in such a position by way of glue of adequate strength between the then flattened surface of the material and a surface of the supporting surface.

A method as in preceding claim 8 further characterized in that compression is effected by way of at least one bolt passing through the pad and then being tightened as between the then flattened surface of the material and the supporting plate.

11. A method as in any one of the preceding claims 8-10 wherein the material is a pad of elastomeric material which is derived from a tyre.

12. A method of manufacture where an inner surface of a member is modified by securing to inner surface of the member at least one pad of tyre tread material which further includes securing the pad against the surface of the member so it is forced to be straightened from a concave shape and effects compression thereby in its outer surface.

13. A method as in the immediately preceding claim further characterized in that the member is a container.

14. A method as in the preceding claim 13 further characterized in that the member is a chute.

An arrangement substantially as described in the specification with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying illustrations.

16. A method of effecting a wear resistant surface substantially as described in the specification with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying illustrations. Dated this 11th day of November 2003 BARRY ANTHONY HOLDING By his Patent Attorneys COLLISON CO.