AU2006203232A1 - Lip wings - Google Patents

Description

ILip wings 0 o Field of Invention ci This invention is related to the field of ground engaging tools for earth moving equipment, more specifically this invention relates to a system of replaceable sacrificial ground engaging components for use on earth moving buckets.

Background cIn the earth moving industry wear of the components in contact with earth is a Omajor problem.

With front-end loaders it has been found that the comers of the buckets have accelerated wear. In order to minimize this wear a number of strategies have been employed. These strategies range from using thicker steel, placing sacrificial steel on the surfaces in contact with the earth. While extending the wear life of the bucket this strategy has some inherent disadvantages namely the steel still wears relatively fast, even if it is quench and tempered steel. In order to get acceptable wear life it is necessary to add significant amounts of steel thus reducing the lifting capacity of the bucket or placing extra strain on the hydraulics.

One method employed to reduce the friction and wear on the sides and comers of the bucket is to extend the bucked by welding on sacrificial wings beyond the extreme corners of the bucket. These winds break up the column of material the material that would scrape along the side of the bucket and add sacrificial material for the corners of the bucket that are subject to extreme wear.

Lip wings are usually made of Q&T steel and as a result suffer relatively rapid wear thus necessitating removal of the front-end loader form service for repairs. The repair is affected by cutting away the reaming wing if any and then replace by welding on new wing. If the wing has been completely worn COMS ID No: SBMI-04289766 Received by IP Australia: Time 16:18 Date 2006-07-27 Iaway it is often required to weld repair the corners of the bucket to ensure the 0 ostructural integrity of the bucket. The repair of buckets is a time consuming job that either requires the equipment to be removed form service for an Z extended period or requires the provision of a replacement bucket for rapid 7- 5 change out.

Summary of Invention eThe lip wing assembly of claim one wherein the fixing means is a key with a treaded portion and a locking bolt that cooperates with the threaded portion othe key passes through the sacrificial wing and into or through the boss, with othe locking bolt passing through the wing at an angle normal to the key the locking bolt cooperating with the threaded portion of the key In preferred embodiment the engaging means between the lip and the boss are cooperating T sections. Using a T section provides a good mechanical attachment mechanism that is relatively easy to manufacture with acceptable tolerances and can be repairs if required while in service without the need for accurate machining tools.

Preferable the lip wing is attached to the bucked by welding or by bolting through the bucket wall into holes tapped into a fixing portion of the boss.

Welding of the boss to the bucket provides a cheap and effective way of attaching the boss while minimizing the possibility of the attachment being worn away by the abrasive materials being moved.

The use of bolts passing through the bucket wall to attach the boss provide the advantage of being able to quickly remove the boss and replace the boss with a new one in the event that it has been damaged in service. Care need to be taken when using bolts to ensure that the heads of the bolts are protected from wear from that material being moved.

The use of a key with a locking bolt provides a simple convenient method of retaining the wing on the boss. Because the key and both are both fully COMS ID No: SBMI-04289766 Received by IP Australia: Time 16:18 Date 2006-07-27 IN recessed into the material of the wing wear on these components is kept to a

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ominimum. The wear is also kept to a minimum by locating the key and bolt toward the rear of the bucket where the abrasion on the lip is least.

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7- 5 The locking both is usually in the form of a socket head bolt. Socket head bolts provide the advantage of being able to be worn on the outside while still maintaining sufficient strength for an allen key to undo the bolt. The socket in the end of the bolt may fill up with dirt in service and this dirt will act as a wear esurface and thus reduce the wear on the bolt.

01 O Brief Description of the Drawings 0 Figure 1. Is a representation of the non-sacrificial component of the present invention.

Figure 2. Is a top view of the sacrificial portion of the present invention.

Figure 3. Is a side view of the sacrificial portion of the present invention Figure 4. Is an end view of the sacrificial component of the present invention.

Figure 5. Is a representation of the key.

Figure 6. Is a representation of the locking bolt.

Detailed description The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. While the invention is being describe with reference to a preferred embodiment it will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art variation are possible to the following description that may still fall within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Referring now to Figure 1 there is shown a representation of the nonsacrificial component of the present invention this component as a whole is called the boss 10 the boss 10 in this example is generally a piece of elongated metal with a T shaped cross section. The top of the T is called the engaging portion 20. This shape could be changed depending on the application for example if stress concentration was an issue at the corners COMS ID No: SBMI-04289766 Received by IP Australia: Time 16:18 Date 2006-07-27 v.0 associated with a T shaped engaging means 20 the engaging means 20 could

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o be a range of other shapes. An example could be that the engaging portion is circular cross section.

7- 5 The leg of the T is called the fixing portion 30. The fixing portion 30 is attached to or integral with the engaging portion 20 along one edge, on the opposed edge there is provided a means for fixing the boss 10 to the bucket n (not shown) in Figure 1 the fixing means is a weld preparation 40. When the n boss 10 is being fixed to a bucket the boss 10 can be welded to permanently 0 N 10 attach the boss 10 to the bucket. Alternatively a number of other fixing means v.0 omay be employed such as bolting form the inside of the bucket in to blind 0 holes tapped in the fixing portion The boss engaging portion 20 also has a boss keyway 50 usually located to one end of the boss 10. The keyway may be located through the engaging portion 20 or the fixing portion 30. When fitting the boss 10 to the bucket the boss keyway 50 would normally be placed towards the trailing edge of the bucket.

Referring to Figures 2 and 3 there is top view and a side view respectively of the sacrificial portion of the present invention called the wing 100. The wing 100 is made out of a wear resistant material that may be high strength alloy steel or white iron. The wing 100 may also be manufacture out of a metal composite material.

Wing 100 consists of a body of material with a wing engaging means 110 that is designed to cooperate with the boss engaging means 20. In this case the wing engaging means 110 is in the form of a T slot. When in use the sacrificial wing 100 is engaged with the boss 10 by sliding the sacrificial wing 100 over the boss 10 from the leading edge of the bucket towards the trailing edge of the bucket. Such that the boss engaging means 20 couples with the wing engaging means 110.

COMS ID No: SBMI-04289766 Received by IP Australia: Time 16:18 Date 2006-07-27 IND The wing 100 also has a wing keyway 120 located in a position to cooperate 0 o with the boss keyway 50 so that when the sacrificial wing 100 is fully engaged with the boss 10 an key 200 shown in Figure 5 can be inserted into the

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cooperating keyways 50, 120 to prevent the wing 100 from being removed form the boss The key 200 of Figure 5 is adapted to fit into the keyway 120 located in the sacrificial wing 120 and cooperate with the boss 10. The key 200 has a treaded portion 220 to allow for the interconnection with a locking bolt 210 that ci 10 passes through the wing 100.

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0 In Figure 6 there is shown a locking bolt 210 used to hold the key 200 in place during operation of the equipment- The bolt 210 is inserted into an intersecting hole 130 located in the sacrificial wing 100. The intersecting hole 130 interconnects with the wing keyway 120 at an angle normal to the direction the key 200 would be installed. This is so that the locking bolt 210 can be installed through the intersecting hole 130 into a threaded portion 220 of the key 200 to hold the key 200 and hence the sacrificial wing 100 firmly in place during operation of the equipment.

Fitting the keyway towards the trailing edge of the bucket is designed to limit the wear of the components around the keyway 50. This is important to minimize any damage to the keyway 60 and associated components. Should the keyway 50 and associated components be excessively damaged during operation the removal of the key 200 will be difficult thus extending the service time for changing the sacrificial wing 100.

COMS ID No: SBMI-04289766 Received by IP Australia: lime (I-tm) 16:18 Date 2006-07-27

Claims (4)

1. 3. The lip wing assembly of any one of claims 1 or 2 wherein the engaging means are cooperating T sections
2. 4. The lip wing assembly of any one of the preceding claims wherein the boss is attached to the bucked by welding
3. 5. The lip wing assembly of any one of the preceding claims wherein herein the boss is attached to the bucked by bolting through the bucket wall into holes tapped into a fixing portion of the boss.
4. 6. The lip wing assembly as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying figures and description. COMS ID No: SBMI-04289766 Received by IP Australia: Time 16:18 Date 2006-07-27