AU2015100094A4 - Duckbill pod - Google Patents

Abstract

A duckbill pod (100) comprising a tray (10) for providing a transport surface for goods or material, a lifting plate assembly (30) at one end of the tray (10) for lifting the duckbill pod (100), and optional sidewalls (40), and a recovery mechanism (50), preferably in the form a hydraulic winch, positioned at an end of the tray (10) adjacent the lifting plate assembly (30) and housed within a protective housing (60). The hydraulic winch assembly (50) is hydraulically powered via hydraulic hoses from a loader ordinarily used to carry the duckbill pod (100). Fig. 1

Description

1 DUCKBILL POD FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to duckbill pods, also referred to as duckbills, 5 of a type typically used with load-haul-dump (LHD) loaders, such as in underground mining sites. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There exist a multitude of accessories for loaders, bulldozers and the like that fulfil various purposes. A variety of simple buckets, scoops and so on are 10 used in various contexts for moving materials, such as dirt, gravel and the like. The mining industry in particular has developed a broad range of specialised loader accessories that are used above and below ground as required. These accessories are adapted for tasks required underground, which include not only lifting and transport of raw materials, but also transport and 15 storage of equipment. Due to the challenges of working underground, especially on low seam heights, low profile wheel loaders are favoured and built to purpose. As an example, the Eimco brand of wheel loaders is widely used in Australia and elsewhere. 20 Duckbills are one of the various fabricated loader accessories available, and are favoured for transport of general purpose goods. A duckbill generally consists of a tray of relatively extensive dimensions (for example, 2.5m by 2.5m), side walls, and a back wall in the form of a lifting plate, fitted with QDS (Quick Detach System) or RAS fixtures for fitting the duckbill to a loader. The loader 25 arms or horns engage with the QDS or similar fixtures formed on the lifting plate assembly of the duckbill to removably secure the duckbill to the loader. Duckbills have proven useful in general service and their use has been favoured in many contexts beyond which their original design was envisaged. There accordingly exists a need for improvements to duckbills that at least 30 attempt to improve their utility for certain tasks, or at least provide a useful alternative to existing constructions.

2 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The inventive concept resides in a duckbill, fitted with a recovery mechanism, preferably in the form of a winch, which is located adjacent a lifting plate assembly duckbill, which in combination with the ramped lip at the front of 5 the pod permits ready recovery of goods or material onto the duckbill. A duckbill pod generally comprises a tray, lifting plate assembly and optional sidewalls, and according to the present invention further comprises a recovery mechanism, preferably in the form of a hydraulic winch housed within a winch housing for pulling goods or materials onto the tray of the duckbill pod, 10 operating in conjunction with a ramped lip at the front of the tray. According to the present invention there is provided a duckbill pod comprising a tray for providing a transport surface for goods or material, a lifting plate assembly secured at a rear of the tray for removably attaching the duckbill pod to a loader, a ramped lip adjacent a front of the tray, and a recovery 15 mechanism located adjacent the lifting plate assembly for operatively pulling goods or material onto the tray. Preferably, the recovery mechanism is a hydraulic winch assembly. Preferably, there is further provided a winch housing in within the winch is located. 20 The duckbill pod preferably comprises hydraulic hose fittings accessible from an exterior face of the lifting plate and via which the winch is driven using a controllable source of hydraulic power. Alternatively, the recovery mechanism may comprise other forms of recovery apparatus, such as an electrically-driven winch, a pneumatic winch, or a 25 hand-operated manual winch. Further features of the invention are become apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a duckbill pod in accordance with a 30 preferred embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the duckbill pod of Fig. 1 with a winch cover removed to expose a hydraulic winch within. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the duckbill pod of Fig. 1.

3 Fig. 4 is a top plan of the duckbill pod of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a front elevation of the duckbill pod of Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a rear elevation of the duckbill pod of Fig. 1, with a cover plate removed. 5 DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Figs. 1 to 6 collectively illustrate a duckbill 100 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention from various perspectives. The duckbill 100 is conventional in construction in many respects, as is generally of type fabricated and available from various suppliers. The duckbill pd 10 100 comprises a tray 10 which serves as a surface for transport of goods or material, and a lifting plate assembly 30 attached at one end of the tray 10, conveniently denoted the rear of the duckbill 100, which serves as a means by which the duckbill 100 can be lifted by a loader. Optional sidewalls 40 at sides of the tray 10 adjacent the lifting plate 15 assembly 30 serve to contain the goods or material placed on the tray 10. The end of the tray 10 opposite the lifting plate assembly 30, conveniently and conversely denoted the front of the duckbill 100, is open so as to receive and discharge goods or material. The lifting plate assembly 30 is a structural assembly engineering to 20 possess structural integrity sufficient to allow lifting the duckbill 100, when loaded to capacity, as well convenient means for lifting. To this end, the lifting plate assembly 30 comprises a vertical plate, horizontal bracing plates, and a QDS fixture (for example, the horizontally oriented lifting pins) for lifting the duckbill 100 via a loader or other QDS-fitted equipment. 25 The tray 10 is generally rectangular in extent, and is approximately square is shape, and provides a surface for general purpose use, which may typically include resting, storing or transporting any suitable goods or materials. The duckbill 100 is intended for use on mining sites, above and below ground, for moving goods and material. The tray 10 is not simply a flat plate, but is ribbed 30 as depicted by three raised ribs running the length of the duckbill 100 from front to rear - as apparent in Figs. 1 and 2, and also Fig. 4. This arrangement has particular benefits, and assists for example in dragging goods or materials across the tray 10.

4 The lifting plate assembly 30 is fixed securely along one side or edge of the tray 10, referred to as the rear edge, with adjacent side edges of the tray 10 having the sidewalls 40 extending upwardly from the tray 10. The sidewalls 40 are fixed securely to the tray 10 and lifting plate assembly 30, but in other 5 embodiments may be removably secured to the tray 10, or completely absent. The duckbill 100 is described is rectangular in extent, and the tray 10 has bounded dimensions inside the lifting plate assembly 30 and sidewalls 40 which are approximately 2.5m by 2.5m. These dimensions are sufficient to accommodate four standard-sized pallets laid in a 2x2 arrangement. 10 The duckbill 100 is engineered to carry approximately 5000kg, owing the structural strength of the tray 10, and lifting plate assembly 30. The duckbill 100 is fabricated using grade 350 steel plates of suitable dimension, and joined using suitable structural welding techniques. While goods or materials can be carried within weight and volume limitations, stacked pallets are a typical payload. 15 The lifting plate assembly 30 includes as noted a vertical plate, strengthened by ribs, which extend from the side edges of the lifting plate assembly 30 to bracing plates, which are arranged vertically in spaced arrangement around the middle of the lifting plate 20. On the loader (not shown), controllable engaging arms extend under the 20 flanged pins of the QDS, and an engaging member is hydraulically actuated into engagement with the duckbill 100. The duckbill 100 is thus firmly secured and can be carried by the loader using the QDS, in a conventional manner. Hydraulic hoses from a loader are operatively connected to a controllable source of hydraulic pressure carried onboard the loader to which the duckbill 100 25 is operatively attached. This is conveniently provided by a hydraulic PTO (power take off) supplied via mechanical engine power from the loader, transferred to hydraulic power by a hydraulic pump on the loader. The hydraulic power delivered to the duckbill 100 can be controlled by an adjustable lever which delivers variable positive or 30 negative pressure to the duckbill pod 100, which consequently drives the hydraulic winch assembly 50. When the duckbill 100 is secured to a loader, via QDS, hoses from the loader are connected manually to respective hose inlet fixtures provided at on an 5 exterior face of the lifting plate assembly 30. Operation of the hydraulic winch 50 can thus be controlled from the loader. As is apparent rom Fig. 6, the lifting plate assembly 30 has in the vicinity of the hydraulic winch assembly 50 a removable cover plate which can be 5 temporarily removed (as depicted) to more conveniently access the hydraulic winch assembly 50 from the rear of the duckbill 100. This assists with servicing and inspection, for example. The hydraulic winch assembly 50 can be of any suitable type - and as an illustrative example may be a BREVINI BWT10000 Hydraulic Recovery Winch, 10 produced by BREVINI Power Transmission of Italy. Preferably, any hydraulic winch is nominally rated to 10,000kg to handle recovery of any load that may be required without difficulty. Preferably, rope guides and pressure rollers are fitted to permit ease of use. Operatively, the hydraulic winch assembly 50 is used in a customary 15 manner by using a steel rope and attachment fixture to attach to a load, and actuate the winch assembly 50 to pull the load into the tray 10 of the duckbill 100. The ramped lip 20, absent from a convention duckbill, is particularly helpful in angling the load from the ground in front of the duckbill 100 onto the tray 10. The angle at which the ramped lip 20 is oriented is apparent from Fig. 3. 20 The angle of the ramped lip 20 is selected to be sufficiently shallow that it allows a load to be smoothly dragged onto the tray 10, and sufficiently steep that it does not extend to far to meet the height of the tray 10. A preferred angle for may be around 30, though a wide variety of angles may in fact be used - such as between 15* and 45*. 25 Moreover, whilst a uniform gradient is adopted in the ramped lip 20 of the preferred embodiment, a non-uniform gradient may be preferred in particular applications. For example, a ramped lip which has a S-shaped profile, in which the ends of the ramped lip are in effect smoothed to provide a gentler transition between the tray 10 and the ramped lip 20, and also between the ramped lip 20 30 and the ground. The bottom of the ramped lip 20 is preferably flush with the bottom of the tray 10, so that when the duckbill 100 is resting on the ground there is no significant gap between the ramped lip 20 and the adjacent ground. As will be 6 appreciated, this assists in pulling loads onto the tray by preventing the load from catching at the front of the duckbill 100. Various alternative embodiments are possible, as would be apparent to one skilled in the art. As an example, various alternative forms of recovery 5 mechanism can be used, such as an electrically-driven winch, with power supplied on board (for example, via a diesel-fuelled generator) or via a loader, or other ancillary equipment.

Claims (5)

1. A duckbill pod comprising a tray for providing a transport surface for goods or material, a lifting plate assembly secured at a rear of the tray for removably attaching the duckbill pod to a loader, a ramped lip adjacent a 5 front of the tray, and a recovery mechanism located adjacent the lifting plate assembly for operatively pulling goods or material onto the tray.

2. A duckbill pod according to claim 1, wherein the recovery mechanism is a hydraulic winch assembly.

3. A duckbill pod according to claim 2, further comprising a winch housing in 10 within the hydraulic winch assembly is housed.

4. A duckbill pod according to claim 2 or 3, further comprising hydraulic hose fittings accessible from an exterior face of the lifting plate and via which the winch is driven using a controllable source of hydraulic power.

5. A duckbill pod according to claim 1, wherein the lifting plate assembly 15 comprises a QDS fixture. R.J. GOLDSPINK PTY LTD WATERMARK PATENT & TRADE MARK ATTORNEYS P34997PCAU