AU606635B2

AU606635B2 - Road fault repair apparatus

Info

Publication number: AU606635B2
Application number: AU82682/87A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Graeme John Black
Original assignee: BP Australia Pty Ltd
Current assignee: BP Australia Pty Ltd
Priority date: 1986-12-19
Filing date: 1987-12-17
Publication date: 1991-02-14
Anticipated expiration: 2007-12-17
Also published as: AU8268287A

Description

f AUSTRALIA 0 6 PATENTS ACT 1952 Form COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

FOR OFFICE USE Short Title: Int. Cl: Application Number: Lodged: Complete Specification-Lodged: Accepted: Lapsed: Published: (rA.

ar L 00 0 0 00 000 o Q0 o oo 0 00 0 00 0 0 0 00 Priority: Related Art: TO BE COMPLETED BY APPLICANT Name of Applicant: BP AUSTRALIA LIMITED o000 0 0

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0 a0 «a O i® 0 0 00 1 Address of Applicant: 1 ALBERT ROAD, MELBOURNE VICTORIA 3004

AUSTRALIA

Actual Inventor: Address for Service: GRIFFITH HACK CO., 601 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia.

Complete Specification for the invention entitled: ROAD FAULT REPAIR APPARATUS The following statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me:- -i 2 ROAD FAULT REPAIR APPARATUS This invention relates to road surface repair and particularly to the repair of elongated relatively narrow surface faults or cracks.

Narrow road surface faults in the form of cracks or fissures are at present repaired in several separately performed operations. Firstly, a worker will clean the fault of debris after which another worker will apply sealant to the fault through a tool having a nozzle will apply sealant to the fault through a tool having a nozzle at the lower end.

The nozzle is held in the vicinity of or within the fault so 0o 0 that the sealant dispensed from the nozzle fills the fault.

o 00 00 After this a further worker moves a squeegee along the fault 00 0e to level the surface and remove excess sealant. This three worker or three stage operation is labour intensive and therefore expensive.

00, It .is an object of the present invention to provide road surface repair apparatus for use in repairing an elongate fissure in a road surface and which is readily usable and is preferably usable by a single worker to carry out several stages of a repair operation.

r• ,According to the present invention there is provided a road surface repair apparatus for use in the repair of veto*& elongate fissures in a road surface, comprising: SCa sealant applicator tool having a nozzle through which to apply sealant to a road fissure to be repaired; and b a leveller blade mounted on the applicator tool in the vicinity of the nozzle by leveller blade mounting means permitting limited relative movement of the blade relative to the tool such that in use of the apparatus, the applicator tool can be moved along the fissure to be repaired to apply sealant to the fissure via the nozzle with the leveller blade engaged with the road surface to spread and scrape off excess sealant, the blade mounting means permitting relative movement between the blade and the applicator head to allow the blade to follow road surface variations to leave the 4- i I I

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3sealant surface substantially flush with the surrounding road surface.

Throughout this specification including the claims, the word "elongate" is not to be understood as implying usefulness of the present invention only with generally linear fissures but the term includes tortuous, forked and other narrow width fissures. Also reference to "road" is to be understood as including other similar surfaces.

Preferably the leveller blade is generally concave in the forward direction of movement of the applicator tool so that excess sealant is scraped into the concavity.

The mounting means may be arranged to allow in use at least limited pivoting movement of the leveller blade about 0, an axis extending along or generally parallel to the general 4%*015 longitudinal direction of the fissure thereby allowing the te leveller blade to follow the slope of the road surface.

Preferably the mounting means allows universal limited rocking movement of the leveller blade relative to the tool.

The mounting means may comprise a blade mounting bracket provided with an aperture which loosely engages the nozzle end of the tool to permit universal limited rocking movements of the blade relative to the tool.

e Preferably the applicator tool comprises an elongate structure, the nozzle being disposed at one end of that 25 structure and the other end of the structure serving as a ic handle whereby the tool can be held in a downwardly inclined S orientation with the nozzle directed into the fissure to be repaired.

i CK Preferably the mounting means further comprises biasing means connected between the forward ends of the I leveller blade and the elongate structure so as in use of the apparatus to bias the rear part of the blade downwardly toward the road surface and to permit rocking movement of the blade laterally of the elongate structure.

Preferably the applicator tool comprises an elongated shaft having a bore therethrough and through which sealant is e i 4 in use passed to a nozzle at the tip of the tool, the nozzle in use being moved along the mouth of the fissure to dispense sealant into the fissure, the mounting means being located generally at the nozzle of the applicator tool.

The apparatus preferably further includes pressure fluid blast nozzle means operative in use for clearing debris from the fault ahead of the sealant application, the means including means for directing a fluid stream under pressure into the fault to dislodge debris from the fault.

Possible and preferred features of the present invention will now be described with particular reference to Sthe accompanying drawings. However, it is to be understood that the features illustrated in and described with reference to the drawings are not to be construed as limiting on the scope of the invention. In the drawings: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one possible preferred repair apparatus according to the present invention, and 4Fig. 2 is a schematic view showing repair apparatus according to the present invention in use.

The road surface repair apparatus illustrated is for cc repairing a road surface fault 10 such as a crack or fissure.

i The fault 10 is to be filled with a viscous settable sealant c, 11. The preferred sealant 11 for use with bitumen or like based road surfaces is a bitumen-rubber compound which is S applied at an elevated temperature through a nozzle which is I positioned at the mouth of or in the surface fault 10. Such a compound can set sufficiently at least at its surface to K allow traffic to travel over the repaired fault within a matter of minutes after application of the sealant.

The repair apparatus includes a leveller blade or leveller 12 for contacting the road surface 13 along the fault 10 after sealant 11 has been applied to and has filled the fault 10 and before the final setting of the sealant 11.

The leveller 12 is operative to be moved along the fault so as to make level, to scrape off or to spread excess 4 0/' 4 5 sealant 11. The leveller 12 comprises a scraper blade 16.

The repair apparatus further includes mounting means associated with the leveller 12 and by which the leveller 12 is mounted in use to a sealant applicator tool 25. The mounting means 20 allows in use at least limited movement of the leveller 12 relative to the tool 25 so that the leveller 12 can follow road surface variations and make level, scrape off or spread excess sealant 11 so as to leave the remaining sealant surface substantially flush with the surrounding road surface 13.

Biasing means 30 is associated with the leveller 12 and is operative to bias the scraper blade 16 into contact with the road surface 13 so that in use the scraper blade 16 S contacts the road surface 13 on both lateral sides of the o ~0 o 0,15 surface fault p o d In the illustrated embodiment the scraper blade 16 is e provided with a scraper edge 15. The scraper edge 15 may be a single straight edge which may extend in a line or may be in some other shape. In the particular illustrated embodiment the scraper blade 16, and hence the scraper edge is concave and in particular is generally shaped with the point of the shape being directed rearwardly relative S o, ~to the direction of movement A of the associated tool 25 so i that excess sealant 11 is scraped up into the shape. The 0g c blade 16 has two arms 17 of the shape each being about co, 12cm long, the blade being about 2.5cm high and being in use r generally vertically arranged relative to the road surface 13. The scraper blade 16 may be made of any suitable material such as metal plate or a suitable rubber material having required stiffness and resistance to sealant temperatures.

The mounting means 20 allows in use at least limited pivoting movement of the scraper blade 16 about an axis extending along or parallel to the general longitudinal direction of the fault 10 thereby allowing the scraper edge to follow the slope of the road surface 13. In the 0 6

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i d~ particular illustrated embodiment the mounting means allows universal limited rocking movement of the scraper blade 16. The mounting means 20 is located in use at the tip 26 of the support tool The mounting means 20 comprises a mounting plate 22 having an aperture 21 for receiving therein the tip 26 of the tool 25 relatively loosely so that the scraper edge 15 can rock and pivot relative to the tip 26 in all directions. The mounting plate 22 extends in a transverse direction relative to the longitudinal direction of the fault 10 and faces upwardly and forwardly relative to the direction of movement A of the scraper edge in use. With this arrangement the tool can be inclined at an angle to the surface 13 and the scraper blade 16 can be provided at the lower end and in operative association with the road surface 13 when the tool is inclined forwardly.

The biasing means 30 is arranged such that the S scraper blade 16 is located at least predominately to one side of the tool tip 26 which defines a fulcrum and the biasing means 30 acts in a direction to cause the edge 15 to engage with the road surface 13 by moving about the fulcrum.

The bi.asing means 30 is arranged to act on the scraper blade E, ~16 to the opposite side of the fulcrum to the major part of o the scraper blade. The biasing means 30 comprises tension 25 spring means 31, 32 operative to act on the scraper blade 16 0 o to one side of the fulcrum. In the particular illustrated CC446 embodiment where the scraper blade 16 has a shape, there 0 are provided two tension springs 31, 32 each one acting on So, the respective outer end of the shaped blade 16. The springs 31, 32 may extend from a point on the tool 25 above the tip 26 to the ends of the scraper blade 16. The end of each spring 31, 32 may be connected in use to the tool 25 in any convenient manner, such as by means of a bracket 33 such as an shaped bracket connected to the tool 25 by means of a circlip 34 or clamp extending 7 i ii

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r r ce around a shaft portion of the tool In the preferred embodiment the applicator tool may comprise an elongated shaft 26 having a longitudinally extending bore therethrough and through which sealant is 5 passed from a supply line at the top to a nozzle at the tip 26. The nozzle in use is passed along the mouth of the fault to dispense the sealant into the fault 10. The preferred embodiment in use therefore comprises a "IV" shaped scraper blade 16 pivotally movable about the nozzle 26 and being biased by the tension springs 31, 32 such that the scraper edge 15 is maintained in contact with the road surface 13 on each side of the fault 10 as the nozzle is moved along the fault and sealant is dispensed into the fault The repair apparatus may further include fault -15 clearing means 35 operative in use for clearing debris 36 or the like from the fault 10 ahead of the sealant applicatlon.

The fault clearing means 35 includes means for directing a fluid stream under pressure into the fault 10 to thereby dislodge debris 36 from the fault. The fluid steam may comprise one or more air jets directed downwardly and preferably forwardly relative to the direction of movement A of the apparatus whereby debris 36 will be blown from the fault 10 ahead of the nozzle 26. The fault clearing means illustrated comprises a pressurised air supply line 37 extending in use from a source of pressurised air to means 39 0 for directing air jet(s) 42 towards the fault 10. This means 39 comprises for example a plurality of nozzles 40 directed downwardly and forwardly, the nozzles 40 being supplied with a air under pressure by means of a manifold 41 in communication with the air supply line 37. The fault clearing means 35 is in use mounted to the tool 25 so that a single operator can move the tool along the fault with the air jet(s) 42 blowing debris 36 from the fault 10 ahead of the nozzle 26 and excess sealing 11 scraped off or spread by the scraper edge immediately following the nozzle 26.

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1 8-- It will be seen that the preferred embodiment of the repair apparatus according to the present invention as hereinbefore described and as illustrated is simple in construction and in operation enables the excess sealant 11 applied to the road surface fault 10 to be immediately scraped off or spread so that the sealant 12 is level with the surrounding road surface 13. Such a repair after setting I of the sealing 11 is most resistant to traffic damage and I particularly to being broken or pulled from the fault.

It is to be understood that the invention includes any modifications that would be envisaged by a person skilled iin the art, and which do not depart from the spirit of the invention, and any such modifications are to be considered within the scope of the invention.

t r arc e a I I 004BU

Claims

2. A road surface repair apparatus as claimed in claim i, wherein the leveller blade is generally concave in the forward direction of movement of the applicator tool so that excess sealant is scraped into the concavity.
3. A road surface repair apparatus as claimed in claim 1 C or claim 2, wherein the applicator tool comprises an elongate structure, the nozzle being disposed at one end of that S structure and the other end of the structure serving as a handle whereby the tool can be held in a downwardly inclined A v orientation with the nozzle directed into the fissure to be repaired.
4. A road surface repair apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the leveller blade extends about the nozzle end of the applicator in a configuration which is concave in the forward direction of movement of the applicator tool. 0p C' 0 -I I iL_1. i0- A road surface repair apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the leveller blade mounting means comprises a blade mounting bracket provided with an aperture which loosely engages the nozzle end of the elongate structure to permit universal limited rocking movements of the blade relative to the tool.
6. A road surface repair apparatus as claimed in claim wherein the blade mounting means further comprises biasing means connected between the forward ends of the leveller i blade and the elongate structure so as in use of the apparatus to bias the rear part of the blade downwardly n toward the road surface and to permit rocking movement of the .r C S blade laterally of the elongate structure. C CC S 7. A road surface repair apparatus as claimed in claim S6, wherein the biasing means comprises a pair of helical springs connected one to each of the forward ends of the leveller blade and at their other respective ends to the applicator tool.
8. A road surface repair apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the sealant applicator tool comprises an internal sealant flow passage extending through S the tool to the nozzle. r 9. A road surface repair apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the applicator tool further c -ccc carries pressure fluid blast nozzle means operative in use of C, v C the apparatus to direct a blast of pressurized fluid into the fissure to be repaired in advance of the applicator nozzle to t clear debris from the fissure prior to application of sealant thereto. A road surface repair apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED THIS 5TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 1990. BP AUSTRALIA LIMITED By Its Patent Attorneys: GRIFFITH HACK CO. Fellows Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia. 1