AU742186B2 - Excavation bucket - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT EXCAVATION BUCKET THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS A FULL DESCRIPTION OF THIS INVENTION, INCLUDING THE BEST METHOD OF PERFORMING IT KNOWN TO ME:- The invention relates to a method of excavating irrigation ditches or channels having a required cross sectional profile and also relates to an excavation bucket for excavating the same.

One type of conventional excavator includes a two piece boom for positioning and manoeuvring an excavation bucket by means of hydraulic rams controlled by the *.excavator operator. The two piece boom comprises a main boom pivotally coupled at one end to the excavator and pivotally coupled at the other end to the end of a bucket boom. The bucket attaches to a bucket coupling on the free end of the bucket boom wherein the bucket coupling may pivot in relation to the bucket boom.

The bucket's pivotal travel is determined by an hydraulic bucket ram fitted on the bucket boom and attached to the bucket coupling. Extending the bucket ram pivots the bucket in the scooping direction and 20 retracting the bucket ram pivots the bucket in the opposite direction (ie the bucket emptying direction).

Throughout the specification the term "scooping" is understood to principally define excavating by moving the bucket in a direction towards the excavator to which the bucket is attached, although this definition is understood not to exclude excavating in a direction away from the excavator in some applications.

One type of conventional bucket includes a bottom blade and two parallel side wall blades perpendicular to the bottom blades. The excavation action is achieved by positioning the boom to the required position and then digging the bucket into the earth and scooping the bucket towards the excavator. The bottom blade generally does most of the earth breaking work and the side wall blades mainly serve to guide the broken earth into the bucket. The operator excavates the ditch or channel to the required cross sectional profile by manoeuvring and positioning the excavation bucket :hdas required while excavating until the desired profile in the ditch or channel is achieved.

An unlined earth irrigation channel having a required water handling capacity has a oo preferred cross sectional profile formed of a horizontal gutter and a batter wall on either side inclined at a predetermined optimal angle (batter angle). A conventional method of excavating such a channel is to first excavate the channel profile to the o• 15 required gutter depth and gutter width then, from each side of the newly formed gutter, excavate and form the batter wall to the required inclination angle.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided an excavation bucket :I .for forming a predetermined cross sectional channel profile including an attachment means for orientating said bucket, said bucket having a scooping volume defined by a gutter blade and side wall blades, the side wall blades being inclined at a predetermined angle relative to the gutter blade and arranged to substantially correspond to a predetermined cross sectional channel profile, said profile being formed when said bucket is oriented with the cutting edges of the side wall blades lying in a common vertical plane, wherein said gutter blade is of a lesser or of an equal width to the width of said predetermined cross sectional channel profile and said side wall blades are each of at least the same length as the length of the side walls forming said predetermined cross sectional channel profile whereby the gutter and the side walls of the predetermined cross sectional channel profile can be formed simultaneously.

According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a method of forming a channel of a required cross sectional profile including manoeuvring an excavation bucket as described above to position said excavation bucket in a home orientation as defined below moving said bucket in a scooping action to thereby form said predetermined channel bucket in a scooping action to thereby form said predetermined channel profile, and progressively repeating the steps of orientating and scooping along the length of the desired channel until the required channel is formed.

The invention provides an excavation bucket having an attachment means, a gutter blade and side wall blades 15 (batter blades) arranged to substantially correspond to the required channel or ditch cross sectional profile when the bucket is orientated in a home orientation. The bucket is in the home orientation when the batter blades are substantially inclined at the batter angle relative to the gutter blade and the cutting edges of the gutter blade lie in a common vertical plane. The gutter blade may be of lesser, or of the same width as the desired channel gutter width but not greater. In use the bucket is coupled to a pivotal bucket coupling on a conventional excavator boom by the attachment means.

Advantageously an operator using a conventional excavator having an excavation bucket in accordance with the invention would excavate the required gutter profile and in doing so would simultaneously excavate and form at least one of the two required batter walls.

Preferably the gutter blade portion of the bucket is of the same width as the required channel gutter -4width, and each of the batter blade portions of the bucket is of at least the same length as the required inclined length of the batter walls thereby excavating and forming simultaneously the required gutter profile and the required batter walls.

Preferably the attachment means is geometrically calibrated so the bucket is in the home orientation when the bucket boom is in a vertical orientation and the bucket coupling is in a fully retracted position.

Advantageously the operator can orientate the bucket in the home orientation by orientating the bucket boom in a vertical orientation and fully retracting the bucket ram. In the home orientation the bucket batter and gutter profile is in an orientation that can co-operate with the gutter and batter cross sectional profile of the partly'excavated ditch or channel.

The invention provides a means of excavating irrigation ditches or channels while reducing the time required to obtain the desired ditch or channel cross sectional profile over some conventional 25 excavation techniques.

The invention will be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 illustrates a perspective view of an excavation bucket in accordance with the invention attached to a conventional excavator's bucket boom.

Figure 2 illustrates a front view of the excavation bucket in Figure 1 attached to a conventional excavator's bucket boom.

Figure 3 illustrates a rear view of an excavation bucket in accordance with the invention.

Figure 4 is an illustration of a preferred cross sectional profile of an unlined earth irrigation channel.

An unlined earth irrigation channel having a required water handling capacity has a preferred cross sectional profile and is illustrated as channel 40 in Figure 4. The channel 40 is formed of a horizontal gutter 41 and a batter wall 42 and 43 on either side inclined at a predetermined optimal angle A (batter angle). A conventional method of excavating such a 15 channel 40 is to first excavate the channel profile to required gutter depth 44 and gutter width 45 using conventional bucket (not shown) then, from each side of the newly formed gutter excavate and form the batter wall 42 and 43 to the required inclination 20 angle A.

The excavation bucket 1 in Figures 1, 2 and 3 is attachable to a pivotal bucket coupling 6 on the excavator's boom 7 by an attachment means 8 and having a gutter blade 2 and side wall blades 3 and 4 (batter blades) arranged to substantially correspond to the required channel or ditch cross sectional profile, for example as shown in Figure 4. That is the batter blades 3 and 4 are substantially inclined at the batter angle A relative to the gutter blade 2 when the bucket 1 is orientated in a home orientation so that the cutting edges 9 and 10 of the blades 3 and 4 respectively lie in a common vertical plane.

Advantageously an operator usingan excavation bucket 1 can excavate the required gutter profile, for -6example as shown in Figure 4, by orientating the bucket 1 in the home orientation then executing a scooping action and in doing so would simultaneously excavate and form at least a portion of at least one of the two required batter walls 42 or 43.

If the gutter blade portion 2 of the bucket 1 is of the same width 11 as the required channel gutter width in Figure 4, and each of the batter blade portions 3 and 4 of the bucket 1 is at least of the same length 12 and 13 respectively as the required inclined length 46 and 47 of the batter walls 42 and 43 an excavation action will thereby excavate and form simultaneously the required gutter profile 41 and the 15 required batter walls 42 and 43.

If the gutter blade portion 2 of the bucket 1 is of the same width 11 as the required channel gutter width 45 and the length of each of the batter blade portions 3 and 4 of the bucket 1 is greater than the length 12 and 13 respectively of the required inclined length 46 and 47 of the batter walls 42 and 43, as shown in the drawings, then an excavation action will excavate and form simultaneously the required gutter profile 41 and 25 the required batter walls 42 and 43, while minimising the need for clean-up at the ground edges of the batter walls. In this case, the tip portions 50, 51 (see Figure 2) of the batter blade portions 3 and 4 of the bucket 1, which are proud of the ground, tend to force loose material at the ground edges of the channel being formed into the bucket 1 during the scooping action.

Preferably the attachment means 8 is geometrically calibrated so the bucket 1 is in the home orientation when attached to the bucket boom 7 when a bucket boom 7 is in a vertical orientation and the coupling 6 is in a fully retracted position by retracting the bucket ram Advantageously the operator then can orientate the bucket into the home orientation when attached to the bucket boom 7 by orientating the bucket boom 7 in the vertical orientation (with or without the aid of instrumentation) and fully retracting the bucket ram 5 and coupling 6.

In the alternative, instrumentation may be provided such as a spirit level to indicate when the bucket 1 is in the home orientation doing away with the need to geometrically calibrate the attachment means 8.

The invention is not limited to the excavation of ditches or channels having the cross sectional profile illustrated in Figure 4, and may be applied to other desired cross sectional profiles by matching the cross sectional profile of the bucket 1 to the desired channel cross sectional profile and then geometrically calibrating the attachment means 8 so that the bucket 1 is in a home orientation when the boom 7 is in a vertical orientation and the bucket ram 5 and coupling 25 6 is in the fully retracted position.

Claims (6)

1. An excavation bucket for forming a predetermined cross sectional channel profile including an attachment means for orientating said bucket, said buckethaving a scooping volume defined by a gutter blade and side'wall blades, the side wall blades being inclined at a predetermined angle relative to the gutter blade and arranged to substantially correspond to a predetermined cross sectional channel profile, said profile being formed when said bucket is oriented with the cutting edges of the side wall blades lying in a common vertical plane, wherein said gutter blade is of a lesser or of an equal width to the width of said predetermined cross 10 sectional channel profile and said side wall blades are each of at least the same length as the length of the side walls forming said predetermined cross sectional channel profile whereby the gutter and the side walls of the predetermined cross sectional channel profile can be formed simultaneously.

2. An excavation bucket as claimed in claim 1 wherein said side wall blades are 15 longer than the length of the side walls forming said predetermined cross sectional channel profile with the portion of said length of said side wall blades greater than the length of the side walls forming said predetermined cross sectional channel profile extending beyond said scooping volume.

3. An excavation bucket as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said attachment means attaches said excavation bucket to a prime mover by a pivotal bucket coupling fixed at one end of an excavator boom.

4. A method of forming a channel of a required cross sectional channel profile including manoeuvring an excavation bucket as claimed in any one of claims 1-3 to position said excavation bucket in a home orientation as hereinbefore defined, moving said bucket in a sweeping action to thereby form said predetermined channel profile, and progressively repeating the steps of orienting and sweeping said excavation bucket along the length of the desired channel until the required channel is formed.

A method of excavating a channel of a predetermined cross sectional profile substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in figures 1-4. ~,~RA -LJ) 4b o"> 9

6. An excavation bucket substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in figures 1-4. Dated this 26th day of October 2001 S KELLY JOHN TAYLOR Patent Attorneys for the Applicant HALFORD CO a a. a. a a a. a. a a a a. a a a a a a a a a.. a a a a a a a a. a a a a. a