CA1036406A - Compaction wheel with traction and crushing characteristics - Google Patents

Abstract

Abstract of the Disclosure An earth and sanitary fill compaction roller has feet projecting from its cylindrical surface, the feet being arranged in circumferential and axially staggered relationships. The feet are of high tractive characteristics with laterally disposed wedge faces organized in rows along the sides of the roller. The feet have generally hollow base elements and replaceable wedge-shaped wear caps interfitting with the base elements and adapted to be secured thereto by temporary weldments at the joint interface between the two parts.
The roller includes second feet of high destructive characteristics with bodies and cutting edges elongated in the rolling direction, organized in rows intermediate the tractive feet. The arrangement of spaces between feet permits use of cleaner apparatus and reduces debris build-up between feet on the roller.

Description

~369~
This invention concerns generally compaction machinery and parti~
cularly relates to a renewable foo~ for a roller for mounting upon a driven compaction vehicle, the roller having both high destructive and tractive characteristics adapted to break up, crush, grind and compact materials of the size of home appliances as encountered in sanitary land-fill operations.
In sanitary land-fill operations9 as well as in earth compaction service, rollers with high destructive characteristics may have those charac-teristics substantially~ blunted through the wearing down of the sharp cutting edges o the eet. Thus, it is quite desirable that the cutting edge portion o the eet be capable of renewal in the field so as to restore the roller to its initial high destructive capacity. Further, individual feet may be dis-lodged from the roller or damaged reducing the usefulness of the roller.
Economically, it is desirable that the wheel or roller through application of new feet structures be capable of renewal on the job site through use of tools and metal working techniques fowld under field conditionsO
rn summar~, the inven~ion provides a renewable foot for a compaction and crusfi~ng roller, said foot comprising:
a. a generally hollow base element having sloping, upwardly con-yeXging side walls and vertical, generally planar end walls, said side and end ~alls ter~inating at their upper and lower edges at respective upper and lower ~oint interface surfaces lying generally in horizontal, transverse planes extending generall~ normal to said end walls; at least a portion of the upper edges of said side walls extending somewhat further upwardly than the upper edges of said end walls, whereby said upper edges of the side walls of said ~ase element form a mortise portion of a joint c~nnection; the area between the upRer edges of said side and end walls being hollow within said base element;
bo a replaceable wear cap for temporary attachment to said base ele-ment, said wear cap comprising a wedge-shaped member including upwardly sloping, converging side walls, and vertical, generally planar end walls, said side 1 - ~4~

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walls and end walls merging together at their upward edges to form a solid cutting edge on said cap, said cutting edge extending generally parallel to said side walls and substantially normal to said end walls; the lower edges of said side and end walls of said cap terminating at joint interface surfaces mating with the respective upper joint interface surfaces of the side and end walls of said base element;
c. said base and wear cap being adapted to be secured by temporary weldments extending along the joint interface between the side walls of said base element and wear cap;
d. the side walls of said wear cap including portions at the extremities thereof extending downwardly further than the remaining portions of said side walls of said cap for overlapping the ends of the mortise portions of the side walls of said base element to thereby form a mortise-tenon joint;
eO whereby the weldments between the wear cap and base element are reinforced by~ the joint interface, including the mortise-tenon joint, between said base element and wear cap.
An improved roller of the type described may thus include compaction ~eet des~gned and arranged or renewal in the field with tools and techniques there available, thereby ~aintaining the high tractive and destructive char-acteristics of the roller unitO
The objects of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof with reference to the accomRanying drawin&s, wherein:-Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a compaction roller shown ; operatively mounted upon a power driven vehicle;
Figure 2 is a developed, fragmentary view of the compaction roller of Figure l;
Figure 3 is a sectional view in the direction of the arrows 3-3 in Figure l;
Figure 4 is a view like Figure 2 but showing another form of foot arrangement of the compaction roller;
Figures 5 through 9 are views of Vee-shaped traction feet in accor-dance with the present invention; and Figures 10 through 14 are views of the grinding and crushing cleats feet employed on the roller.
~ The compaction roller 10 shown in Figures 1-3 is illustrated mounted :~ upon a power driven vehicle 11 (shown ragmentarily) and there may be three other similar wheels mounted upon the vehicle 11. The compaction and fill roller 10 includes a rigid cylindrical rim 12 connected to a centrally disposed drum 13 by conically shaped, inwardly extending spiders 14, 16 ~Figure 3)0 The outer wheel unit (rim 12, drum 13, spiders 14, 16 etc.) is cushioned with respect to an inner wheel unit by means of a plurality of circumferentially spaced cushioning elements 17 disposed radially between the inner surface of the drum 13 and an inner cylinder 18 which serves as a portion of the structure for connecting the roller 10 to the drive axle assembly 19 of the vehicle 11.
The cushioning elements 17 may be constructed in accordance with the principles disclosed in United States Patent 3,724,342, granted April 3, 1973, and assigned to Caron Compactor Co. The cushioning units 17 serve to isolate shocks encountered by the wheel 10 from the axle 210 The roller unit 10 may be mounted upon a perimeter frame 22 of the vehicle including fore and aft cross members 23 and 24 extending along the operative faces of the wheel or roller as shown in Figure 1.
Insuring that the roller 10 functions in the desired highly destruc-tive manner while maintaining itself substantially free of accumulated dirt, two different types o compaction feet are arranged on the ou~er surface of the cylinder 12: traction feet 26 and crushing feet 27.
The traction feet 26 are arranged fixedly secured to the surface of the cylinder and are circumferentially spaced apart in rows disposed along each side portion of the cylinder~ A row of traction feet 26 may be arranged in a medial portion of the rim 12 ~not shown) to gain a further increase in ~L~3~4(3i6 traction. The feet 26 in each row are staggered in the same circumferential direction a distance of about one-half the circumferential spacing between feet 26 in each row so that when two rows of feet 26 are present one of the ; feet 26 will be entering the ground while a foot from the other row will be leaving the ground during rolling mstion of the wheel 10. This gives a continuous tractive effort for the roller lOo The crushing feet 27 are welded securely to the surface of the cylin-der 12 and are organized into at least two circumferential rows spaced apart from each other, the rows being disposed intermediate the two outside rows of ~` 10 traction feet 26. The crushing feet 27 are circumerentially spaced apart and staggered a distance of about two-thirds the stagger of the traction feet 26 so that there is provided across the surface of the cylinder 12 diagonal slots 28, 29, Figure 2, facilitating ejection of debris from the roller.
Lateral spacing of the circumferential rows of feet affords circum-erential slots 31 (Figure 2) between each adjacent row of feet into which cleaner apparatus 32 may project for assuring against the build-up of materials in the wheel ~Figure 1). The cleaner members 32 are pivotally mounted on the vehicle frame cross members 23, 24 and oriented at an upwardly inclined attitude. An axle 33 extends along the cross members 23, 24 and a support platform 33 maintains the cleaner bars 32 at the desired upwardly inclined attitude. The cleaner bars may be pivoted away from the roller surface when it is desired to discontinue their function. The inwardly projecting ends of the cleaner bars 32 may approach to about 3/8 to 1/4 inch the surface of the rim 12.
The traction feet, shown in detail in Figures 5-9, include base por~ions 36 and replaceable wear-caps 37 which are secured to the bases by welding along the double bevel welded joint 38 provided on the inclined wedge faces of the traction foot. As a unit, the traction foot 26 is Vee-shaped tapering from an outer cutting edge 39 to the bottom of the base 36, which is provided with a curvature to facilitate welding to the rim 12. The ends 41 of -1~36~06 the traction foot 26 are closed preventing dirt build-up in service. A welded structure 38 and a mechanical joint 42 on the ends is formed between the two portions 36, 37 fixedly securing the wear-cap 37 with respect to the base 36.
It will be noted that the traction foot 26 is void or hollow in the interior so that the joint 38 may be broken or cut through with the air-arc gouge technique for removal of the weld metal and the expended wear-cap 37 removed from the relatively permanent base. During this operation the molten metal falls into the hollow base without removal of significant metal from the base itselfO It will also be noted that the wall thickness of the wear-cap 37 is substantially greater than that of the base 36 for the reason that the wear-cap sustains greater amounts of abrasion and for this reason is constructed of a high abrasion resistant material. The base 36, on the other hand, may be constructed of high shock resistant material. The form of the side walls 41 insures that earth and the like material will not build-up the inside of the cleat and also furnishes mechanical support 42 to the wear-cap beyond that supplied by the weld metal.
The crushing feet 27 are shown in detail in Figures 10-14 and each comprises a base member 51 curved and beveled along its bottom periphery 52 for rigidly securing it to the surface of the cylinder 12 by welding. A re-placeable wear~cap 53 which is secured to the base by welding at four separated weld joints 54 as indicated in Figure 11. A mechanical, non~welded joint 55 of mortise and tendon conf.iguration is formed on each side of the foot 27 intermediate the two pair of weld joints 54.
In side profile, the crushing foot 27 unit is trapezoidal and includes an outer cutting edge 56 which merges into the inclined end cutting edges 57 and 58. The unit is tapered outwardly downward from the outer cutting edge.
In general plan form the foot 27 resembles the form of an inverted double ended boat hull.
The base 51 of the foot 27 is provided with upwardly projecting laterally rounded support nose 61 which engages a complemen~ary pocket 62 form-6~9L~i ed in the wear-cap 53. The ends of the pocket 62 are defined by bridging wall structures 63 in the wear-cap extending traversely thereof.
lt will be observed that the base portion of the crushing cleat 27 is hollow so that the four weld joints 54 may be opened by the air-arc gouge technique and the molten weld metal will fall into the interior of the base ; without the arc-gouge penetrating material of the base needed to support a new, replaced wear-cap 53. Referring now to Figures 2 and 3, it will be ob-served that the cu~ting edges 39 of the traction cleats 26 extend at substan-tially a right angle to the cutting edges 56-58 of the crushing cleat 27 so ` 10 that the fill materials will be worked upon in two directions for effective cutting and destructive action.
The compaction roller 10 constructed as described above to include a plurality of rows of cleats of a first or tractive type 26 and of a second or crushing type 27 is mounted upon a vehicle and power driven over sanitary fill for compaction purposes. The roller 10 may be mounted as illustrated in Figure 1 with respect to the vehicle drive axle 21. The cleaner apparatus 32 is arranged to project into the circumferential slots 31 defined between the adjacent rows of feet. The vehicle 11 with the rollers mounted thereto may be operated in both forward and backward directions for effective crushing action in a sanitary fill compaction operation.
After a substantial period of service, it is often necessary that the wear-caps of the feet be replaced so that the cutting edges may be renewed.
This operation may be accomplished in the field through the use of welding e~uipment available on the site and carried there by pickup trucks or the like.
An arc-gouge is first brought into operation to open up the weld joints formed along the faces of the traction feet 26 so that the wear-caps 37 may be re-` moved. The wear-caps 53 of the crushing feet 27 are similarly removed through use of the arc-gouge to open up the weld joints 54 along the incline bases of feet 27. This leaves the mechanical mortise and tendon joints 55 intact for support of the new wear-cap to be secured to the old base. In the next step, ~364Q6 the workman would need only to apply the new wear-caps to the old bases and make the weld joints in the zones prepared by the air-arc weld metal removal technique. Metal used for mechanical support of the wear-cap with respect to the bases is left intact through the selected placement of the weld metal zones and mechanical supports for the wear-cap.
A second form of compaction roller 10' is shown in Figure 4 wherein there is arranged between the two outside rows of traction feet 26' three rows of crushing feet 27' as shownO Diagonal slots 28' and 29' and circumferential slots 31' are formed by the organization of feet illustrated in Figure 4. The function and operation of the roller 10' is similarly to that described above and possesses substantially greater crushing characteristics due to the greater width of the roller and the larger number of crushing feet 27.
It will be seen from the above that there has been disclosed an im-proved compaction and fill roller which includes the capaci*y for maintaining itself in a substantially debris-free condition through the provision of an organization of diagonally extending and circumferentially extending slots along the periphery of the roller. The arrangements of two different types of crushing and compaction feet provides the roller with a high degree of tractive characteristics as well as a high destructive characteristics neces-sary for sanitary fill operations. A cleaner apparatus cooperates with the circumferential slots to mechanically insure that debris build-up along the feet is avoided.

Claims (2)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A renewable foot for a compaction and crushing roller, said foot comprising:
a. a generally hollow base element having sloping, upwardly con-verging side walls and vertical, generally planar end walls, said side and end walls terminating at their upper and lower edges at respective upper and lower joint interface surfaces lying generally in horizontal, transverse planes extending generally normal to said end walls; at least a portion of the upper edges of said side walls extending somewhat further upwardly than the upper edges of said end walls, whereby said upper edges of the side walls of said base element form a mortise portion of a joint connection; the area between the upper edges of said side and end walls being hollow within said base element;
b. a replaceable wear cap for temporary attachment to said base ele-ment, said wear cap comprising a wedge-shaped member including upwardly sloping, converging side walls, and vertical, generally planar end walls, said side walls and end walls merging together at their upward edges to form a solid cutting edge on said cap, said cutting edge extending generally parallel to said side walls and substantially normal to said end walls; the lower edges of said side and end walls of said cap terminating at joint interface surfaces mating with the respective upper joint interface surfaces of the side and end walls of said base element;
c. said base and wear cap being adapted to be secured by temporary weldments extending along the joint interface between the side walls of said base element and wear cap;
d. the side walls of said wear cap including portions at the extremities thereof extending downwardly further than the remaining portions of said side walls of said cap for overlapping the ends of the mortise por-tions of the side walls of said base element to thereby form a mortise-tenon joint;
e. whereby the weldments between the wear cap and base element are reinforced by the joint interface, including the mortise-tenon joint, between said base element and wear cap.

2. A renewable foot for a compaction and crushing roller as recited in claim 1, further wherein said side walls of said wear cap are substantially thicker in cross-section than said side walls of said base element.