EP4606262A1

EP4606262A1 - Coupling of a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush

Info

Publication number: EP4606262A1
Application number: EP22962632.0A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Vicente ALCAINA CARBONELL
Original assignee: Necematt SL
Current assignee: Necematt SL
Priority date: 2022-10-21
Filing date: 2022-10-21
Publication date: 2025-08-27
Also published as: WO2024084109A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a support roller of bristles that is formed by a single body or modular body, wherein said roller has an interior hollow with a substantially circular cross section. The interior hollow (2) of the cross section of the body of the brush (1) is provided with a set of coupling notches (3) for coupling a shaft with a cross section greater than the nominal diameter of said interior hollow (2). The interior hollow (2) in turn comprises a set of pairs of projections or tabs (4) respectively forming housings (5) for securing a piece adapting to shafts with smaller dimensions than those of the hollow of the brush.

Description

Technical field

The present invention relates to a mounting structure of a shaft with a cross section according to any usual geometry, round with a key way, square, triangular, or other, to a roller brush mounted on a hollow cylindrical body, normally formed by a plurality of juxtaposed modules.

Background and state of the art

There are different models of street sweeping machines on the market in which the brush is formed by a set of bristles arranged radially on a cylindrical body, in which said bristles are normally mounted on modular disc-shaped bodies. When the bristles wear out or one of the supports breaks, the drive shaft of the sweeping machine is detached from the sweeping machine and the modules are removed and replaced with new ones, the shaft being reassembled in place in a short period of time.
Each brand of sweeping machine has a different shaft geometry and dimension, and this means that spare part supplies must, until now, be supplied by said brand.
It is therefore desirable, and the subject of this invention, to provide a coupling device for coupling shafts of different geometries, for example square, round with a key way, or triangular, to a replacement bristle disc so that said bristle disc is therefore of a universal nature and can be adapted to any shaft geometry of machines available on the market.

Description of the invention

Therefore, a coupling device is described for coupling a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush, wherein the roller brush is normally formed by a set of modules provided with securing means for securing the bristles and spacing means for spacing between each two of said modules, and wherein the interior contour of the body of the brush has a substantially cylindrical geometry, provided with a set of indentations and also provided with a set of tabs or projections.
The set of indentations is intended for shafts with non-circular geometries, e.g. square, the greatest dimension of which is greater than the diameter of the hollow of the brush, so that the angular edges of the non-cylindrical shaft, e.g. square, triangular, pentagonal, etc., are inserted in said notches.
Moreover, the set of tabs or projections is intended for shafts with a cross section smaller than the interior cross section of the body of the brush, by using an adapting piece for adapting between brush and shaft.
This adapting piece has extensions that match the tabs or projections provided in the interior hollow of the brush.
The adapting piece can have different geometries, e.g. square, round with a key way or triangular.
The adapting piece may be modular, such as the brush forming elements, or it may be of such a length that it links two or more modules to the shaft, or all of the modules.

Brief description of the drawings

As a complement to the description provided herein, and for the purpose of helping to make the features of the invention more readily understandable, in accordance with a preferred exemplary embodiment thereof, said description is accompanied by a set of figures constituting an integral part of the same, which by way of illustration and not limitation, represent the following:

Figure 1: shows a front view of the geometry of the brush, wherein the interior portion defines a set of notches and projections or tabs for coupling the drive shaft;
Figure 2: shows a perspective view in an exemplary embodiment of an adapting piece for adapting a square drive shaft with a cross section smaller than the interior cross section of the brush;
Figure 3: shows a perspective view in an exemplary embodiment of an adapting piece for adapting a drive shaft with a round cross section, with a key way, with a cross section smaller than the interior cross section of the brush;
Figure 4: shows a front view of the adapting piece of figure 2;
Figure 5: shows a front view of the adapting piece of figure 3;
Figure 6: shows a front view showing the coupling to the brush of a square shaft with diagonals greater than the interior diameter of the brush;
Figure 7: shows a front view showing the coupling to the brush of a round shaft with a key way, with a diameter smaller than the interior diameter of the brush with an adapting piece; and
Figure 8: shows a front view showing the coupling to the brush of a square shaft with diagonals smaller than the interior diameter of the brush, with an adapting piece;

The following reference signs can be seen in the figures:

1 Body of the brush
2 interior cross section or hollow of the brush
3 notches in the hollow of the brush
4 projections or tabs in the hollow of the brush
5 housing formed by the projections or tabs of the hollow of the brush
6 shaft with a square cross section with diagonals greater than the interior diameter of the brush
7 shaft with a square cross section with diagonals smaller than the interior diameter of the brush
8 adapting piece for adapting to the brush a shaft with a square cross section with diagonals smaller than the interior diameter of the brush
9 protuberances on adapting pieces
10 shaft with a round cross section, with a key way, with a diameter smaller than the interior diameter of the brush
11 adapting piece for adapting to the brush a shaft with a round cross section, with a key way, with a diameter smaller than the interior diameter of the brush
12 projections for the key way of the shaft 10

Description of the preferred embodiments of the invention

According to the invention, the aim is to provide a versatile coupling that can be adapted to different geometries of a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush, which allows a standardisation of the required spare parts due to the intense wear to which this type of machine is subjected.
Thus, we can see with reference (1) an element of a body of the brush. Whether the body is a bristle support, a spacing element or a combined element which fall outside the object of the present invention is irrelevant. This element has an interior hollow 2 with a substantially circular shape.
Said element (1) of the body of the brush has a set of notches (3) arranged in a regular or irregular manner along the interior perimeter of the cross section. For example, the angular portions of a shaft with a cross section greater than that of the nominal diameter of the interior hollow (2), only exceeded by said notches (3), can be inserted into said notches (3). It can be seen in one of the examples shown how a shaft with a square section (6), the diagonals of which are greater than the nominal diameter of the interior hollow (2), is coupled to said notches (3). The force exerted by the shaft (6) will produce a tangential stress in the area of the notches (3) which will cause the element (1) to rotate. The angles of the notches (3) shall be those suitable for the different shaft geometries.
Thus, for shafts with a square cross section the number of notches will be 4, while for triangular shafts it will be 3. It can also be combined so that triangular and square shafts, as well as with other geometries, can be fitted, in which case the number of notches is greater.
The element (1) is also provided internally with a set of projections or tabs (4), grouped in pairs, which form respective housings (5).
These housings are designed to allow the fitting of respective protuberances (9) arranged externally on adapting pieces (8,11) to shafts (7,10) with geometries with a cross section smaller than that of the interior hollow (2) of the brush.
According to an exemplary embodiment, the coupling comprises an adapting piece (8) for adapting a shaft with a square cross section (7), with diagonals smaller than the interior diameter of the brush, wherein said shaft is inserted into the interior hollow of said adapting piece (8), and wherein said adapting piece is in turn provided with protuberances (9) which are coupled to the housings (5) in the body of the brush, formed by projections or tabs (4).
According to another exemplary embodiment, the coupling comprises an adapting piece (11) for adapting to a shaft with a round cross section (10) with a key way, wherein the shaft has a diameter smaller than the interior diameter of the body of the brush. As in the previous example, the shaft is inserted into the interior hollow of the adapting piece (11), which in this case is in turn provided with interior projections (12) as a key way. Said adapting piece (11) is also provided with protuberances (9) that are coupled to the housings (5) in the body of the brush, formed by projections or tabs (4).
It should be understood that the scope of the invention is not limited to the examples shown, so that, for example, a triangular shaft with a distance from the centre to the vertices greater than the radius of the interior hollow of the body of the brush could be coupled to notches that are spaced apart by 120°, within the scope of the invention, or, similarly, if that distance were smaller than the indicated radius, and an adapting piece with the appropriate geometry will be used.

Claims

A coupling of a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush, wherein said roller is formed by a single body or a body formed by a plurality of modules constituting a bristle support, wherein said roller has an interior hollow with a substantially circular cross section, characterised in that the interior hollow (2) of the cross section of the body of the brush (1) is provided with a set of notches (3), wherein said coupling notches for coupling a shaft with a cross section greater than the nominal diameter of said interior hollow (2), and in that said interior hollow (2) in turn comprises a set of projections or tabs (4) forming a housing (5).
The coupling of a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush, according to claim 1, characterised in that the number of notches adapting to shafts with a square cross section is 4.
The coupling of a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush, according to claim 1, characterised in that the number of notches adapting to shafts with a triangular cross section is 3.
The coupling of a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush, according to claims 2 and 3, characterised in that it comprises a number of combined coupling notches for coupling triangular and square shafts.
The coupling of a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush, according to any of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that it further comprises an adapting piece (8,11) of a shaft with a cross section smaller than that of the nominal diameter of the interior hollow (2) of the body of the brush (1), said adapting piece (8,11) being provided with
The coupling of a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush according to claim 5, characterised in that the adapting piece (8) has an interior hollow with a square cross section for coupling a shaft with a square cross section (7).
The coupling of a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush according to claim 5, characterised in that the adapting piece (11) has an interior hollow with a round cross section for coupling a shaft (10) with a round cross section.
The coupling of a shaft of a street sweeping machine to a roller brush according to claim 7, characterised in that the interior hollow of the adapting piece (11) is provided with projections that match the key way of the shaft (10).