GB1560650A - Tooth supports for buckets or the like accessories for earthmoving equipment - Google Patents

Description

(54) IMPROVEMENTS IN TOOTH SUPPORTS FOR BUCKETS OR THE LIKE ACCESSORIES FOR EARTHMOVING EQUIPMENT (71) I, TOMASO MANTOVANI, an Italian citizen, of Via Giovecca, 35, Mirabello, Ferrara, Italy, do hereby declare the invention, for which I pray that a Patent may be granted to me and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: The invention relates to tooth supports for buckets or the like accessories for earthmoving equipment.

Supports are required for securing teeth to the edge of a bucket, for example in an excavator.

The art prior to the present application is characterised by supports formed, at the front thereof, with a tail which is accommodated in a suitable seating in the tooth, which therefore has to be hollow in construction. This prior art has certain defects and disadvantages in that, since the support and the hollow tooth have to be made of hard and tough steels by means of casting operations, such a hollow tooth not only suffers from high costs of production by casting but also does not lend itself to a precise coupling to the projecting tail of the support unless delicate and tedious adjusting operations are provided.

Such defects and disadvantages demand that a solution should be provided for the technical problem consisting in finding a novel mode of coupling between the tooth and its support, in such a manner as to reduce the cost of casting and to avoid the subsequent adjusting operations while guaranteeing a coupling without play with a view to obtaining the optimum conditions of operation. It is likewise an object of the invention to make the part most subject to wear, that is to say the tooth, less expensive than the other part, that is to say the support, so that the replacement of the worn tooth can be effected with the minimum possible cost.

The present invention consists in a tooth support for a bucket or the like for earthmoving equipment, wherein a front part of a support member is formed with an upper wall and a pair of opposed side walls which together form a seating for receiving a tail of the tooth, and a block is provided for fitting between lower parts of the side walls of the seating so as to eliminate or substantially to eleminate play between the support member and the tail in a vertical direction, the block in use, being secured in position by welding.

Suitably, the support member, the tail and the block are each formed with an aperture, and the support member and the tail are held together in use by a resilient pin which extends through an aperture in the tail and respective apertures in the support member and the block. Preferably, the apertures extend perpendicular to the contacting surfaces of the tail and the support member and the contacting surfaces of the tail and the block.

The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view of a tooth and a tooth support according to the invention; Figure 2 is a longitudinal section through the tooth and tooth support of Figure 1, but in the assembled state; Figure 3 is a section on the line III-III of Figure 2.

Referring to the drawings, a support member 1 is formed, at the front thereof, with a hole 2 for a resilient pin 3. This member 1 has a seating 4 to receive, on the one hand, a tail 5 of a bucket tooth 6 and, on the other hand, a block 7 adapted to the fitted into the coupling formed between the seating 4 and the tail 5. The seating 4 is then closed at the bottom by means of a weld (shown in Figure 3). The tail 5 has a hole 8, aligned with the hole 2, and the block 7 has a hole 9, also aligned with the hole 8.

The support member 1 can be fixed in any manner to the edge of a bucket (not shown), for example by welding or by means of screws and/or bolts. The vertical position of the block 7 is determined owing to the cancellation of play between the tail 5, the support member 1 and the block 7 inside the seating 4.

The mounting of the tooth 6 is effected in the following manner. The member 1, the tooth 6 with the tail 5 and the block 7 having been produced easily and at a moderate cost by casting, the holes 2, 8, 9 are drilled and the resilient pin 3 is introduced into the holes. Then the block 7 is welded to the lower parts of the sides of the seating 4 in such a manner as to obtain the desired degree of coupling between the elements 1, 5 and 7. The tooth 6 can be replaced in the seating 4 by driving out the pin 3 and by introducing the tail 5 of a fresh tooth in place of the previous one. The support member 1, completed by the block 7, is fixed to the edge of the bucket (not shown), for example by welding or by means of screws and/or bolts according to the requirements in practice.

In practice, the dimensions, the materials and the details of execution can be varied in any manner without departing from the scope of the present invention. Moreover, the shapes of the tail 5, the tooth 6, the block 7 and the seating 4 may differ from those illustrated, depending, on particular, on the particular necessities of the distribution of stresses. At the limit, it is possible to have a tail 5 of parallelepiped shape, hence a seating 4 likewise of parallelepiped shape and also a parallelepiped block 7. Finally, the shape of the body of the support 1 may be different from that which is illustrated.

WHAT I CLAIM IS: 1. A tooth support for a bucket or the like accessory for earthmoving equipment, wherein a front part of a support member is formed with an upper wall and a pair of opposed side walls which together form a seating for receiving a tail of the tooth, and a block is provided for fitting between lower parts of the side walls of the seating so as to eliminate, or substantially to eliminate, play between the support member and the tail in a vertical direction, the block in use, being secured in position by welding.

2. A tooth support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the support member and the block are each formed with an aperture, and the tail and the support member are held together in use by a resilient pin which extends through an aperture in the tail and respective apertures in the support member and the block.

3. A tooth support as claimed in claim 2, wherein the apertures extend perpendicular to the contacting surfaces of the support member and the tail and the surfaces of the tail and the block.

4. A tooth support for buckets or the like accessories for earthmoving equipment, the support being constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (4)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. aligned with the hole 2, and the block 7 has a hole 9, also aligned with the hole 8. The support member 1 can be fixed in any manner to the edge of a bucket (not shown), for example by welding or by means of screws and/or bolts. The vertical position of the block 7 is determined owing to the cancellation of play between the tail 5, the support member 1 and the block 7 inside the seating 4. The mounting of the tooth 6 is effected in the following manner. The member 1, the tooth 6 with the tail 5 and the block 7 having been produced easily and at a moderate cost by casting, the holes 2, 8, 9 are drilled and the resilient pin 3 is introduced into the holes. Then the block 7 is welded to the lower parts of the sides of the seating 4 in such a manner as to obtain the desired degree of coupling between the elements 1, 5 and 7. The tooth 6 can be replaced in the seating 4 by driving out the pin 3 and by introducing the tail 5 of a fresh tooth in place of the previous one. The support member 1, completed by the block 7, is fixed to the edge of the bucket (not shown), for example by welding or by means of screws and/or bolts according to the requirements in practice. In practice, the dimensions, the materials and the details of execution can be varied in any manner without departing from the scope of the present invention. Moreover, the shapes of the tail 5, the tooth 6, the block 7 and the seating 4 may differ from those illustrated, depending, on particular, on the particular necessities of the distribution of stresses. At the limit, it is possible to have a tail 5 of parallelepiped shape, hence a seating 4 likewise of parallelepiped shape and also a parallelepiped block 7. Finally, the shape of the body of the support 1 may be different from that which is illustrated. WHAT I CLAIM IS:

1. A tooth support for a bucket or the like accessory for earthmoving equipment, wherein a front part of a support member is formed with an upper wall and a pair of opposed side walls which together form a seating for receiving a tail of the tooth, and a block is provided for fitting between lower parts of the side walls of the seating so as to eliminate, or substantially to eliminate, play between the support member and the tail in a vertical direction, the block in use, being secured in position by welding.

2. A tooth support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the support member and the block are each formed with an aperture, and the tail and the support member are held together in use by a resilient pin which extends through an aperture in the tail and respective apertures in the support member and the block.

3. A tooth support as claimed in claim 2, wherein the apertures extend perpendicular to the contacting surfaces of the support member and the tail and the surfaces of the tail and the block.

4. A tooth support for buckets or the like accessories for earthmoving equipment, the support being constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.