GB2308963A

GB2308963A - Combination device for ground care

Info

Publication number: GB2308963A
Application number: GB9700247A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Hans-Josef Brenner; Andreas Hurst
Original assignee: Sabo-Maschinenfabrik GmbH; SABO Maschinenfabrik GmbH
Current assignee: Sabo-Maschinenfabrik GmbH; SABO Maschinenfabrik GmbH
Priority date: 1996-01-13
Filing date: 1997-01-08
Publication date: 1997-07-16
Anticipated expiration: 2017-01-08
Also published as: FR2744324B1; NL1004908A1; NL1004908C2; BE1011019A4; DE19601064C2; DE19601064A1; FR2744324A1; GB2308963B; GB9700247D0

Description

2308963 PATENTS ACT 1977 GMD/A9059GB/D20 Title: COMBINATION DEVICE FOR

GROUND CARE

Description of Invention

This invention relates to a device for garden, landscape or yard work or care (all of which are to be understood as included in the term "ground care" used herein), having a housing which, on wheels, is movable with the help of a guiding bar by an operative on a ground surface to be worked; fixing means which serve to attach a working tool in the housing; a motor secured to the housing; and driving means for transmitting rotational movement of an output shaft of the motor to the working tool.

Such a device is described in DE-3930123-Al, with various working tools, for example a shaft with scarifying blades firmly secured thereto and rotating therewith or a sweeping roller, being attachable in the housing.

For the above purpose, there are provided holding elements which are connectable to the side walls of the housing. The scarifying shaft carries a belt pulley which projects from one side of the housing and which may be engaged by a belt which is driven by a belt pulley on the output shaft of the motor. The belt drive, which is positioned outside the housing, is provided with a cover.

If the device is to be used for sweeping purposes, the housing has to be provided with a sweeping brush roller which has suitable bearing carriers for being fixed to the housing. As the sweeping brush roller has to rotate in a direction opposed to the rotational direction of the scarifying shaft, a reversing drive has to be arranged on the bearing shaft of the sweeping brush roller, the reversina drive being associated with the housing in such a way that, for exam le, 0 p if the device was previously used for scarifying purposes, first the driving belt has to be removed from the belt pulley of the scarifying shaft whereupon the scarifying shaft is removed by releasing the bearing carrier. Thereafter, the sweeping brush roller, together with its bearing shaft, is secured by fixing its holding elements to the housing, whereupon the driving belt is placed over the 2 two belt pulleys, i.e. that of the driving motor and that of the sweeping brush roller. Finally, the cover has to be replaced.

It The disadvantage of the above solution is that the operative has to handle the drive, i.e. the operative has to ensure that the belt drive is fitted in the correct way and that the cover is accurately replaced. It is easily possible for the driving belt not to be fitted accurately or for the operative to forget to put the cover back in its place. This puts the operative or other people at risk.

It is the object of the invention to provide a combination device of the kind herein first set forth, which is safe to handle and which makes it easy to exchange the tools while at the same time ensuring that the tool to be used is driven in the respective direction of rotation and at the required speed.

In accordance with the invention, the driving means comprises at least two driving elements which are attached to the housing and of which at least one is drivable in a driving direction of rotation which is opposed to that of the remaining driving element(s), the driving elements being permanently drivingly connected to the output shaft of the motor; the driving elements comprise respective coupling means which differ from one another and which are adapted to be coupled to respective coupling means of a respective bearing shaft of each of a plurality of working tools; and at a part of the housing disposed opposite the driving elements, there are removably attached respective holding elements and bearing means which provide for attachment of the respective other ends of the bearine shafts to the housing.

The advantage of such an embodiment is that because of the different coupling means, the tool selected in each case can be associated with the appropriate one of the driving elements only. Furthermore, the driving elements and their drivina connection with the output shaft of the motor remain permanently associated with the housing of the device. When the different tools are attached, there is no need for the operative to interfere, which increases operational safety. It is not possible for part of the drive to remain open while the device is being operated, simply because it has been forgotten to replace a cover.

3 According to a further embodiment of the invention, the coupling means of the driving elements may be provided in the form of plug-in bores of different cross-sections, with the coupling means of the ends of the bearing shafts being formed, in each case, by a respective crosssectioned (shaped and/or sized) portion of the bearing shaft end. The coupling means of each driving element supports one end of the bearing shaft of the respective tool.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment it is proposed that one of the driving elements may be drivable firstly by the output shaft of the motor and that the other driving element(s) are drivable by the first driving element.

7his additionally helps to simplify the design because only the first driving element is directly drivingly connected to the output shaft of the motor. The drive for the other driving element(s) is derived from the first driving element. However, all driving elements are permanently drivingly connected to the output shaft of the motor.

For driving the first driving element, it is proposed to connect same to the output shaft of the motor by a belt or chain drive. Tle other driving element(s) are connected drive-wise to the first driving element. To complement the invention in this respect it is proposed that the directly driven driving element carries a gearwheel or has a portion in the form of a gearwheel. lle other driving element(s) are then also provided in the form of gearwheels. In addition, the first, directly driven driving element is provided with a portion shaped like a belt pulley or chain sprocket.

Furthermore, it is proposed that the coupling means of the driving elements may be arranged in such a way that only one at a time is connectable to the bearing shaft of a working tool. In this way it is ensured that only one tool can be used.

To ensure in the case of a combination device usable as a scarifier or a sweeping device that the material picked up by the device during operation from the ground is collected, it is proposed that both at the rear and at the front, the housing may be provided with means for attaching a catching device and with 4 a flap by means of which the housing can be opened towards the suspended catching device. If the device is used as a sweeping device, the front flap is opened and in this region there is arranged a catching device because the sweeping brush roller rotates in a direction which is opposed to the direction of rotation of the wheels on which the housing is movable, i.e. to the operating direction. If the device is used as a scarifier, the direction of rotation of the wheels on which the housing is movable when in operation corresponds to the direction of rotation of the blade shaft.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is diagrammatically illustrated in the drawings, wherein:- Figure 1 is a side elevation of the device movable on a surface; Figure 2 is a section on the line II-II of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a section on the line III-III of Figure 1, showing a detail of the driving elements in a slightly modified embodiment; Figures 4a and 4b are each sections on the line WAV of Figure 1, showing detail of a holding element on the housing side wall positioned opposite the driving elements, said holding element supporting the scarifying shaft and the sweeping roller respectively; Figure 5 is a front view of a scarifying shaft for the device, to allow same to be used as a scarifier; Figure 6 is a front view of a sweeping roller for the device, to allow it to be used as a sweeping device.

Figures 1 to 3 show a device in accordance with the invention, which can be used as a scarifier and as a sweeping device. The device comprises a housing 1 which is movable on a ground surface by means of wheels 2. The device is guided by a guiding bar or handle bar 3 to be held by an operative. The operating direction of movement is indicated by the arrow B. The housing 1 comprises two side walls 4, 5 and an upper wall 6. The wheels 2 are attached to the two side walls 4, 5 in such a way that the lower edge of the housing 1 can be moved closer to or away from the surface on which the housing 1 is moved.

A motor 9 is secured to the outside of the upper wall 6 and has an output shaft 11 which is associated with a belt pulley or chain sprocket, in this embodiment a belt pulley 10. The motor 9 serves to drive a scarifying shaft 7 or a sweeping roller 8. The scarifying shaft 7 is shown in Figure 2 in outline in continuous lines, whereas the sweeping roller 8 is shown, in the position it would assume when fitted to the device, in dashed lines. Either the scarifying shaft 7 or the sweeping roller 8 can be fitted, but not both together. The scarifying shaft 7 and sweeping roller 8 respectively when fitted are driven by driving means.

For the embodiment shown in Figure 3, such driving means comprise a drive housing 15 secured to the side wall 4. Inside the housing 15, there are supported, by means of a rolling contact bearing 21, a first driving element which comprises a gearwheel portion 14 and a belt pulley 13. The belt pulley 13 is driven by a belt 12 which is entrained around the belt pulley 10 on the output shaft 11 of the motor 9. The gearwheel portion 14 engages a gearwheel 16 constituting a second drive element which is also rotatably supported in the housing 15 by a further rolling contact bearing 22. The first driving element comprising the gearwheel portion 14 has a plug-in bore 17 constituting coupling means whose cross-sectional shape is non-circular, for example it comprises two grooves which extend parallel to the rotational axis 18 of the driving element comprising the gearwheel portion 14.

The plug-in bore 17 serves to receive the end of a bearing shaft 23 associated with the scarifying shaft 7, which end is provided with complementary coupling means 30. Figure 3 makes it particularly clear that the cross-section of the plug-in bore 17 is greater than that of a plug-in bore 20 in the gearwheel 16 which constitutes the second driving element and is intended to drive a bearing shaft 24 of the sweeping roller 8. The plug-in bore 20 is also of non-circular cross-section, being provided with grooves which extend parallel to the rotational axis 19 and which are engaged by respective wedges of the bearing shaft 24 which serve as coupling means 31 for the sweeping roller 8 when the latter is fitted. Figure 3 also shows that the rotational envelope of the scarifying shaft 7 with its 6 diameter DV lies within the rotational envelope of the sweeping roller 8 with its diameter DK. This means that the distance A between the two plug-in bores 17, 20 has such a small dimension that, due to the overlap, only one of the working tools, i.e. either the scarifying shaft 7 or the sweeping roller 8, can be fitted. Furthermore, because the cross-sections of the plug-in bores 17, 20 are different from one another, i.e. the cross-section of the plug-in bore 20 is smaller than or different from that of the plug-in bore 17, only one tool can be fitted at a time. The bearing shaft 23 of the scarifying shaft 7 only matches the plug-in bore 17, whereas the bearing shaft 24 of the sweeping roller 8 only matches the plug-in bore 20. The driving element with the gearwheel portion 14 which serves to drive the scarifying shaft 7 is driven in the same rotational direction NI as the output shaft 11 of the motor 9 because it is driven directly by the belt 12 and the belt pulley 13. This means that the scarifying shaft 7 rotates in the operating direction of movement B. The gearwheel 16 engaging the gearwheel portion 14 and intended to drive the sweeping roller 8 rotates in the rotational direction N2 which is opposed to the rotational direction NI and thus opposed to the operating direction of movement B. In Figure 1, the driving elements differ slightly from the arrangement thereof shown in Figure 3 in that, in Figure 1, the driving belt 12 and the belt pulley 13 are arranged close to but spaced from the side wall 4, whereas in Figure 3, the gearwheel portion 14 and the gearwheel 16 directly adjoin the side wall 4. A bag 25 which may be associated with the housing 1 in either of two different positions serves to receive material coming from the surface being worked. If the device is used as a scarifier, the bag 25 has to be attached at the rear of the housing 1. For this purpose, the rear of the housing 1 is provided with an opening 28 which is closed by a flap 26 when the bag 25 is not attached. If the device is used for sweeping purposes, the bag 25 as shown in dashed lines in Figure 1 - has to be associated with the front end of the housing 1 which is also provided with a pivotable flap 27 covering an opening 29. After raising the flap 27, the bag 25 is attached to the front end of the housing 1. When the device is 7 used as a scarifier, the flap 27 is in a position where it rests against the housing 1, i.e. the opening 29 is closed, whereas the opening 28 is opened by holding the flap 26 in an upwardly pivoted position after the bag 25 has been attached to the rear of the housing 1.

As illustrated in Figures 4a and 4b, either the bearing shaft 23 of the scarifying shaft 7 or the bearing shaft 24 of the sweeping roller 8, at its respective end, is attachable by means of a holding element 32a or 32b to the side wall 5 positioned opposite the driving elements 14, 16. The holding element 32a is associated with the bearing shaft 24 of the sweeping roller 8, with a rolling contact bearing arranged therebetween, and attached to the outside of the side wall 5 by means of a bolt 33. For this purpose, the side wall 5 is provided with a slot 35 for allowing the bearing shaft 24 to pass through, and with a threaded bore 34 for the bolt 33. The bearing shaft 23 of the scarifying shaft is associated with a holding element 32b which is of different dimensions from the holding element 32a and, again, is secured by the bolt 33 engageable with the threaded bore 34 to the outside of the side wall 5.

Figure 5 shows a scarifying shaft 7. The bearing shaft 23 is provided with blades which are arranged along the bearing shaft 23 and comprise circumferentially distributed tooth-like projections for cutting into the turf. Furthermore, it is possible to see the coupling means 30 in the form of wedges provided at one end of the bearing shaft 23, whilst the holding element 32b is attached at the other end.

Figure 6 shows the sweeping roller 8 with its bearing shaft 24, with the one end of the bearing shaft 24 being provided with the coupling means 31 in the form of wedges. The holding element 32a is arranged at the other end of the bearing shaft 24.

The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or the following claims, or the accompanying drawings, expressed in their specific forms or in terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for attaining the disclosed result, as appropriate, may, separately or in any

8 combination of such features, be utilised for realising the invention in diverse forms thereof.

9

Claims

1. A ground care device having a housing movable on wheels on a ground surface to be worked; fixing means for attaching a working tool in the housing; a motor secured to the housing; and driving means for transmitting rotational movement of an output shaft of the motor to the working tool; wherein the driving means comprises at least two driving elements which are attached to the housing and of which at least one is drivable in a direction of rotation opposed to that of the remaining driving element(s), the driving elements being permanently drivingly connected to the output shaft of the motor; the driving elements comprise respective coupling means which differ from one another and are adapted to be coupled to respective coupling means of a respective bearing shaft of each of a plurality of working tools; and at a part of the housing disposed opposite the driving elements there are removably attached respective holding elements and bearing means which provide for attachment of the respective other ends of the bearing shafts to the housing.

2. A device according to Claim 1 wherein the coupling means of the driving elements comprise plug-in bores of different cross-sections, with the coupling means at the ends of the bearing shafts being formed, in each case, by 0 C, a respective cross-sectioned portion of the bearing shaft end.

3. A device according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein one of the driving elements is firstly drivable by the output shaft of the motor and the other driving element(s) are drivable by the first driving element.

4. A device according to Claim 3 wherein the first driving element is connected to the output shaft of the motor by a belt or chain drive, and the other driving element(s) are drivingly connected to the first driving element.

0

5. A device according to Claim 3 or Claim 4 wherein the first driving element carries a gearwheel or has a portion in the form of a gearwheel, and the other driving element(s) are in the form of a gearwheel(s).

6. A device according to any one of Claims 3 to 5 wherein the first driving element comprises a portion in the form of a belt pulley or chain sprocket.

7. A device according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the coupling means of the driving elements are arranged in such a way that only one 0 at a time is connectable to the bearing shaft of a working tool.

8. A device according to any one of the preceding claims wherein at both the rear and at the front the housing is provided with means for attaching a catching device and with a flap whereby the housing can be opened towards the attached catching device.

9. A ground care device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

10. Any novel feature or novel combination of features described herein and/or in the accompanying drawings.

11 Amendments to the claims have been filed as follows 1. A ground care device having a housing movable on wheels on a ground surface to be worked; fixing means for attaching a working tool in the housi; a motor secured to the housing; and driving means for transmitting rotational movement of an output shaft of the motor to the working tool; wherein the driving means comprises at least two driving elements which are attached to the housing and of which at least one is drivable in a direction of rotation opposed to that of the remaining driving element(s), the driving elements being permanently drivingly connected to the output shaft of the motor; the driving elements comprise respective coupling means which differ from one another and are adapted to be coupled to respective coupling means of a respective bearing shaft of each of a plurality of working tools; and at a part of the housing disposed opposite the driving elements there are removably attached respective holding elements and bearing means which provide for attachment of the respective other ends of the bearing shafts to the housing.

2. A device according to Claim 1 wherein the coupling means of the driving elements comprise plug-in bores of different cross-sections, with the coupling means at the ends of the bearing shafts being formed, in each case, by a respective cross-sectioned portion of the bearing shaft end.

lz 5. A device according to Claim 3 or Claim 4 wherein the first driving element carries a gearwheel or has a portion in the form of a gearwheel, and the other driving element(s) are in the form of a gearwheel(s).

7. A device according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the coupling means of the driving elements are arranged in such a way that only one at a time is connectable to the bearing shaft of a working tool.