JPH0724368U - Rotating roller assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] In a rotating roller assembly that collects or pushes golf balls on the lawn, the rollers move in accordance with the undulation of the lawn surface. A rotary roller assembly includes an elongated roller 62,
A support fitting 61 that rotatably supports the roller sandwiching the roller from the longitudinal direction, and a pair of support coils whose lower ends are fixed near both ends of the support fitting and extend from the support fitting in a direction substantially perpendicular to each other. It is composed of a spring 65. The upper end of the support coil spring is attached to the support member of the rotating roller assembly.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a rotating roller assembly suitable for use in pushing or collecting golf balls scattered on a lawn.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 In a golf ball collection vehicle that collects and stores golf balls scattered on the lawn such as an open-range golf driving range (hereinafter simply referred to as "balls"), the wheels are used to step on the ball to embed the ball in the lawn or damage the lawn. In order to prevent this from happening, a member that pushes the ball back may be provided on the front side of the wheel, or a member that collects the ball may be provided to collect the ball in a range wider than the width of the ball pick-up mechanism. These members must be brought close enough to the lawn surface in order to push the balls away or gather them together, and to prevent damage to the lawn surface even if it comes into contact with the lawn surface, the parts that contact the lawn should not be damaged. A flexible material such as a rubber plate is used.

[0003]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, it is difficult to set the height of the push-out or gathering member and the lawn surface is uneven, so in some cases it may be too far away from being fully functional or too close to the lawn. There is a problem in that the resistance of the golf ball ball collection vehicle increases due to the contact, even if it does not damage it. It may be possible to adjust the height automatically by sensing the contact of these members with the grass surface, but there is also the problem that the structure becomes complicated.

The present invention aims to solve each of these problems.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 To this end, the rotary roller assembly according to the present invention includes, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, an elongated roller 62, a supporting metal fitting 61 for rotatably supporting the roller in a longitudinal direction, and a supporting metal member 61 for supporting the roller. Each of the metal fittings has a pair of support coil springs 65 whose lower ends are fixed near both ends of the metal fitting and which extend from the support fitting in a direction substantially perpendicular to each other.

[0006]

[Action]

 The rotating roller assembly of the present invention is used by attaching the upper end of the support coil spring 65 to a part of the vehicle body such as a golf ball collecting vehicle so that the roller 62 contacts the grass surface. The number of rotating roller assemblies used may be one, or a plurality of rotating roller assemblies may be used side by side. The rollers 62 are normally in contact with the lawn surface to ensure that the balls are pushed away or gathered together. When the roller 62 rides on the raised portion of the lawn surface, each supporting coil spring 65 bends backward, and the roller 62 retracts upward while keeping contact with the lawn surface. In this case, if the raised portion is inclined in the longitudinal direction of the roller 62, the bending degree of each support coil spring 65 is different, and the roller 62 is also inclined according to the inclination of the raised portion.

[0007]

[Effect of device]

 As described above, according to the present invention, the roller moves up and down and tilts in accordance with the ups and downs of the lawn surface even though the support coil spring has a very simple support structure. Are always reliably rejected or jumbled. Also, since the roller that comes into contact with the lawn is rotatable, the resistance is low and the lawn is not damaged.

[0008]

【Example】

 First, the present invention will be described with reference to the embodiments shown in FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the golf ball collecting apparatus having the rotating roller assembly according to the present embodiment includes a tractor portion T and a trailer portion, and the trailer portion includes a storage portion 20, a ball pick-up mechanism portion 30, A ball intake mechanism 40, a ball take-out unit 50, a ball gathering mechanism 70, and the like are provided, and the rotating roller assembly 60 is attached to the lower side of the ball gathering mechanism 70, the front side of each wheel, and the like.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the vehicle body frame 10 of the trailer portion is provided with a lower frame 10c in the front half thereof, and each rear wheel 12 is provided in an extension member 10b which is welded to both sides of the rear portion and protrudes downward. A pair of rear axles 12a bearing the bearings are fixed. A pair of caster wheel type front wheels 14 is provided on the lower side of the overhanging portion 13 protruding left and right from the gate-shaped reinforcing member 11 provided at the front portion of the vehicle body frame 10. The body frame 10 moves on the lawn surface G by the front wheels 14 and the rear wheels 12. The body frame 10 is attached to the rear portion of the tractor T by a ball joint 17 provided at a front end of a towing arm 16 which is vertically swingable via a pair of U-shaped metal fittings 15 fixed to the front portion via a hinge pin 15a. Be connected.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, on the lower frame 10 c in the front half of the vehicle body frame 10, the left and right side walls 21, the front box 22, the rear wall 23, and the slats which are fixed to the vehicle body frame 10 are provided. A box-shaped accommodating portion 20 including the bottom member 24 is formed. The two transition plates 25 located in the upper part of the accommodation portion 20 are supported by being inclined so that the rear side becomes higher. The ball B picked up from the lawn surface G by the ball picking mechanism section 30 to be described later is taken out by the ball taking-out section 50 and is received from the edge of the guide plate 52 provided on the rear wall 23 of the containing section 20. It is dropped into the section 20.

Next, the ball pick-up mechanism unit 30, the ball take-in mechanism 40, and the ball take-out unit 50 will be described with reference to FIGS. The sweeping roller 31 of the ball pick-up mechanism portion 30 is rotatably supported on the rear portion of the vehicle body frame 10 by a horizontal lateral roller shaft 33, and a sprocket 37a is supported by a motor 36 supported on the bridge member 10a. , 37b and the chain 37c to rotate in the direction of the arrow shown. As shown in detail in FIG. 5, the sweeping roller 31 comprises elongated prismatic members 31a and channel members 31b alternately connected in the circumferential direction, and disk portions 31c fixed to both ends thereof. The pins 32, which are made of a flexible material such as rubber and project in the radial direction, are arranged in a row along the axial direction at a slight interval.

An arc-shaped guide plate 34 is provided at a rear portion of the vehicle body frame 10 between the sweeping roller 31 and the sweeping roller 31, for example, at a distance of about 50 mm. A ball moving portion 35 is formed at the. The guide plate 34 is divided into an upper guide plate 34a and a lower guide plate 34b, and the lower edge of the lower guide plate 34b is rounded up considerably above the lawn surface G, and outside the vicinity of the lower guide plate 34b the entire width of the lower guide plate 34b. A ball intake mechanism 40 is provided. Although not described in detail, the ball intake mechanism 40 has a large number of axial movement rods 44 which are arranged close to each other and are normally urged to the most advanced position by springs.

The trailer portion provided with the ball pick-up mechanism portion 30 is pulled by the tractor T to move forward (to the left in FIGS. 1 to 3), and at the same time, the sweeping roller 31 is rotated counterclockwise as shown in the drawing. When the motor 36 is rotated by the motor 36, the golf ball B on the lawn surface G (slightly lifted by the lawn) gathered in the vicinity of the ball pick-up mechanism portion 30 by the ball gathering mechanism 70, which will be described later, is in a row of the pins 32. And is picked up by the rotation of the sweeping roller 31 onto a large number of axially moving rods 44 arranged in parallel and close to each other, fed to the ball moving portion 35, and trapped between the pins 32. Is moved upwards.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, both side guides 51 of the ball take-out section 50 provided on the upper side of the ball pick-up mechanism section 30 are connected by a guide plate 52 and two connecting plates 53. A large number of take-out rods 54, which are supported by two support members 18 fixed to the body frame 10 and are inclined so as to be slightly lowered forward, are fixed to the upper side of these. The ball B, which is sent to the ball moving unit 35 by the ball pick-up mechanism unit 30 and the ball take-in mechanism 40, is trapped between the pins 32 and moved upward, has the upper part of the sweeping roller 31 of the take-out rod 54. It hits the rear end and is pushed up by the pin 32 that is arranged so as to pass between the take-out rods 54, and is pushed up onto the take-out rod 54. Thus, it is dropped from the edge of the guide plate 52 into the accommodating portion 20 provided with the transition plate 25.

Next, a ball gathering and collecting mechanism 70 including the rotating roller assembly 60 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 4 and 5. Both sides of the lower frame 10 c of the vehicle body frame 10 project slightly forward of the accommodating portion 20, and a pair of left and right sides whose base ends are swingably supported in the upper and lower directions and extend obliquely to the front and outer sides. An overhanging arm 71 is provided. The overhanging arm 71 is composed of a reinforcing member 72 to which a branch portion 72a and a mounting substrate 72b are welded, and an upper plate 73 fixed to the upper side thereof, and the mounting substrate 72b serving as the base end portion has two detachable hinges. 74 are attached to both sides of the lower frame 10c so as to be swingable about the longitudinal axis. A caster wheel 75 is mounted on the lower surface of the tip of the upper plate 73 of the overhang arm 71 so as to be rotatable about a vertical axis eccentric to the axle and thereby to freely change the rolling direction. Further, on the lower surface of the upper plate 73, five rotary roller assemblies 60, which will be described in detail below, are attached along the longitudinal direction between the base end portion and the caster wheel 75 with almost no gap. In the present embodiment, each rotary roller assembly 60 is arranged such that the angle of its rotation axis with respect to the longitudinal center line of the vehicle body frame 10 is slightly larger than the angle of the overhang arm 71.

As shown mainly in FIGS. 4 and 5, the rotary roller assembly 60 includes a support metal fitting 61 formed by bending both ends of a strip-shaped plate into a U-shape, and both ends of the support metal fitting 61. It has a synthetic resin roller 62 rotatably supported by a supported support shaft 63, and the lower ends of a pair of supporting coil springs 65 are fixed to the back surface of the supporting metal member 61 in parallel with each other and upward. It is extended. Columnar mounting bosses 64 are fixed by welding or the like near both ends of the back surface of the support fitting 61, and the mounting bosses 64 are inserted into the lower ends of the support coil springs 65 that are wound in close contact with each other to lower the lower ends of the support coil springs 65. Insert the cotter pin 67 from the wire gap created by locally stretching a part of the part, insert it into the hole formed in the mounting boss 64 in the orthogonal direction, and insert the tip into the gap of the wire on the opposite side to expand. Thus, the lower end of each support coil spring 65 is fixed to the support fitting 61.

A mounting boss 66 similar to the mounting boss 64 is fixed to the lower surface of the upper plate 73 of the overhanging arm 71 by welding or the like, and the mounting boss 66 is inserted into the upper end portion of each support coil spring 65 to perform the same operation as the lower end portion. By using the split pin 67, the upper end portion of each support coil spring 65 is fixed to the lower surface of the upper plate 73. In order to collect the balls B on the center side of the body frame 10 where the ball pick-up mechanism section 30 is located, as described above, the rotation axis of each roller 62 is a reverse eight-character shape with respect to the forward direction of the longitudinal center line of the body frame 10. Therefore, the roller 62 itself moves in an oblique direction, so that the roller 62 produces an axial movement component with respect to the lawn. In this embodiment, large chamfers 62a (see FIG. 4) are formed on both ends of the roller 62 to reduce the resistance and damage to the lawn due to the axial movement component.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, on both sides of the lower frame 10c of the vehicle body frame 10, there are mounting plates 69 arranged in an inverted eight shape with respect to the forward direction of the longitudinal centerline of the vehicle body frame 10. It is fixed at approximately the same height as the upper plate 73 of the overhanging arm 71, and like the upper plate 73 of the overhanging arm 71, the lower surface of this mounting plate 69 also has four rotating rollers along the longitudinal direction with almost no gap. An assembly 60 is attached.

Further, mainly as shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of rotary roller assemblies 60 are attached to stays fixed to the vehicle body frame 10 also on the front sides of the front wheels Ta and the rear wheels Tb of the tractor T. The rotating roller assembly 60 pushes away the balls in front of the wheels Ta and Tb in order to prevent the wheels Ta and Tb from stepping on the ball and embedding the ball in the lawn or damaging the lawn. .

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. Since the base end portion of the overhang arm 71 is supported by the lower portion of the vehicle body frame 10 via a hinge 74 so as to be vertically swingable, even if the lawn surface G is undulated, or due to this undulation, the vehicle body frame 10 is undulated. Even if is tilted, the caster wheel 75 on the lower surface of the tip of the overhang arm 71 is always in contact with the lawn surface G, and the distance between the overhang arm 71 and the lawn surface G 1 is automatically maintained at a substantially constant distance. When the trailer portion is pulled forward by the tractor T and moves forward, the balls scattered on the turf surface G which is inside the caster wheel 75 of the overhanging arm 71 will be scattered at a plurality of times on the lower side of the overhanging arm 71. The balls are gathered to the body frame 10 side by the rollers 62 of the rolling roller assembly 60, and these balls are further provided on the lower side of the mounting plate 69 fixed to the body frame 10 to form the rollers of the plurality of rotating roller assemblies 60. By 62, they are gathered together in front of the ball pick-up mechanism section 30.

If the lawn surface G is undulating and the lawn surface G below the overhanging arm 71 has a local rising portion, if the roller 62 rides on such a rising portion Ga, the roller 62 shown in FIG. The support coil spring 65 bends backward as indicated by the two-dot chain line, and the roller 62 retracts upward while being in contact with the lawn surface G as indicated by the symbol X. In this case, if the raised portion Ga is inclined in the longitudinal direction of the roller 62, the two support coil springs 65 are bent differently, and the roller 62 is also inclined according to the inclination of the raised portion Ga. . When the support coil spring 65 passes through the raised portion Ga, the bending of the support coil spring 65 is restored, so that the roller 62 is not separated from the grass surface G. It should be noted that the rotary roller assembly 60 is preferably mounted so that the roller 62 contacts the lawn surface G and the supporting coil spring 65 bends slightly in a normal state.

Similarly to the above, if the roller 62 of the rotating roller assembly 60 attached to the mounting plate 69 below the vehicle body frame 10 and the stay on the front side of each wheel rides on the raised portion Ga, the supporting coil spring is When 65 bends backward, the roller 62 is retracted upward while keeping contact with the grass surface G, and is inclined according to the inclination of the rising portion Ga.

As described above, according to this embodiment, even when the roller 62 rides on the rising portion Ga of the lawn surface G, the roller 62 follows the ups and downs of the lawn surface G due to the bending of the support coil spring 65 and tilts. Since it moves in the direction, the lawn surface G scattered on the lawn surface G is always reliably gathered or pushed away.

Next, a modified embodiment shown in FIG. 6 will be described. In this modified embodiment, the tractor T is provided with the storage section 20, and the trailer section is provided with the storage section 20, the ball pick-up mechanism section 30, the ball intake mechanism 40, and the ball take-out section 50. The tractor T is operated by an unmanned type, and is operated by a remote control by radio control or a guide wire buried in the ground. The tractor T and the trailer portion are connected by a ball joint 82 located below the ball take-out portion 50.

In this embodiment, the ball gathering mechanism 70 is not used, but a rotating roller assembly 60 similar to the one described above is used in front of the front and rear wheels Ta and Tb of the tractor T for gathering and is pushed away. Is provided in front of the front wheel Ta of the tractor T and the wheel 81 of the trailer portion.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a golf ball collection device having an embodiment of a rotating roller assembly according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the golf ball collection device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a main part of the golf ball collection device shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the ball gathering mechanism.

5 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 4, showing a detailed structure of a support portion of the rotary roller assembly.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of another type of golf ball ball collecting device having an embodiment of the rotating roller assembly according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

60 ... Rotating roller assembly, 61 ... Support metal fittings, 62 ... Rollers, 65 ... Support coil springs.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An elongated roller, a support metal fitting that rotatably supports the roller in a lengthwise direction, and lower ends of the support metal fitting are fixed near both ends of the support metal fitting in the direction substantially perpendicular to each other. A rotating roller assembly comprising a pair of support coil springs extending in parallel.