JPH1136253A - Small-sized snow removing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the operability of a shooter or a deflector so as to improve the efficiency of snow removal work by varying the power supply voltage or the power frequency of an actutor for driving the shooter or the deflector to vary the operating speed of the shooter or the deflector. SOLUTION: A shooter 1 is driven through a worm gear in a gear box 6 by a shooter motor in a motor box 5. On the other hand, a deflector 2 is driven through a link 12 by a deflector motor 4. A power supply is supplied through a control part 11 by a battery 10. The control for the rotating speed of each motor is conducted by varying, switching or converting the power supply voltage applied to the motor in the case of a d.c. motor, and varying, switching or converting the power supply frequency and voltage applied to the motor in the case of an a.c. motor by the control part 11. All of these operations are conducted by a lever 9 on a console panel. Thus, the operability of the shooter and the deflector can be improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention mainly comprises an auger (a device for scraping or scraping snow and collecting snow), a blower (a device for discharging snow), and a shooter (a device for determining a discharging direction). It is related to improvement of the work efficiency of the rotary snow plow constituted.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, since snow removers are also required to be easy to operate, operating machines which required a certain amount of arm strength have been electrified so that elderly people and women can operate them. . The driving operation of the shooter 1 and the deflector 2 for determining the throwing direction and the distance of the snow collected therein are described in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 6-23445, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 5-1212, and Japanese Utility Model Flat No. 2
-29918 and the like, it is changing to a motor drive system.

[0003]

However, since the conventional one is a simple system in which only a single power supply is turned on and off to the motor, the adjustment of the driving speed is not effective. For this reason, it is difficult to make fine adjustments to determine the direction of the snow throwing direction for products with a high speed setting, and conversely, for products with a low speed setting, it takes too much time to change direction significantly, making it irritable. It was terrible.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the actuator for driving the shooter and the actuator for driving the deflector, improve the operability of the shooter and the deflector, and improve the efficiency of the snow removing operation.

[0005]

The technical means adopted in the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems are as follows. If the power supply is a DC power supply for the actuator for driving the shooter and the actuator for driving the deflector, the voltage is DC. Frequency
The operation speed of the actuator can be changed by changing the operation speed in accordance with a switch operation or a lever operation by an operator.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As a result, when the aim of the snow throwing direction is determined, the operation is slow, and when the direction is largely changed, the operation is quick, and the operator responds at a speed according to the intention of the operator. The operability of the shooter and the deflector has been dramatically improved.

[0007]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a side view of a snow blower showing an operation system of a shooter 1 and a deflector 2. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a gear connection between the shooter motor 3 and the shooter 1. The shooter 1 is driven by a shooter motor 3 in a motor box 5 via a worm gear 7 in a gear box 6. The deflector 2 is a deflector motor (linear actuator) 4
Is driven via the link 12. Power is supplied from a battery 10 via a control unit 11. The control of the rotation speed of each motor is performed by the control unit 11 by changing, switching or converting the power supply voltage applied to the motor in the case of a DC motor, and changing, switching or converting the power supply frequency and voltage applied to the motor in the case of an AC motor. And so on. In the same way, the control unit 11 switches the direction of the polarity of the power supply in the case of a DC motor in the forward and reverse rotation directions, and switches the phase in the case of an AC motor.
All the series of operations are configured to be performed by the lever 9 on the operation panel.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a first embodiment using a DC motor. The lever 9 has a cross switch configuration in terms of an electric circuit. FIG. 3 shows the operation of the lever 9 and the coupling state of the contacts. The switch has a two-stage cross switch configuration, and has eight modes in two stages in each of front, rear, left, and right directions of lever operation. Also, the lever 9 is a self-return type by a spring, and the motor continues to operate in the mode only when the operator is operating (by hand), and when the hand operation is loosened or released, the lever 9 is activated. The motor returns to the neutral point and the motor stops. FIG. 4 shows the drive control of the shooter motor 3. The rotation speed of the shooter motor 3 is controlled by a relay R3 in a relay unit 11a in the control unit 11 and the battery 10 for the engine and the control unit 1 from the battery.
The two types of rotation speed are switched by switching between two power sources with a power supply line passing through the voltage converter 11b in 1.
The direction of rotation of the motor is switched between normal rotation and reverse rotation by switching the power supply forward and reverse with relays R1 and R2.

Move the lever 9 one step to the right (FIG. 3, right 1).
When the switch is turned down, the switch contact 9a1 is turned on, the relay R1 is turned on, the shooter motor 3 is normally rotated by the low voltage power supply passed through the voltage converter 11b, and the shooter 1 turns to the right at a low speed in the snow removing progress direction. When the lever 9 is moved down one more step (FIG. 3, right 2), the switch contact 9a1 continues to be in the on state, but the switch contact 9a2 is newly turned on, the relay R3 is turned on, and the power source is switched to the high voltage side of the battery 10. Rotate in the same direction at high speed. On the other hand, when the lever 9 is tilted one step to the left (FIG. 3, left 1), the switch contact 9b1 is turned on, the relay R2 is turned on, and the shooter motor 3 is turned on by the voltage converter 11
The shooter 1 reverses with the low-voltage power supply through b and turns to the left at a low speed with respect to the snow removal progress direction. One more lever 9
When the step (FIG. 3, left 2) is turned down, the switch contact 9b1 continues to be in the on state as it is, but the switch contact 9b2 is newly turned on, the relay R3 is turned on, and the power source is switched to the high voltage side of the battery 10 so that the switch is fast and in the same direction. Rotate. When the shooter 1 is slowly turned at a low speed, the lever 9 is slightly depressed, and when it is desired to turn quickly at a high speed, the lever 9 is strongly depressed, so that the operation feeling matches the human sense.

FIG. 4 shows the driving circuit configuration of the shooter motor 3. The deflector motor 4 has the same driving circuit configuration only by using four contact points (9c1, 9c2, 9d1, 9d2) in the front and rear directions of the cross switch. It has become.

FIG. 5 shows the principle of on / off control of the voltage converter 11b. Repetitive on / off operation of the switch in the left circuit diagram is performed at high speed electrically by the semiconductor power device in the right circuit diagram, and the total average voltage for the load (motor) is reduced at a fixed rate from the power supply voltage E, resulting in a small loss. Voltage conversion efficiently. In the case of the first embodiment, the switching on / off ratio (Ton / T) of the semiconductor element is kept constant and the voltage conversion ratio is controlled to be constant. For on / off control, the main circuit has the simplest configuration consisting only of a main power element and a transmitter, and uses a power transistor for the power element and a timer IC for the transmitter to minimize the number of elements. It is.

Table 1 shows control voltage waveforms of the voltage converter 11b of the first embodiment. Switching frequency is 10K
The on / off ratio is set to 0.6 and the battery voltage 12 V is converted to about 7 V for the shooter motor 3 as a load. Table 2 shows how power is consumed through the voltage converter 11b of the shooter motor 3.

[0013]

[Table 1]

[0014]

[Table 2]

In the first embodiment, a power transistor is used as a power element. However, an FET, an IGBT, a thyristor, a G
Any semiconductor power element such as TO may be used. In the first embodiment, switching is performed between two power sources. However, a voltage converter of another power source may be added to perform multi-stage switching for three or more power sources.

FIG. 6 shows a drive control method in the case of the inner shooter motor 3 of the second embodiment using a DC motor. The lever 9 uses a cross lever type joystick with a potentiometer operated in a cross direction. The potentiometer 9x corresponds to left and right lever operation with respect to the snow removal direction, and the right and left turning direction of the shooter 1 and its operation speed are adjusted and controlled by the drive circuit PD and the semiconductor power elements Q1 to Q4.

When the lever 9 is tilted to the right, the drive circuit PD
Drive pulse signal a is transmitted from power elements Q1 and Q
3 turns on, the shooter motor 3 rotates forward, and the shooter 1 turns to the right in the snow removal progress direction. Conversely, when the lever 9 is tilted to the left, a drive pulse signal b is sent from the drive circuit PD, and the power elements Q2 and Q4 are turned on, and the shooter motor 3 is turned on.
Is reversed, and the shooter 1 turns leftward in the snow removal progress direction. The output of the potentiometer 9x is processed by the drive circuit PD so that the signal pulse width, that is, the on / off ratio, increases in proportion to the angle at which the lever 9 is tilted. As a result, the operation speed of the shooter 1 is increased in proportion to the angle at which the lever 9 is tilted. When the shooter 1 is slowly turned at a low speed, the lever 9 is slightly depressed, and when it is desired to turn quickly at a high speed, the lever 9 is strongly depressed. Lever 9 for the deflector motor 4
The same drive circuit configuration is obtained only by using the potentiometer 9y corresponding to the lever operation before and after.

The first embodiment is the most basic speed adjustment method for controlling the switching between the driving speed and the driving direction of the shooter motor 3 and the deflector motor 4 by a cross switch and a relay, and is used for a general-purpose general-purpose product model. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, an electronic control circuit is directly used to drive the actuator, so that feedback control is performed in addition to the variable operation speed function, so that speed control that is not affected by load fluctuations and protection of the actuator (for example, overcurrent Restrictions) etc. and use it for high-performance product models. In addition, the drive position of each actuator, the amount of snow thrown at that time (snow removal load), the engine speed of the snow remover, the running speed, the running load, etc. are fed back and processed, and the position is automatically specified by the operator on the touch panel. Control functions, such as snow throwing, are used for high-end product models.

FIGS. 7 and 8 show a third embodiment using two batteries of different voltages. The operation and control of the voltage converter 11b shown in FIG. 4 are the same as those of the first embodiment except that the battery 13 has a terminal voltage different from that of the engine battery 10. Although a battery is added, a voltage converter using a semiconductor power element is not required and reliability is improved.

In the embodiment, a DC motor is used as the electric actuator. However, even if an AC motor is used, the number of revolutions can be controlled by controlling the ON / OFF cycle (frequency) of the semiconductor power element.

[0021]

According to the present invention, the shooter 1 and the deflector 2
The driving speed of the shooter 1 and the deflector 2 can be varied by varying the power supply voltage of the electric actuator for driving. Therefore, the following effects are obtained.

Since the operations of the shooter and the deflector respond at a speed according to the operator's intention, the operability is improved and the work efficiency of snow removal is improved.

Since the vehicle responds at a speed according to the operator's intention, the risk of an accident due to the unusual operation of the shooter and the deflector is reduced, and the safety is improved.

Since the first and third embodiments require only a very simple circuit configuration, there is little increase in cost for performance improvement.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a snow plow showing a drive operation system of a shooter and a deflector according to a first embodiment and a second embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view showing a gear connection state between the chute motor 3 and the chute 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of a switch operation using the lever 9 of the first embodiment of the present application as a cross switch.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing a basic drive circuit of the shooter motor 3 according to the first embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the principle of on / off control of the semiconductor power device used in the present application.

FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram showing a basic drive circuit of a shooter motor 3 according to a second embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 7 is a schematic side view of a snow blower showing a driving operation system of a shooter and a deflector according to a third embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram showing a basic drive circuit of a shooter motor 3 according to a third embodiment of the present application.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 shooter 2 deflector 3 shooter motor 4 deflector motor (linear actuator) 5 motor box 6 gear box 7 worm gear 8 ring gear (worm wheel) 9 lever 10 battery 1 11 control unit 12 link 13 battery 2 E battery electromotive force PD drive circuit Q semiconductor Power element

Claims (5)

[Claims] An electric actuator for driving a shooter for determining a direction of throwing collected snow in a small snow blower,
A small snow blower characterized in that an operation speed of a shooter or a deflector can be changed by changing a power supply voltage or a power supply frequency of an electric actuator for driving a deflector which determines a throw distance of collected snow. 2. A power supply for the actuator is provided in two or more systems of different voltages, and the operation speed of two or more types of shooters or deflectors can be obtained by switching the power system or switching the voltage in the system. The small snow plow according to claim 1. 3. A power supply for the actuator is provided in two or more systems of different frequencies, and two or more operation speeds of a shooter or a deflector can be obtained by switching a power system or switching a frequency in the system. The small snow plow according to claim 1. 4. The compact snow blower according to claim 2, wherein at least one of the two or more power supplies having different voltages is a power supply system through a voltage converter from an engine battery. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the voltage is variable or the voltage is switched.
The small snow blower according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising a circuit configuration in which a semiconductor element performs voltage conversion, frequency change, or frequency switching by an on / off control method.