NZ565236A - Post drivers - Google Patents

Abstract

A vehicle carried pile driving apparatus comprises a lower I beam 1, an upper I beam 8, a ram assembly and a pile driving weight. There is an offset hinging arrangement between the upper I beam 8 and the lower I beam 1 so that in the raised condition the upper I beam 8 is raised above the lower I beam 1, and in the lowered condition the upper I beam 8 is lowered and parallel to the lower beam 1. The ram assembly moves the upper I beam 8 from the raised condition to the lowered condition. When the upper I beam 8 is raised over the lower I beam 1 to form a mast, the pile driving weight can be raised and lowered along the mast.

Description

10056629717* ;5 b 5 3 6 ;COMPLETE SPECIFICATION ;POST DRIVERS ;We, FAIRBROTHER INDUSTRIES LIMITED, a company duly incorporated under the laws of New Zealand of 9 Bay Park Place, Beachhaven, Auckland, Zealand, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: ;- 1 - ;- 2 - ;The present invention relates to driving apparatus (eg, for piles, posts or the like) and assemblies for inclusions in such apparatus. ;The present invention also relates to the use of any such assemblies and apparatus. ;Our KING HITTER™ range of post driving apparatus is well known. It involves a vehicle carried manipulatable mast that has slidingly engaged therewith a driving monkey or hammer ("monkey") able to be uplifted (under the action of a rope, cable or chain (hereinafter "cable or the like") passing over at least one mast carried pulley or sprocket) and dropped so as to achieve the drive effect. ;Various energies of drive are possible with the same monkey depending on the height to which it is lifted prior to being allowed to drop. ;For higher energies and momentum for the same monkey weight, a taller mast to act as a guide for the monkey and to carry the cable, chain or other pulley, sprocket or the like system can be used. ;A vehicle carried tall mast (usually supported by the three point linkage of a vehicle and/or controllable as to angle relative to a frame supported directly from the three point linkage of a vehicle) can give rise to one or more of the following: ;a difficulty of garaging a difficulty where post driving is required under the canopy of a row of trees or other structure(s), ;a greater toppling moment of consequence in steep country. ;The present invention wishes to address the issue of providing a tall mast type post driver which articulates about a hinging axis thereby to allow the top region of the mast structure to be positioned laterally with respect to the lower region when in a non-erect condition, the lateral position preferably being with respect to the advance direction of a vehicle to which the assembly might be associated. ;It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an articulating mast structure of or suitable for a post driving apparatus or to at least provide the public with a useful choice. ;In an aspect the invention is a pile or post ("post") driving apparatus comprising or including a vehicle carried or vehicle carriable mast assembly ("mast"), and a drive weight ("monkey") guidable by the mast and able to be caused to rise relative to the mast to then be dropped and/or be caused to lower; ;wherein the mast includes a hinge with, in use, a substantially horizontal hinge axis at least substantially transverse to (and preferably offset from the mast's longitudinal axis) the, in ;-3- ;use, substantially vertical locus of movement of the monkey relative to the mast assembly, such hinge axis aUowing movement of that region of the mast above the hinge axis ;(A) laterally of said vehicle by which it is carried, or to which it can be engaged for being carried, and/or ;(B) laterally of that side of the mast on which the monkey is to move. ;Preferably the mast is of two main components each of an I-beam section. ;Preferably the central web of said I-beam sections are aligned and are parallel to said hinge axis. ;Preferably the region of the mast above the hinge axis and the region of the mast below the hinge axis but in the erect condition are mutually lockable with respect to the hinging. ;Preferably in the erect condition of the mast there is a locking of the mast on that side of the mast remote from the offset hinge axis. ;Preferably said locking is mechanical. ;Preferably there is a hydraulic ram system actuable to cause rotation of a mast component about the hinge axis (ie, as opposed to a solenoid system or a pulley system). ;In addition and/or instead, preferably there is a hydraulic locking of the mast in its erect form, ie, even should the hydraulic hoses leak or rupture a shuttle valve or some alternative ensures there is no loss of hydraulic fluid from the system. ;Preferably a linkage member hinged and/or riding at one end and riding or hinged at the other end, or vice versa, acts as a linkage over said hinge axis when the mast is hinged to a non-erect condition with the mast regions lying substantially vertical one along side the other. Preferably said hinge axis is parallel to the advance direction of the vehicle. ;In another aspect the invention consists in a pile or post ("post") driving apparatus comprising or including a lower I-beam adapted to be vehicle carried, [the plane of the at least substantially planar central web of said I-beam preferably being aligned or to be aligned in the advance direction of a vehicle to which said mount is adapted to connect, whether to articulate relative thereto or otherwise], ;a upper I-beam, ;an offset hinging arrangement between the two I-beams whereby, in one condition, the I-beams are one above the other and aligned, and, in another condition, are side by side with such central webs substantially parallel, ;a ram assembly or other drive able to move the I-beams from the side by side condition to said one above the other condition, and a monkey able to be raised on the I-beams when aligned and to be dropped or lowered. ;-4- ;Preferably the hinging allows the upper beam to be lowered laterally of the lower beam ie laterally of that side of the aligned beams as a mast on which the monkey is to move. ;The invention also consists in a pile of post ("post") driving apparatus comprising or including a lower beam, ;an upper beam, and an offset hinging arrangement between the two beams whereby, in one condition, the beams are one above the other and aligned, and, in another condition, are not one above the other and aligned (but are preferably, but not necessarily, at least substantially side by side), and a link connected directly or indirectly to each beam whereby the link can control movement about the hinging arrangement; ;wherein the beams, when one above the other and aligned, are adapted to allow a monkey to be raised and to be dropped or lowered from such a raised condition; ;and wherein a hydraulic or other drive system is able to move said beams directly or indirectly (eg, via said link or otherwise) to the one above the other condition in which they are aligned and vice versa. ;Preferably said apparatus includes a valved or other lock on a hydraulic system in order to hold hydraulically the beams in their one above the other condition and in alignment. ;Alternatively, or in addition, preferably there is a releaseable mechanical lock to hold the beams in the condition one above the other and aligned. ;Preferably power to a hydraulic system is required to move the locking arrangements) to allow the dropping of one of the beams around the hinging. ;The invention is also apparatus, or apparatus operable, substantially as herein described with reference to the drawing wholly or in part. ;As used herein "hinging arrangement", "hinging axis", and/or "pivot axis" in respect of articulation between the two beams can include one or more pivot axes or other mode of articulation. ;Optionally the primary mast includes a mount or support structure mountable from a vehicle, eg, by a three point linkage. Otherwise the primary structure indirectly is mountable from a vehicle (eg, via a support). ;Examples of support include those of our KING HITTER™ range of drivers. ;It can also or instead be as disclosed in our published W02005/098144 hereby here included by way of reference. ;Such a support is an assembly having ;-5- ;a rail, mounts for engaging the lower two linkage arms of a three point linkage so as to support the rail laterally of the three point linkage arrangement, and a carriage to run on said rail and carrying or adapted to carry, at least in part, or to be, at least in part, the primary structure. ;The carriage travel on the rail is greater than 200mm. ;The position of the carriage along the rails can be adjusted and/or controlled eg, by a ram and cylinder. Preferably the primary structure itself is directly or indirectly to link to the upper linkage of a said three point linkage arrangement. ;The primary support can have a spmdle to be received in a journalled manner by the carriage to allow tilt laterally of the vehicle axis relative to the carriage. ;In yet a further aspect the present invention consists in a method of driving an article (such as a post but not necessarily a post) which involves operative use of apparatus in accordance with the present invention. ;As used herein "comprising" can mean consisting only of or including or having. ;As used herein the term "and/or" means "and" or "or", or both. ;As used herein the term "(s)" following a noun includes, as might be appropriate, the singular or plural forms of that noun. ;As used herein "monkey" includes any hammer supportable by the flexible connection (eg, cable), with or without guidance from, or with or without being captive to, mast or aligned beams. ;As used herein "ram assembly" preferably but not necessarily refers to fluid actuated extendable assemblies. Alternatives to a preferred hydraulic system are gas, solenoid, or the like driven equivalents. ;In this specification where reference has been made to patent specifications, other external documents, or other sources of information, this is generally for the purpose of providing a context for discussing the features of the invention. Unless specifically stated otherwise, reference to such external documents is not to be construed as an admission that such documents, or such sources of information, in any jurisdiction, are prior art, or form part of the common general knowledge in the art. ;To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the descriptions herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting. ;Preferred forms of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompany drawings in which ;-6- ;Figure 1 shows part of post driving apparatus in accordance with the present invention with the lower part of the upper beam (preferably an I-beam) butting onto the top of the lower beam (preferably also an I-beam), there being an offset hinging axis to the left and a mechanical lock or latching of the upper beam down onto the lower beam in addition to any hydraulic lock, Figure 2 is a similar view to that of Figure 1 but showing the upper beam in the side by side lowered condition about the hinging axis to which it can be moved upon application of hydraulic pressure to the hydraulic ram system and the release of the mechanical latching system automatically or otherwise, there being a rigid link between the two beams above the hinging axis, one end of the link being hinged parallel to the hinging axis to the upper beam and the other end slidably guided in a track from the other beam, ;Figure 3 is a diagram showing the respective beams and the mechanical locking or latching apparatus as m the conditions shown in Figure 1 but in a more simplistic form, ;Figure 4 shows the arrangement of Figure 3 when viewed from the direction AA, ;Figure 5 shows the arrangement of Figures 3 and 4 in isometric view, ;Figure 6 is a close up of the hinging arrangement as depicted in Figure 2 but when drawn to be consistent with Figures 3 to 5, ;Figure 7 is a top plan view of the arrangement when in the condition as shown in Figure ;5, ;Figure 8 is an isometric view similar to that of Figure 5 but of the lower beam only, Figure 9 is an isometric view of the upper beam consisting with the isometric view of Figure 8 but to a larger scale, and ;Figure 10 shows the linkage preferably as shown in Figures 6 and 7. ;In the preferred form of the present invention the lower beam 1, which is an I-beam with a substantially planar central web 2, has an off-set hinging axis 3 up or adjacent its top. There is also tracking provided by members 4 for a pin 5 of the length 6. This is such that when the link 6 is pivoted at 7 the upper beam 8, which is an alignable I-beam, can be lowered from its aligned condition with some semblance of control from the hydraulic drive via the shown ram assembly so that the central webs of each preferred I-beam 1 and 8 can be substantially side by side and parallel, the hinging being about the hinge pin 9. ;It is envisaged that the advance direction of die vehicle to which the apparatus is mounted or is to be mounted is preferably parallel to or more parallel to the axes of members 5, 9 and 7 than normal or perpendicular thereto. Thus "lateral" means to the side of such advance direction and/or laterally of that side of the aligned I-beams against which the monkey rides. ;-7- ;It is envisaged that a shuttle valve or the like will be provided whereby, when there is no hydraulic pressure, there is a hydraulic lock of the hydraulic ram assembly in addition to the retaining lock or latch 10 over the pin or projection 11. ;Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that with the preferred lateral fold down feature which wont be over the cab of the vehicle as lateral, and its control, and its ability to be aligned preferably with endwise butting to the one above the other condition, a gravity drop type monkey can be guided and captive to the outside pair of flanges of the aligned beams. The monkey is preferably capable of being lifted by any suitable cable, chain or other flexible link under the action of an appropriate drive eg hydraulic motor, hydraulic ram, etc. Any such arrangement as previously described in the referred to patent specifications in that respect can be used. ;It is envisaged however that the cabling hydraulics etc. are such that there can be movement between the conditions shown in Figures 1 and 2 without entanglement and easy-return from one condition to the other. ;It is envisaged therefore that in a transport mode a low height driving apparatus is provided which nonetheless, for use, will allow a high mast guided drop of the monkey. * Received at IPONZ on 8 July 2010

Claims (3)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A pile or post ("post") driving apparatus comprising or including a lower I-beam adapted to be vehicle carried, an upper I-beam, an offset hinging arrangement between the two I-beams whereby, 111 one condition, the I-beams are one above the other and aligned, and, m another condition, are side by side with the central webs of the I-beam sections substantially parallel, a ram assembly or other drive able to move the I-beams from the side by side condition to said one above the other condition, and a monkey able to be raised on the I-beams when aligned as a mast and to be dropped or lowered.

2 . Apparatus of claim 1 wherein the mam transverse axis of the central web of said I-beam is aligned, or to be aligned, in the advance direction of a vehicle to winch said lower I-beam is adapted to connect, whether to articulate relative thereto or otherwise.

3. Apparatus of claim 1 or 2 wherein the lunging allows the upper beam to be lowered laterally of that side of the aligned beams as a mast on which the monkey is to move.