US2034417A - Plastic concrete delivery vehicle - Google Patents

Description

March 17, 1936. PERRY 1 PLASTIC CONCRETE DELIVERY VEHICLE Filed March 51, 1951- 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 .INV'ENTOR lgegaA. Per/1y ATTORNEY March 17, 1936. L. A. PERRY PLASTIC CONCRETE DELIVERY VEHICLE Filed March 51, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 L INVENTOR Lewis A. Perry BY 9% ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 17, I936 ETED T GFFIE PLASTIC CONCRETE DELIVERY VEHICLE Application March 31, 1931, Serial No. 526,636

13 Claims.

This invention relates to plastic concrete delivery vehicles and more especially to novel cage devices operative therein for agitating the contained concrete in transit or at rest to maintain the mass homogeneous and in a state ready to be employed in construction work.

The object, generally stated, is the provision of a most advantageous body configuration adapted to cooperate with more eflicient, serviceable and inexpensive agitation devices than heretofore devised to this purpose.

A more particular object is the provision of agitation devices so designed and assembled with the conveying body as to allow of convertibility of the latter to such other analogous or suitable work as might be desired.

A still further object lies in the provision of an agitating arrangement requiring extremely little power to operate the same and so arranged 2 with respect to the body as to negative possibility of destruction from stones or the like encountered in the concrete mass.

Still further and more particular objects and advantages, together with the foregoing, will become apparent throughout the course of the following description and claims, the invention consisting in the novel construction, adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

30 In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation to the rear portion of a wheeled vehicle, illustrating a preferred embodiment of the present invention applied thereto.

35 Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section through the same.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal vertical section taken through the concrete conveying body and the agitating cage therein.

40 Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail longitudinal vertical section representing portions of the drive assembly shown in the preceding views.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail transverse vertical section to the same, and illustrating the activity 45 of the agitating blades to the vehicle body; and

Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail plan of a preferred character of drive sprocket supported by the vehicle body.

While innumerable types of bodies adapted to 50 the conveyance of pre-mixed concrete have been heretofore developed, some of which utilize a rotatable shaft having radial blades supported thereby, the shaft journaled through bearings supported in the oppositional end-walls of the body, and others of which utilize cylinder tanks,

the same being revolved or afforded rocker activity in an attempt teprevent adherance of the plastic mass to the walls of the same, the primary objection is the restriction of the bodies and necessarily the truck therefor to its single use. 5 Revoluble stirring mechanism interiorly of the body utilizing bearing-supported shafts are further objectionable in the inability to maintain adequate bearings over extended periods of use in view of the abrasive characteristics of the plas- '10 tic concrete.

The present invention advantageously overcomes the foregoing objectionable structure in the provision, within a body of the generally termed bath-tub configuration, of a full-float- 15 in cage providing blades adapted to a shearing activity to the tank sides without otherwise disturbing the concrete mass, the cage being rotatable through the medium of a chain engaging about the periphery and, with associated mechanism, designed for ready removal in accommodating conversion of the body proper to other forms of transit work such as sand, gravel and the like, as might be desired.

Reference being had to the drawings, the numeral It represents the side bars of a motor truck chassis, traction wheels of the running gear therefor being indicated at H. Provided upon said chassis through companion plates such as l2, said plates supporting trunnion bolts I3 I adapted to pivotally engage a reinforcement frame I5, is an open-top body, said body having a preferable transverse sectional contour of a semi-circular configuration, the side walls flaring outwardly at respective upper terminals at lines tangentially of the periphery. l6 represents an elevated platform at the forward end of said body for supporting a suitable power plant such as an internal-combustion engine I! or the like.

For purposes of illustration only, the disclosure further represents a plunger-receiving oil receptacle I8 adapted to elevate the forward end of the body to permit dumping operations through a door, such as H! for example, closable to the lower portion of the rear wall of the body. The foregoing is or may be of suitable or well-known construction.

Reverting more particularly to structure peculiar to the present invention, I provide a cage, generally designated as 25 and represented as composed of conjugate sections each supporting longitudinally disposed circumferentially-spaced blades 26 disposed at inclinations from lines taken radially of the same, said blades secured 2 I g N through the medium of riveting, welding or the like, to terminal horizontally-spaced hoop members 21, 28, the latter integrally joined, one with the other to an annular sprocket member 29.

Said sprocket member is preferably of a channel configuration having lugs 39 arranged in upstanding relationship from the gutter base provided between oppositionally biased walls 3|. Peripherally-disposed slits 32 between successive lugs renders the sprocket member self-cleaning. 33 represent diagonal brace rods. The aforedescribed cage formation affords an uninterrupted centrical opening co-extensive of the cage length.

Passing about said sprocket member 29 and a load sheave 35, the latter suitably driven by a drive shaft 34 journaled in bearings 36 mounted on a re-inforcement channel 20 of the body, the invention further provides a chain 31 serving to revolve the cage 25, a tension rider 38 being arranged for straddling engagement over said chain to retain the same taut and also acting to yieldably depress the cage in'the body. Said rider is suitably journaled between the bifurcate arms 40 of a pressure bar 4| having one terminal 42 fulcrumed about shaft 34 and the oppositional terminal 44 yieldably connected with the body through a spring 43 arranged for engagement over a supported hook 45. The power sheave is maintained free of concrete deposits by a staggered disposition of each of its gripping lugs 45 to engage alternate chain links.

A transmission of the rotatory activity from the power plant I? through a train of intermeshing worm gearing 41 to the shaft 34 accommodates suitable speed reduction.

In operation, the body with the agitation devices therein receives the charge of plastic concrete, the cage being revolubly energized co-incident with the delivery of the charge to the same or energized subsequent thereto as desired. In the activity of the cage, the blades are yieldably maintained by the rider 38 to contact the same with the body sides, said blades afforded a shearing or scraping action to the inner wet perimeter of the body to prevent settling of the plastic concrete ingredients, said blades acting to individually convey each given mass encountered upwardly to discharge adjacent the surface of the material. More particularly, the cage is so designed as to disturb the plastic concrete-cement, aggregate and wateradjacent its outer edges only to prevent the normal settling of the same at such points with the ingredients separating into strata of different specific gravities, as invariably occurs where concrete is transported in ordinary vehicles and not infrequently where a stirring of the mass is more predominant about its center as in agitating devices utilizing axially-driven radially disposed blades.

Rider 38 accommodates elevational movement of the cage responsive to contact of a blade 26 with obstructions such as stones, or the like, present in the plastic mass, the blade subsequently yieldably depressed responsive to passage of the same over the obstruction.

Unhooking spring 43 of the rider 38 with a removal of the bolts attaching bearings 36 to the body, allows of the removal of the cage simultaneously with drive shaft 34 and the worm supported thereby to provide a conventional open-top transit body.

The intention of the disclosure with the foregoing related description is for purposes of illustration only, numerous structural changes as might be desired being considered obvious. I accordingly confine myself only as limited by the hereto annexed claims.

What I claim, is,-

l. The combination with the chassis of a wheeled vehicle, of an open-top body of a general semi-circular cross sectional configuration pivotally connected to an end of the chassis, a door closure at the rear end of said body for dumping the same, a material-agitating cage floatatively mounted in said body, said cage comprising two integrally connected sections, each having shearing blades secured at inclinations from lines radially of the cage arranged in spaced circumferential dispositions, a sprocket wheel integrally supported by said cage medially between said sections, said sprocket wheel having a radius approximating an are taken about the shearing periphery of said blades, brace rods for reinforcing said blades, and means to revolve said cage, said means comprising a chain passing about said cage sprocket wheel and a drive sheave, a drive shaft for said sheave, bearings for said shaft, a power plant, and worm reduction gearing between said power plant and the shaft.

2. In apparatus as defined in claim 1, a bifurcate arm having one end fulcrumed for pivotal movement about said drive shaft, a rider journaled between said bifurcations, said rider engageable over said chain for depressing the cage, and a spring yieldably connecting the free end of said arm to the vehicle body.

3. In a wheeled vehicle, in combination, an open-top material-receiving pivoted body therefor having a door closure in its outer end, said vehicle providing means for elevating the inner end of a said body about its pivot for dumping the same, a material-agitating cage adapted for removable insertion in said body, said cage having blades arranged for shearing activity to the body sides integrally supported in spaced dispositions about said cage circumference, said blades being arranged at inclinations to lines taken radially of the cage, a sprocket wheel integrally supported by said cage medially of its length, a drive sheave supported by the vehicle body, a chain passing about said sheave and the sprocket wheel, a spring-pressed rider for said chain for maintaining tension to the same, said rider also serving to yieldably depress said cage in the body, and means to drive said sheave.

4. In a wheeled vehicle, in combination, an open-top material-receiving pivoted body therefor having a door closure in its outer end, said vehicle providing means for elevating the inner end of said body about its pivot for dumping the same, a material-agitating cage adapted for removable insertion in said body, said cage having blades arranged for shearing activity to the body sides integrally supported in spaced dispositions about said cage circumference, a sprocket wheel integrally supported by said cage medially of its length, a drive sheave supported by the vehicle body, a chain passing about said sheave and the sprocket wheel, a spring-pressed rider for said chain for maintaining tension to the same, said rider also serving to yieldably depress said cage in the body, and means to drive said sheave.

5. In a wheeled vehicle, in combination, an open-top material-receiving body therefor of a general bath-tub configuration, a door closure at the rear end of said body for dumping the material contents, and means operative in said body for agitating the contents, said means comprising a cage having longitudinally disposed blades secured thereto in spaced disposition of its circumference, said blades being disposed at inclinations from lines radially of the cage, springpressed means for yieldably depressing said cage in the body to normally contact the blades for shearing engagement against the bottom and lower side walls of the body, and means for revolving said cage.

6. In a wheeled vehicle, in combination, an open-top material-receiving body therefor of a general bath-tub configuration, a door closure at the rear end of said body for dumping the material contents, and means operative in said body for agitating the contents, said means comprising a cage having longitudinally disposed blades secured thereto in spaced disposition of its circumference, spring-pressed means for yieldably depressing said cage in the body to normally contact the blades for shearing engagement against the bottom and lower side walls of the body, and means for revolving said cage.

7. In a wheeled vehicle, in combination, an open-top material-receiving body therefor of a general bath-tub configuration, and means operative in said body for agitating the contents, said means comprising a vertically-removable cage, blades secured about the same spring-pressed means operating in conjunction with the weight of the cage for maintaining the blades in contact with the bottom wall of the body in affording normal shearing engagement of the blades over said wall, said means allowing elevation of the cage for clearing stones or the like in the material being agitated, and means for revolving said cage.

8. In a wheeled vehicle, in combination, an open-top material-receiving body therefor of a general bath-tub configuration, and means operative in said body for agitating the contents, said means comprising a. vertically-removable cage, blades secured about the same means operating in conjunction with the weight of the cage for maintaining the blades in contact with the bottom wall of the body in afiording normal shearing engagement of the blades over said wall, said means allowing elevation of the cage for clearing stones or the like in the material being agitated, and means for revolving said cage.

9. In a wheeled vehicle, in combination, a material-receiving body, a cage operative therein providing agitating blades supported in spaced circumferential dispositions of the cage periphery, said blades adapted for shearing activity to the body sides, circumferentially-spaced teeth about the periphery of said cage, and means engaging said teeth for revolving said cage.

10. In a wheeled vehicle, in combination, a material-receiving body, a rotary cage operative therein, blades arranged for shearing activity to the body sides integrally supported in circumferentially-spaced dispositions about the periphery of said cage, a sprocket wheel integral with said blades providing teeth arranged in spaced circumferential dispositions of the cage periphery, and a chain engageable over said sprocket wheel for revolving said blades.

11. In a wheeled vehicle, in combination, a material-receiving body, a cage therein providing agitating devices, a sprocket wheel formed as an integral part of said cage, and a chain operative with said sprocket wheel for revolving said agitating devices.

12. In devices adapted for insertion within a material-containing body for agitating the material therein, a circular cage having longitudinally disposed blades arranged in spaced-apart dispositions circumferentially about the same, a sprocket Wheel rigid with said blades and adapted to receive a power-driven chain for revolving said cage, and a spring-pressed sheave arranged for riding engagement over said chain, said rider adapted to yieldably depress the cage in the body.

13. The combination in plastic concrete agitating devices, agitating structure of a relative cylindrical form having blades extending from the outer periphery of the same, a sprocket wheel formed as an integral part of said agitating structure, the edge of said blades extending radially outwardly in excess of the peripheral limits of the sprocket teeth, a drive shaft and a power sheave on said drive shaft, and a chain passing about said sheave and the sprocket wheel for revolving said blades.

LEWIS A. PERRY.

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