US2081661A - Scattering unloader - Google Patents

Description

May 25, 1937. H. H. DODGE SCATTERING UNLOADER Filed bee. 9, 19:55 4 Sh eets-Sheet 1 May 25, 1937. H. H. DODGE SCATTERING UNLOADER May 25, 1937. DODGE SCATTERING UNLOADER Filed Dec. 9, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 1937. H. H. DODGE SCATTERING UNLOADER Filed Dec. 9, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented May 25, 1%37 ATENT FFIQE SCATTERING UNLOADER App'licaticn December 9, 1935, Serial No. 53,623

2 Claims.

. This invention relates to scattering unloaders and has for its object to provide a device simple in construction and more efiicient in use than those heretofore proposed.

,With these and other objects in view the invention resides in the novel details of construction and combinations of parts as will be disclosed more fully hereinafter and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and in which like numerals designate like parts in all the views,

Fig. l is a horizontal sectional view of the device taken substantially on the line AA of Fig. 2 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

.Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical sectional View of the device taken substantially on the line 2-4 of Fig. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 3 is another vertical sectional view but taken as on the line 3-3 of Fig. l and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view taken vertically of the device as on the line i l of Fig. 1

w and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. .5 is a detail transverse sectional view slightly contracted, taken as on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figs. 6 and 7 are respectively side and front elevations of a cover plate for the bushing of the eccentric shaft;

Figs. 8 and 9 are respectively side and front e'levational views of the bushing for the eccentric shaft and to which the cover plate shown inthe preceding figures is to be attached;

-. a mechanism having a reservoir or main hopper for the storage of an appreciable quantity of the material to be scattered, a chamber communicating with the hopper and provided with a member for metering the material fed from the hopper, a horizontally disposed scatterer in the nature of a revolving disk for receiving the measured quantities of the material and throwing the same laterally from the machine, a loading device by means of which the hopper may be replenished with additional material, and clutch and drive mechanism for controlling and operating at will the parts just mentioned, all of said mechanisms receiving power from the traction wheels by means of which the entire device travels over the ground. In addition this device is made in the nature of a two-wheeled trailer to be attached to and drawn by a towing vehicle such as a truck which latter may contain a supplemental load of the material to be scattered so that said supplemental material may be fed to the hopper as and when necessary, there also being provided an auxiliary third wheel for supporting the twowheeled trailer when it is not being towed, said auxiliary wheel mounted so that'it may be turned out of operative supporting position when the device is being towed.

More specifically the device has two traction wheels 2 and 3 mounted upon the axle 4 extending transversely of, and mounted in bearings such as 5 and 6 secured to, side channel frame members i and 8, the ends of said channels connected by a cross channel frame member 9 at the rear of the device. The forward ends of the side channels extend obliquely inward as indicated at IU then forwardly as at H, again ob- I liquely inward as at 12 and again forwardly as at l3 to the extreme forward end of the device, the portions l3 being in sidevvise contact and secured together in any suitable manner to form a rigid support for the draw-bar M provided with an eye 15 by means of which the draw-bar is attached to the towing vehicle. The draw-bar is angularly bent as shown and the vertical portion l6 thereof provided with a plurality of spaced holes I! through which bolts 18 and I9 may secure the bar to the frame of the device in one of a plurality of positions to cause the drawbar to adjustably register with the attaching member of the towing vehicle, all as will be readily understood.

Adjacent the draw-bar and supported by the frame portions 13, is a depending bifurcated bracket 20 having a bolt 2! passing therethrough serving as a pivot about which the yoke 22 may rotate, said yoke constituting a bearing for the third or auxiliary wheel 23 for supporting the device when it is not being towed. The bracket 20 is provided with a bore below the pivot bolt 2|, and theyoke 22 is provided with a bore registrable therewith, through which bores may be passed tial vertical dependency when the auxiliary wheel is used for supporting the device, and said bracket Zii is provided with another bore substantially 90 spaced from said first mentioned bore so that when the device is being towed the wheel 23 may be bodily moved about the pivot bolt 2| and held by a reinsertion of the locking pin 24 to hold said wheel in laterally raised position out of the way of contact with any surface obstruction on the road or field over which the device is being towed.

In the irregular shaped confines, of the obliquely disposed forward portions of the side frame members of the device, is disposed the lower portion of a substantially vertical bucket elevator, as well as a charging bin 39 for receiving the supplemental material indicated at 3i fed from the towing vehicle 32, said bin having secured thereto a substantially vertically disposed channel member 33 constituting a guide for the ascending flight of elevator buckets 34, there being provided the lower shaft 35 and the upper shaft 36 for carrying the sprockets such as 31 over which the elevator chain 38 travels, the buckets of the descending elevator flight being indicated at 39. The lower elevator shaft 35 is mounted in fixed bearings carried by the casing of the bin and one end of said shaft is extended for receiving thereon the drive sprocket 40. The upper shaft 36 is mounted in bearings made vertically adjustable in any suitable manner as for example by the screw 4! indicated in Fig. 2. The entire elevator assembly is suitably supported to the device, the upper portion thereof being shown in Fig. 2 as bolted to the front side of the main hopper or reservoir 53 by angle bars such as 42, there being one such bar on each lateral side of the elevator, and a deflector plate 44 is provided at the top edge of said reservoir for directing into said reservoir the material dumped by the elevator buckets.

The main hopper or reservoir 43 comprises a substantially square or rectangular upper portion the side walls of which are each bent inwardly and downwardly as shown at 45 to prow'd e an inclined bottom having a chute effect and by means of which the material in the reservoir will automatically gravitate to the metering chamber 46 bolted to the bottom edges of said reservoir. The reservoir is supported by vertically extending bars 41, 48, 49 and 50 substantially at each corner of the reservoir, the lower ends of said bars being angularly bent and bolted to the upper flange of the side channel frame members 1 and 8. A heavy cross channel i spaces and. strengthens the side channel frame members and is disposed near the rear of the device substantially in vertical alignment with the rear wall of the reservoir, and two transverse lesser channels 52 and 53 are disposed forward of the device for additional strength to the frame and for supporting drive mechanisms later to be described, see Fig. 3. A platform 54 for the operator of the device is provided at the rear, and guard railing indicated at 55 extends around two sides of the platform, said railing attached to the vertical bar 48 as at 56.

The metering chamber 46 has therein a relatively close fitting drum 60 the periphery of which is provided with a plurality of material receiving pockets 6!, said chamber being freely open at its top where it joins the reservoir, but provided with a tapered and restricted bottom through which the material is discharged onto the scatterer disk 62. The forward vertical wall of this chamber has disposed on the inner surface thereof a horizontal transversely extending bar 63 serving to crush any large particles of material carried around by the metering drum and which normally might cause damage to the relatively thin sheet metal wall of said chamber; this bar additionally serving as a retarder or scraper for causing each pocket of the drum to deliver its measured quantity of material, due to the fact that the edge of said bar is but slightly spaced (for clearance only) from the periphery of the drum, see Fig. 2. This metering drum is cast integrally with its shaft, or it may be keyed to a shaft, the construction shown in Fig. 2 comprising a shaft 64 provided with four equally spaced keyways, which shaft is preheated and placed in the mold for forming the metering drum so that the molten metal will enter said keyways, causing the cast drum to be substantially integral with the shaft. The shaft 64 extends transversely of the device with its ends mounted in bearings such as 65 resting upon and bolted to the tops of the side channels 1 and 8. This shaft has keyed thereto a large sprocket 56, but has loosely mounted thereon (for idling) a pair of sprockets 61 and 68 the former larger than the latter, this pair of idle sprockets being joined together sidewise for simultaneous rotation and held in place on the shaft by suitable spacing collars not shown, the purpose of this pair of sprockets appearing hereinafter.

A countershaft es extends transversely of the device just forward of the cross channel 5|, the ends of said shaft mounted in bearings such as disposed between the flanges of, and bolted to the web of, the side channel frame members 1 and 8. This shaft has keyed thereto a relatively small sprocket 1| having thereon the chain 12 driven by the relatively small sprocket 13 keyed to the axle 4 wherefore it will be seen that the countershaft is directly connected to the axle and is rotated thereby when the device is moving forwardly. A pawl and ratchet mechanism not shown in the drawings is mounted in the hub of each of the traction wheels 2 and 3 and so arranged that forward movement of the device over the road will cause the wheels and axle to rotate, but there will be no rotation of said axle when either or both of the traction wheels rotate reversely or in a backward direction. The countershaft also has keyed thereto on the opposite side of the machine a similar small sprocket 14 having thereon the chain which latter engages the larger sprocket 61 attached to and idling with the smaller sprocket B8 on the metering drum shaft 64.

Intermediate the two sprockets 1| and 14 is a pair of clutches generally indicated by the numerals 16 and 11 of any suitable construction, one member of each clutch being keyed to the countershaft but having another member normally idling or loosely mounted upon said shaft. The clutch 16 has associated therewith a relatively small sprocket 18 carrying the chain 19 passing over the large sprocket 66 keyed to the drum shaft 64, and the other clutch 11 has associated therewith a relatively large sprocket 80 carrying the chain 8| passing over a smaller sprocket 82 keyed to a jack shaft 83 for driving the scatterer, and to be described later. Therefore it will be understood that when the device is moving forwardly over the road the countershaft 69 will be caused to rotate, and when the clutch 16 is engaged as indicated in Fig. 1 the sprocket 18 will be caused to rotate and drive the metering drum shaft 6%. In this figure the other clutch 1? is indicated as disengaged but when it is engaged the sprocket 89 associated therewith will be caused to rotate and drive the jack shaft 83, in turn driving the scatterer. Also it. will be understood that when the countershaft is revolving the pair of idler sprockets 6'! and 68 will likewise revolve .but because they are idly mounted upon the metering drum shaft 54 they will have no effect upon said shaft.- Suitable hand levers 89 and 85 are provided (see Fig. 4) for moving the clutches I5 and 11 respectively into and out of engagement, there being provided.

' any suitable means for holding said levers in the limits of their intended movement, such as the notched plate 36 supported transversely of the machine by the vertical bars 98 and 49, each operating lever carrying at its lower extremity a yoke such as 81 pivotally engaging a movable member of the associated clutch, said yoke pivoted as at 88 to a bracket plate 89 carried by the transverse channel member 5I.

' Referring more particularly to Figs. 4 and 5, the side channels I and 8 carry the smaller transverse channels 52 and 53 upon which latter is mounted a supporting plate 95 carrying a bearing hub 96 for the vertically disposed shaft 91 at the bottom of which is attached the scatterer 62 which latter is more specifically shown in Figs. 2 and 10 and comprises a disk with a central hub 98. Secured to the upper surface of said disk and around the edge thereof is a plurality of equal substantially Z-shaped bars generally indicated by the numeral 99, spaced about one inch apart, each bar extending radially inward from said edge a distance approximately one-tenth of the diameter of the disk. For the sake of clearness in the drawings only two or three of these bars are shown, each bar comprising a bottom flange in surface contact with the disk, a top flange parallel to the bottom flange and spaced from two to three inches therefrom, and a vertically disposed web connecting said flanges, wherefore it will be seen that the material discharged onto the disk from the metering chamber will fill the central area of the disk and, upon rotation of the disk, will be moved by centrifugal action to the edge of the disk, the material passing through the spaces between the surface of the disk and the upper flanges of said bars, the webs of said bars pushing the material in the direction of rotation of the disk.

The top flanges of these bars are provided to hold the material down on the disk to a very low level so that the material when thrown from the disk will not rise more than six or eight inches from the road or other surface upon which the material is being scattered; the plane of the disk surface is approximately eight to twelve inches above the road surface. Therefore when this device is used for scattering cinders, over a, snowy or icy road for example, the device will be towed on one side of the road in the direction of trafiic, and the cinders can be continuously scattered without harm to traffic moving in the opposite direction on the opposite side of the road or to traffic moving in the same direction but passing the device. These bars also permit the angle of material throw to be regulated so as not to depend entirely on the shield associated with said disk and to be described later. The upper end of the scatterer shaft 91 has mounted thereon a bevel pinion I99 meshed with the vertical bevel gear IUI carried by the jack shaft mounted in the bearing castings I02 and I03, the casting I02 carried by the supporting plate 95, and the casting I93 carried by another plate I04 likewise supported by the cross channel members such as 53.

Also mounted on the supporting plate 95 are two bearing castings I95 and I95 each casting for receiving the ends of two parallelly disposed shafts I97 and I98 extending transversely of the machine, the shaft I91 being relatively fixed but the shaft I58 adapted for bodily movement into positions parallel with the shaft I97, the shaft I98 being termed an eccentrically mounted shaft.

The eccentricity of this shaft is due to the fact that each end thereof is mounted in a bore I09 of a cylindrical bushing H9, which bore is cocentric with respect to the axis of the bushing see Figs. 6 to 9. Each bushing I I is provided with a circular head III fitting against the innermost side of the casting such as I05, and has its cylindrical main body portion fitting the bore of said casting and extending all the way through, with a cover plate such as I I2 bolted to the outer end by screws fitting within the threaded taps I 53. This cover plate is of approximately the same diameter as the head III of the bushing and engages the opposite or outermost face of the casting I05. This cover plate on its outside surface is provided centrally with a squared boss H4 adapted to fit a squared hole in the end of a U-shaped bracket II5.

In other words, as seen in Fig. 1, this bracket H5 extends upwardly and over the pair of castings I95 and I96, the ends of said bracket engaging similar squared bosses such as H4 on identical cover plates for the eccentric shaft, so that, when the bracket is oscillated, the two cover plates will turn coincidently causing simultaneous rotation of the bushings such as I I0, and this rotation will cause the bodily movement of the eccentric shaft I98 into positions parallel with the relatively fixed shaft I07.

On the shaft Ii)? is keyed a planetary gear i I6 and on the shaft I98 is keyed a similar gear II? for enmeshment therewith, wherefore it will be seen that, when the eccentric shaft I98 is in one limit of its throw, the gears will be in mesh but when said shaft is in the other limit of its throw the gear I I1 will be moved out of mesh with its companion gear. The means for moving the bracket I15, for accomplishing this engagement and disengagement of said gears, comprises a rod II8 pivoted at one end to one side of said bracket as at I I9, the opposite end of said rod being pivoted as at I29 to an operating lever I2I whose lowermost end is pivoted to a bracket I22 secured to the cross channel member 5|, said lever being provided with a suitable detent for engaging a notched plate such as I23 supported by the vertical reservoir supporting bar 48. Approximately a 90 throw of the U bracket I I5 accomplishes the engagement and disengagement of said gears.

Also keyed to the eccentric shaft I08 is the relatively small sprocket I24 carrying the chain I25 passing over the idler sprocket 68 on the metering drum shaft 54. Keyed to the fixed shaft 191 is another relatively small sprocket I26 carrying the chain I2! passing over the sprocket 40 on the bottom elevator shaft 35. Therefore it will be seen that the enlivened countershaft 69, through the chains I5 and I25, will drive the sprocket I24 on the eccentric shaft I08, and

when this last mentioned shaft is in its position causing engagement of the gears H6 and Ill power will be transmitted through the chain I21 to drive the elevator, but when the eccentric shaft is thrown to cause a disengagement of said gears, the eccentric shaft I08 will still berotated but without causing coincident rotation of the fixed shaft l! and the elevator shaft 35.

The scatterer disk 62 has disposed about the rear portion of its periphery a depending shield I30 the upper edge of which is flanged for bolting to a cover plate I 3| extending horizontally across the machine and dependently hung from the lower flange of the side frame members I and 8 as by the skirt portion I32, see Fig. 11. The shield I30 on the throwing side of the disk scatterer extends substantially tangentially therefrom to form a relatively wide angle with the central longitudinal plane of the machine, the outermost end I33 of the shield just clearing the traction wheel 2 so that the material thrown by the rotating disk will be guided by this portion of the shield to clear said wheel while at the same time being directed thereby to such an extent as to cause the material to be thrown appreciably to the side of the machine. The ratio of gearing for the drive. of the scatterer disk is such that, at a speed of approximately 12 miles per hour of the machine over the road, the material will be evenly scattered forwardly and to one side on the road surface, covering a surface area approximately twenty feet wide.

The shield I30 likewise extends to the other side of the machine substantially tangentially to the disk as indicated but the extreme end I34 of the shield on this side is considerably nearer the longitudinal central plane of the machine, whereby this portion of the shield makes a lesser angle with said plane than was the case with the shield on the other side of the machine, as clearly shown in Fig. 1, there not being a wide lateral scattering of the material on this sub-. stantially non-throwing side of the disk.

It is obvious that those skilled in the art may vary the details of construction as well as the ar rangements of parts without departing from the spirit of this invention and therefore it is not desired to be limited to the. exact foregoing disclosure except as may be required by the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a wheeled traction device of the character described the combination of a reservoir for the material to be scattered; conveyor means to replenish said reservoir; a rotary material scatterer; feeding means to deliver the material from said reservoir to said scatterer; and power transmission means operable from a wheel of said device for driving at will the material feeding means, the scatterer and the reservoir replenishing means, said transmission including means for engaging and disengaging one of the operating drives by a bodily movement of an intermediate transmission shaft.

2. In a scattering unloader having a reservoir for the material to be scattered, a rotary scatterer, and mechanism for feeding measured quantities of material from the reservoir to the scatterer, and wherein the unloader is adapted to be hauled by a towing vehicle containing a replenishing supply of material for the reservoir, the combination of an axle on the unloader with traction wheels operatively carried thereby; a countershaft driven by said axle; conveyor means to replenish the reservoir with material from the towing vehicle; and power transmission means operable from said countershaft for driving at will the material quantity measuring mechanism, the scatterer, and the reservoir replenishing means, said transmission including means for engaging and disengaging one of the operating drives by a bodily movement of an intermediate transmission shaft.

HARRY H. DODGE.

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