US3037306A - Excavating machine - Google Patents

Description

June 5, 1962 H. 1.. MEYER ETAL 3,037,306

EXCAVATING MACHINE Filed Oct. 5, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 4 INVENTORS 1' av L. Maven may 6. Mann BY Twas 4 F43 4 HTTORNEYS June 5, 1962 L. MEYER ETAL 3,037,306

EXCAVATING MACHINE Filed Oct. 3, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS Hem L. MEYER RMD flNruoNY G. Manna Team W HTTORNEYS United States Patent i 3,037,306 EXCAVATING MACHINE Henry L. Meyer, Cleveland Heights, and Anthony G. Maran, Cleveland, Ohio, assignors to The Cleveland Trencher Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Oct. 3, 1960, Ser. No. 59,948 3 Claims. (Cl. 37-91) into the earth to scoop up soil and move it to a discharge station on the machine, where some mechanism, such as a conveyor, is adapted to receive the loads from the buckets for discharging the excavated material to a side of the excavation.

The buckets may be provided with a plurality of laterally spaced fingers or tines extending inwardly from the rear edges of the buckets, to form a semi-open back for the respective bucket. This arrangement of tinedback buckets is conventionally used in clay or heavy types of soil, with the tines assisting in and being adequate for retaining a load of such soil in the respective buckets. However, when the excavating machine is operating in relatively sandy or loamy soil, the load is of such relatively fine or non-lumpy nature that the excavated soil may readily pass through the spaced tines forming the bucket back, and thus the buckets are not efiective in retaining the load in the buckets.

Conventional practice heretofore when utilizing a single machine has been to use a solid bucket back in sandytypes of soils, which solid back is usually atached to the bucket by fasteners, such as bolts, and the like, and which results in a requirement of 5 to minutes, or even more, to inst-all or remove each of the bucket backs.

The present invention provides a detachable bucket back which may be readily assembled on and disassembled from an associated bucket, to either close or open the back of the bucket, and which can be removed and/or installed in a minimum of time, for instance, 3 to 5 seconds. In an excavating machine with 14 to 15 buckets, this saving in time is considerable and enables the machine operator to readily remove or install bucket backs on the buckets to meet changing soil conditions, thus providing a much more eificient operation of the digging machine.

Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a mobile excavating machine having an improved excavating unit thereon, which provides for the ready and efliective use of the machine in varying types of soils.

Another object of the invention is to provide a bucket type, endless excavating unit for an excavating machine which unit embodies buckets of an opened back nature adapted for use in heavier types of soils, and which can be readily and quickly adapted for use in sandy or loose types of soils by attachment of a removable bucket back to the opened back bucket, to form a solid-like back type of bucket.

Another object of the invention is to provide a solid bucket back for a generally open back bucket of a mobile excavating machine, which can be readily and quickly attached in snap fastening interlocking coaction with the bucket, and quickly detached from the respective bucket, for providing for efiicient use of the machine in various 3,037,306 Patented June 5, 1962 types of soils, and wherein the detachable bucket back member is of an economical type.

Briefly, the foregoing objects are accomplished by the provision of a detachable bucket back member comprised of plate-like or sheet-like material, and including a back wall for generally closing the back of an associated bucket, and a pair of more or less resilient arm portions projecting outwardly from the back wall. Such arm portions have means thereon adapted for quick snap fastening interlocking coaction with complementary means on the respective bucket for holding the detachable bucket back member in operable position on the bucket and thus close the back of the latter.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the'following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary, side-elevational view of a wheel type excavating unit for a mobile excavating machine, and comprising semi-open back or tined buckets, with which the present invention may be used;

FIG. 2 is a front end elevational view of the FIG. 1 arrangement, taken generally from the right hand side of the latter, and with the rooter teeth removed;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary. view taken generally along the plane of line 33 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows, and illustrating in detail lugs on the sides of the bucket, which are adapted for holding coaction with the detachable back member, the latter having been removed from FIG. 3 in the interests of clarity;

FIG. 4 is a front end, elevational view of the detachable back member per se;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the FIG. 4 showing.

Referring again to the drawings, there is illustrated in FIG. 1 an arcuate portion of a mobile trench excavating machine digging wheel of a well-known type. Such digging Wheel is adapted to be mounted upon the conventional trenching machine briefly comprising a motor driven vehicle having at one end carriage structure which rotatably supports the power driven digging wheel. The digging wheel may broadly comprise a pair of spaced annular ring portions 10 which are rotatably supported on the carriage structure in any suitable manner. The rings 10 may be connected together by a series of buckets 16 attached to the rings 10 as by means of fastener means 18.

The buckets may be of any configuration, and are illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, as of the well known square design, and are preferably provided with rooter teeth 20 mounted on the leading edges thereof, for facilitating the digging operation by the buckets. The rear of each of the buckets may be provided with a plurality of laterally spaced fingers or tines 22 extending inwardly towards the rings 10, and forming a semi-closed back for the bucket. The tines 22 may be permanently secured to the rearward edge of the bucket, or may be detachably secured thereto and mounted thereon by the socket portions 22a illustrated.

In accordance with the instant invention, a detachable bucket back member 26 is provided for mounting on each bucket, to substantially close the back of the bucket, if for instance the excavating machine is being used in sandy or loose types of soil which would ordinarily tend to pass between the rear tines of the bucket. Such a detachable back member comprises a sheet or plate-like piece of material, such as sheet metal or plate steel, and which is adapted to be attached in snap fastening interlocking relation to the rearward end of a corresponding bucket, to form the closed back bucket,

Referring now in particular to FIGS. 4 and 5, such a detachable bucket back member in the embodiment illustrated, comprises a substantially rigid, end closure wall 30 with arms portions 32 projecting forwardly from said closure wall. The connection of such arms portions to the closure wall 30 is of a more or less resilient nature for a purpose to be hereinafter set forth. In the embodiment illustrated, each arm portion 32 has an aperture 34 extending therethrough. The bucket is provided on each side thereof with a lug 36, which is formed complementary to the configuration of the respective aperture 34. Referring to FIG. 3, such lug comprises a tapered cam surface 36a and a front abutment surface 36b. The bucket back member 30 may be readily attached to the bucket by moving the back member toward the bucket from the rear of the latter, whereby the arm portions 32 move along the side wall portions of the bucket, and the tapered surfaces 36a on the lugs urge the arm portions outwardly in tensioned relation until the lugs enter the complementary apertures 34 in the arms, whereby the arms snap inwardly into generally clasping engagement with the sides of the buckets, thereby interlocking the bucket back to the bucket in a snap fastening action. The lugs may be received in generally snug fitting relation in the apertures in the arm portions, and the bucket back is held in secured relation on the corresponding bucket, to effectively close the back of the bucket. When it is desired to remove the bucket back, a suitable tool can be driven underneath the arms springing them outwardly, to clear the lugs, whereby the bucket back may be readily withdrawn from its respective bucket. While the detachable bucket back has been illustrated as being disposed outwardly of the tines, the same principle of a snap fastening bucket back could be provided if the back member were disposed inwardly of the tines, or if the tines were completely eliminated. Moreover, while the detachable back has been illustrated in connection with the buckets of a wheel type digging unit, such back member may be conveniently used with the other types of digging units, such as the ladder type, wherein the buckets are carried by an endless chain arrangement.

From the foregoing description and accompanying drawings it will be seen that the invention provides a novel bucket back for ready and quick attachment to and detachment from an associated bucket, and with the bucket back being held in secured position on the respective bucket by a snap fasteninginterlocking relation between means on the bucket back coacting with means on the bucket.

The terms and expressions which have been used are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and

there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding any equivalents of any of the features shown and described, or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed.

We claim:

1. In combination an endless bucket equipped excavating unit of a mobile excavating machine, said excavating unit comprising laterally spaced support means on which are mounted a plurality of spaced buckets, a plurality of laterally spaced tines secured to the rearward end of said buckets, said tines extending inwardly toward and between said support means to form a semi-closed back for the respective bucket, a detachable one-piece back member mounted on each of said buckets, said back member being formed of generally rigid sheet-like material and comprising an end wall generally closing the back of the respective bucket rearwardly of said tines and resilient armportions projecting outwardly from said end wall at opposite sides thereof and into confronting relation with the exterior of the corresponding ide wall portion of the respective bucket, said end wall below said arm portions 'being of a lesser transverse width as compared to the transverse width of said end wall intermediate said arm portions, and recess means on said resilient arm portions coacting with lug means on said bucket side wall. portions to hold said back member in snap fastened interlocked relation to the respective bucket,

whereby said back member may be readily and quickly detached from and attached to said bucket.

2. In the combinationof claim 1 wherein each of said lug means comprises a rearwardly disposed oblique cam surface for urging said armportions outwardly until said lug means snap into the respective of said recess means, during assembly of said back member to the respective bucket.

3. In the combination of claim 2 wherein each of said recess meansis of rectangular configuration in side elevationand each of said lug means is of complementary rectangular configuration in side elevation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Kelsey June 15, 1948 2,665,353 Popp Jan. 5, 1954

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