US3230647A

US3230647A - Rotary digging head

Info

Publication number: US3230647A
Application number: US296671A
Authority: US
Inventors: Gates Lee
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1963-07-22
Filing date: 1963-07-22
Publication date: 1966-01-25
Anticipated expiration: 1983-01-25

Description

Jan. 25, 1966 1.. GATES ROTARY DIGGING HEAD 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 22, 1963 INV EN TOR. .566 6d 2695 Jan. 25, 1966 L. GATES ROTARY DIGGING HEAD 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 22, 1963 Jan. 25, 1966 GATES ROTARY DIGGING HEAD 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed July 22, 1963 United States Patent 3,230,647 ROTARY DIGGING HEAD Lee Gates, South San Francisco, Calif. (121 S. Magnolia, Millbrae, Calif.) Filed July 22, 1963, Ser. No. 296,671 1 Claim. (Cl. 37190) This invention relates in general to earth digging or excavating machines, and particularly to one of the type which employs a rotary digging head. Such head is of the type which includes a number of circumferentially spaced earth digging and receiving pockets which become filled as the head rotates and which then discharge, with further rotation of the head, onto a carry-off conveyor mounted in connection with the head-supporting structure.

It is a major object of this invention to provide automatically functioning means to successively discharge the earth from the loaded pockets of the rotary head and onto the carry-off conveyor, and which means function equally well regardless of the speed of rotation of such head. 4

The rotary head of this invention, and which includes the earth digging and receiving pockets, is mounted on a boom on which the carry-off conveyor is supported; it being a further object of the invention to arrange and mount the head on the boom so that the direction of rotation of the head relative to the boom may be easily reversed, while the same time the pockets will always discharge onto the one carry-off conveyor.

Another object of the invention is to provide head rotating mechanism which includes an electric drive motor within the head, so that only flexible and readily trained current supplying wires project from the head and along the boom to a source of current.

Each earth digging and receiving pocket includes a push-out gate which is moved to eject the earth, at the proper point, by the rotative action of the head; a further object of the invention being to so arrange the gates on the pockets that when pockets reach a discharging position relative to the carry-off conveyor, only a minimum of power is required to move the gates to their full ejecting position.

A further object of the invention is to provide a rotary digging head which is designed for ease and economy of manufacture.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a practical, reliable, and durable rotary digging head, and one which is exceedingly effective for the purpose for which it is designed.

These objects are accomplished by means of such structure and relative arrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the following specification and claim.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the improved rotary digging head as mounted on a supporting boom.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional elevation, taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 3

FIG. 3 is a transverse section, taken substantially on line 33 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a further enlarged fragmentary transverse section, taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

h lC

Referring now more particularly to the drawings and to the characters of reference marked thereon, the rotary digging head 1, hereinafter described in detail, is designed to be supported from a suitable boom 2; such boom including transversely spaced plates 3 at its outer end between which the head 1 is disposed. The boom 2 is mounted on a pusher implement (not shown), and is vertically swingably adjustable in any conventional manner.

The head 1 comprises a central tubular shaft 4 extending between and turnably mounted in the plates 3. Laterally out from said plates the ends of said shaft are provided with splined or knurled portions 5 which are releasably engaged by clamping collars 6. Each collar has a radial arm 7 projecting therefrom and which arm is adjustably secured to the adjacent plate 3 by bolts 8 engaging any selected ones of a row of holes 9 in said plate concentric with the shaft 4. The purpose of this specific shaft mounting will be later described.

Disposed about the shaft 4 between the plates 3 and concentric with said shaft are

side discs

10 and 11; such discs being provided on their laterally outer sides with collars 12 turnably engaging the shaft 4. Fixed on the inner faces of the discs are internal gears 13 concentric with the shaft 4 and engaged by pinions 14 fixed on a shaft 15 parallel to but offset from shaft 4; the shaft 15 being journaled in arms 16 projecting from and rigid with said shaft 4, as clearly shown in FIG. 2.

A speed-reducing chain drive unit 17 connects shaft 15 with a countershaft 18 parallel to shaft 15 and also journaled in arm 16, and a further speed-reducing chain drive unit 19 connects the countershaft 18 and the axial shaft 20 of an electric motor 21. Such motor includes in a base 22 suitably secured in rigid relation with the shaft 4 and arms 16. The circuit wires 23 for the motor 21 extend through the tubular shaft 4 to one end of the same, so that said wires may then extend along the boom 2 for connection to a source of electric current on the pushing implement from which the boom projects. When the motor 21 is in operation, the head 1 is thus rotated at a slow speed.

Projecting between the

discs

10 and 11 at evenly spaced intervals about the same are the back plates 24 of earth digging and receiving pockets 25. These back plates 24 face and are concavely curved in the direction toward which the head normally rotates; being generally radially of the head. At the center of the arc of curvature of each plate 24, and which center is adjacent the outer edges or rims of the

discs

10 and 11, a transverse shaft 26 is journaled in said discs. A fiat gate 27, forming the bottom of each pocket 25, extends radially from shaft 26 to the related plate 24 to sweep the same from one end to the other upon rotation of the shaft 26. The extent of such sweeping movement is limited by a lip 28 on the plate 24 at the radially inner end thereof and at the other end by the projecting ends of transversely spaced digging teeth 29 which extend from said plate 24 to a termination some distance out from the periphery of the

discs

10 and 11. The teeth are provided with shanks 30 which are relatively narrow in a direction circumferentially of the head 1, and which extend through a lip 31 projecting back from the outer end of plate 24. The

shanks are curved to conform to the curvature of the plate 24 and engage the back side of the same, being detachably secured thereto by bolts 32.

Projecting substantially at right angles from the back side of each gate 27, and which is that side thereof opposite that engaged by the earth in the related pocket 25, are transversely spaced elongated brackets 33 on the outer end of each of which is a roller 34- disposed in the transverse plane of the related arm 16. The outer portion of the periphery of each arm forms a cam 35 positioned for engagement by each related roller 34 as the latter, with the rotation of the head 1, moves downwardly from the topmost position on the head 1; the arms 16 facing generally toward the boom 2, as shown in FIG. 2. Also, the cams 35 are arranged so that each gate 27, after the related rollers 34 first engage said cams, and which is when said gate is at its innermost position on the corresponding plate 24 and is engaged by the lip 28 thereof, will be swung through its full stroke by the cam action.

It should be here noted that while the disc is permanently secured to the back plates 24, as by welding, the disc 11 is detachable from said plates 24 while being normally rigid therewith. This is accomplished by means of flanges 36 formed on the sides of the plates 24 opposite the disc It the flanges engaging disc 11 and being secured thereto by bolts 37, as best shown in FIG. 3.

In operation, the boom 2 is set so that the head 1 Will depend some distance below the surface of the ground to be dug, as shown in FIG. 1. Upon the head 1 being rotated so that the side thereof facing away from the boom turns upwardly and with the boom gradually advancing, the teeth 29 of the lowermost pocket 25 dig into and excavate the earth. As so dug, the earth presses upwardly into the corresponding pocket 25 and in doing so swings the gate. 27 of such pocket upwardly against the force of gravity which up to this time has held said gate 27 down against the adjacent teeth. By the time the head 1 has rotated a relatively small amount, or so that the teeth of said pocket leave the ground surface, the gate 27 of such pocket has been swung by the dug earth to its full inward position, or so that said gate engages the adjacent lip 28. In this and the succeeding position of the pocket 25, the plate 24 becomes the bottom, while the gate 27 forms the back thereof, as clearly shown in FIG. 2.

The pocket is thus substantially filled with earth and which it retains until said pocket, with the rotation of the head, starts to move down from its topmost position on the head, and the related rollers 34 first engage the earns 35. From then on down for a relatively short are of rotation of the head, the gate 27 is swung or pushed, by the cam action, outwardly along the plate 24 to sweep the earth therefrom and empty the related pocket 25, and until said gate 27 approaches a vertical position. With this sweeping movement of the gate 27 and the accompanying downward movement of the corresponding pocket 25, the earth as discharged from said pocket falls onto the adjacent end of a suitably driven carry-off conveyor 38 mounted on the boom 2 between the sides thereof.

It will be seen that the gates 27, when the related pockets reach a position directly above the conveyor 38 when moving downwardly, are disposedat an angle of substantially 90 degrees to the horizontal, and while at little more than 45 degrees to the horizontal before they reach the 90-degree position, will allow loose dirt to spill from the pockets. This is an advantage in providing economy in operation, since a minimum of power is required in effecting the earth discharging operation.

When each emptied pocket 25, with the continued rotation of the head 1, moves below the conveyor 38, the related rollers 34 of said pocket leave the cams 35. The gate 27 of the pocket then remains, by reason of gravity action, in its outermost position until the pocket reaches substantially its lowermost position on the roating head and earh as dug by the teeth 29 is swept into the pocket and causes the plate to be gradually pushed up or toward the lip 28, as stated atthe outset of this description of operation.

It will be noted, from the showing in FIG. 2, that the fixed earns 35 occupy such definite position relative to the conveyor 38 as has been found to insure an efficient earth discharging action when handling a certain grade or condition of earth. If at any time, as when digging a different kind of earth or other material, it is found to be advantageous to alter the setting of the cams 35 relative to the conveyor 38, his may be easily done by detaching the bolts 8 and rotating the shaft 4 in one direction or the other, without also rotating the head 1, until the desired new relationship of the cams 35 to the said conveyor 38 is obtained. The bolts 8 are then engaged with other ones of the holes 9 in the plates 3.

It should also be noted that the rotary digging head 1 may be reversed in position relative to the boom 2, so that the head 1 at the bottom will turn upwardly toward instead of away from the boom. In this case, the loaded pockets must move up past the conveyor before discharging onto the same. Consequently, the cams 35 must be set accordingly and it may be necessary to rotate the shaft 4 a greater amount than the row of bolt holes 9 will accommodate. If this is the case, the clamping collars 6 may be disengaged from the shaft 4 to allow the latter to be rotated whatever additional amount may be required to dispose the cams 35 in the proper position for engagement by the rollers 34 to exert a push-out action on the related pocket gates 27 when the corresponding pockets 25 move above the conveyor 38.

While the rotary digging head has been herein described for use in earth digging and excavating, it is also useful ingravel loading, coal and iron ore mining, bank surfacing, and other similar operations.

From the foregoing description, it will be readily seen that there has been produced such a device as substantially fulfills the objects of the invention, as set forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferred construction of the device, still in practice such deviations from such detail may be resorted to as do not form a departure from the spirit of the invention, as defined by the appended claim.

Having thus described the invention, the following is claimed as new and useful and upon which Letters Patent is desired:

In an earth handling machine which embodies a supporting boom having a carry-01f conveyor thereon, a rotary digging head tu-rnably supported from the boom and including a plurality of circumferentially spaced earth receiving pockets positioned to successively pass by the front end of the conveyor as the head rotates, each pocket including a fixed curved back plate extending substantially radially of the head and a swingable push-out gate extending radially of the plate in engagement at its inner end therewith and pivoted at its outer end on the head for swinging movement between the inner and outer ends of the plate radially of the head, and means functioning with such rotation of the head to swing the gate from the inner to the outer end of said back plate when each such pocket reaches a position directly ahead of and on a level above the forward end of the conveyor; said gate swinging means comprising a relatively stationary cam, an element fixed with the gate and disposed for engagement by the cam upon the pocket reaching such position, said cam being common to the elements of all the pockets, and a stationary shaft mounted on the boom and on which shaft the head is turnable and from which shaft the cam projects in fixed relation; there being means to rotatably adjust the shaft on the boom including, with spaced side plates on the boom between which the shaft extends and by which it is supported, a releasable clamping collar on one end of the shaft outwardly of the adjacent side plate of the boom, a radial arm projecting from and rigid with the collar, and a bolt mounted in the arm, said adjacent side plate having a row of holes concentric with the shaft for selective engagement by the bolt.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Linga 3794 Crain.

Oldroyd 1989 Jespersen 37-189 Fogelberg 37190 Wuigk 37190 FOREIGN PATENTS France. Germany. Germany. Germany. Germany. Great Britain.

W. B. STONE, W. A. SMITH III, Assistant Examiners.