US3473765A

US3473765A - Vibrator clamp means

Info

Publication number: US3473765A
Application number: US678064A
Authority: US
Inventors: Carl G Matson
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1967-10-25
Filing date: 1967-10-25
Publication date: 1969-10-21
Anticipated expiration: 1986-10-21

Description

Uct. 21, 1959 c. a. MATSON 3,473,765

VIBRATOR CLAMP MEANS Filed Oct. 25. 1967 INVENTOR.

C.G. MATSON United States Patent 0 3,473,765 VIBRATOR CLAMP MEANS Carl G. Matson, 401 E. Central Blvd., Kewanee, II]. 64143 Filed Oct. 25, 1967, Ser. No. 678,064 Int. Cl. F16m 1/00 US. Cl. 248-14 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A vibrator mounting means in which a vibrator having conventional bifurcated legs for mounting on a web or the like may be adapted for mounting on a pair of parallel members or rails by the utilization of a pair of pivoted clamping elements or dogs mounted respectively at least in part by the original clamping means of the legs and forcibly engageable with the rails so as to increase the versatility of the vibrator and the manner in which it may be mounted.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Vibrators are of course well known in the field of materials handling and are commonly employed to facilitate the flow, settling, discharge, loading etc. of fiowable material such as coal, gravel, concrete, grain etc. by imparting vibrations to such things as chutes, hoppers, receptacles and the like. It is also known to equip the object to be vibrated with various types of mounting members such as Webs, rails etc. to which the vibrator may be secured, often by suitable clamping means and sometimes by simply welding the vibrator temporarily in place; although, the clamping type of mounting is preferred because it enables the vibrator to be removed to another object or to a different location on the same object.

Typical of a well known and conventional type of mounting is that exemplified, for example, in such US. patents as those to E. F. Peterson, 3,134,272 and 3,237,- 505, in which the vibrator, essentially a rotating-weight machine, has a body including a pair of spaced apart bifurcated leg means adapted to straddle and receive a web or the like rigid on the object to be vibrated, the legs being provided with opposed clamping screws capable of being tightened against opposite faces of the web to secure the vibrator in place. Mounts of this type are more than adequate in the majority of situations, but occasions arise in which the use of a web mount, for one reason or another, is impossible or impracticable, and resort must be had to other types of mounts, which usually dictates the use of a vibrator of another but less eflicient type.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore the principal object of this invention to provide an improved mounting means that will adapt a web-mountable vibrator for mounting on another popular type of mount; namely, one that includes a pair of rails spaced apart in parallelism but crosswise to the plane of a typical web mount, usually incorporating a pair of mutually divergent rails presenting opposed bevel surfaces to which the clamp forces are applied. The invention aims primarily at means useful in either converting existing vibrators of the web-mounted type or as attachments to such vibrators so as to extend the field of use thereof beyond the web-mountable areas. Briefly and in general, this object is achieved by providing a pair of clamping dogs in the form of bell cranks, the intermediate portion of each of which is designed to be received by the slot between the associated pair of bifurcated legs and to be pivotably mounted on either the usual clamping screws or other means, one arm of each bell crank being formed to engage one of the mounting rails and the other carrying screw means engageable with the vibrator body to enable the user to rock the elements and thereby to exert opposed forces causing the dogs or elements to grip the rails and thus to securely mount the vibrator in place. Because of the mechanical advantage obtained by the combination of the force-multiplication of the bell-crank design and the bevels of the rails, substantially clamping forces are obtainable so that the vibrator is unlikely to loosen during operation. Further, the relationship of the elements or dogs to the rails and vibrator body is such that even should the vibrator be loosely mounted, as where the user may forget to tighten the screw means, the clamping arrangement prevents complete loss of the vibrator. Other features will become apparent as the description progresses.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an elevation showing a representative mounting arrangement;

FIG.2 is a fragmentary section on the line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partial end view as seen along the line 33 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary elevation showing a releasing position of one of the clamp elements.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The vibrator selected for purposes of illustration is of a well-known type having a main steel body or casing 10 within which an eccentric weight rotates about a central axis, indicated here at 12. This construction is typical of those disclosed in the above-noted Peterson patents, as is that part of the body comprising a lower elongated base means 14, usually of .much heavier steel than the casing-like structure of the body 10 because it is the backbone of the mounting arrangement. The terms lower and base are used here with reference to a representative mounting in which the vibrator is mounted in an upright position above a portion of the object to be vibrated, but it is clear that vibrators are mounted in a wide variety of positions and the aforesaid terms are used for brevity and not by way of limitation. A wall of an object to be vibrated is shown here at 16 and has rigidly secured thereto, as by welding at 18, a pair of upwardly divergent mounting members 20. The specific nature of these members is not material here, because a large variety of equivalents members is known. One characteristic of the members, however, which enables the present invention to be applied thereto, is that they are parallel and also transverse to the median or radial plane through the vibrator body 10 and normal to the weight axis 12, in which respect the members differ from one well-known form of mounting member comprising a web or rib having coplanar mounting portions lying in the aforesaid median plane, such as in the Peterson patents above.

The base 14 has rigid therewith, preferably by integral or welded construction, a pair of symmetrical leg means 22 and 24 spaced apart lengthwise or longitudinally of the base means 14 and of bifurcated construction. The leg means 22 may be taken as typical, having a pair of laterally spaced apart

legs

26 and 28 which define between them a downwardly and longitudinally opening slot 30. The other leg means 24, has spaced apart legs defining a like slot 32 longitudinally alined or coplanar with the slot 30. In the usual design, the

slots

30 and 32 adapt the vibrator to straddle a web or rib so that the vibrator may be secured thereto by known clamp means.

A typical clamp means is shown for the leg means 22 at 34, comprising a pair of externally threaded

bushings

36 and 38 threaded respectively into threaded bores 40 and 42 formed respectively in the

legs

26 and 28. The bushings are respectively internally threaded at 44 and 46 and respectively carry coaxial or generally

coaxial clamping screws

48 and 50, again typical of the abovenoted Peterson patents. Each clamping screw has a hardened inner end or nose and an outer end conventionally shaped to receive a wrench, which will be clear from the drawings without further description. When the vibrator is mounted on a slot-received web or rib, the screws are turned in from each side and the hardened screw noses bite into the web or rib to secure the vibrator in place. This result is obtained also at the other leg means 24, which is similarly equipped with bushings and opposed screws, one of each former appearing respectively at 52 and 54.

To adapt a vibrator of the above type to mounting on members like those at 20, the invention provides a pair of clamping elements or

dogs

56 and 58 carried respectively by the leg means 22 and 24, or at

opposite ends

60 and 62 of the base means 14. These elements may be of identical construction; although, they are reversely arranged so as to act in opposition on the mounting members 20, between which is a bracing or compression bar 64.

The element 56 is in the form of a one-piece bell crank, having an intermediate ear or lug 66 and a pair of

arms

68 and 70, the former extending upwardly and having an interiorly threaded end in which is carried a clamping screw means 72 and the latter projecting downwardly as a wide lip including a bevelled nose 74 engageable with the outer side of the associated member 20. The ear or lug is coaxially through-drilled and chamfered to provide opposite conical recesses 76 which respectively receive the inner noses of the

opposed clamping screws

48 and 50 of the leg means 22, which screws are turned in just enough to fit the recesses 76 so as to rockably or pivotally mount the element 56. Since the clamping screw 72 abuts the end 60 of the base means, it is clear that tightening this screw rocks the element 56 clockwise so that the nose 74 of the lower arm 70 of the element clamps against the assoicated mounting member 20.

The other element 58 is of identical construction, having a mounting lug or ear 78 pivotally mounted by the opposed clamp screws 54 and having upper and

lower arms

80 and 82, the former of which carries a clamping screw 82 engageable with the associated end 62 of the base means in opposition to the other clamping screw 72 and the latter being engageable with the rail 20.

FIG. 4 illustrates the ease with which the vibrator may be removed for detachment or for replacement at another location. The shape of each element is such that its

screw

72 or 84 may be backed off to permit reverse rocking of the element so that its lip or

lower arm

70 or 82 easily clears the associated mount member 20.

One important feature of the invention resides in the ability of the

clamping elements

56 and 58 to convert known vibrators for use with mount members such as at 20 as distinguished from the former rib or web mounting. At the same time, since the

elements

56 and 58 may be retained by the original clamp screws, such as at 48, 50 and 54, these elements may be easily removed and the vibrator restored to its former condition for rib or web mounting. Also, the invention lends itself to permanent modification of vibrators, as by replacing the opposed clamp screws, as at 48, 50, by a through fastener, since the ear of each clamping dog is drilled completely through. In addition to the ability of the invention to convert existing adapters, it may be provided as an attachment or auxiliary means to production vibrators, still further increasing the versatility of the units.

Having reference to the element or dog 56, it will be seen that the relative lengths of the

arms

68 and 70 may be altered so as to provide any desired mechanical advantage. Further, it is desirable that the dog clamping

screws

72 and 84 project in parallelism or near parallelism to the wall 16, thus providing easy access thereto. In the majority of mounting situations, even slight tightening of the

dog screws

72 and 84 is suflicient to hold the vibrator in place at least until proper tightening is effected, since the clamping arms and 82 engage under the bevelled members 20 in an amount adequate to prevent the vibrator from falling off. The positive action of the clamping dogs is superior to reliance on friction, as in the-case of the

screws

48, 50, 54 engaging a web or rib. As a further use, the vibrator may be used with one rlb clamp and one dog clamp, or one dog clamp may be rigidly mounted and the other pivotally mounted to obtain clamping results that will be acceptable in some conditions. Since the construction and operation are relatively simple, the units maybe handled by inexperienced workmen with a high degree of ease and safety.

I claim:

1. For a vibrator including a unitary body in the form of a casing having base means provided with opposite end portions including a pair of integral, dependent spaced apart leg means bifurcated to provide a pair of alined downwardly and endwise opening slots for conventionally receiving coplanar web portions on an object to be vibrated and each leg means having clamp means in cluding a threaded bore transverse to the plane of the web portions and carrying a threaded clamping screw projecting into the associated slot for engagement with the associated web portion, the improvement residing in means for adapting the vibrator to span and be secured to a pair of spaced apart mounting members in lieu of the web portions and transverse to the plane thereof. comprising a pair of clamp elements, each having a portion received by and carried by the associated clamp means and an integral member-engaging portion, at least one of said elements being pivotable on the axis of the associated leg means bore, and screw means carried by said one element and engageable with the vibrator body for rocking said one element to cause said elements to grip said members and in which said one element is in the form of a bell crank in which the portion received by the associated clamp means is an intermediate ear projecting into and end of the proximate slot, the memher-engaging portion is a downwardly extending arm of the bell crank and the screw means is carried by the other arm of the bell crank, and said arm extends upwardly at the proximate end portion of the base means.

2. The invention defined in claim 1, in which the other element has an ear formed to project into the associated leg means slot for engagement by the associated clamping screw.

3. The invention defined in claim 2, in which both elements are symmetrical bell cranks and each element ear has a recess therein for pivotally receiving the end of its respective screw.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 396,567 1/1889 Held. 1,970,740 8/ 1934 Day. 3,128,892 4/1964 Plant 21464.2 3,237,896 3/1966 Peterson 248l-l ROY D. FRAZIER, Primary Examiner J. FRANKLIN FOSS, Assistant Examiner US Cl. X.R. 248-226