US3750761A

US3750761A - Ripper with top-mounted extendible tip

Info

Publication number: US3750761A
Application number: US00183952A
Authority: US
Inventors: R Smith; L Watts
Original assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co
Current assignee: Caterpillar Inc
Priority date: 1971-09-27
Filing date: 1971-09-27
Publication date: 1973-08-07
Anticipated expiration: 1990-08-07

Abstract

A ripper having a ground-engaging tip which may be progressively extended from its holder member to compensate for wear during use. The tip is externally mounted upon the top surface of a lower portion of the ripper shank and is held rigidly in place by means of ripper shank protectors which serve as frictional engagement members which clamp and hold the tip. The tip member is cut from common bar stock and has no apertures, detents, or other specially-machined and costly connector means.

Description

United States Patent 1 1 Q Smith et al. 14 1 Aug. 7, 1973 [54] RlPPER WITH TOP-MOUNTED 2,885,014 5/1959 Hargis 172/719 EXTENDIBLE TIP FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [751 lm'emofsi $85: m a W 9,350 10 1933 Australia 172/719 :1 eorIa,

[73] Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co., Peoria, 111. Primary Examiner-Robert E. Pulfrey Assistant Examiner-Clifford D. Crowder [22] Flled' Sept' 1971 Attorney-Fryer, Tjensvold, Feix, Phillips & Lempio [211 App]. No.2 183,952

{57] ABSTRACT 2% g 53 1 A ripper having a ground-engaging tip which may be E d 61/726. 37/141 R progressively extended from its holder member to come c pensate for wear during use. The tip is externally 719; 175/382 306/1 6 mounted upon the top surface of a lower port1on of the ripper shank and is held rigidly in place by means of ripper shank protectors which serve as frictional en- [56] References cued gagement members which clamp and hold the tip. The UNITED STATES PATENTS tip member is cut from common bar stock and has no 3,092,052 6/1963 Anderson 172/713 X apertures, detents, or other specially-machined and 3,550,691 12/1970 Davies et a1. 172/719 X cosfl connector means 3,613,803 10/1971 Payne 172/699 y 2,082,283 6/1937 Godfrey 172/713 6 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENIED W5 3.750.761

sum 1 or 3 INVENTORS 34 ROGER M. SMITH E LOYAL o. WATTS PAIENIED 7 'sum 3 0F 3 ROGIER M. SMITH LOYAL O. WATTS BY 09 I 2 7 1 9 1 ATTORNEYS RIPPER WITH TOP-MOUNTED EXTENDIBLE TIP BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a new and improved ripper construction for attachment to an earthmoving vehicle,

I or the like. More particularly, the invention is directed compensate for use-related wear. The new ripper construction exhibits extraordinary strength and wearability and Isparticularlysuitable for utilization in severe earthmoving applications.

Comparatively recent advances in earthmoving technology and strength of materials have made earthripping operations an extremely important phase of the art. The ripping operation, however, involves extremely high stress concentrations and costlymaterial wear on the ripper components, particularly the tip member. Typical prior art, wedge-shaped, telescopically-fitted ripper tips, such as is shown in US. Pat. No. 3,203,488 to Eastwood, have generallybeen rather short-lived when used to work difficult materials and replacement thereof in the field can be time-consuming and difficult.

In an attempt to increase the field life of the ripper tip and to decrease machine down-time and thus improve operational economy, a meanshas been devised whereby the ripper tip member may be advanced as it wearstoexpose new cuttingmaterial without complete replacement of i the tipnsuch meansare shown, for instance, in US. Pat. No. 3,293,778, to McAuliff and more recently in US. Pat. No. 3,550,69l issued to Davies et a]. andowned by the assignee of the instant invention.

These .arrangements, while quite satisfactory, are generally expensive and require rather complicated manufacturing processes for both the ripper shank or holder means and the tip member. For example, in the Davies et al. device, the solid shank member 21 and tip adapter 23 had to be bored'through-to receive the circular cross-sectional tip member 25 and the tip memberitself had to be similarly machined. Such machining is, extremely expensive. The McAuliff device requires an even more extensive process.

The instant design eliminates the need for boring round, square or other cross-sectional shaped holes through the lowerportion of the ripper shank through which thetip member extends.By means of the simple mounting of the tip memberupona flat upperportion of theripper shank'means, Applicants have eliminated the need forexpensive machining and parts fabrication.

The present invention isprincipally directed toa new and improved ripper construction which provides an extendible ripper'tipmember which is mounted externally upon a ripper shank means and which does not require expensive machining of the component parts.

One of theobjects of this invention is to provide an extendible ripper tip member for a ripper assemblage which issecured to the ripper shank means solely by clamping means which frictionally engage the tip member during use.

Another object of the invention is to provide a ripper construction which does not require a specially machined tip member.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide an extendible ripper tip member cut from available bar stock.

Still another object of the present invention is toprovide a ripper construction which provides a ripper tip member which is adjustably secured to a top surface of a lower portion of the ripper shank means.

Another object of the invention is to provide a ripper construction wherein shank protector means serve the additional purpose of frictionally securing an adjustable tip member to the shank means.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved ripper construction wherein the groundengaging tip member is secured to the ripper shank means by a plurality of shank protector means which frictionally wedge the tip member into engagement with the shank means.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a ripper construction wherein a plurality of shank protector means are adjustably held against the shank means by means of rearwardlly extending straps through which variable force may be exerted to urge said protector means against said shank means.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and claims.

The accompanying drawing shows, by way of illustration, the preferred embodiments of the present invention and principles thereof. It is recognized that other embodiments of the invention utilizing the same or equivalent. principles may be used and structural changes maybe made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention and the purview of the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of the extendible-tip ripper assemblage of the present invention;

FIG. 2 isa sectional view, taken along line II-II of FIG. 1, and showing the meansfor securing one of the shank protector means to the shank means;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view, taken along line III-III of FIG. 1, and showing the cross-sectional configuration of the upper portion of the shank means of the present invention; 7 a

FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view, similar to FIG. 1, which shows an alternate embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a further side elevational view. similar to FIG. 1, showing another embodiment of the instant invention;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along theline VI-Vl of FIG. 5. a

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to FIG. 1, the instant ripper assemblage, which is attached in the conventional manner to an earthmoving device (not shown), is shown generally at 10. As shown in FIG. 3, the ripper shank portion has a box-like construction consisting of plate members l2, 14, 22 and 24 which are welded together or joined by other means. The assemblage also includes a downwardly and forwardly projecting, wedge-shaped nose or tip holder section 16 which is of solid construction and which is welded to the lower end portions of the

plate members

12 and 14, as shown at 15. For positioning the nose portion prior to welding, a locating dowel 18 is provided. This simplifies replacement of the nose while in the field.

A tip member 20, of common bar stock having a rectangular cross section and appreciable length, rests upon the top surface 17 of the nose portion. This tip member projects rearwardly between the plate members l2 and 14 and beneath the ends of

plates

22 and 24, in close proximity thereto.

The means for retaining the ripper tip member 20 upon the nose portion include two U-shaped, combination shank protector and

bracket members

26 and 28. These bracket members are telescopically fitted over the nose portion 16, in wear protecting relation thereto, and over the tip member 20, as shown in FIG. 2. The smaller bracket member 26, which is nearest to the junction between the shank portion and the nose portion, is retained upon the nose portion by means of a set screw 30 which is received in the counterbore 32 in the bottom of the nose portion 16. The larger of the two brackets, 28, is retained upon the nose portion by means of two such set screws 34. By tightening the set screws the brackets are brought into forcible frictional engagement with the top surface of the tip member 20 and with the bottom surface of the nose portion 16. The top surfaces of the bracket means 26 and 28 are hardened and shaped so that they effectively protect the shank portion and tip member from undue wear during use of the ripper assemblage.

In operation, when the frontal, ground-engaging portion of the tip member 19 becomes worn in use, the

set screws

30 and 34 are loosened slightly and the tip member 20 is slidably extended forwardly down along the flat surface 17 of the nose portion to expose a fresh tip portion. The set screws are then tightened for use. Thus, it is seen that the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-3 provides an extendible tip assemblage which requires no expensive machining and which is extremely simple and efficient to operate.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a slightly different arrangement for retaining the tip member 20 upon the flat upper surface of the nose portion 16 is shown. In this arrangement, the

bracketmembers

126 and 128 are not retained upon the nose portion by means of set screws but rather by means of metal strap means 66 which are pivotally connected to the bracket means at 62 and 64. Set screws 68 are provided within a cross member 70 which connects the strap means 66 on either side of the nose portion 16 and which, when tightened, draws the bracket members rearwardly and downwardly into tight wedging engagement with the tip member 20. It will be noted, particularly with reference to the bracket member 126, that upon tightening of the strap means 66, the lines of force exerted project rearwardly through the pivot connection 62 and tend to tip the bracket member forwardly and downwardly upon the top surface of the tip member 20 to further increase the frictional locking capacity of the bracket member.

Turning now to FIGS. and 6, a similar but alternate retention system for the extendible tip member is shown. In this arrangement, only one U-shaped protector member 228 is utilized. Said protective member is adjustably retained on the nose portion 16 by means of a pair of straps 166 which are adjustably connected to a cross pin 44 by means of the threaded connectors 42 and nuts 48. The cross pin 44 resides in a bore 45 in the nose portion 16. In addition to this retaining means, a wedge-shaped block member 50 is provided which block member is disposed within the bos-like shank portion of the ripper assemblage and bears forcibly upon the top surface 21 of the tip member 20. Force is applied to the block member 50 by means of a threaded bolt 52 which is mounted in the threaded boss 54 which is welded to the plate member 22. The bolt 52 is operated through an access hole 56 in the side plate 12 of the ripper shank portion.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it is to be understood that these embodiments are capable of variation and modification and are not limited to the precise details set forth, but rather they include such variations and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A ripper device for use in an earthmoving vehicle which includes; a shank portion means and a ripper tip supporting means attached to said shank portion means, said ripper tip supporting means having side surfaces and a bottom surface thereon and having a top surface spaced by said side surfaces from said bottom surface and lying in a plane which is oblique to the plane in which said bottom surface lies, a rippper tip member having a first surface thereon which frictionally engages said top surface, clamping means partially engaging said bottom surface for also frictionally engaging a further surface on said ripper tip member to force said first surface into tight engagement with said top surface and causing said first surface to lie in a plane oblique to the plane of said bottom surface and for retaining said ripper tip member upon said ripper tip supporting means.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein said shank portion means has a hollow construction and wherein said clamping means include means provided within said shank portion means for frictionally engaging said further surface of said ripper tip member to selectively releasably retain said ripper tip member upon said top surface of said ripper tip supporting means.

3. The invention of claim 1 with, said clamping means being retained upon said ripper tip member and said ripper tip supporting means by means of strap means and adjustable screwmeans which adjustably engage a third surface of said ripper tip supporting means.

4. The invention of claim 1 wherein said shank portion means has a hollow construction and wherein said ripper tip member extends into said hollow construction.

5. The invention of claim 1 wherein said clamping means include a plurality of U-shaped protector members.

6. The invention of claim 1 wherein said shank portion means is comprised of four plate-like members which are welded together to form a box-like structure.

. Q i t t t

Claims

3. The invention of claim 1 with said clamping means being retained upon said ripper tip member and said ripper tip supporting means by means of strap means and adjustable screw means which adjustably engage a third surface of said ripper tip supporting means.