Excavating – Combined or convertible
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-05
2001-03-20
Shackelford, H. (Department: 3671)
Excavating
Combined or convertible
C037S409000, C037S468000, C414S723000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06202331
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arm with an attachment removable unit capable of easily removing an attachment from an arm of a construction equipment and, more particularly, relates to an arm with an attachment removable unit capable of easily removing an attachment from an arm while maintaining the performance of a front portion such as a hydraulic shovel or excavator, a tractor shovel, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a construction equipment, for example, a hydraulic shovel, a tractor shovel, or the like, is provided at its main body of a work vehicle with at least an arm as a member forming a front portion thereof and also provided at the tip portion of the arm with a bucket, for example, as an attachment so as to be operable for various works. The attachment is exchanged for a new one such as a normal excavating bucket, a bucket with a wide width, a bucket for forming a normal plane, a breaker for breaking the road surface or a rock, a ripper, or the like, in accordance with the kind, contents or state of the work. In the case of performing such an exchanging operation of an attachment, it is necessary to align the hole for a pin at the tip portion of the arm with the hole for a pin of the attachment and then draw or insert the pin, so that at least two workers are required. Since much time and many workers are required for such an exchanging operation of the attachment, there has been proposed an attachment removable unit for performing the attachment exchanging operation efficiently. There is a technique (hereinafter called a prior art) disclosed in JP-A-6-264466 as an example of such a kind of conventional attachment removable unit.
An attachment removable unit
101
according to such a prior art includes as shown in
FIGS. 7 and 8
a main frame
9
having at one of its opposite ends a boss
15
into which a coupling pin
19
at the tip end side of an arm
1
is pressed and also having at the other of the opposite ends a boss
16
into which a pin
21
for coupling a link
3
is pressed. The attachment removable unit
101
further includes a first hook
6
for engaging with one coupling pin (hereinafter called a first pin)
18
of a bucket
2
and a second hook
7
for engaging with the other coupling pin (hereinafter called a second pin)
17
of the bucket
2
. The bosses
15
,
16
and the first and second hooks
6
,
7
are disposed in a manner that a line a
1
-a
2
connecting the center portions of the bosses
15
,
16
is substantially in parallel to a line b
1
-b
2
connecting the first and second hooks
6
,
7
with a distance L therebetween. Further, a hydraulic cylinder
20
is provided in order to adjust the distance between the first pin
18
and the second pin
17
.
The attachment removable unit
101
according to the thus arranged prior art is attached to an arm
1
′ in a manner that a pair of the main frames
9
are disposed so as to sandwich the arm
1
′ shown in
FIG. 6
therebetween from the outside of the opposite side walls of the arm
1
′, then the pin
19
for coupling the arm
1
′ is pressed into the boss
15
, and the pin
21
for coupling the link
3
is pressed into the boss
16
.
In this state, the bucket
2
serving as an attachment is attached to the arm in a manner that the second hook
7
is hung at the second pin
17
on the bucket
2
side and the first hook
6
is hung at the first pin
18
on the bucket
2
side, and then these pins are engaged with the hooks by applying a predetermined pressing force by means of the hydraulic cylinder
20
.
Accordingly, according to the prior art, since the attachment can be easily exchanged, the aforesaid problem relating to the time and workers for the attachment exchanging operation can be eliminated.
Although the above-described prior art is able to obviate the conventional problem relating to the time and workers for the attachment exchanging operation in this manner, there arises the following new problem in the aforesaid prior art due to the structure of the attachment removable unit and the structure of the arm.
That is, in the aforesaid prior art, the distance from the rotation fulcrum (the center portion of the coupling pin
19
) on the arm
1
′ side to the tip end of the bucket
2
becomes longer by the distance L between the aforesaid line a
1
-a
2
and the line b
1
-b
2
, so that the rotation range of the bucket
2
becomes longer as compared with the case where the attachment removable unit
101
is not provided. Thus, in the state where an attachment hydraulic cylinder
5
is fully extended, the tip portion of the bucket
2
may contact with the lower plate of the arm
1
′, or, although not shown, the tip portion of the bucket
2
may interfere with the main body of the hydraulic shovel depending on the posture of the boom and the arm
1
′ of the hydraulic shovel, for example. Further, since the maximum driving force of the attachment hydraulic cylinder
5
is a predetermined value irrespective of the presence or not-presence of the attachment removable unit
101
, the excavation force decreases by an amount corresponding to the increased distance of the rotation distance from the rotation fulcrum to the tip end of the bucket
2
due to the presence of the attachment removable unit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the aforesaid problem of the prior art and an object of the present invention is to provide an arm with an attachment removable unit for a construction equipment capable of easily performing an attachment removing operation with scarcely changing the distance from the rotation fulcrum on the arm side to the tip end of the attachment.
In order to achieve the aforesaid object, the invention according to claim
1
of the present invention is characterized in that in an arm with an attachment removable unit which is provided in a construction equipment having at least an arm and an attachment which is attached to the arm through the attachment removable unit, the attachment removable unit is arranged in a manner that, in a state where the attachment is attached to the arm, a second hook for engaging a second pin for coupling with the attachment is disposed on a substantially straight line connecting a hole for a pin for connecting with the arm and a first hook for engaging a first pin for connecting with the attachment.
Since the arm with an attachment removable unit according to the present invention is arranged in the aforesaid manner, the attachment can be exchanged easily by merely engaging the first hook with the first pin for coupling the attachment and by engaging the second hook with the second pin for coupling the attachment. In the state where the attachment is coupled to the arm, the respective connection portions are disposed on a substantially straight line through the attachment removable unit. Further, the arm connection portion (hole portion for a pin) of the attachment removable unit is disposed in the vicinity of one connection portion (the first pin portion) for the attachment of the attachment removable unit. Accordingly, the distance from the center portion of the hole for a pin serving as the rotation center of the attachment to the tip end of the attachment can be substantially same as that in the case where the attachment is directly coupled to the arm without intervening the attachment removable unit. As a consequence, the tip portion of the attachment is prevented from interfering with other portions of the construction equipment and further the excavation force of the attachment can be maintained.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3935953 (1976-02-01), Stedman
patent: 4761113 (1988-08-01), Smith et al.
patent: 5915837 (1999-06-01), Brown et al.
patent: 62-233347 (1987-10-01), None
patent: 56-52232 (1987-10-01), None
patent: 6-264466 (1994-09-01), None
patent: 2782394 (1998-05-01), None
patent: 10-195913 (1998-07-01), None
Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Ltd.
Shackelford H.
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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