Excavating – Combined or convertible – Combined with clamp – grapple – or shear
Patent
1995-10-20
1998-03-24
Melius, Terry Lee
Excavating
Combined or convertible
Combined with clamp, grapple, or shear
37409, 414725, 414740, E02F 396
Patent
active
057299200
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a grab implement for use in cutting blocks of solid material, and more particularly to a grab implement for attachment to a powered vehicle, for example an agricultural vehicle such as a tractor.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
In agricultural equipment, a known type of silage grab is attached to the powered front or rear loader of a tractor, the attachment comprising a base constituted by a plurality of spaced apart tines with a movable jaw operable about a horizontal pivot axis and including a further set of tines which are closed at right angles to the base tines after the base tines have been driven into a silage clamp, to tear out a load of silage. An example of such a silage grab is described in British Patent 1536937, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Silage grabs using tines are apt to leave a ragged surface on the sides and face of the silage clamp after a load has been removed, and this surface can support secondary fermentation and hence spoilage of the clamp.
UK Patent Application No. 2191992, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a silage grab which comprises a fixed part having a back wall and a plurality of tines projecting forwardly from the lower part of the back wall with said tines being drivable into a silage clamp, a moving part of the grab being pivotally connected to the fixed part about a generally horizontally extending rotational axis and having a front wall with a cutting edge along the lower part thereof, a drive means being connected between the fixed part and moving part and arranged to forcibly drive the cutting edge of the moving part downwardly about said axis to be adjacent the ends of the tines, the parts constituting the front wall lying along an arc about the rotation axis, the arc being that described by the cutting edge during movement.
The downward action of the cutting edge in the grab of GB 2191992 give a smoother vertical side to the cut silage, but can cause tearing of the bottom of the grabbed silage load if insufficient tines are present. In addition, the grab suffers from the drawback that because the floor of the grab is formed from spaced-apart tines, the grab cannot be used to transport granular or particulate material, such as barley or feed concentrate. This has the associated disadvantage that the user of the silage grab must carry out the time consuming task of changing the grab implement for a shovel when the implement is to be used for transporting other feed materials.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a grab implement having a continuous floor member provided with a cutting edge which is suitable for cutting and transporting silage and transporting other animal feed materials.
In a first aspect the present invention provides a grab implement for cutting silage, the grab implement comprising a fixed part and a movable part pivotally coupled thereto to form a grab, the fixed part having a continuous rear wall member and a continuous floor member projecting forwardly, the floor member having a cutting edge along the leading edge thereof.
It can be seen that the present invention obviates the need for tines providing a cutting edge along the leading edge of the fixed part of the grab, and by providing the fixed part with a continuous floor member enables the grab implement to be used as a scoop or shovel for conveying granular or particulate loads.
By "continuous" in this specification is meant that the member is substantially able to hold back and prevent the passage of granular or particulate agricultural loads, therethrough, but the possibility is not excluded that the member may have a number of holes or slots whose size is insufficient to allow a substantial quantity of the load to escape.
In another aspect, the invention provides a fixed part for a grab implement for cutting silage, the grab implement comprising a fixed part and a movable part pivotally coupled thereto to form a grab, the fixed
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Beach Thomas A.
Melius Terry Lee
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