Earth working – Mast type hitch
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-28
2002-03-05
Pezzuto, Robert E. (Department: 3671)
Earth working
Mast type hitch
C172S447000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06352124
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic device for all-purpose coupling of agricultural implements and the like.
More particularly, in this invention a system has been devised suitable for coupling the implements or trailers to a tractor or industrial vehicle without requiring to act from the vehicle's outside and without requiring additional workmen, so safely, speedy and comfortably working is obtained therefrom.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presently one can find in the market several types of couplings for farm implements, industrial or construction devices designed for industrial vehicles and the like. In view of the numerous applications of the present invention, the disclosure will specify its use in the farming field because this is the field where the use is widest, however not limiting the application working field of the new invention to this specific sector.
A tractor may couple several farm implements such as a cultivator, a sulphur duster, a trailer, a land leveler, a tank, a rake and the like using three widely-extended coupling systems.
These coupling systems are based on a coupling structure which is located at the tractor's rear side. This structure is made up with two arms securely fixed to the tractor's chassis at the lower side and between the rear wheels, this position allowing a lifting and lowering motion as regards to the ground and a mutually opening and closing motion. The arm's lifting and lowering motion is driven by the pump and the hydraulic pistons from the tractor, and to open and close each of the arms the operator has to lower the tractor and manually do it by means of an externally accessed semiautomatic or manual device. A third supporting member (called third point) is equidistantly placed between the two arms and above them this member is provided with a tensioner which by using a screw or similar allows to approach or separate the end which is hooking the farm implement top portion. Both at the chassis-anchored ends as at the tractor external end, the arms are shaping up a triangle in the three coupling points.
Every farm implement has three coupling points making up a triangle wherein the lower parallel arms and the tractor's third point are hooked with a tensioner to the farm implement's triangle top vertex, the linkage is strengthened by pins and bolts. If the farm implement is securely placed to the tractor's three anchoring points it is then called a mounted farm implement, because its position can be lifted from the ground and its height can be adjusted according to the lifting of the lower arms; said configuration is peculiar of the multi-furrow implement or is requiring height adjustment such as the ploughshares, cultivators, plows and the like. Also there are farm implements which are linked to a tractor only by means of one or two lower anchoring points. These farm implements are called propelled implements because its shape only allowed the tractor vehicle to exert a dragging action thereover, as is peculiarly seen in trailers, tanks, sulphur dusters and the like.
The coupling operation of a farm implement is fully manual, and if we are dealing with a mounted implement the tractor is reversely-driven approached until the arms are facing the farm implement couplings. It is then required the tractor arms are located at the level of the farm implement's lower coupling pins. Later on, the driver may put aside the driving position, lower the tractor and couple each arm to the relative bolt and close the linkage with a pin, the third point is then manually adjusted, the bolt is inserted and the linkage is closed using a pin.
Said full operation is manually performed from the tractor outside, requiring even the aid of a second operator with a high effort from the operator or operators, because usually the farm implement has to be moved with the associated risk of the farm implement unbalance and falling down or having to face the tractor up to the farm implement repeatedly just to locate it better. Usually the users when making this operation become more or less wounded or injured, also they might receive a blow, a pinch, a snag, or a relative gashed scratch.
There are also presently available those couplings called class II and III. Class II couplings are based in that the farm implement lower bolts are having a number of adapted spheres nesting thereafter into the tractor's arms and closed by a latch so that they cannot skip, this is a quicker and easier operation, but this coupling has to be manually pursued, being the same process when dealing with the third point.
Class III couplings carry a bar linking the tractor's two lower arms and the farm implement having two inverted hooks at the connecting triangle base which can directly be nested into the tractor, when the lower arms are lifted and secured with a latch in each hook, which is yielding when the bar is lifted. Also in this assembly arrangement, the devices pertaining to the third point have to be driven from the tractor outside. All this only serves for the mounted implements, because all the dragged implements require another coupling type, quite differently from the mounted implements, which are directly coupled to the tractor chassis; the farm implement currently having a perforation or ring at the end of a boom at its front side and a bolt or pivot provided at the tractor's rear side is made to go through to start a rotation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The automatic device for all-purpose coupling of agricultural implements and the like object of the present invention is characterized in that it comprises a device assembly which parts and motions which they may be performing, allowed to couple and uncouple different farm implements, tools and jigs without requiring external tampering, all the operation can practically be carried out from the vehicle. It is intended to improve safety, comfortability, speed and productivity of people who with a vehicle, usually a tractor, had to perform multiple implement changes for the several works carried out in the agriculture, cattle-farming, industry, building field and a number of others operating sectors. The present state of the art is not allowing the farm implements to be coupled in a fully automatic mode from the vehicle itself, meaning that at least an operator shall perform several manual operations from the outside until the farm implement is firmly secured to the vehicle substantially with the personal effort involved in all that, accident risks and additionally when the farm implement if faulty-hooked or undesirably swinging.
As a remedy to all these setbacks, the present invention provides very substantial innovations. All parts to be present in the farm implements for hooking or coupling are unified and rationalized; all the farm implements must have the same standard support for the coupling, with the same shapes, dimensions and sizes. The farm implements should have a number of supports to be balanced and reasonably leveled when remaining standing prior to the coupling operation, so that they can face up the vehicle and be a help in the coupling operation.
Starting with the same three basically clearly-differentiated construable models, applications and features although with slightly different uses and properties have been developed having characteristics making them suitable for any specific particular applications. The operating mechanical base comprises generally hydraulic cylinders, although they can also be pneumatical, and the power is provided by a pump or compressor located at the tractor and driven by the tractor's engine.
In a first development model, the vehicle provided with the new invention has a coupling device comprising two vertically-swinging parallel arms fixed by one end to the tractor chassis at its rear side in an almost parallel shape, and having at its free end a support for securing the farm implements. Each one of these arms is having at the external or internal side
Jones Day Reavis & Pogue
Pezzuto Robert E.
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