Road structure – process – or apparatus – Apparatus – Rotating drum – roller or tire
Patent
1998-01-23
1999-11-30
Will, Thomas B.
Road structure, process, or apparatus
Apparatus
Rotating drum, roller or tire
404122, G01K 1926
Patent
active
059931108
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a ballast system for compacting machines and, more particularly, to a modular ballast system to be used in compacting machines, which operate by their own weight and move on rollers or wheels.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The compacting machines operating by their own weight (static weight) have their weight increased by the addition of water, sand or scrap in spaces defined inside the compacting cylinders or rollers, or also inside the chassis, which is constructed in order to define a reservoir in the space existing between the front and rear wheel-axle assemblies.
These known ballast systems require the handling of bulk materials and do not allow the easy control or adjustment of the mass of the material supplied to the ballast spaces, in order to adapt the weight of the compacting machine to the needs of the operation to be carried out. In these prior art solutions, the ballast control requires the use of a scale, which is hardly ever available in the working yard.
Besides the inconvenience cited above, the density of the bulk material fed into the ballast reservoirs or spaces requires the creation of considerable volumes in the equipment design, so as to accommodate the necessary amount of ballast material.
Another inconvenience of the known technical solutions results from the fact that the difficulties for charging and removing the bulk materials usually avoid the adjustment of the equipment, in terms of ground load, to the ideal conditions of each application and of the material to be compacted.
In the particular case of the wheeled compacting machines, the load per wheel is a determinant factor for obtaining a desired compacting level, because it directly influences the pressure value resulting from the contact of the tire with the material to be compacted.
It should also be observed that the space, which is necessary for providing the usual ballast of humid sand, avoids the achievement of high loads per wheel and therefore limits the compacting capacity of the equipment. In general, the most common wheeled compacting machines provide a load per wheel from about 3,000 Kg to about 3,500 Kg. Nevertheless, it has been more and more frequent the need for compacting applications requiring a load per wheel of about 4,000 Kg, which load has been obtained up to now only through very heavy equipments, which are very costly and with limitations concerning transportation, visibility and maneuverability.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
Thus, the object of the present invention is to provide a ballast system for compacting machines, which work by their own weight and move on rollers or wheels, allowing for an extremely easy adjustment of the static compacting load to the ideal conditions of the operation to be carried out, without requiring the provision of large load spaces in the machine design and allowing to obtain high loads per region where the machine contacts the material to be compacted.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a ballast system for compacting machines, which has the characteristics cited above and which eliminates the feeding and removing operations of the ballast bulk material for obtaining the adjustment of the static compacting load in the equipment.
These and other objectives of the present invention are achieved through a ballast system for compacting machines which work by their own weight and which comprise a chassis supported on front and rear wheel-axle assemblies longitudinally spaced from each other, the chassis median extension comprised between the front and rear wheel-axle assemblies defining a raised platform provided with ballast lateral retaining means, in which there are fitted and locked, against downward vertical and horizontal displacements, respective lateral engaging means of modular ballast elements, which are disposed transversely under the chassis median extension and which have a weight that is selectively determined in function of the characteristics of the compacting load desired for
Addie Raymond W
Svedala Dynapac LTDA
Will Thomas B.
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