Excavating – Snow or ice removing or grooming by portable device – Railway clearer
Patent
1980-09-03
1982-10-26
Eickholt, E. H.
Excavating
Snow or ice removing or grooming by portable device
Railway clearer
37103, 37DIG3, E02F 376
Patent
active
043554768
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a bucket assembly for excavators or loaders, comprising, in addition to a bucket portion, a gripping tool arranged to grip, as needed, arbitrary objects such as poles, pillars, beams or the like and hold them in relation to the bucket.
BACKGROUND ART
A bucket assembly of this type solely intended for loaders is previously known by the British Pat. No. 1,070,877 which discloses a gripping tool having two claws or claw-like arms which are mounted for pivoting movements towards and away from each other while forming a jaw of variable size for receiving the object. These two claw arms are comparatively long and mounted directly upon the top surface of the bucket portion in such a way that a large portion of each arm always juts out from the upper edge of the bucket portion. In practice this means that the bucket assembly cannot be used for digging purposes since the claw arms forming the gripping tool would, due to the existance of the long, jutting arm portions, obstruct pivoting of the bucket portion to a normal starting position for digging and, due to the placing of the arms directly on the top surface of the bucket portion, preclude a connection of the assembly to the digging arms which are customary for excavators. The arms would also be subjected to considerable wear and strains because they lie quite unprotected on the outside of the bucket portion.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
The present invention aims at eliminating the above mentioned limitations in the bucket assembly previously known and rendering the same all-round more useful while increasing the working life thereof at the same time. In accordance with the characterizing features of the invention this is achieved by the fact that the gripping tool is built into a suitably box-like protective housing into which the tool, through an opening, may be inserted to an inactive, protected position permitting the use of the bucket assembly for digging purposes without hindrance of the gripping tool and out of which the tool may be brought to an active position in which it is capable of gripping said objects. By arranging the gripping tool in this way the bucket assembly may with particularly great advantage first of all be used for digging a pit in the ground and immediately thereafter grip a telephone or cable pole and place the same in the dug pit.
FURTHER DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE INVENTION AND THE PRIOR ART
Furthermore the bucket assembly according to the British patent specification mentioned relies on the use of two separate piston-cylinder mechanisms for controlling the two claws or arms which jointly form the gripping tool. This construction is unsatisfactory in so far as the claws will move non-uniformly if one of the mechanisms binds or otherwise moves in a manner differing from the manner in which the other mechanism moves; which in turn means that the object which is held by the claws is not centered in relation to the bucket. Rather, the object may on one occasion move to the left and on the other occasion to the right in relation to the center of the bucket; involving working conditions which are difficult to master for the operator who, when it is a question of for instance mounting of telephone poles in ground pits dug by means of the bucket, is dependent on a precise alignment of the pole in the dug mark pit. In order to eliminate this drawback the invention proposes that the claws, through suitable connecting means, are connected to a control mechanism common to both of the claws, said mechanism in operation always transmitting substantially uniform control movements to the two claws while assuring an automatic centration of an object being present therebetween.
In the structure according to the British patent specification there is also a risk that the pole, especially if it is of a considerable length, will rotate or pivot relative to the place of gripping of the claws around the pole since the two claws are movable towards and away from each other in one and the same plane. In connection
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patent: 2387656 (1945-10-01), Gledhill
patent: 3057599 (1962-10-01), Clatterbuck
patent: 3116048 (1963-12-01), Irwin et al.
patent: 3323234 (1967-06-01), Pickrell
patent: 3702712 (1972-11-01), Cairns
patent: 3739823 (1973-06-01), Bartell
patent: 3997068 (1976-12-01), Lock
patent: 4070772 (1978-01-01), Motomura et al.
patent: 4204348 (1980-05-01), Lydie
Eickholt E. H.
Soneruds Maskin Aktiebolag
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