Earth working – Rolling – rotating or orbitally moving tool – Plural groups of disks
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-03
2001-04-10
Novosad, Christopher J. (Department: 3671)
Earth working
Rolling, rotating or orbitally moving tool
Plural groups of disks
C172S662000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213220
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to a method and apparatus relating to disc plows of a type where one or more discs are drawn behind a supporting frame for purposes of plowing and which have a jump stump capabltity.
Disc plows of this general type are known.
In applications however such as plowing in forestry debris, the plows are subjected to substantial forces and are used in situations which can only be described in terms of challenge to the equipment, as horrific.
Typical of the difficulties are situations where such equipment will be pulled over existing tree stumps. The difficulty currently experienced in such circumstances is that existing equipment will either wear very quickly indeed under such circumstances or will be subjected to forces that simply cannot be handled and result in bending or fracturing of parts.
In circumstances where overhead costs associated with traction equipment and salaries are being lost during any such loss of use of the equipment this can mean that such difficulty is very serious in this industry.
An object of this invention is therefore to propose disc plows generally of the type being described which are more able to meet the conditions of severe use with either reduced wear or reduced potential breakage from those plows of a design which has been hitherto used.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a disc plow wherein at least one of the discs is a concave disc supported by a trailing arm where the trailing arm is supported at a forward most location to rotate about an axis which is transverse to an expected forward direction of the apparatus.
In a preferred form the invention can be said to reside in a disc plow comprising a frame to which is secured at least one disc supported by a trailing arm where the trailing arm is secured to the frame at a forward most location by a pivot connection, the axis of the pivot connection having its axis of rotation transverse to a forward to rearward alignment of the plow, with the trailing arm extending between the forward pivot support and the more rearward positioned concave disc, a pivot connection connecting between the trailing arm and the concave disc such that the concave disc is rotationally supported to be rotatable about an axis which is at right angles to a plane defined by an outermost circular perimeter of the disc disregarding any scallop in such outer perimeter shape and passing through a center of the circular perimeter, and supported by the rearward end of the trailing arm so that, in a normal working position, there is an angle of inclination of this axis relative to the forward to rearward alignment so that the concave side of the disc is inclined to be open to the approaching working material and such that in a maximum elevation position has an alignment of the axis of the disc where the lowermost peripheral edge of the disc with forward rotation will move in an alignment that is close to or exactly the same as the forward to rearward alignment of the plow.
For conventional plowing, such an arrangement will have the trailing arm extending rearwardly and downwardly from the forward pivot support to where it supports the concave disc with a bearing on the convex side of the disc and such that the disc is able to rotate about its own axis supported by the rearward end of the trailing arm there being an angle of inclination of this axis relative to a forward direction so that the concave side of the disc is inclined to a forward direction so that the concave side is on the front side and is slightly open to the approaching working material.
In accord with this invention, it is proposed that the respective angular relationships between the pivot positions, the trailing arm and the concave disc are such that as the disc engages an obstacle and is caused then to lift in response to such engagement, the axis of the disc will be caused to rotate toward a more transverse orientation with respect to an expected forward direction of the plow.
In preference, this arrangement is such that at a position which is reaching a highest expected position of the disc, the alignment of the axis of the disc will then be either close to or be at a perpendicular orientation to the expected forward direction of the equipment.
With equipment of this type, as the disc is pushed further into an extreme displacement, there will be expected to be increased load on the disc and if the disc is being pulled across the top of a tree stump, then there can be expected to be very significant forces indeed applying both between the stump and the disc, and of course then from the disc to the supporting equipment.
Our discovery is that if the disc can be arranged to have an axial support where the axis is aligned substantially orthogonal to a forward direction, then this significantly reduces or substantially removes side loads which would otherwise have to be allowed for, and the loss of the openness of the concave portion of the disc is of no consequence at such an extreme position where harm minimization is of greatest importance.
This has shown to provide very significant benefit in this application.
In preference, the approach relates to disc plows where there are any number of discs supported behind respective trailing arms.
In preference, there is a support frame which is either directly pulled or supported by a traction vehicle and each of the discs are supported by a trailing arm where the trailing arm has a forward most support comprising a pivotal connection with a support frame where the axis of such a pivot is transverse and in preference at right angles to a forward direction.
Pressure to keep a respective trailing arm and therefore its supported concave disc in a working position can be variously applied but in preference is a pneumatic ram which is separately controlled so that the extent of pressure is separately governable.
In preference, there is at least one concave disc which is supported so that its lowermost edge can reach at least a height (when at a released position) that is at least approximately a lowermost height of parts of the frame in the immediate forward working location of the disc.
This will generally have the result that any obstacle that the supporting equipment forward of the disc will pass over, will be able to divert the disc to that height at least.
This means that obstacles that are simply too big to be handled by the equipment will first impact against the much stronger forward frame members or other parts of the equipment which can be designed to handle this or at least be handled in a different way.
By providing that the trailing disc can reach an apex with its lowermost edge at least substantially the height of the lowermost immediately forward frame members of the equipment, and having the orientation at this point of the disc such that it will be rolling aligned to the forward direction of the equipment, results in significant reduction in loading on the disc and the associated supporting bearings and other parts.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3088527 (1963-05-01), Burch
Novosad Christopher J.
Quarles & Brady LLP
Savannah Forestry Equipment, Inc.
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