Road structure – process – or apparatus – Apparatus – With means for profile shaping – e.g. – crown
Reexamination Certificate
1997-06-20
2001-01-09
Lillis, Eileen D. (Department: 3673)
Road structure, process, or apparatus
Apparatus
With means for profile shaping, e.g., crown
C404S105000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06171019
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for laying turf and, in particular, to methods of and apparatus for forming the base on which turf is to be laid and is specifically adapted for forming bases on which previously washed turf can be laid.
The applicant has adopted and developed systems whereby turf can be grown and harvested, and the soil from the root zone of the turf can then be removed by washing, and subsequently this turf can be relocated on a growing medium which is preferably sand. It can, however, be a sand/soil mixture, sand/peat moss or even soil alone. For the purposes of this description, we shall refer to the medium as sand on the understanding that it can be any one of the above.
In preferred forms, the growing medium has a base including drainage, a thickness of sand located thereabove, and a further thickness of sand which has reinforcing material therein. This sand/reinforcing material can be referred to as a matrix.
We prefer to use, as a reinforcing material, plastic mesh elements such as those sold under the trade mark Netlon but other elements, including fibrous elements can be used. Some such elements are sold under the trade marks Turfgrids, Fibresand and Fibreturf.
A substantial difficulty of such systems has been to satisfactorily lay the upper, reinforced, layer of sand. When there is a mixture of same and the Netlon elements, if a machine which acts on the surface is used, this tends to distort the surface as the edges of some of the elements can be contacted by the blade and this will tend to force the elements and the surrounding sand out of their position in the ground. Further, if a grader type machine is being used, if part of an element is being moved, it will tend to carry the adjacent sand with it.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the first object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which can readily lay the upper, reinforced, layer of sand in an application where turf is to be laid.
A second aspect of the invention is to provide such an apparatus which includes means whereby an already laid layer of plain sand can be at least partially lifted, can be mixed with reinforcing material and can be re-laid to provide the required final surface.
A still further object of the invention is to provide in such a machine, means whereby reinforcing material can be provided either in pre-prepared elements or in the form of a web, which may be a broadloom web, which is cut into the required sizes and added to the sand.
A still further object is to provide such an apparatus which can lay turf while it moves.
A still further object is to provide an apparatus which can deliver a mixture of sand and reinforcing elements to a paving apparatus while that machine is in operation.
In accordance with the broadest aspect of the invention, we provide an apparatus for laying sand and/or a sand/reinforcement matrix onto a pre-prepared surface, which apparatus includes a hopper to provide the matrix to be laid, a plunger at the forward end, in the sense of the direction of movement of the apparatus, of the hopper and means whereby the plunger can be reciprocated to take material from the hopper and deliver it through an extrusion aperture in the rear thereof to an extrusion mould, the extrusion being effected by the machine moving forwardly as pressure is applied to the matrix to be extruded and the mold passes over the matrix, The apparatus may be provided with a secondary hopper so that any unevennesses in the surface of the material extruded can be removed by adding sand thereto as it is about to leave the apparatus.
In the second aspect of the invention, the apparatus has means whereby material can be removed from a previously prepared sand surface, the material can be mixed with a reinforcing material and the matrix of sand and reinforcing material is then feed to the hopper for re-delivery to the surface.
In this aspect of the invention, we may simply add to the material being removed pre-prepared reinforcing elements or the like and preferably pass these through a mixing process or, alternatively, we could supply the reinforcing material in a web or the like and provide cutting means whereby this can be cut into the required size shortly before it is added to the removed material.
The invention also includes an apparatus for mixing of this general type which is not associated with the laying apparatus.
In a still further aspect of the invention, we provide means at the rear of the apparatus to hold turf to be laid, which may be adapted to hold a roll of turf from which the growing medium has been removed and we may also provide means to provide a top dressing over the turf as it is delivered.
In a still further aspect of the invention, we provide a delivery apparatus which can be adapted to be towed by a prime mover and which has a hopper adapted to hold a matrix of sand and reinforcing material and a conveyor in the floor of the hopper which extends outwardly along one side thereof and which is adapted to be located over the hopper of the apparatus which extrudes the material.
In a preferred form, the apparatus above described can have its hopper mounted on a turn table or the like so that it can deliver material to the hopper from either side thereof.
The invention also relates to methods of laying and sand/reinforcement matrices over a surface. This can be done by adding a sand layer to a base, which could be aggregate or the like which is adapted to drain the surface or it could be a pre-laid sand surface over which a matrix is laid.
The invention also includes a method of removing sand from a surface, adding reinforcement thereto to make a matrix and returning the sand to the surface.
The invention also includes methods of mixing sand with reinforcement and delivering sand and sand/reinforcement matrices to a working place.
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Casimaty Gabriel (Bill)
Lowry Ronald John
Simonis Lee
Addie Raymond W
Lillis Eileen D.
Schindler Edwin D.
StrathAyr Pty. Limited
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