Harvesters – Motorized harvester – Having motor on ground-supported carrier
Reexamination Certificate
2003-02-26
2004-06-15
Pezzuto, Robert E. (Department: 3671)
Harvesters
Motorized harvester
Having motor on ground-supported carrier
Reexamination Certificate
active
06748729
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable.
REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Not Applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved swing arm for existing lawn mowers. In particular, the present invention is designed as a replacement arm or kit for improving the limited movement of pin arm riding lawn mowers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Several United States Patents should be considered. These include U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,508 issued to Miatt et al. on Jul. 11, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,380, issued to Browning on Oct. 17, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,193 issued to O'Neill et al. on Jul. 27, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,794 issued to Christopherson et al. on Aug. 15, 2000; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,242 issued to Gordon on Jan. 9, 2001. Other patents to be considered are U.S. Pat. No. D459,732 entitled Rod-end bearing; U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,368 entitled Rod end bearing; U.S. Pat. No. D447,157 entitled Rod-end bearing; U.S. Pat. No. D443,285 entitled Rod-end bearing; U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,378 entitled Rod-end bearing device; U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,580 entitled Rod end bearing for aircraft use; U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,148 entitled Method for making a non-metallic, fiber reinforced rod end bearing assembly; and 4,057,355 Frangible tie rod end bearing seat. Each of these patents is hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The most relevant prior art for the present invention is found in the owner's manuals for the type and construction of fixed upper and lower pin mounting lawn tractors for which this invention applies. Specific Brands for these mowers are SEARS (trademark), POULAN (trademark), and HUSQUARNA (trademark). Examples of these types of movers and their owners manuals may be found as: SEARS CRAFTSMAN (trademark) 20 hp, 40 in. Deck Lawn Tractor sold under Item #07107192000, Mfr. Model #27192; and Sears Craftsman (trademark) 20 hp, 48 in. Deck Deluxe Lawn Tractor sold under Item #07107224000, Mfr. Model #27224. These prior art mounting systems are shown in
FIGS. 1 through 8
.
FIG. 1
shows a first variation of a prior art fixed pin quad arm mounting system
100
for a mower deck
102
. Four suspension joints
104
,
106
,
108
,
110
are used to hold the mower deck
102
including a front right deck suspension
104
, front left deck suspension
106
, back right deck suspension
108
, and back left deck suspension
110
.
As better shown by
FIG. 2
, the front right deck suspension
104
uses a front right perpendicular block pin
112
having a front right pin head
114
defining a front right link aperture
116
and also having a front right pin extension
118
defining a spring clip aperture
120
. The front right pin extension
118
is adapted to pass through a pin opening
122
in the mower frame
124
so that the front right perpendicular pin
112
is secured to the mower frame
124
with a retaining spring
126
positioned in the spring clip aperture
120
. In this manner, the front right pin axis
128
of the front right perpendicular pin
112
is held perpendicular to the frame
124
and the front right perpendicular pin
112
can only rotate while maintaining the perpendicular relationship of the axis
128
to the frame
124
. This limitation is important to understand because it defines the vertical only movement of the front right link
130
which causes problems solved by the present invention.
The front right link
130
defines a front right axial link extension
132
having extension threads
134
adapted to pass through the front right link aperture
116
. Nuts
136
are screwed onto both sides of the front right axial link extension
132
to fixably secure the front right perpendicular pin
112
to the front right link
130
. Thus, the front right link
130
is fixably secured to the front right perpendicular pin
112
. Due to this connection, the front right link
130
is held perpendicular to the front right perpendicular pin
112
and the front right link
130
can only pivot in a vertical motion to move in a parallel relationship to the mower frame
124
. No rotational or horizontal movement is allowed by this connection. Thus, this connection at least partially controls and limits how the mower deck
102
can be positioned.
As shown in
FIGS. 2 and 5
, the front right link
130
also uses or defines a front right deck pin
138
which also defines a spring clip aperture
120
. In
FIG. 5
, the front right deck pin
138
is constructed by bending the front right link
130
to a perpendicular axis position. As shown in
FIG. 4
, the front right deck pin
138
is then adapted to pass through a pin aperture
140
in the front right deck flange
142
and a retaining spring
126
is used to hold the front right link
130
to the front right deck flange
142
.
The front left deck suspension
106
uses a front left perpendicular pin
144
having a front left pin head
146
defining a front left link aperture
148
and also having a front left pin extension
150
defining a spring clip aperture
120
. The front left pin extension
150
is adapted to pass through a pin opening
122
in the mower frame
124
so that the front left perpendicular pin
144
is secured to the mower frame
124
with a retaining spring
126
positioned in the spring clip aperture
120
. In this manner, the front left pin axis
152
of the front left perpendicular pin
144
is held perpendicular to the frame
124
and the front left perpendicular pin
144
can only rotate while maintaining the perpendicular relationship of the front left pin axis
152
to the frame
124
. This is important because it defines the movement of the front left link
154
.
The front left link
154
defines a front left axial link extension
156
having extension threads
134
adapted to pass through the front left link aperture
148
. Nuts
136
are screwed onto both sides of the front left axial link extension
156
to fixably secure the front left perpendicular pin
144
to the front left link
154
. Thus, the front left link
154
is secured to the front left perpendicular pin
144
. Due to this connection, the front left link
154
is held perpendicular to the front left perpendicular pin
144
and the front left link
154
can only move in a parallel relationship to the mower frame
124
. This controls how the mower deck
102
can be positioned.
The front left link
154
defines a front left deck pin
156
which also defines a spring clip aperture
120
. The front left deck pin
156
is constructed by bending the front left link
154
to a perpendicular axis position as shown in FIG.
1
. The front left deck pin
156
is then adapted to pass through a pin aperture
140
in the front left deck flange
158
and a retaining spring
126
is used to hold the front left link
154
to the front left deck flange
158
.
As noted by the front right and front left deck suspensions
104
,
106
, the limited perpendicular movement requires equal lifting on both side of the mower deck and limits any uneven vertical movement of the mower deck. If an attempt is made to raise only the right side of the mower deck while maintaining a lower position for the left side of the mower deck, one may see that the front right deck suspension
104
would be required to move in an arcing motion, and a twisting movement may be imparted to the left deck suspensions
106
. However, the fixed pin arrangement of this design does not allow for either of these motions. This previously unrecognized problem with this design and the associated limitations were discovered after one of these units consistently caused scalping problems when mowing a fine textured bermuda grass. These fixed perpendicular movements prohibit the mower deck from properly following uneven ground contours during mowing. Instead of requiring a complete redesign, the present invention ingeniously and inexpensively solves these problems without requiring excessive amounts of new tooling or design chan
Keisling Trent C.
Keisling Pieper & Scott PLC
Pieper David B.
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