Excavating – Ditcher – With crumber
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-15
2001-02-20
Batson, Victor (Department: 3671)
Excavating
Ditcher
With crumber
C037S352000, C037S462000, C405S181000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06189244
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a ditch or trench excavating and flexible tile installation apparatus, and more specifically to an apparatus which continuously excavates a trench, simultaneously inserts or lays the flexible tile therein, and then refills the trench utilizing a driven continuous-chain with attached earth cutters, the chain/cutters being self cleaning.
There are a number of prior art machines for digging trenches or ditches, for installing flexible tile and pipelines, and for refilling the ditches after the pipeline has been installed. Representative examples of prior art systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,414,994; 3,332,249; 4,038,828; 4,232,982; 4,326,347; 4,871,281; 4,981,396; and 5,108,229.
One of the issues associated with machines of the types described is dealing with extremely heavy clay-like material which is to be excavated; such material tends to stick to or adhere to the cutters of the earthcutting mechanism. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,347 discloses a large-diameter wheel apparatus with attached cutters which, when dealing with heavy clay-like soil, would tend to get clogged so as to seriously reduce the efficiency of the operation.
The present invention, on the other hand, is of a unique design having a number of advantages over the prior art, one of which is the provision of automatic self-cleaning of the cutters, even with heavy clay-like soil.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an apparatus for trenching a narrow trench and simultaneously provides for the continuous laying of flexible tubing in the trench. A carriage frame is adapted to be connected to a pulling vehicle such as a tractor, and has wheel means at one end thereof so as to facilitate horizontal travel or locomotion of the carriage frame. Mounted on the carriage frame is a first generally vertically-oriented box frame assembly having movably attached thereto a second vertically-oriented trencher support or traveling frame assembly which supports one end of a pair of spaced-apart, horizontally-disposed elongated beams. A drive sprocket having a relatively small diameter is mounted on the horizontal beams, the beams further supporting a generally vertically-oriented driven sprocket support beam at the lower end of which is rotatably connected a driven sprocket having a relatively large diameter. The spaced-apart drive and driven sprockets are connected by a continuous chain, the chain having a plurality of earth cutters attached thereto. Means are provided for driving the drive sprocket to thereby cause movement of the chain and cutters and thus cause rotation of the driven sprocket. A vertically-oriented tubular member having a top open end for receiving flexible tile or tubing is supported by the horizontal beams, and a crumber means is attached to a bottom end thereof, the crumber means including outlet means though which flexible tile or tubing may exit.
The self-cleaning features of the present invention are the result of having a relatively small diameter drive sprocket which, in combination with an appropriate rotational speed of the drive sprocket, results in the chain with attached cutters having a relatively fast angular acceleration as the chain passes around the drive sprocket; the aforesaid acceleration tends to throw the earth held by the cutters off of the cutters and in a direction so as to fall into the ditch behind the trenching apparatus.
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Hagberg Jay
Johnson Randal
Batson Victor
Jensen Roger W
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