Earth working – With drive means for tool or cleaner – Guided by walking attendant
Reexamination Certificate
2003-01-09
2004-04-20
Batson, Victor (Department: 3671)
Earth working
With drive means for tool or cleaner
Guided by walking attendant
C172S125000, C172S256000, C172S351000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06722445
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improvement in front-rotary working machines.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Among popular walking-type working machines are cultivators which, though rotations of cultivating claws mounted on a cultivating shaft assembly, not only cultivate the ground but also travel in a direction instructed by a human operator; such machines are commonly called “front-tine working machines”. In recent years, development of so-called “front-rotary working machines” has been proceeding, which are walking-type working machines that include cultivating claws in front of a machine body having transporting wheels mounted thereon. Such front-rotary working machines can readily cultivate on machine-turning areas (also known as butts) of a field because the cultivating claws are disposed in front of the machine body, and achieve superior operability because the human operator can operate the machine while looking ahead. Because of these advantages, the front-rotary working machines have been attracting people's attention.
Note that the “machine-turning areas” or “butts” are dead or temporarily uncultivated areas that are produced at opposite ends of a field by temporary stoppage of cultivating operations due to U-turn motions of the working machine, for example, in a case where the machine cultivates the field while reciprocating parallel to one side of the field.
Among examples of such front-rotary working machines is an “Agricultural Working Machine” disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3,015,821. The disclosed agricultural working machine (hereinafter also referred to as a conventional front-rotary working machine) is of a so-called “down-cut” type which is designed to cultivate the ground by rotating the cultivating shaft assembly, and hence the cultivating claws, downwardly to the ground and which is used primarily for plowing. The conventional front-rotary working machine will be outlined below.
FIG. 16
is a schematic view of the conventional front-rotary working machine. The conventional front-rotary working machine
200
is a walking-type cultivator which includes an engine
201
mounted on a machine body
202
, and a power transmission casing
203
provided beneath the machine body
202
. The power transmission casing
203
includes a rear transmission case
204
and front rotary case
205
that are formed as a one-piece or integral unit. A pair of left and right transporting wheels
207
are mounted at both ends of an axle
206
projecting from opposite sides of a rear portion of the transmission case
204
, and a rotary-side intermediate shaft
208
is disposed on a front portion of the rear transmission case
204
. The conventional front-rotary working machine also includes a cultivating shaft assembly
209
having a plurality of cultivating claws
210
provided thereon. Within the front rotary case
205
, an endless chain
213
is wound on and extends between a driving sprocket
211
mounted on the rotary-side intermediate shaft
208
and a driven sprocket
212
mounted on the cultivating shaft assembly
209
.
The engine
201
employed in the conventional front-rotary working machine
200
is a horizontal engine having an output shaft
214
projecting laterally outwardly therefrom. With a belt
218
wound on and extending between a driving pulley
215
mounted on the output shaft
214
and a driven pulley
217
mounted on an input shaft
216
projecting sideways from the transmission case
204
, output power of the engine
201
can be transmitted to the transmission system. Namely, a belt transmission mechanism
221
for transmitting the power from the engine
201
to the transmission system is composed of the driving pulley
215
mounted on the output shaft
214
extending horizontally widthwise of the machine
200
, driven pulley
217
mounted on the input shaft
216
also extending horizontally widthwise of the machine
200
and belt
218
wound on the driving pulley
215
and driven pulley
217
. The belt transmission mechanism
221
can be activated or deactivated via a tension roller
219
functioning as a main clutch mechanism. Namely, power transmission by the belt transmission mechanism
221
can be enabled by tightening the belt
218
via the tension roller
219
and disabled by loosening the belt
218
. Thus, with the output power of the engine
201
, not only the left and right transporting wheels
207
can be driven via the axle
206
, but also the cultivating claws
210
can be driven by way of the rotary-side intermediate shaft
208
, chain
207
and cultivating shaft assembly
209
. Further, in
FIG. 16
, reference numeral
220
represents a handle.
Furthermore, in the front-rotary working machine
200
, four rows of the cultivating claws
210
are disposed in the widthwise direction of the machine body
202
(i.e., in a direction intersecting the sheet of FIG.
16
). The working machine
200
can cultivate the ground by all the cultivating claws
210
rotating in a predetermined one direction together with the cultivating shaft assembly
209
.
In the above-discussed front-rotary working machine
200
, the rear transmission case
204
and front rotary case
205
of the power transmission casing
203
are integrally combined into a generally L shape (or vertically-inverted V shape) as viewed sideways. Namely, the rear transmission case
204
is inclined rearwardly downwardly while the front rotary case
205
is inclined forwardly downwardly.
As the cultivating claws
210
(constituting a rotary working unit of the working machine
200
) cultivates the soil Gr
21
, the cultivated soil Gr
22
tends to heap on the ground. The thus-heaped soil Gr
22
may hit the bottom of the rear transmission case
204
. As the cultivating depth of the cultivating claws
210
increases, the height of the rear transmission case
204
above the ground surface tends to decrease; if such a tendency becomes strong, the cultivated soil Gr
22
would be shaved or pushed away by the bottom of the transmission case
204
, which often results in an unsmooth, uneven cultivated ground surface. Because of such unsatisfactory cultivating performance or finish, the conventional front-rotary working machine
200
is susceptible of (i.e., has room for) improvement.
Further, because the rear transmission case
204
is tilted rearwardly downwardly as mentioned above, it can become an obstacle to the cultivated soil Gr
22
, in which case the cultivated soil Gr
22
may pile up in front of the transmission case
204
. If the transmission case
204
runs on the piled-up soil Gr
23
, the soil Gr
23
can become a great resistance to travel of the front-rotary working machine
200
. The traveling resistance presented by the piled-up soil Gr
23
is usually unbalanced, and thus if the traveling resistance is great, it would impose great loads on the human operator to keep linear traveling performance of the working machine
200
; in this regard too, the conventional front-rotary working machine
200
has room for improvement.
Furthermore, in the conventional front-rotary working machine
200
, where the horizontal engine
201
is employed, the belt transmission mechanism
221
is disposed to the right side of the horizontal engine
201
, and the left and right transporting wheels
207
are disposed outwardly of the opposite sides of the belt transmission mechanism
221
. Therefore, a distance between the left and right transporting wheels
207
unavoidably becomes great, which would result in a great overall width of the working machine
200
.
Often, cultivating operations on a field include weeding operations (furrow-to-furrow tillage) for removing weeds from between ridges (i.e., furrows) in addition to ordinary cultivating operations for cultivating the ridges. Because the furrows between the ridges usually have small widths, there are limitations to the weeding operations using the working machine
200
of a great overall width.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing prior art problems, it is a first object of the present invention to
Kobayashi Hideaki
Nagaoka Masatoshi
Ohta Yoshitaka
Adams & Wilks
Batson Victor
LandOfFree
Working machine having front-rotary working unit does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Working machine having front-rotary working unit, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Working machine having front-rotary working unit will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3233951