A preferred embodiment of the invention is now described with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a mobile stone crushing machine in the form of a trailer for attachment to a tractor;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the rear end of the machine with a shroud of the crushing unit removed;
FIG. 3 is an enlarged elevation of the crushing unit;
FIGS. 4 and 4a are respectively partly schematic front elevational and sectional views of a top driver roller of the crushing unit mechanism;
FIGS. 5, 5a, 6 and 6a are views similar to FIGS. 4 and 4a respectively of the top idler roller and the two lower driver and idler rollers, and
FIG. 7 is a schematic elevation of an alternative crushing mechanism.
Referring to the drawings, the machine has a chassis 1 having a towing hook 2 and mounted on drive wheels 8 supported on a suitable axle 9. At the rear end of the chassis is a crusher unit indicated generally at 3 to which stones, clods of earth and the like are fed by means of endless conveyor means 4, the conveyor means extending from a lower forward end 5 upwardly and rearwardly to its upper end which discharges into the crusher unit. At the forward end of the conveyor means 4, a scoop 10 is provided, and the front end of the conveyor means 4 can be vertically adjusted to the required depth so as to pick up all stones to that depth by means of a linkage indicated generally at 6 and a ram 16. Associated with the conveyor means 4 are a plurality of agitators 7.
The conveyor is driven by a hydraulic motor 13 powered from the hydraulic system of a tractor for pulling the machine and likewise, the ram 16 is hydraulically operated and obtains its power from the tractor hydraulic system. The mechanism of the crusher unit 3 includes two horizontally disposed pairs of crushing rollers 15, 17 and 19, 21, the roller 15 being driven by double hydraulic motors 20 and a belt drive extending from the drive for the roller 15 to the roller 19. Hydraulic power to the double hydraulic motors 20 is obtained from an auxiliary hydraulic pump mounted directly on the tractor P.T.O. shaft or driven through the P.T.O. shaft, there being a hydraulic reservoir 23 on the machine to supply hydraulic fluid to the auxiliary pump.
The crusher unit 3 will now be described more fully with reference to FIGS. 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the drawings. the fixed driven crusher roller 15 is mounted in fixed journals or bearings, but its companion roller 17 is suspended for free rotation on a pair of radial trailing suspension arms 25 pivotally supported at their upper end on the chassis 1. Suitable damping springs 27 and 29 are connected to the lower ends of the arms 25, the other ends of the respective springs being connected to the chassis 1 at suitably spaced locations 31 and 33. In a similar manner, the driven roller 19 is mounted in journals fixed on the chassis 1 whereas its companion roller 21 is again mounted on trailing suspension arms 35 supported at their upper end on the chassis 1, swinging movement of the arms 35 and their roller 21 being dampened by coil springs 37 and 39.
A kinked deflector plate 41 is suspended from the chassis 1 above the front of the roller 17 to direct stones and other debris into the nip between the rollers 15 and 17 to prevent stones and other debris from passing over the back of the roller 17, and a further horizontally disposed deflector plate 43 is provided to catch any stones or other debris thrown upwardly and rearwardly after they have fallen onto the rotating roller 15. A further deflector plate 45 is located beneath the nip of the rollers 15, 17 above the front edge of the roller 21 to catch the partially crushed stones and other matter passing through the nip, and to direct the said material forwardly onto the surface of the driven roller 19, which subsequently passes through the nip between the rollers 19 and 21.
The force needed to crush the stones passing through the nips of the two pairs of rollers is produced almost entirely by the weight of the trailing rollers 17 and 21 respectively. The springs 27 and 29 and 37 and 39 provide hardly any crushing force and merely act as dampers. It will thus be appreciated that there is no strain put on the chassis of the machine to achieve the desired crushing force and furthermore, because the rollers are mounted on trailing suspension arms, any virtually uncrushable object can pass between the nip of both pairs of rollers because the trailing rollers 17 and 21 will merely swing rearwardly and upwardly about the points of connection of their trailing suspension arms on the chassis of the machine.
All the crushing rollers may be fabricated from mild steel.
Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 4a, the driven roller 15 has a tubular body 51 around the periphery of which are a plurality of circumferentially spaced axially extending, steel radially disposed bars 52 arranged on edge and welded to the body 51, and for a tube of approximately 13 inches diameter the bars are approximately 2 inches .times. 3/4 inch. Between each adjacent bar there are at least two segmental strengthening ribs 53, these ribs being staggered as indicated in FIG. 4. The body 51 has suitable end plates and is supported on a central shaft. The trailing idler roller 17 shown in FIGS. 5 and 5a again has a tubular body 51 and a plurality of bars identical to the bars 52. Between each of the bars 52 on the roller 17 a 2 inch .times. 2 inch .times. 1/4 inch angle iron 55 is provided in place of the segmental ribs 53, the edges of the angle iron being welded to the body 51 so that the apex of the angle iron projects outwardly.
Both the rollers 19 and 21 of the lower pair of rollers are similar and are illustrated in FIG. 6. Each of these rollers has a tubular body 51 and circumferentially spaced around the body are a plurality of 1 inch square steel bars 56 welded to the body.
The whole crusher unit is enclosed within an armour plated shroud 57 which may be surrounded with sound deadening material such as a plastics foam which may have an outer metallic cover. Suitable access hatches may be provided in the shroud and if these are provided, a suitable fail-safe mechanism is preferably associated with each so that, in the event of one of the hatches being open, it is impossible for the crusher unit to be operated. Depending from the lower edge of the shroud 57 is a heavy rubber or plastics skirt guard 58 to prevent crushed stones from flying out from beneath the shroud. Normally, the crushed stones will merely fall onto the ground beneath the crusher unit inside the shroud, but it will be appreciated that a crushed stone can have considerable energy and could fly inadvertently in any direction. The shroud and skirt are therefore very important for safety reasons.
To operate the machine, the tractor driver decides to what depth he wishes to excavate the ground and sets the depth of the scoop 10 with the hydraulic cylinder 16. He then sets in motion the conveyor 4 and the agitator 7 and engages the tractor P.T.O. shaft to operate the hydraulic motors 13 and set the crusher unit in operation. On driving the tractor forward, the ground will be excavated to the required depth and will be conveyed up the conveyor 4. The conveyor is preferably comprised of two separate endless conveyors side by side and of standard slatted construction, there being a plate immediately beneath the last two-thirds or so of the upper run. Due to the vibration imparted to the conveyor by the agitators 7 and the passage of the machine over the ground, loose soil and fine gravel will pass between the slats of the conveyor and only large stones and clods will be conveyed up the conveyor, through a suitable flexible screen and into the crusher unit whereupon they will be deposited on the upper surface of the driven roller 15. The stones will then either fall into the nip between the rollers 15 and 17 or alternatively will be driven upwardly against one of the deflector plates 41 or 43 and will then fall into the nip. There they will receive a first crushing and will then fall onto the deflector plate 45 from which they will then fall forwardly onto the driven roller 19, whence they will pass into the nip of the second pair of rollers where they will be crushed again and will then fall as finely crushed stone or gravel or dust onto the ground.
It was found in a test run that the machine in one pass crushed 30 stones weighing 55 kilograms into 5.8 kilograms of stone or 11/4 inches or larger, 35.6 kilograms of stone sized between 11/4 inches and 5/16 inch, 12.5 kilograms of stone under 5/16 inch and the remaining 1.1 kilograms was lost as dust.
It is envisaged that the machine could be self-propelled and that the trailing crushing rollers, instead of being supported on suspension arms, could be mounted in suitable guides; furthermore, springs could be used to provide a crushing force.
The above described machine is easy to operate, can be handled by a medium sized tractor and has a weight ratio/ground pressure no greater than that of a standard tractor. It has a minimum number of movable parts, is very maneuverable and the construction of the crusher unit with its trailing pivotally mounted rollers relying upon their own weight to perform the crushing operation can deal with clods of earth and other rubbish without trouble. Furthermore, it has been found that by dividing the conveyor into two parallel runs, the slats are not so liable to bend, and when used on the slopes, the stones on the conveyors do not all fall to one side. The machine can cover an acre of ground an hour leaving the soil in perfect condition for crops and especially root crops. Because of the uniform distribution of crushed stone, the soil has a uniform moisture content leading to a more uniform crop and, furthermore, the soil is less likely to compact and the crushed stones absorb sunlight uniformly thereby tending slightly to raise the temperature of the ground uniformly throughout.
Because there are no large stones in the soil, harvesting of the crop is facilitated and there is less damage to machinery and crops than is the case with untreated ground.
It will be appreciated that the construction of the above described stone crushing machine is such that it can handle soil and rubbish as well as a large variety of stones, irrespective of the soil moisture content. If desired, the precise construction of the crushing drums can be altered to suit the type of stone being crushed and instead of having longitudinally extending bars on their surface, the bars may extend helically after the fashion of a grass mower and their height, width and pitch may be varied. The quantity of crushing drums may be increased to suit the desired quality of crushed stone throughput, their diameters may be changed and instead of having bars, they may be laterally or longitudinally serrated or even provided with replaceable studs. The rotational speed of the crushing drums may be varied to suit local conditions and instead of driving the drums with hydraulic motors, different drive means may be provided. It is even envisaged that the idler drums 17 and 21 could be driven for particularly difficult applications, such as in heavy wet clay soils which tend to form a heavy paste and consequently clog the idler drums.
It is envisaged that in a modified construction the complete crushing drum assembly and its power unit or units and transmission may detachable from the chassis 1, thus allowing a transverse conveyor complete with power unit to be fitted so that the machine could be used for potato or other root crop harvesting or grading. Obviously, if such a modification was made, the front end of the conveyor means 4 would have to be modified somewhat to lift the root crop. In this respect, a rotary cultivator complete with its own power unit could be fitted to the front of the conveyor means 4 and controlled from the tractor, thus assisting in the breaking up of hard ground. The rotary cultivator could be an accessory for the crushing machine which could be fitted to the machine by its purchaser. In its simplest form the rotary cultivator could be in the form of a driven spiked roller.
It is envisaged that the double conveyor means illustrated in the drawings could be of any other known construction.
Although it is preferred that a pair of rollers be provided at each crushing zone, it is envisaged that one of the rollers at each zone could be replaced by a plate 61 as shown in FIG. 7. This plate 61 has an inclined top 62 and is preferaably concave, and fixed, to give a crushing passage or nip 63 of diminishing width and the surface of the plate may be provided with suitable crushing bars, spikes, serrations or the like. With such an arrangement, it is preferred that a leading roller be dispensed with, in which case, the illustrated trailing roller should preferably be mounted on a pair of trailing arms 67, to allow passage of large stones. It is envisaged, however, that the plate 61 could be so mounted. When a plate 61 is provided, it will be necessary to drive the roller 65, e.g. with a double hydraulic motor.
In a further alternative construction, it is envisaged that the crusher construction shown in FIG. 7, instead of replacing one or both pairs of crusher rollers, may be complementary to them.