Snow blower

Abstract

To provide a small-sized lightweight handy type rotary snow blower provided with means for easily and surely adjusting a snow throwing direction.SOLUTION: In a snow blower 10 for throwing snow from the tip of a snow throwing guide by rotating a rotor 14 in the direction of blowing off snow taken into a snow collecting part 12 from an intake port 11 toward a snow throwing guide 13, a snow throwing direction switching member 24 is detachably provided at a plurality of different places of the snow throwing guide to switch the snow throwing direction. In one embodiment, the snow-throwing-direction switching member has a substantially equilateral triangular shape in plan view and can be attached to at least three positions near the center in the width direction and near the left and right ends of the snow-throwing guide in a positional relationship in which one side thereof is substantially along the upper end of the snow throwing guide, and snow is thrown in both left and right directions when attached to the center in the width direction, in a substantially right direction when attached near the left end, and in a substantially left direction when attached near the right end. When snow is to be thrown forward, the snow throwing direction switching member is removed to perform work.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a snow removal machine, and more particularly to a hand-pushed rotary snow removal machine that allows the snow throwing direction to be adjusted. [Background technology]

[0002] Various types of snow removal machines have been proposed and are widely used in areas with heavy snowfall. The mainstream type, the so-called rotary snow removal machine, is composed of a snow collection unit (drum) with an intake port for taking in snow, a rotor (auger) installed inside the snow collection unit, and a motor that rotates the rotor so that the snow taken into the snow collection unit from the intake port is blown into the snow collection unit in the direction of the snow to be thrown through a chute connected to the snow collection unit (for example, Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2006-291633 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, with conventional rotary snowplows, the direction in which snow is thrown from the chute is often fixed to one direction, forward, and cannot be adjusted. Depending on the road conditions around the area to be cleared and the relative position of neighboring properties and houses, it may be desirable to throw snow to the left or right rather than forward, but in order to accommodate such cases, a snowplow with a fixed chute must change the direction (travel direction) of the snowplow itself, which is inconvenient and inefficient.

[0005] Although it has been proposed to make the chute rotatable to enable adjustment of the snow-throwing direction, it is difficult to adopt a complex adjustment mechanism that requires electrical control for rotation adjustment or connection using bolts and nuts in a simple hand-pushed snow remover used at private homes. On the other hand, in the case where the chute is freely rotatable, it is difficult to temporarily fix the direction of the chute (snow-throwing direction) at a variable position, and the direction may unexpectedly change during operation.

[0006] Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the above problems and provide a small and lightweight handy type rotary snow remover equipped with means for easily and surely adjusting the snow-throwing direction.

Means for Solving the Problem

[0007] To solve this problem, the present invention according to claim 1 includes a snow collecting part having an intake for taking in snow, a rotor provided inside the snow collecting part, a snow-throwing guide rising from the rear of the snow collecting part, a motor for rotationally driving the rotor in a direction to make the snow taken into the snow collecting part from the intake collide with the snow-throwing guide and blow it upward, a shaft having a tip connected to the snow collecting part and provided with a grip and a motor switch on the hand side, and a snow-throwing direction switching member detachably provided at a plurality of different positions on the snow-throwing guide. The snow remover is characterized in that the snow-throwing direction can be switched in the width direction by changing the position where the snow-throwing direction switching member is attached to the snow-throwing guide.

[0008] The present invention according to claim 2 is the snow remover according to claim 1, wherein the snow-throwing direction switching member can be attached to at least three positions near the center in the width direction and the left and right ends of the snow-throwing guide. By attaching the snow-throwing direction switching member to the center in the width direction of the snow-throwing guide, snow is thrown in both left and right directions. By attaching the snow-throwing direction switching member near the left end of the snow-throwing guide, snow is thrown substantially only to the right direction. By attaching the snow-throwing direction switching member near the right end of the snow-throwing guide, snow is thrown substantially only to the left direction.

[0009] The invention of claim 3 is characterized in that, in the snow blower described in claim 2, the snow-throwing direction switching member is approximately equilateral triangular in plan view, and a side surface corresponding to one side of the triangular member can be attached to at least three locations in a positional relationship approximately aligned with the upper end of the snow-throwing guide.

[0010] The invention of claim 4 is characterized in that, in the snow blower described in claim 2, the snow-throwing direction switching member is approximately isosceles triangular in plan view, and the side corresponding to the non-equidistant side can be attached to at least three locations in a positional relationship approximately aligned with the upper end of the snow-throwing guide.

[0011] The invention of claim 5 is characterized in that, in the snow remover described in claim 2, the snow-throwing direction switching member has an approximately equilateral triangular or approximately isosceles triangular shape in a planar view, and a first through hole is formed that penetrates in the thickness direction near each vertex of the approximately equilateral triangular or approximately isosceles triangular shape in the plane of the snow-throwing direction switching member, and second through holes are formed that penetrate in the thickness direction of the snow-throwing guide at positions that align with the first through holes when the snow-throwing direction switching member is attached to the snow-throwing guide, and by passing a bolt (or screw) through the first and second through holes and screwing it into a nut on the opposite side, the snow-throwing direction switching member can be detachably attached to the snow-throwing guide at any of the three locations.

[0012] The invention of claim 6 is characterized in that, in the snow blower described in claim 5, instead of at least one of either the first or second through holes, a positioning pin is provided protruding from the same position as the through hole, and the other of the first and second through holes that faces the positioning pin is a through hole into which the positioning pin can be inserted or a recess having a depth greater than or equal to the protruding length of the positioning pin.

[0013] The invention of claim 7 is characterized in that, in the snow remover described in claim 6, when the snow-throwing direction switching member is attached to the snow-throwing guide, at two vertices of the approximately equilateral or approximately isosceles triangle shape on the plane of the snow-throwing direction switching member that are approximately along the upper end of the snow-throwing guide, the positioning pins are inserted into the second through hole or the recess, thereby positioning the snow-throwing direction switching member at a predetermined position relative to the snow-throwing guide, and at the remaining vertex position of the lower end, the snow-throwing direction switching member is fixed to the snow-throwing guide via the bolt and the nut that pass through the first and second through holes. Effect of the Invention

[0014] According to the present invention as set forth in claim 1, the direction of snow throwing from the snow throwing guide can be switched by changing the mounting position of the snow throwing direction switching member, so snow can be thrown in an appropriate direction depending on the road conditions around the snow removal area and the relative position of the snow to neighboring land and houses, allowing snow removal work to be performed efficiently without causing trouble to others. Note that since the snow throwing direction switching member is detachable from the snow throwing guide, it is also possible to use it without attaching it to the snow throwing guide, in which case snow can be thrown forward along the traveling direction, just like a snow blower with a conventional structure that does not have a snow throwing direction switching member.

[0015] According to the present invention as defined in claim 2, by attaching the snow throwing direction switching member to the center of the width of the snow throwing guide, snow can be thrown in both the left and right directions, by attaching the snow throwing direction switching member near the left end of the snow throwing guide, snow can be thrown essentially only in the right direction, and by attaching the snow throwing direction switching member near the right end of the snow throwing guide, snow can be thrown essentially only in the left direction. Therefore, the above-mentioned effect of throwing snow in the appropriate direction depending on the road conditions around the snow removal area and the positional relationship with neighboring land and houses can be more reliably achieved, thereby allowing snow to be removed efficiently without causing trouble to others.

[0016] According to the present invention as set forth in claim 3, a snow-throwing direction switching member having a substantially equilateral triangular shape in plan view is used, and one side of the member is attached to a position substantially along the upper end of the snow-throwing guide, so that the positioning and attachment of the snow-throwing direction switching member can be easily performed. Also, by attaching a snow-throwing direction switching member having a substantially equilateral triangular shape in plan view, snow can be thrown to the left and right at an angle of about 60 degrees to the traveling direction, which has the effect of automatically obtaining the appropriate snow-throwing direction.

[0017] According to the present invention as set forth in claim 4, a snow-throwing direction switching member having a shape of an approximately isosceles triangle in plan view is used, and the side surface corresponding to one of the non-equidistant sides is attached at a position substantially along the upper end of the snow-throwing guide, so that the positioning and attachment of the snow-throwing direction switching member can be easily performed. Also, by attaching a snow-throwing direction switching member having a shape of an approximately isosceles triangle in plan view, snow can be thrown in the left and right directions at an angle corresponding to the angle between the non-equidistant side and the equilateral side, and the desired snow-throwing direction can be obtained by appropriately selecting the shape of the snow-throwing direction switching member having a shape of an approximately isosceles triangle in plan view.

[0018] According to the invention defined in claim 5, a preferred embodiment is provided for detachably mounting the snow-throwing direction switching member at least in three locations in the widthwise center and near the left and right ends of the snow-throwing guide.

[0019] According to the invention of claim 6, when the snow-throwing direction switching member is attached to one of at least three locations in the widthwise center and near the left and right ends of the snow-throwing guide, the positioning pin protruding from the back surface of the snow-throwing direction switching member is inserted into a through hole or recess in the snow-throwing guide, making the attachment and detachment operations easy.

[0020] According to the invention of claim 7, the snow-throwing direction switching member can be positioned at a predetermined position by inserting the positioning pins protruding from the back surface at two upper locations into the through holes or recesses of the snow-throwing guide, and then firmly fixed by passing a bolt through the first and second through holes at one location at the lower end and screwing it into a nut on the opposite side, thereby providing the effect of providing a reliable fixing structure while facilitating attachment and removal operations. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0021] [Figure 1] 1 is a perspective view of a rotary snow removal machine according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a side view of the rotary snow remover. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a front view of the rotary snow remover. [Figure 4] The figures are explanatory diagrams showing examples of how this rotary snow blower can be used. (a) shows an example of throwing snow in both directions relative to the direction of travel, (b) shows an example of throwing snow to the right when viewed from the front, and (c) shows an example of throwing snow to the left when viewed from the front. [Diagram 5] 13 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of a configuration in which a snow-throwing direction switching member is detachably attached to a snow-throwing guide. FIG. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THEINVENTION

[0022] A rotary snow remover according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Figs. 1 to 4.

[0023] This rotary snow removal machine (hereinafter simply referred to as "snow removal machine") 10 has a snow collection section 12 with an inlet 11 that takes in snow removed from the road or the like, and a snow throwing guide 13 that is provided extending upward from the rear side of the snow collection section 12. A rotor 14 is provided inside the snow collection section 12, and is driven by a motor 15 to rotate in a direction that blows the snow taken into the snow collection section 12 from the inlet 11 towards the snow throwing guide 13. There are no particular limitations on the drive transmission mechanism for this, but in this embodiment, a drive transmission mechanism is used in which an endless V-belt 18 is stretched between a rotor side pulley 16 attached to the rotating shaft of the rotor 14 and a motor side pulley 17 attached to the output shaft of the motor 15.

[0024] The long shaft 19 has its tip connected to the snow collecting unit 12, and is provided with a grip 20, a trigger 21 which is a switch for turning the motor 15 on and off, and a battery 22 for driving the motor 15 on its proximal side. Although not shown in the figures as this is a known technology, the grip 20 is equipped with a safety device, and only when the trigger 21 is pulled with the safety device pressed does the battery 22 turn on, rotating the motor 15 via a power supply cord (not shown) which passes through the inside of the shaft 19, and this rotation is transmitted to the rotor 14 via the drive transmission mechanism, causing the rotor 14 to rotate in the predetermined direction. An assist grip 23 for holding the snow blower 10 in a stable state is attached to approximately the midpoint of the shaft 19 in the longitudinal direction.

[0025] A snow-throwing direction switching member 24, which constitutes a main feature of the present invention, is removably provided on the snow-throwing guide 13 of this snow removal machine 10. In the illustrated embodiment, the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 is a generally equilateral triangle in plan view, and can be attached at three different locations, namely, the center in the width direction of the snow-throwing guide 13 and near the left and right ends, with one side of the member roughly aligned with the upper end of the snow-throwing guide 13.

[0026] More specifically, through holes 25 are formed at three positions near each vertex of the snow-throwing direction switching member 24, while three mounting holes 26, 27, 28 are formed through the rear wall 13a of the snow-throwing guide 13 at three positions, namely, the center in the width direction, near the left end as seen from the front, and near the right end as seen from the front. The through holes 25 of the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 and the through hole 26 at the center in the width direction of the snow-throwing guide 13 are aligned, bolts (not shown) are passed through these through holes 25, 26, and then screwed into nuts (not shown) on the opposite side, whereby the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 is attached to the center in the width direction of the snow-throwing guide 13 (FIG. 4(a)). The snow-throwing direction switching member 24 is attached near the left end of the snow-throwing guide 13 by aligning the through hole 25 of the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 with the through hole 27 near the left end of the snow-throwing guide 13 and passing a bolt (not shown) through these through holes 25, 27 and screwing it into a nut (not shown) on the opposite side (Figure 4(b)), and the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 is attached near the right end of the snow-throwing guide 13 by aligning the through hole 25 of the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 with the through hole 28 near the right end of the snow-throwing guide 13 and passing a bolt (not shown) through these through holes 25, 28 and screwing it into a nut (not shown) on the opposite side (Figure 4(c)).

[0027] When the snow removal machine 10 is operated with the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 attached to the center of the width of the snow-throwing guide 13, snow that is taken in from the inlet 11, collides with the rear wall 13a of the snow-throwing guide 13 by the rotor 14, and is then blown upward along the slope of the rear wall 13a is thrown in both left and right directions at an angle of about 60 degrees along the inclined side surface of the switching member 24 (FIG. 4(a)). When the snow removal machine 10 is operated with the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 attached near the left end of the snow-throwing guide 13, snow that is taken in from the inlet 11, collides with the rear wall 13a of the snow-throwing guide 13 by the rotor 14, and is then blown upward along the slope of the rear wall 13a is thrown essentially only to the right at an angle of about 60 degrees along the inclined side surface on the right side of the switching member 24 (FIG. 4(b)). When the snow removal machine 10 is operated with the snow throwing direction switching member 24 attached near the right end of the snow throwing guide 13, snow that is taken in through the inlet 11, collides with the rear wall 13a of the snow throwing guide 13 by the rotor 14, and is then blown upward along the slope of the rear wall 13a is thrown essentially only to the left along the left sloping side surface of the switching member 24 at an angle of approximately 60 degrees (Figure 4(c)).

[0028] In this way, the snow throwing direction can be switched by changing the mounting position of the snow throwing direction switching member 24. If you want to throw snow forward (directly ahead) along the direction of travel, you can simply operate the snow blower 10 with the snow throwing direction switching member 24 removed and not mounted in any position.

[0029] Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above with reference to the attached drawings, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and can be implemented with a wide variety of modifications and changes within the scope of the invention specified by the description of the claims.

[0030] In order to removably attach the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 to the snow-throwing guide 13, in the above embodiment, three through holes 25 are formed in the snow-throwing direction switching member 24, which is approximately isosceles triangular in shape when viewed from above, and these are aligned with any of the three through holes 26, 27 or 28 in the snow-throwing guide 13, and a bolt is inserted through them and screwed into a nut on the back side of the rear wall 13a of the snow-throwing guide. However, this is not limited to this, and any configuration can be adopted as long as it can be attached and detached relatively easily.

[0031] 5, a configuration can be adopted in which, instead of through holes, positioning pins 29 protruding from the back surface side of the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 are provided at the positions of two of the three through holes 25, and a bolt (wing bolt 30 in this embodiment) is passed through the remaining through hole 25 and screwed into a nut on the back surface side. With this configuration, the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 is provisionally determined in a predetermined position and orientation simply by inserting the two positioning pins 29 into the two corresponding through holes (or recesses having a depth sufficient to completely accommodate the positioning pins 29) among the through holes 26, 27, or 28 formed in the snow-throwing guide 13, and the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 is fixed in the same position by screwing one wing bolt 30 into the nut in this positional relationship, so that the snow-throwing direction switching operation can be easily performed in a short time even in cold weather.

[0032] In addition, since it is considered that the lower part of the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 receives the greatest pressure from the snow blown off from the rotor 14, it is preferable to attach the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 to the snow-throwing guide 13 in such a direction that the two positioning pins 29 are located at the top and the through hole 25 through which the wing bolt 30 is inserted is located at the bottom. In addition, in FIG. 5, the positioning pin 29 is provided to protrude from the back surface of the snow-throwing direction switching member 24, but on the other hand, a configuration can be adopted in which a positioning pin is provided to protrude from the front surface of the snow-throwing guide 13 and this is inserted into the through hole 25 (or a recess formed to a predetermined depth from the back surface) formed at the corresponding location of the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 for positioning. In addition, in order to make the snow-throwing direction switching operation easier, the nut into which the wing bolt 30 is screwed can be fixed in advance to another member (the snow-throwing guide 13 in the configuration of FIG. 5), or the through holes 26, 27, 28 into which the wing bolt 30 is inserted in the other member can themselves be screw holes.

[0033] In the above embodiment, the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 is substantially equilateral triangular in plan view, and the side surface corresponding to one side of the member is positioned substantially along the upper end of the snow-throwing guide 13, and the member is detachably attached at three different positions in the width direction. However, the shape of the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 may be any shape as long as it can switch the snow-throwing direction. For example, the snow-throwing direction switching member may be substantially isosceles triangular in plan view, and the side surface corresponding to one side that is not equilateral is detachably attached at three different positions in the width direction, and the side surface corresponding to one side that is not equilateral is positioned substantially along the upper end of the snow-throwing guide 13. In this case, snow is thrown in the left and right directions at an angle corresponding to the angle formed by the other side that is not equilateral of the substantially isosceles triangular shape in plan view of the snow-throwing direction switching member and the equilateral side, so the desired snow-throwing direction can be obtained by appropriately selecting the substantially isosceles triangular shape in plan view of the snow-throwing direction switching member. The snow-throwing direction switching member 24 may be attached to the snow-throwing guide 13 at two or four or more positions.

[0034] In the above embodiment, it is also within the scope of the present invention to use two snow throwing direction switching members 24 that are shaped like a regular triangle in plan view. For example, when throwing snow to the right, the snow throwing direction switching member 24 is attached near the left end of the snow throwing guide 13 in the description (FIG. 4(b)), but if one snow throwing direction switching member 24 is attached near the left end of the snow throwing guide 13 and another snow throwing direction switching member 24 is attached in the center of the snow throwing guide 13 and the snow removal machine 10 is operated, the snow throwing area from the snow throwing guide 13 will be narrowed to about 1 / 3 in the width direction, so that the snow throwing force can be increased while the snow throwing direction is adjusted, thereby improving the snow removal efficiency. The same is true when throwing snow to the left (Figure 4(b)). If one snow throwing direction switching member 24 is attached near the right end of the snow throwing guide 13 and another snow throwing direction switching member 24 is attached to the center of the snow throwing guide 13 and the snow blower 10 is operated, the snow throwing area from the snow throwing guide 13 will be narrowed to about 1 / 3 in the width direction, so that along with adjusting the snow throwing direction, the snow throwing force can be increased and snow removal efficiency can be improved.

[0035] In addition, it has been explained that snow is removed without using the snow-throwing direction switching member 24 when throwing snow forward. However, even in this case, if two snow-throwing direction switching members 24 that are approximately equilateral triangular in plan view are used and attached to two locations near the left and right ends of the snow-throwing guide 13 and the snow blower 10 is operated, the snow-throwing area from the snow-throwing guide 13 is narrowed to about 1 / 3 in the width direction, thereby increasing the snow-throwing force and improving the snow-removal efficiency. [Explanation of symbols]

[0036] 10 Rotary snowblower 11 Intake port 12 Snow Collection Club 13 Snow Throwing Guide 14 Rotor 15 Motor 16 Rotor side pulley 17 Motor side pulley 18 Infinite V-belt 19 Shaft 20 Grip 21 Trigger 22 Battery 23 Assist Grip 24 Snow throwing direction switching member 25 Through hole (first through hole) 26, 27, 28 Through holes (second through holes) 29 Locating pin 30 Wing bolt

Claims

1. This snow removal machine comprises a snow collecting section having an intake port for taking in snow, a rotor provided inside the snow collecting section, a snow throwing guide rising from the rear of the snow collecting section, a motor that drives and rotates the rotor in a direction in which the snow taken into the snow collecting section from the intake port collides with the snow throwing guide and is blown upward, a shaft whose tip is connected to the snow collecting section and whose handle side is provided with a grip and a motor switch, and a snow throwing direction switching member that is detachably provided at multiple different points on the snow throwing guide, and is characterized in that the snow throwing direction can be switched in the width direction by changing the point at which the snow throwing direction switching member is attached to the snow throwing guide.

2. 2. The snow removal machine according to claim 1, wherein the snow-throwing direction switching member can be attached to at least three locations, namely, the center of the width of the snow-throwing guide and near the left and right ends, and wherein the snow-throwing direction switching member is attached to the center of the width of the snow-throwing guide to throw snow in both the left and right directions, the snow-throwing direction switching member is attached near the left end of the snow-throwing guide to throw snow essentially only in the right direction, and the snow-throwing direction switching member is attached near the right end of the snow-throwing guide to throw snow essentially only in the left direction.

3. 3. The snow removal machine according to claim 2, wherein the snow-throwing direction switching member is generally equilateral triangular in plan view, and a side surface corresponding to one side of the triangular member can be attached to the at least three locations in a positional relationship generally along an upper end of the snow-throwing guide.

4. 3. The snow removal machine according to claim 2, wherein the snow-throwing direction switching member is approximately isosceles triangular in plan view, and the side corresponding to one of the non-equidistant sides can be attached to the at least three locations in a positional relationship approximately aligned with the upper end of the snow-throwing guide.

5. 3. The snow removal machine according to claim 2, wherein the snow-throwing direction switching member has a generally equilateral triangular or generally isosceles triangular shape in a plan view, and first through holes are formed in the snow-throwing direction switching member in the thickness direction near each apex of the generally equilateral triangular or generally isosceles triangular shape in the plane of the snow-throwing direction switching member, and second through holes are formed in the snow-throwing guide in the thickness direction at positions that align with the first through holes when the snow-throwing direction switching member is attached to the snow-throwing guide, and the snow-throwing direction switching member can be detachably attached to the snow-throwing guide at any of the three locations by passing bolts through the first and second through holes and screwing them into nuts on the opposite sides.

6. 6. The snow blower of claim 5, wherein in place of at least one of the first and second through holes, a positioning pin is provided protruding from the same position as the through hole, and the other of the first and second through holes that faces the positioning pin is a through hole into which the positioning pin can be inserted or a recess having a depth greater than or equal to the protruding length of the positioning pin.

7. 7. The snow removal machine according to claim 6, characterized in that, when the snow-throwing direction switching member is attached to the snow-throwing guide, at two vertices of the approximately equilateral or approximately isosceles triangle shape on the plane of the snow-throwing direction switching member that are approximately along the upper end of the snow-throwing guide, the positioning pins are inserted into the through holes or the recesses, so that the snow-throwing direction switching member is positioned at a predetermined position relative to the snow-throwing guide, and at the vertex position of the lower end, the snow-throwing direction switching member is fixed to the snow-throwing guide via the bolt and the nut that pass through the first and second through holes.

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