Heavy Duty Excavator Bucket Exoskeletal Structure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing excavator buckets face inefficiencies in terms of payload capacity, drag energy, and maintenance, with most incremental improvements compromising other structural or functional aspects, and prior designs are not optimized for harder rock-filled earth types.
Innovation Solution
A robust heavy-duty excavator bucket design featuring a rectangular floor, outwardly inclined side walls, a wide lip member with replaceable wear members, and an exoskeletal structure of cast steel components, with specific geometric ratios and configurations to reduce friction and enhance payload capacity and operational efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If an archless bucket design is used, then the bucket mass and rigging mass are reduced, but the bucket robustness and maintenance requirements deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The bucket is divided into multiple replaceable components including wear members, cheek plates, and an arch assembly that can be independently replaced. This segmentation allows maintenance of specific worn parts without replacing the entire bucket, resolving the contradiction between reduced mass and maintained robustness.
Solution Approach 2:
Wear members are applied specifically at high-wear locations (lip, cheeks, arch) rather than throughout the entire bucket. This localized protection maintains robustness where needed while keeping the overall bucket mass reduced.
2Reliability
If conventional bucket designs are used, then structural robustness is maintained, but payload capacity and drag energy efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The bucket geometry features dynamic optimization with side walls inclined at 5° to 20° outwardly and a specific lip width to side wall height ratio of 3.1 to 3.6:1. These dynamic geometric parameters reduce frictional engagement with earth masses while maintaining structural integrity, thereby increasing payload capacity without sacrificing robustness.
3Productivity
If incremental improvements are made to existing bucket designs, then specific parameters are improved, but other structural or functional aspects deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The arch assembly serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides structural support, reduces frictional engagement with earth, and acts as a mounting structure for wear members. This multi-functionality achieves operational efficiency improvements without increasing structural complexity.
4Productivity
If buckets are designed for softer earth types, then excavation efficiency is improved, but performance on harder rock-filled earth types deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The bucket incorporates adjustable parameters including replaceable wear members with different hardness levels, adjustable arch configurations, and modular cheek plates. These parameter changes allow the same bucket structure to adapt to different earth types from soft soil to hard rock-filled material, resolving the contradiction between excavation efficiency and adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
A heavy duty excavator bucket is constructed with an exoskeletal structure comprising coupled cast components including a lip member, opposed wing members, junction members locatable between floor and side walls and side and rear walls and a cap rail structure extending between opposed wing members about the upper periphery of the bucket to form an integral structure. Steel plate floor, side wall and rear wall members extend between adjacent exoskeletal regions. The bucket may include a cast arch member extending between opposed wing members and a cast reinforcing member extending between opposed junction members adjacent said rear wall.