Excavator Wear Assembly Axial Lock and Side Relief
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Solution Overview
Problem
Dredge cutterheads face challenges in underwater excavation due to heavy loads, severe environments, and the inability to effectively guide the cutterhead through the terrain, leading to increased power requirements and premature wear of cutting points due to drag issues and difficulty in maintaining stable point and base interconnections.
Innovation Solution
A wear assembly with a wear member featuring a working section and a mounting section, where the mounting section includes a socket with an elongated opening for a lock that can be tightened axially, providing compressive stability and side relief to reduce drag, and a lock mechanism with a threaded shaft, nut, and spring for secure attachment, along with a marker for proper tightening, and hemispherical bearing faces to minimize wear and rattle.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If points are made with elongate slender bits to minimize power requirements, then power consumption is reduced, but the bits wear down quickly and mounting sections engage the ground causing increased drag
Solution Approach 1:
The point is divided into two distinct segments: a working section with a slender bit for cutting and a mounting section for attachment. This segmentation allows the slender bit to perform cutting with minimal drag while the separate mounting section provides a robust attachment interface that doesn't engage the ground during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting section is positioned in a different spatial dimension (rearward and elevated) relative to the working section, allowing it to clear the ground surface while the slender bit maintains contact for cutting. This dimensional separation resolves the conflict between bit length and mounting section ground engagement.
2Duration of action of moving object
If points are made with longer bits to extend useful life, then duration of action is increased, but drag increases and power requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The point is divided into two distinct segments: a working section with a slender bit for cutting and a mounting section for attachment. This segmentation allows the slender bit to perform cutting with minimal drag while the separate mounting section provides a robust attachment interface that doesn't engage the ground during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting section is positioned in a different spatial dimension (rearward and elevated) relative to the working section, allowing it to clear the ground surface while the slender bit maintains contact for cutting. This dimensional separation resolves the conflict between bit length and mounting section ground engagement.
3Device complexity
If conventional locking mechanisms are used with openings not accessible from outside, then device complexity is reduced, but ease of operation deteriorates as locks cannot be easily tightened
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of requiring the operator to reach inside the socket to tighten the lock from the interior, the opening is configured to allow access from the exterior. The lock is tightened by applying force outward through the opening, inverting the conventional approach and dramatically improving ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The opening serves as an intermediary access path that allows the operator's tool to reach the lock mechanism from the exterior. This intermediary pathway enables lock tightening without requiring complex internal access mechanisms or disassembly of the mounting structure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The wear assembly reduces drag and power requirements, allowing cutterheads to operate effectively even with worn points, extending their useful life and improving stability and efficiency in underwater excavations.
Implementation Method 1
a lock mechanism with a threaded shaft, nut, and spring for secure attachment
Implementation Method 2
hemispherical bearing faces to minimize wear and rattle
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2A~6A
AI summary
A wear assembly for excavating equipment includes a base fixed to the excavating equipment, a wear member fit over the base, and a lock to releasably hold the wear member to the base. The wear member includes side relief to reduce drag on the system. The wear member and the base each includes a hemispherical front end and a generally trapezoidal rear portion. The base includes a nose and a stop projecting from the nose to cooperate with the lock without an opening being needed to receive the lock into the nose. The lock is an elongate lock positioned generally in an axial direction and which holds the wear member to the base under compressive loads.