Power Bucket Horizontal Cutting Edge Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing power buckets used in underwater dredging operations often remove significant amounts of uncontaminated soil along with contaminated material, leading to costly and inefficient disposal procedures, especially in environmental spill scenarios where minimal soil removal is desired.
Innovation Solution
A power bucket design where the cutting edges move in a substantially horizontal plane as the bucket transitions between open and closed positions, utilizing pivotally secured bucket halves, power cylinders, and a lifting crane system to maintain a level cut and minimize uncontaminated soil removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If traditional power buckets are used for underwater dredging, then the bucket can effectively remove contaminated material, but it also removes significant amounts of uncontaminated soil leading to costly disposal procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The power bucket is divided into two separate bucket halves that can be independently controlled. This segmentation allows the cutting edges to move in a substantially horizontal plane, enabling precise removal of contaminated material while minimizing the removal of uncontaminated soil beneath the spill area.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the motion parameter of the cutting edges from vertical to substantially horizontal movement. By actuating the power cylinders to pivot the bucket halves about vertical pivot pins, the cutting edges traverse horizontally along the water bed, maintaining a consistent cutting depth and preventing excessive removal of uncontaminated material.
2Productivity
If the bucket removes a thick divot from the water bed, then it is effective for forming trenches, but it is not desirable when only minimal contamination removal is needed
Solution Approach 1:
The power bucket employs dynamic control through hydraulically actuated power cylinders that can precisely adjust the position and movement of each bucket half. This dynamic system allows the cutting edges to move horizontally along the water bed at a controlled depth, enabling the operator to remove only the contaminated layer while preserving the uncontaminated soil below, thus maintaining productivity while reducing unnecessary material removal.
3Ease of operation
If the cutting edges move vertically during bucket closure, then the bucket closes effectively, but the cut level varies making precise manipulation difficult
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the bucket into two independently controlled halves with separate power cylinders, the system can maintain consistent cutting depth while closing. Each half pivots about its own vertical pivot pin, ensuring the cutting edges remain at a substantially constant vertical position throughout the closure sequence, producing a level cut that is easy to manipulate precisely.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces vertical pivot pins as intermediary elements that constrain the motion of the bucket halves. These pivot pins serve as mediators between the power cylinders and the cutting edges, ensuring that the cutting edges move horizontally rather than vertically during closure, thereby maintaining cut level consistency while still achieving effective bucket closure.
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
Enables precise removal of contaminated material while minimizing the amount of uncontaminated soil, reducing disposal costs and environmental impact by maintaining a level cut throughout the bucket's movement.
Implementation Method 1
A power cylinder is then pivotally connected at one end to the cylinder support and, at its other end, to its associated bucket half. Consequently, upon actuation of the power cylinders, the power cylinders simultaneously pivot the power bucket halves about the pivot pins securing the bucket halves together.
Implementation Method 2
the head and its connection through the arms to the bucket halves vertically displace the cutting edge of the bucket halves so that the edge remains substantially vertically constant throughout the entire range of the movement of the bucket halves
Data Source
AI summary
A power bucket having a first and second bucket half pivotally secured together about a main axis by a pivot pin. The bucket halves are movable between an open and a closed position. A head is disposed above the bucket halves and at least one arm pivotally connects the head to one bucket half while at least one second arm is pivotally connected between the head and the other bucket half. A cylinder support is pivotally mounted to the pivot pin and one end of a hydraulic cylinder is attached to the pivot support. The other end of the cylinder is attached to the bucket. Upon actuation of the cylinders, the cylinders move the bucket halves so that a cutting edge of the bucket half moves in a substantially horizontal plane.