US3921839A

US3921839A - Packing and ejecting means for a refuse truck

Info

Publication number: US3921839A
Application number: US507817A
Authority: US
Inventors: William A Herpich
Original assignee: Peabody Galion Corp
Current assignee: Galion Holding Co
Priority date: 1974-09-20
Filing date: 1974-09-20
Publication date: 1975-11-25
Anticipated expiration: 1992-11-25

Abstract

A refuse truck having a loading compartment and a rearwardly located storage body, the storage body having an openable rear door. The floors of said body and said compartment lie in the same plane and the sidewalls of both in the same vertical planes. The truck has a loading mechanism for emptying refuse containers into the loading compartment. There is a ram and hydraulic means for moving the ram from a position forward of the loading compartment and through the bottom of the loading compartment for packing refuse from the loading compartment into the storage body. The ram also may be moved along the bottom of the storage body for compacting refuse in the body when the rear door is closed and to the rear of the body for ejecting refuse from the body when the rear door is open. A rear wall of the loading compartment defines with the floor of the loading compartment an opening through which the ram moves. The top surface of the ram and a plurality of superposed sliding covers provide a bottom for the loading compartment when the ram is moved into and/or through the storage body. The ram and the covers have ''''lost-motion'''' connections so the covers are moved with the ram only when the ram moves rearwardly beyond the storage compartment.

Description

United States Patent [1 1 Herpich Nov. 25, 1975 1 1 PACKING AND EJECTING MEANS FOR A REFUSE TRUCK [75] Inventor: William A. Herpich, Galion, Ohio [73] Assignee: Peabody Galion Corporation,

Galion, Ohio [22] Filed: Sept. 20, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 507,817

Primary Examiner-Robert J. Spar Assistant ExaminerLawrence J. Oresky Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Henry K. Leonard [57] ABSTRACT A refuse truck having a loading compartment and a rearwardly located storage body, the storage body having an openable rear door. The floors of said body and said compartment lie in the same plane and the sidewalls of both in the same vertical planes. The truck has a loading mechanism for emptying refuse containers into the loading compartment. There is a ram and hydraulic means for moving the ram from a position forward of the loading compartment and through the bottom of the loading compartment for packing refuse from the loading compartment into the storage body. The ram also may be moved along the bottom of the storage body for compacting refuse in the body when the rear door is closed and to the rear of the body for ejecting refuse from the body when the rear door is open. A rear wall of the loading compartment defines with the floor of the loading compart ment an opening through which the ram moves. The top surface of the ram and a plurality of superposed sliding covers provide a bottom for the loading compartment when the ram is moved into and/or through the storage body. The ram and the covers have lostmotion connections so the covers are moved with the ram only when the ram moves rearwardly beyond the storage compartment.

4 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures Patent Nov. 25, 1975 Sheet 1 0f 4 FIG. I

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US. Patent Nov. 25, 1975 Sheet30f4 3,921,839

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US. Patent Nov. 25, 1975 Sheet 4 45 %?5 I i W m P3 x 9 u Cy m FIG 9 5 as 53 58 53 )3 T g/ k/ 57 PACKING AND EJECTING MEANS FOR A REFUSE TRUCK BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The instant invention relates to refuse trucks such as those utilized by municipalities and contract trash haulers for picking up refuse from refuse containers located at residences or commercial establishments and conveying the refuse so picked up to a central disposal point such as a dump, incinerator, or the like.

Many types of refuse trucks have been developed and may be roughly divided into three general classes. There are rear loading refuse vehicles which have receiving hoppers at their rear ends and means for packing the refuse from the hoppers into the bodies. There are front loaders which are provided with means for elevating and dumping containers into the bodies. There are side loaders which have loading compartments or receiving bins accessible from the sides of the vehicles into which the containers are dumped and from which refuse is moved into the bodies.

The instant invention is particularly directed toward packing and ejecting means for a refuse truck which has a loading compartment and a storage body. The refuse is dumped into the loading compartment and then is packed into the storage body of the truck by an hydraulically actuated ram which moves the refuse across the bottom of the loading compartment, through an opening in a wall that is common to the loading compartment and the storage body and into the storage body itself.

Again, refuse vehicles having loading compartments may be divided into two general classes. In the first of these, after a sufficient quantity of refuse has been moved from the loading compartment into the storage body, so that the storage body is filled, the vehicle is driven to the discharge location, the rear end of the body is opened and the body is tilted to dump the refuse out of the opened rear end. In the second class, rather than elevating the body to dump it, an ejection plate located interiorly of the storage body is actuated to move from the front to the back of the storage body to force the refuse out of the open rear end.

In the first of these types of vehicles just described it is necessary to mount the storage body itself for tilting and to equip it with adequate means such as hydraulic cylinders to raise the front end of the body. In the second type not only must a ram be actuated to pack refuse from the loading compartment into the body, but the ejection plate must also be provided with power means for moving it along the length of the body to force the refuse out of the open rear end.

It is the principle object of the instant invention to provide a refuse vehicle or truck which has a single mechanism utilizable selectively for packing refuse from a loading compartment into a storage body, for compacting refuse in the body and for ejecting refuse from the storage body.

It is yet another object of the instant invention to provide a refuse truck having a loading compartment into which refuse containers are dumped and a storage body, the floors of the compartment and body lying in the same horizontal plane, and the side walls of both lying in the same vertical planes and to provide in the truck an hydraulically acuated ram which is'useable in several manners. First, it is reciprocated through the bottom of the loading compartment for packing refuse from the loading compartment into the storage body. Second, it is moveable into the storage body for compacting refuse in the body. Third, after the door at the rear of the body has been opened at the disposition point, it is moved all the way through the body in one or more strokes to eject refuse from the body. Additionally, the ram has associated sliding covers which move along with the ram when it is moved rearwardly of the loading compartment to provide a temporary bottom for the loading compartment and for the storage body in order to prevent refuse in either of those locations from falling down in the front of the ram.

A more limited object of the instant invention is to provide a packing and ejecting ram for a refuse truck having a loading compartment at its front and a storage body rearwardly thereof and which ram can be reciprocated in the bottom of the loading compartment for packing refuse into the body, which can be actuated to compact the refuse in the body in order to reduce the voids in the refuse and then to eject the refuse from the body after it is fully loaded. The ram is provided with a series of superposed sliding covers normally stored at the front end of the truck, forwardly of the loading compartment. The covers have lost-motion interengaging means so that each is engaged in sequence by the ram or by a lower cover in order to be drawn toward the rear of the body when the ram moves rearward beyond the loading compartment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view in elevation with parts broken away of a refuse truck embodying the invention of the type generally called a front loader and illustrating how refuse containers may be dumped into a loading compartment and the refuse in the loading compartment be packed into a storage body;

FIG. 2 is a simplified, fragmentary, vertical sectional view, showing how the packing and ejecting ram is stored at the front part of the truck forwardly of the bottom of the loading compartment;

FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 are all views similar to FIG. 2 but showing how the packing and ejecting ram is first actuated to pack refuse from the loading compartment into the storage body, then to compact refuse already in the storage body and, finally, (FIG. 5 to eject refuse from the storage body;

FIG. 6 is a detailed view in elevation taken from the position indicated by the line 6-6 of FIG. 2;

'FIG. 7 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along the line 7--7 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is a side view in elevation of the packing and ejecting ram taken from the position indicated by the line 8-8 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a detailed view in side elevation showing the two sliding covers employed with a ram according to the instant invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT being mounted upon a chassis (not shown) of a truck 22. The truck 22 in this illustration is equipped with front loading mechanism, generally indicated by the reference number 23, of the type more fully disclosed in Clar U. S. Pat. No. 3,140,787. Inasmuch as this particular mechanism does not constitute a part of the instant invention it will be briefly described as comprising a pair of scissors-type lifting booms 24 pivotally connected to the upper front end of the truck body structure, and having container engaging forks 25 which are adapted to engage a refuse container 26 by sequential energization of hydraulic cylinder means 27 mounted on top of the truck and a fork actuating cylinder 28. The container 26 is raised above a cab 29 of the truck 22, inverted and its contents dumped from the position shown in broken lines and indicated by the reference number 26a, into the loading compartment 20.

The loading compartment 20 is located immediately rewardly of a front structure 30 of the truck 22 which contains, for examples, an hydraulic reservoir, pumps, valve fittings, etc. The compartment 20 is defined by a floor 31 which lies in the same horizontal plane as a floor 32 of the storage body 21, by side walls 33 which lie in the same spaced, vertical planes as side walls 34 of the storage body 21, by a front wall 35 and by a partition wall 36 which is common to the storage body 21, and forms a rear wall for the compartment 20 and a front wall for the storage body 21.

In the illustrated truck, the top of the loading compartment 20 is open so that refuse can be elevated in containers 26 and dumped downwardly into the loading compartment 20. Of course, it will be appreciated that in other refuse trucks embodying the invention, mechanisms other than the front loading mechanism 23 may be utilized for dumping refuse into the loading compartment 20, or, in contrast, the side walls 33 of the loading compartment 20 may extend upwardly from the bottom 31 only a short distance so that containers can be lifted by operators and dumped over these walls into the loading compartment 20.

The partition wall 36 extends transversely across between the

side walls

33 and 34 and extends downwardly from the top of the loading compartment 20 and body 21 to a level spaced above the floors 31 and 32 a distance only slightly greater than the accumulated vertical height of a ram, generally indicated by the reference number 37 and superposed sliding

covers

38 and 39 to be described below.

The storage body 21 has an open rear end which is closed by a door 40 pivotally mounted at its upper end by cars 41, on the body 21 and held closed at its lower end by a latch 42. When it is desired to eject refuse from the body 21, the latch 42 is opened and hydraulic cylinders 43 are actuated to swing the door 40 rearwardly and upwardly, as illustrated in dotted lines in FIG. 1.

The ram 37 has a vertical rear face 44 (see FIG. 6) which extends across the truck between the

side walls

33 and 34,'a solid top 45, and sides 46. The rear of the ram 37 is open and a multi-stage hydraulic cylinder 47 extends rearwardly into the interior of the ram 37. One end of the cylinder 47 is pivotally connected by a pin 48 mounted in a clevis 49 to a vertical structural element at the front of the body structure 30. The rear end of the cylinder 47 is similarly mounted on a pin 50 located in a nose 51 protruding rewardly from the face 44 of the ram 37. The multiple stages of the cylinder 47 extend a sufficient distance to enable it to move the ram 37 from its foremost position, illustrated in FIG. 2, to its most reward position illustrated in FIG. 5. I

As illustrated in FIG. 2, when the cylinder 47 is collapsed completely, the ram 37 is positioned forwardly in the truck so that its rear face 44 is aligned beneath the rear lower edge of a deflector plate 52, extending across the forward part of the loading compartment 20, and thus refuse can fall downwardly into the loading compartment 20 to a position on the floor 31 rearwardly of the ram 37. Refuse is not shown in FIG. 2 but is generally shown in this position in FIG. 1.

From time to time during the loading of refuse into the loading compartment 20, controls for the hydraulic mechanisms are so actuated as to energize the ram cylinder 47 to move the ram from its most forward position (FIG. 2) to its packing position (FIG. 3), moving the ram 37 through the bottom of the loading compartment 20 and extending its rear edge through the opening defined by the lower edge of the partition wall 36, and the floor 31. This packing stroke may be a continuous reciprocation of the ram 37 between the positions illustrated in FIG. 2 and 3 if refuse continuously is being dumped into the loading compartment 20, or it may be a single cycle operation as actuated by the operator. When the ram 37 moves from its forward position of FIG. 2 to its first packing position of FIG. 3, the top 45 of the ram 37 functions to provide a substitute bottom for the loading compartment 20 so as to prevent refuse in that compartment 20 from falling down in front of the ram 37.

As briefly mentioned above, two sliding

cover plates

38 and 39 are associated with and actuated by the ram 37 when it is moved rearwardly from the position illustrated in FIG. 3 to the intermediate compacting position of FIG. 4 or to the rear most, ejecting position of FIG. 5. The two covers 38 and 39 have rollers 53 at their ends which run in pairs of horizontal tracks 54 for the

cover

39 and 55 for the cover 38. The

tracks

54 and 55 are mounted on the

side walls

33 and 34 and extend horizontally from the front structure 30 all the way to the rear of the body 21. The

tracks

54 and 55 are U- shaped channels of such size as to accept the cover rollers 53.

A series of buttons 56 is erected along the front edge of the top 45 of the ram 37. The buttons 56 extend upwardly a distance sufficient so that they engage a cooperating rear lower cross bar 57 on the lower cover 38 when the ram moves from the position shown in FIG. 2 beyond the position shown in FIG. 3. As the ram 37 moves from the position shown in FIG. 3 to the position shown in FIG. 4 or that shown in FIG. 5, the buttons 56 engage the cross bar 57 and pull the cover 38 out from beneath the deflector plate 52 and the structure 30.

An upper cross bar 58 (FIG. 9) on the cover 38 similarly engages a rear lower cross bar 59 on the cover 39 when the ram moves from the position shown in FIG. 4 to the position shown in FIG. 5 in order to pull the upper cover 39 along with the lower cover 38. The top 45 of the ram 37, the lower cover 38 and the upper cover 39 thus form a substitute bottom for the loading compartment 20 and for the storage body 21 as the ram 37 moves rearwardly.

When the ram 37 is moved forwardly, either from the position shown in FIG. 4 or that in FIG. 5, each of the

covers

39 and 38 remains in its advanced position until the ram buttons 56 engage a front lower bar 60 on the cover 38 whereupon the movement of the ram toward the front of the truck slides the lower cover 38 along its track 55. Similarly when the lower cover 38 moves forwardly relative to the upper cover 39, the upper cover 39 remains stationary until the upper cross bar 58 on the lower cover 38 engages a front lower bar 61 on the upper cover 39. As the ram 37 continues to move toward the front of the truck, engagement of the upper cross bar 58 with the front lower bar 61 pushes the upper cover 39 along with the lower cover 38 until all are restored to their front position, nestled in superposed relationship beneath the structure and the deflector plate 52 as is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.

I claim:

1. In a refuse truck having a storage body that is defined by a top, side walls and a floor, an openable door normally closing the rear of said body and a loading compartment at the front of said body that is defined by a front wall, side walls lying in the same vertical planes as the side walls of said body, a floor that lies in the same plane as the floor of said body and a rear wall that is common with said body and that extends downwardly to a level above the said floors for defining an opening from said compartmentinto said body, the improvement comprising, in combination,

a. a ram having a rear end with a face of a width extending across said compartment and said body and a heighth slightly less than the heighth of the opening between said compartment and said body, said ram having a top extending forwardly from the upper edge of said rear face,

b. hydraulic cylinder means for moving said ram from a front position forward of the floor of said loading compartment through the bottom of said loading compartment for packing refuse from said loading compartment through the opening into said body and for moving said ram along the bottom of said body for compacting refuse in said body when said door is closed and to a position adjacent the rear of said body for ejecting refuse out of the rear of said body when said door is open,

c. a plurality of superposed, planar sliding covers associated with said ram, each of said covers extending across said truck to the sidewalls thereof, the total length of the top of said ram and the said covers being at least equal to the distance from the front wall of said compartment to the rear of said body, whereby said plates prevent refuse in either said loading compartment or said body from falling down in front of said ram when said ram is extended from its front position,

d. a pair of horizontal tracks for each of said covers, said pairs of tracks extending from forward of the front wall of said compartment through said opening into and to the rear of said body and being mounted on said side walls above each other; and

e. cooperating means at the front of said ram top and at the rear and front edges of each of said covers for sequential engagement when said ram moves rearwardly beyond said loading compartment for sliding said covers along said tracks, the combined height of said ram face and thicknesses of said covers substantially equalling the height of the opening from said compartment into said body.

2. A refuse truck according to claim 1, having power actuated mechanism for dumping refuse containers into the loading compartment.

3. A refuse truck according to claim 1 in which the horizontal tracks are opposed U-channels opening inwardly of the side walls of the compartment and the covers have rollers at their sides which run in the respective ones of said channels.

4. A refuse truck according to claim 1 in which the cooperating means on the ram and covers consist of downwardly extending projections at the front and rear ends of each of said covers and an upwardly extending projection at the front end of said ram and at the front end of each lower cover, each of said upwardly extending projections being positioned between and vertically overlapping the downwardly extending projections on one of said covers located there above.

Claims

1. In a refuse truck having a storage boDy that is defined by a top, side walls and a floor, an openable door normally closing the rear of said body and a loading compartment at the front of said body that is defined by a front wall, side walls lying in the same vertical planes as the side walls of said body, a floor that lies in the same plane as the floor of said body and a rear wall that is common with said body and that extends downwardly to a level above the said floors for defining an opening from said compartment into said body, the improvement comprising, in combination, a. a ram having a rear end with a face of a width extending across said compartment and said body and a heighth slightly less than the heighth of the opening between said compartment and said body, said ram having a top extending forwardly from the upper edge of said rear face, b. hydraulic cylinder means for moving said ram from a front position forward of the floor of said loading compartment through the bottom of said loading compartment for packing refuse from said loading compartment through the opening into said body and for moving said ram along the bottom of said body for compacting refuse in said body when said door is closed and to a position adjacent the rear of said body for ejecting refuse out of the rear of said body when said door is open, c. a plurality of superposed, planar sliding covers associated with said ram, each of said covers extending across said truck to the sidewalls thereof, the total length of the top of said ram and the said covers being at least equal to the distance from the front wall of said compartment to the rear of said body, whereby said plates prevent refuse in either said loading compartment or said body from falling down in front of said ram when said ram is extended from its front position, d. a pair of horizontal tracks for each of said covers, said pairs of tracks extending from forward of the front wall of said compartment through said opening into and to the rear of said body and being mounted on said side walls above each other; and e. cooperating means at the front of said ram top and at the rear and front edges of each of said covers for sequential engagement when said ram moves rearwardly beyond said loading compartment for sliding said covers along said tracks, the combined height of said ram face and thicknesses of said covers substantially equalling the height of the opening from said compartment into said body.