WO2008125942A1

WO2008125942A1 - Soil milling machine

Info

Publication number: WO2008125942A1
Application number: PCT/IB2008/000856
Authority: WO
Inventors: Angelo Leo; Edoardo Cottino; Umberto Rossi
Original assignee: Sirti S.P.A.
Priority date: 2007-04-11
Filing date: 2008-04-07
Publication date: 2008-10-23
Also published as: ITMI20070734A1; WO2008125942A8

Abstract

Soil milling machine comprising a milling cutter (61) driven by a motor associated to which there is a protection casing (63). Such milling cutter has its rotation axis (62) skew with respect to the soil surface. Provided on such casing is a suctioning hole or mouth (64) fixed on which is a pipe (8) for suctioning the excavation waste material generated by the milling operations.

Description

SOIL MILLING MACHINE

The present invention refers to a soil milling machine .

In particular, the present invention refers to a soil milling machine useable in combination with other equipment, with which it cooperates, used for a cable laying method in the subsoil of carriageable areas and/or areas used by pedestrians .

Laying cables in the subsoil is substantially performed following the subsequent steps successively:

• Preliminary survey, and advantageously by means of non-invasive methods (such as, for example, using the Georadar technique) , for possible presence of pre-existing underground services in the excavation area,

• Excavating at a preset depth and width,

• Laying inside such excavation one or more cables or a suitable duct for the subsequent laying of one or more cables,

• Covering the excavation itself as well as the duct or the cable therein buried restoring the carriageability of the area.

Usually, the excavations or ducts adapted to accommodate one or more cables, for example electrical of^' fibre optic cables, are provided for on the roadway, for example on the side edges of the same on the verge of the road or at times directly on the sidewalk. The operations are usually performed excavating outdoors, laying the duct or the cable and refilling the excavation itself using soil or gravel and subsequently restoring the asphalt or the previously existing cover removed during the excavation operations.

During such steps, especially regarding highly urbanised areas, the periods of time required for the performance of the abovementioned operations and the space occupied by the machinery required are extremely critical. As a matter of fact, the presence of a worksite or an obstacle in any case both on the roadway and the sidewalk causes serious inconvenience, both for the pedestrians and the transiting vehicles, directly proportional to the extension of the worksite and the period of time such excavation operations are bound to last. Therefore, reducing the extension of the worksite and speeding up such operations to the maximum is a key objective, given the increase of wiring due to the massive expansion of the new multimedia technologies (both on electrical and fibre optic cables) both for private citizen or private companies and public organisations .

In particular, the excavation step must be performed in a rapid and flexible manner both during the removal of the material for opening the excavation trench and during the step of removing the material from the soil. The applicant has provided an optimised, rapid and efficient method for laying cables or ducts in the subsoil meeting the abovementioned requirements, in which the size of the trench provided for is very small, the dimensions of the machinery used are quite small, the material removed from the trench can be suctioned immediately and in which the filling of the trench itself, upon laying the duct or the cable, hardens rapidly and it is compatible with the characteristics of the sidewalk or of the roadway. Furthermore, the applicant proposes, according to the present invention, a soil milling machine capable of performing such excavation in a quick and simple manner .

An aspect of the present invention regards a soil milling machine comprising a milling cutter driven by a motor associated to which is a protection casing characterised in that such milling cutter has its rotating axis skew with respect to the soil surface. Characteristics and advantages of the soil milling machine according to the present invention shall be more evident from the following description, exemplifying and non-limiting, with respect to the i schematic drawings attached wherein:

• Figure 1 is a schematic figure of an excavation or trench performed according to the present invention,

• Figure 2 schematically illustrates a soil milling machine possibly provided with a suctioning device according to the present invention; • Figure 3 schematically illustrates the machine and the possibly provided suctioning device of figure 2 and machinery for filling the excavation;

• Figure 4 schematically illustrates a construction detail of the soil milling machine according to the present invention.

With respect to the abovementioned figures in an excavation performed through asphalt 1 and soil 2 an infrastructure 3 is installed made up of one or more pipes and/or cables,- the excavation is subsequently refilled with suitable filling material 4. Then, the following steps are performed successively. A first step of surveying for possible presence of preexisting underground services which would interfere with (or would be damaged by) the excavation operations. Such survey can be performed preliminarily to and independently from the actual excavation or, more advantageously, it can be performed by means of non-invasive methods (such as, for example, using the Georadar technique) with a machine arranged immediately ahead of the machine intended to perform the excavation operations and which controls its forward movement. The survey can be immediately followed by performing an extremely small excavation or trench. For example, and in a non-limiting manner, dimensions compatible with the requirements outlined previously are an excavation performed approximately ranging between 20 cm and 50 cm deep and between 3 and 10 cm width-wise. A subsoil surveying device 5 analyses the presence of possible pre-existing underground services according to the depth expected to be reached by the excavation and it is arranged ahead of the soil milling machine 6, constructed according to the present invention, small in size preferably comprising a trench-clearing blade and possibly a suitable suctioning device 7 provided with the related pipe 8, which moves in a synchronous manner with a moving device 9, and which is adapted to suction the material removed from the excavation simultaneously with the production of the material itself, in such a manner to provide a trench for laying the duct or the cable within it, immediately after the machine 6 and the suctioning device 7 have transited over the trench section provided. The subsoil surveying device is positioned at the head of the operating train, hence allowing stopping or regulating the excavation operation through a suitable servocontrol . The small dimensions of the excavation trench allow maintaining the dimensions of the machinery used small, due to the low amount of material removed. Furthermore, the suctioning device 7 can be made for removing the material in the sections of the trench which might be accommodating other underground services thus avoiding damaging them.

With reference to figure 4, illustrated is a tool of the machine 6, comprising a milling cutter 61 having a non-parallel (skew) rotation axis 62 with respect to the soil surface, preferably substantially perpendicular to the operation surface, a typical characteristic of the frontal milling.

Said milling cutter is of the so-called end-mill type and it is characterised by a substantially cylindrical shape and by the performance of the cut removing the material in the front part of the cylinder itself, such zone being identified due to the direction of movement of the machine 6. The rotation of the milling cutter is driven by a conventional motor; however, such motor, with respect to the motor driving a disk milling cutter, occupies considerably lesser space.

Therefore, such solution allows avoiding use of bulky milling disk cutters characterised by having a rotation axis parallel to the operation surface, typical characteristic of peripheral milling, and allows obtaining much more compact equipment. Associated to the milling cutter 61 is a protection casing 63 which avoids dispersion of the excavation waste material into the surrounding environment . Provided on such casing can be a suctioning hole or mouth 64 on which a pipe 8 of the suctioning device 7 can be fixed.

Such pipe allows transporting the excavation waste material from the suctioning mouth 64 to the suctioning device. Furthermore, provided on the protection casing could be a suitable air inlet to improve its circulation and the consequential suctioning.

The suctioning device can suitably move harmoniously with the tool, or it can be blocked while the tool operates still allowing suctioning of the waste excavation material by means of the suitable pipe. Laying of the duct or cable can be advantageously performed directly by the milling operation and it is performed in a traditional manner or, such as for example in figure 3, by means of suitable machinery appropriate for the operation, such as a transport and laying machine 10, and a duct or cable bearing reel 11. After laying the duct or cable 12, the trench is refilled using suitable rapidly hardening filling material, capable of restoring the surface on which the excavation had been performed without requiring restoration of the pre-existing asphalt surface, with excellent capacity to adhere to the surrounding material, and capable of restricting crackings or shrinkages to the maximum, substantially with analogous mechanical resistance capacities and, without leaving the excavation too noticeable at the same time. For such purpose, considering figure 3 for example, a suitable vehicle 13 could be used, possibly provided with a small continuous mixer adapted to prepare an amount of such material enough to fill the excavation without risking that the material itself hardens inside the mixer and provided with a suitable channel 14 for pouring the material, in such a manner to allow the restoration of the availability for the vehicles on the excavation, within relatively short periods of time required for the hardening of the filling material.

A suitable material for filling the excavation is for example a pourable controlled shrinkage cement compound, quick setting and hardening, possibly mixed with pea gravel for mortars ready for the availability for the vehicles within a short period of time upon laying.

Claims

1. Soil milling machine comprising a milling cutter (61) driven by a motor associated to which there is a protection casing (63) , characterised in that such milling cutter has its rotation axis (62) skew with respect to the soil surface.

2. Machine according to claim 1, wherein such rotation axis of the milling cutter is substantially- perpendicular to the operation surface.

3. Machine according to claim 1, wherein said milling cutter is of the end-mill type.

4. Machine according to claim 1, wherein provided on such protection casing is an air inlet.

5. Machine according to claim 1, wherein provided on such casing is a suctioning hole or mouth (64) fixed on which is a pipe (8) for suctioning (7) the excavation waste material generated by the milling operations .