AU2001100372A4 - Tipper trailer - Google Patents

Description

Geoffrey Keith Morwood

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 INNOVATION PATENT Invention Title: Tipper Trailer This invention is described in the following statement: This invention relates to the road haulage of bulk material and is particularly concerned with tipper trailers.

A tipper trailer for hauling bulk material such as grain typically comprises a structural steel open-box container fitted to, or towed by, a truck or prime mover, and which is adapted to dump bulk material through a tailgate when the leading end of the trailer is raised telescopically with an hydraulic ram.

The requirement to transport large volumes of grain and like commodities over long distances has necessitated the use of large road trailers which can extend to twelve metres, or more, in length, not including the length of the associated prime mover. These large trailers are expensive to manufacture due to the structural requirements for the long side walls and because of the large hydraulic rams, for instance up to about 50 ton capacity, needed to raise them for tipping.

More importantly however, are the inherent safety problems with these long trailers when they are tipped.

Due to the very large heights to which they must be raised, which can be in the order of eight metres from the ground, stability problems occur and it is not uncommon for the trailer to topple sideways causing significant damage to it and its support structure. In situations where there are moderate to high winds and heavy loads, the prime mover itself can also be pulled over. In fact, this problem is so prevalent that accidents occur at a significantly higher rate than accidents for all motor vehicles with the result that insurance rates for tipper trailers are exceptionally high, and are multiples of the rates for conventional trucks and prime movers.

The safety problems have been addressed to some extent in the dual tipper trailers having individual trailers approximately one half the length of their monotrailer equivalents. However, such rigs require an additional bogie located intermediate between the two trailers. This bogie is either designed to be moved relative to the trailers to enable tipping of the trailers, or is fixed in which case the trailer contents spills down over it.

The disadvantages of the dual tipper trailers are the maneuvering needed to empty their contents, the additional costs because of the extra bogie, and the difficulty involved in moving the bogie relative to the trailers or, when immovable, the problem of fouling the bogie when the trailer contents are emptied over it.

With all of the above problems, and disadvantages of existing tipper trailers in mind, it is an object of the invention to provide a radically new arrangement which obviates or at least minimises such problems and disadvantages.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a tipper trailer comprising two bulk material containers supported in axial alignment on a wheeled undercarriage, each container having an openable end facing one another and being adapted for raising at an opposing closed end so as to pivot at the openable end; the wheeled undercarriage including a hopper extending below the openable ends which enables bulk material in each container to be emptied therethrough when each container is respectively raised at its closed end.

The arrangement thus defined has the advantages over existing single tipper trailers in that while it can transport the equivalent amount of bulk material, the tipping height for each container is significantly reduced, the structural requirements for two smaller containers is less than for one large container, the placement of the bulk material can be accurately controlled, and two different bulk materials can be readily separately transported. This results in an overall more safe, less expensive and easier operable tipper trailer than currently exists.

Insofar as the advantages over the existing dual tipper trailers are concerned, these include the relative ease of maneuverability, the absence of an additional bogey, and an overall shorter rig length for equal quantities of bulk material being transported.

These advantages give rise to a less expensive and easier operable arrangement.

The bulk material containers according to the present invention are preferably identical in construction and each comprises a substantially rectangular open-topped and open-ended configuration formed from pressed steel sheets with appropriate structural angle steel reinforcing members and longitudinally extending under floor box section bearers.

The side walls adjacent the open ends of the containers can be configured or designed so that when the containers are pivoted, no bulk material spills from the sides of the containers. This can be achieved in a number of ways, including the incorporation of slidable sections on the walls but more preferably, by simply having the walls contoured with an increasingly wider opening from the bottom to the top. Slidable partitions can be provided in the sloping walls to enable the bulk material to be emptied under the action of gravity.

The bulk material containers can be raised in a conventional manner using hydraulic rams located at the terminal closed ends of the containers and fitted to the undercarriage. Because such rams are only required to lift half the weight of a conventional unitary container, and because the lift height need only be about one third, the capacity of such rams need be only about 25-30% of the capacity of conventional rams, thereby giving significant cost savings.

Each bulk material container can pivot about a reinforced lower edge of the openable end; about the ends of the associated floor bearers, or about other structural componentry associated with the container. In one preferred embodiment, a piano hinge is provided on the lower end of each container to enable controlled pivoting.

The supporting undercarriage can assume a range of possible configurations which will be dependent on the size of the rig and the bulk material it is required to haul. One preferred arrangement comprises two longitudinally extending box steel members with appropriate interlinking struts with a wheel bogie at one end and means for connection to a truck or prime mover at the other.

The hopper is preferably located within the supporting undercarriage and a shute may be provided to delivery bulk material there from to one side of the container. The hopper is positioned to enable accurate delivery of the bulk material within an individual container into a storage location.

Another aspect of the invention relates to an additional or type tipper trailer which can be linked with the aforementioned trailer, hereinafter referred to as an trailer. Preferably the linkage is such that the B trailer is connected to the prime mover and the A trailer is connected to the B trailer.

According to the second aspect of the invention there is provided a secondary tipper trailer comprising a single bulk material container supported on a wheeled undercarriage, said container having one openable end, there being a hopper in the region of the openable end which extends below the container to enable bulk material in the container to be emptied therethrough when the container is raised at an end opposite to its closed end.

The construction and function of the secondary tipper trailer is substantially in accordance with what has been described above in connection with the first aspect of the invention.

Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side-on view of a tipper trailer in transport mode according to one aspect of the present invention; Figure 2 is a side-on view of the tipper trailer shown in Figure 1 with one of its containers raised for tipping; Figure 3 is a side-on view of the tipper trailer shown in Figure 1 with the other of its containers raised for tipping; and Figure 4 is a side-on view of secondary tipper trailer according to another aspect of the present invention.

In all of the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like parts.

Referring firstly to Figures 1 to 3, there is depicted a tipper trailer 10 fitted to a prime mover 11.

The tipper trailer comprises two containers 12, 13, an undercarriage 14 and a hopper The undercarriage 14 comprises a steel box frame structure having a bogey consisting of three double sets of wheels 17 at one end, and a plate 18 for connecting to the turn-table of the prime mover 11, at the other end. A hydraulic ram 19 is fitted to the leading end of the undercarriage for raising container 12 and a second hydraulic ram 20 is fitted to the opposite end of the undercarriage for raising container 13.

Each container 12, 13 comprises a rectangular shaped open-stopped steel box, having openable ends 21, 22. The containers have bearers 23, 24 and appropriate strengthening to suite the bulk material to be transported. The sidewalls of the containers adjacent the openable ends are cut-away, as depicted in the drawings, to enable the containers to be pivoted upwardly about piano hinges (not shown) fitted to the lower open ends of the containers, when the hydraulic rams are operated.

The hopper 15 includes a bottom wall optionally having a gate.

In use, bulk grain or other commodity is loaded into containers 12, 13 by way of their open tops, and transported in the arrangement shown in Figure 1. At the emptying station, the rig is positioned such that its hopper is located over a collection bin or a conveyor (or else the conveyor is positioned with respect to the hopper). A partition in the openable end is then opened and the corresponding container 12 or 13 is tilted by raising one end hydraulically with the associated ram 19 or 20. The contents of the container are thereby completely removed from the container and it is then returned to its horizontal resting position. The same process can then be repeated with the other container.

Figure 4 depicts a single tipper trailer having a container 31 of the type described above with respect to Figures 1 and 2; a shortened undercarriage 32; and a hopper 33.

The undercarriage has similar structural features to that previously described and includes an hydraulic ram (not shown) at one end for raising the container 31 and a wheeled bogey 35 at the other end.

The wheeled bogey includes a turntable 36 to enable it to be connected to the double tipper trailer previously described.

The hopper 33, which is defined partly by an extension of the fixed partition and the wing walls, and also by sloped 40 and bottom wall 41, has a slidable gate (not shown) to enable bulk material to be unloaded from the container through openable end wall 38.

The foregoing preferred embodiments of the invention enable the transportation of three different types of bulk material at the same time in a costefficient form of containerisation, under safe conditions. More importantly, unloading of the bulk material can be achieved by a single hydraulic lever operation of a ram which raises a respective container, following opening of the hopper, to enable accurate and controlled placement of the bulk material without the problem of toppling as was the case in previous used systems.

Whilst the above has been given by way of illustrative example of the invention, many modifications and variation may be made thereto by persons skilled in the art without departing from the broad scope and ambit of the invention as herein set forth.

Claims (8)

1. A Tipper Trailer comprising two bulk material containers supported in axial alignment on a wheeled undercarriage, each container having an openable end facing one another and being adapted for raising at an opposing closed end so as to pivot at the openable end; the wheeled undercarriage including a hopper extending below the openable ends which enables bulk material in each container to be emptied therethrough when each container is respectively raised at its closed end.

2. A tipper trailer as claimed in claim 1, wherein the openable ends are inclined at an acute angle with respect to the undercarriage when the containers are in a transport orientation.

3. A tipper trailer as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the containers are pivotable through an angle of approximately

4. A secondary tipper trailer comprising a single bulk material container supported on a wheeled undercarriage, said container having an openable and a closed end, there being a hopper in the region of the openable end which extends below the container to enable bulk material in the container to be emptied therethrough when the container is raised at an end opposite to its closed end.

A secondary tipper trailer as claimed in claim 4, wherein the openable end is inclined at an acute angle with respect to the undercarriage when the containers are in a transport orientation.

6. A secondary tipper trailer as claimed in claim 4 or claim 5 wherein the container is pivotable through an angle of approximately 300.

7. A tipper trailer substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 1-3 of the accompanying drawings.

8. A secondary tipper trailer substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings. DATED 12 th Day of September 2001 Geoffrey Keith Morwood By his Patent Attorneys CULLEN CO.