US3844245A

US3844245A - Means of connecting pusher boat and barge

Info

Publication number: US3844245A
Application number: US00326663A
Authority: US
Inventors: T Yamaguchi
Original assignee: TAISEI SEKKI KOMU KK
Current assignee: TAISEI SEKKI KOMU KK
Priority date: 1972-03-06
Filing date: 1973-01-26
Publication date: 1974-10-29
Anticipated expiration: 1991-10-29
Also published as: IT979393B; JPS4891790A; MY7600278A; ES412351A1; HK50076A; DE2303818C3; NL150073B; DE2303818B2; NL7300918A; GB1386185A; DE2303818A1; BR7301639D0; JPS5437397B2; FR2174899B1; FR2174899A1

Abstract

A means of connecting a pusher boat and a barge in which the bow of the pusher boat is inserted into a notch formed in the stern portion of the barge, and movable pressing shoes attached on both sides of the bow of said pusher boat are pressed into vertical connecting channels formed within said notch of the barge, thereby the pusher boat and the barge being connected easily and firmly.

Description

United States Patent [191 Yamaguchi [4 1 Oct. 29, 1974 MEANS OF CONNECTING PUSHER BOAT AND BARGE [75] Inventor: Takuma Yamaguchi, Narashino,

Japan [73] Assignee: Taisei Sekki Komu K.K., Tokyo,

Japan I [22] Filed: Jan. 26, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 326,663

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Mar. 6, 1972 Japan 47-022361 [52] US. Cl 114/235 R [51] Int. Cl 1363b 21/62 [58] Field of Search 114/235 R, 77 R, 43.5,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,139,185 12/1938 Engel 24/263 DH 3,370,564 2/1968 Archer et al 114/77 R 3,512,495 5/1970 Fletcher 114/235 R FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 116,706 12/1918 Great Britain 114/77 R Primary Examiner-George E. A. Halvosa Assistant Examiner-Edward R. Kazenske Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Hans Berman [5 7 ABSTRACT A means of connecting a pusher boat and a barge in which the bow of the pusher boat is inserted into a notch formed in the stern portion of the barge, and movable pressing shoes attached on both sides of the bow of said pusher boat are pressed into vertical connecting channels formed within said notch of the barge, thereby the pusher boat and the barge being connected easily and firmly.

7 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PAIENTEDnm 29 m4 I/I/IIII/ Fig.4

MEANS OF CONNECTING PUSIIER BOAT AND BARGE This invention relates to a means of connecting a pusher boat and a barge.

Barges are commonly used to transport bulky freight on rivers and canals or in harbours. There are two conventional methods to move the barges, that is, one is to tow by a tug boat and the other is to push by a pusher boat. The present invention relates to the latter case in which the barge is pushed by a pusher boat where said barge is connected with the pusher boat to form a pusher-barge combination system. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved pusher-barge combination system with excellent performance.

In general, the method of connecting the pusher boat and the barge by means of ropes has been widely employed. In this method, however, the stern portion of the barge and the bow portion of the pusher boat come in contact with each other, thus the vertical relative sliding of said portions can not be avoided. This relative sliding of the two water-crafts causes heavy wear and tear of the buffer means which are fitted on and between said two water-crafts. Furthermore, when the positions of fixing rope ends are not properly selected, the connecting ropes are often subjected to undue and excessive tension owing to the relative pitching motions and partly the relative yawing motions between these two water-crafts, and the difficulties of the navigations in a heavy seaway by using such pusher-barge combination systems are principally due to the abovementioned disadvantages.

In order to overcome these disadvantages, it has been proposed that the stern portion of the barge be provided with a notch to receive the bow portion of the pusher boat, and that the two water-crafts be firmly connected irrespective of their draft relationship. However, it has been found that some difficulties are involved in the relative pre-positioning which is an indispensable step of preparation for the connection work.

Accordingly, the present invention is proposed in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, where the principal object of the present invention is to provide an improved means of connecting a pusher boat and a barge in which the connecting work of the means of the invention can be smoothly and easily carried out irrespective of the draft relationship between the two water-crafts, and any undue stress within the connecting means can be eliminated so as to prevent damages to the connecting members.

Another object of the present invention is to propose an improved connecting means in which the relative pre-positioning between the pusher boat and the barge during the connecting work can be automatically performed.

Pursuant to the above objects of the invention, the means of connecting a pusher boat and a barge is constructed as follows. That is, the stern portion of the barge is provided with a notch or a concave, into which the bow portion of the pusher boat can be received. The size of said notch is such that the bow portion of the pusher boat can be received with some suitable clearance being left around said bow portion. Both sides of the wall of said notch are provided with vertical channels which open to the inside of the notch.

Both sides of the bow portion of the pusher boat are provided with hydraulically operated connecting pins, respectively, which can be rotated relative to said pusher boat. The free ends of the connecting pins are provided with respective pressing shoes which are frictionally engaged with the above-mentioned vertical channels within said notch, thus said two water-crafts can be firmly connected by the engagement of the pressing shoes with the vertical channels.

Between the pusher boat and the barge which are connected by thus constructed connecting means, there exists only relative pitching motion, and other relative motions such as rolling, yawing, heaving, drifting and surging are not permitted. Further, the displacement of the pusher boat is generally one tenth or less of the full load displacement of the barge, so that all motions of the pusher boat other than the pitching thereof follow the motions of the barge, therefore the overall motion of the pusher boat becomes gentle and slow, and the operation and control of the pusher boat can be made easy. Still further, the structure of the connecting means, more particularly, the frictional engagement of said vertical channels and said pressing shoes of the connecting pins can be formed in any draft relationship without causing excessive stress.

Furthermore, in the connecting means of the present invention, the width between the outer edges of said connecting channels is made wider than the external width of said pressing shoes in the retracted position, while the width between the inner edges of said connecting channels is made narrower than said external width of the retracted pressing shoes. Thereby, in the pre-positioning step of two water-crafts, said pressing shoes are passed through said outer edges of the channels and are stopped by said inner edges of the channels, and at this position, said pressing shoes are not moved further into the notch, so that the water-crafts can be connected only by pushing out said pressing shoes into said vertical channels without any trouble-v some pre-positioning work of the water-crafts. Accordingly, the above-mentioned second object of the invention can be attained.

As disclosed in the above, the pusher boat and the barge can be connected in any draft relationship with ease and safety by employing the connecting means of the present invention, in addition to that the damages to the connecting members due to abrupt variations of draft relationship can be prevented and the prepositioning of the water-crafts can be attained automatically.

Other and further objects and features of the invention will become more apparent upon the understanding of the illustrative embodiments about to be described or will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention in practice. Two embodiments are shown in the drawings, in which the same parts are indicated by the same numerals. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of one embodiment of the present invention before connection;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of said embodiment after connection;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the embodiment taken along the line A-A in FIG. 2; and

FIGS. 4, Sand 6 are schematic plan views of another embodiment with the pre-positioning arrangement showing several steps of the process of connecting operation.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 to 3, which show the first embodiment of the present invention, the barge 1 is provided with a notch or well 2 at its stem or rear portion for receiving the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3. The configuration and size of said notch 2 may be such that, when the pusher boat 3 is connected to the barge 1, a proper clearance is left between the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3 and said notch 2 of the barge 1. Each side of the inner wall of said notch 2 is provided with a connecting channel 5 having preferably a trapezoidal cross-section, opening towards the inside of the notch 2 and extending in vertical direction. A pair of said channels 5 on both sides of the inner wall of the notch 2 forms a pressure engagement portion for receiving, at any vertical position, the respective pressing shoes on both sides of the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3, which will be explained further hereinafter.

Each side of the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3 is provided with a cylindrical connecting pin 7 which is supported by and slides along a relatively long bearing 6 being fixed on each side of said bow portion. The outboard end of this connecting pin 7 is pivotally fitted with a pressing shoe 8 by means of a horizontal pin 9, spherical bearing or the like on the back side of said shoe. This pressing shoe 8 has a cross-section corresponding to that of said connecting channel 5 and an appropriate length, further the outer surfaces thereof which are to be engaged with the inner surfaces of said channel 5, are covered with high-friction material 10 such as rubber material. When the barge l and the pusher boat 3 are connected with each other, the inclined side surfaces of said pressing shoe 8, assisted by their wedge effect, are firmly engaged with the inclined side surfaces of said connecting channel 5 to give a sufficient friction force. Said connecting pin 7 can be forced out and retracted by means of a hydraulic means, such as hydraulic cylinder 11 or the like, and it can be also kept at the outermost position by hydraulic pressure from a pump, a pressure accumulator or the like.

in the following, the functions and operations of the above explained connecting means of the present invention will be disclosed. Before the connection of the barge l and the pusher boat 3, the connecting pins 7 at the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3 and the pivotable pressing shoes 8 at the top portions of said pins 7 are retracted as shown in FIG. 1. In this position, the width between both outer ends of said pressing shoes 8 is smaller than the width of the entrance portion of said well or notch 2, so that the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3 can be easily inserted into said notch 2 of the barge 1. At the same time, the position of said shoes 8 is brought in line with the above-mentioned connecting channels 5 by operating the pusher boat. And after this relative pre-positioning, the hydraulic cylinders 11 are actuated to move outwards the connecting pins 7, thereby the pressing shoes 8 on said pins 7 are pushed into the connecting channels 5. The channels 5 and the shoes 8 decrease in width away from the notch in the horizontal plane of FIG. 2. in this position, the inclined side surfaces of each pressing shoe 8 are forced into contact with the inclined inner surfaces of the connecting channel 5 in wedge-like manner and they are connected tightly by the friction force without causing any sliding of said two members, thereafter the pressure within said cylinders 11 is kept as it is by a pump or a pressure accumulator. Thus the connection work between the barge l and the pusher boat 3 can be completed.

When both water-crafts are connected in the above manner, no relative rotation between the barge l and the pressing shoes 8, i.e., the connecting pins 7 is possible. However, the relative motion corresponding to the relative pitching between two water-crafts is caused between the connecting pins 7 and the hull of the pusher boat 3. Thus, in order to allow this relative motion, the inboard ends of said connecting pins 7 are connected to the force transmitting pieces 12 of the hydraulic cylinders 11, respectively, by means of proper coupling members 13 which permit the relative rotational motions. Thereby, the relative pitching of two water-crafts can be permitted without causing any trouble or disorder. When the connection is slightly loosened and the draft relationship of two water-crafts is changed, the positions of the pressing shoes 8 in the connecting channels 5 can vary so as to follow the change of the draft relationship, therefore the connecting means of the present invention will not be subjected to any undue stress and can be protected from the occurence of damages.

As disclosed in the above, the first embodiment of the present invention has excellent performance as a means of connecting a pusher boat and a barge, however one problem is left yet unsolved. That is, in the relative pre-positioning of the water-crafts, the abovementioned pressing shoes 8 must be brought into line with the connecting channels 5, and this operation is not so easy particularly in a wavy condition. Therefore, it is desirable to perform this preparation work without great loss of time and labour. Accordingly, the second embodiment of the present invention includes the supplementary arrangement for the above-mentioned relative pre-positioning in order to realize easy and quick connecting operation, which will be explained hereinafter with particular reference to FIGS. 4 to 6.

In said figures, the connecting channel 5 of the barge l is provided with inner edge 5b and outer edge 5a. As will be understood from the drawings, the width between two inner edges Sb of the channels 5 is smaller than that between two outer edges 5a. Further, the width of the notch 2 at the position of the inner edges 5b is smaller than the width between the outer ends of both pressing shoes 8 in the retracted position, while the width of the notch at the position of the outer edges 5a is larger than the width between the outer ends of both pressing shoes 8 in the retracted position. And the width of the notch 2 in the portion forward of the connecting channels 5 is of course made larger than the width of the bow of the pusher boat 3 to be received therein, and the width between the outer ends of both retracted pressing shoes 8 of the pusher boat 3 is determined in such a manner that, when the bow 4 of the pusher boat 3 is received within the notch 2 of the barge l for the preparation for connection, the pressing shoe 8 of any side cannot go forward to the bottom of the notch 2 beyond the inner edge 5b, even when the hull of the pusher boat 3 is moved aside by waves or else against one side wall of said notch 2.

The portion of the connecting channels 5 of the barge 1 being constructed as stated in the above, when the barge 1 is connected to the pusher boat 3, the pusher boat 3 is stopped at the position shown in FIG.

5 in which the pressing shoes 8 of the pusher boat 3 are pushed against the rearward faces of the inner edges 5b of the connecting channel 5, and the pusher boat cannot move forward further. Accordingly, if the pusher boat 3 keeps its impellent force so as not to be moved backward, the relative positioning of both water-crafts, that is, the relative positioning of the pressing shoes 8 and the connecting channels 5 can be automatically establislied. So that, by carrying out the Serial procedure as explained with regard to the foregoing embodiment, both water-crafts can be connected as shown in FlG. 6.

It is to be noted that the pusher boat and the barge can be effectively connected by using the connecting means of the present invention, in addition to that, the relative pre-positioning of both water-crafts which is indispensable for the connecting work can be attained automatically, and the construction, characteristics and functions of this connecting means may be fully understood from the description of the embodiments in the above.

It should be emphasized, however, that the specific embodiments described and shown herein are intended as merely illustrative and in no way restrictive of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A combination of watercraft comprising:

a. a barge having a rear portion formed with a notch open in a rearward direction and with two vertically elongated channels open toward said notch and facing each other transversely of said direction;

b. a pusher boat having a bow portion of a configuration and size to be received in said notch;

c. two pressing shoes mounted on said bow portion;

and

d. pressure-fluid-operated actuating means for moving said pressing shoes in respective, opposite directions between retracted positions outside said channels and inserted positions in said channels respectively while said bow portion is received in said notch, said actuating means holding said pressing shoes in frictional contact with said rear portion in said channels under sufficient pressure to prevent relative rotation between said pressing shoes and said rear portion when said pressing shoes are in the inserted position, said pressing shoes being rotatable on said how portion to permit relative pitching movement of said barge and of said pusher boat.

2. A combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said actuating means include motor means operated by fluid under pressure, and two elongated connecting pins mounted on said bow portion for axial movement by said motor means and for rotation, said pins having respective free end portions, and pivot means pivotally connecting said pressing shoes to said free end portions respectively.

3. A combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said rear portion has two pairs of vertically elongated edges in said notch, the edges of each pair bounding a respective one of said channels therebetween, one edge of each pair being offset rearwardly from the other edge, and the width of said notch between said rearwardly offset edges being substantially greater than the width of said notch between said other edges, the width of said notch between said other edges being smaller than the width of said pusher boat as measured over the retracted pressing shoes.

4. A combination as set forth in claim 1, wherein said channels decrease in width away from said notch in a horizontal plane.

5. A combination as set forth in claim 4, wherein said pressing shoes taper inward of said channels in said plane when in the inserted position and wedgingly engage said rear portion under said sufficient pressure.

6. A combination as set forth in claim 5, wherein said channels are of trapezoidal cross section.

7. A combination as set forth in claim 6, further comprising a high-friction coating of rubber on each of said pressing shoes.

Claims

1. A combination of watercraft comprising: a. a barge having a rear portion formed with a notch open in a rearward direction and with two verticaLly elongated channels open toward said notch and facing each other transversely of said direction; b. a pusher boat having a bow portion of a configuration and size to be received in said notch; c. two pressing shoes mounted on said bow portion; and d. pressure-fluid-operated actuating means for moving said pressing shoes in respective, opposite directions between retracted positions outside said channels and inserted positions in said channels respectively while said bow portion is received in said notch, said actuating means holding said pressing shoes in frictional contact with said rear portion in said channels under sufficient pressure to prevent relative rotation between said pressing shoes and said rear portion when said pressing shoes are in the inserted position, said pressing shoes being rotatable on said bow portion to permit relative pitching movement of said barge and of said pusher boat.