Forming the subject of the present invention is a device for guiding bundles of parallel ropes, cables, or pipes according to a three-dimensional path in an earth-digging machine.
One of the problems frequently encountered in the sector of earth-digging machines consists in supplying a piece of equipment set within the excavation itself with a source of hydraulic power, external to the excavation.
In some cases, numerous flexible pipes are envisaged to be arranged possibly in orderly bundles that have to run out of and into the excavation and are to be gathered on winding drums.
In a similar way, there can be provided steel cables for suspension and manoeuvre and electric cables for control and/or transmission of data, with an arrangement and movements similar to those of flexible pipes or hoses.
In a particular case, which in what follows will form the preferred, but non-limiting, embodiment as reference for the description and the drawings, the excavation is vertical and requires at least one bundle of parallel pipes set in a plane, which descend vertically into the excavation as far as the piece of earth-digging equipment and are unwound from and wound onto individual winding drums set on the earth-moving machinery.
The most obvious solution is for each individual pipe to have a path that lies in a vertical plane, which passes through the axis of the pipe in the excavation and constitutes the median plane of the sheave and of the winder. In this way, parallel pipes have paths in parallel planes, and the vertical pipes can be in a single plane perpendicular to the aforesaid parallel planes.
Likewise obvious is the solution according to which different pipes converge towards the axis of excavation with paths in vertical planes that are different and convergent.
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The European patent No.
In the case where there are parts of the machine that interfere with the path in a plane, or if it is necessary to provide various bundles of pipes with different paths that can interfere with one another, a solution proves useful that enables three-dimensional paths and arrangements of co-planar bundles that are not orthogonal with respect to the planes of the path, with a wide freedom of choice.
This type of approach affords a good degree of flexibility of solution to various problems of arrangement and path of flexible elements, such as hydraulic pipes, steel cables, electric cables, and the like, set in planar bundles of parallel elements.
The invention is aimed at this type of solution and, in particular, is based upon the creation of a set of parallel sheaves, set on the same axis of rotation but of different diameters; the primitive diameters of the sheaves are preferably arranged on a conical surface of envelope.
By means of the solution proposed by the invention, parallel and co-planar pipes reach the sheaves according to a plane that is tangential to the cone and exit according to another tangential plane. The directions of entry and exit, to enable proper winding on the sheave, must lie in the median plane of the sheave; however, the planes of the incoming and outgoing bundles, unlike the case of sheaves of the same diameter, are not parallel to the axis of the sheaves.
By varying the angle of aperture of the cone, the angle of winding, and the position of the axis, it is possible to create arrangements as desired. By combining two sets of sheaves, at least one of which of different diameter, three-dimensional paths are obtained that are useful for preventing any interference, for following structures of the machine, and so forth.
To obtain the above and further advantages that will be understood more clearly from what follows, the invention proposes provision of an earth-digging machine according to claim 1 with a device for guiding bundles of parallel ropes, cables, or pipes according to a three-dimensional (or non-planar) path. The device has at least two sets of parallel sheaves, at least one of which is made up of sheaves of different diameters.
There now follows a description of the device according to the invention, with reference to the annexed plates of drawings, in which:
With reference to
With reference to
From a comparison of
It may be noted that the plane that contains the bundle of the vertical pipes 4 is oriented in a different manner with respect to the plane of lie at exit from the winder assembly 9 and to the common axis of the sheaves of the two guiding assemblies.
The machine frequently causes convergence on the axis of drilling of various bundles of pipes having winder systems set in different positions on the excavating machinery.
With reference to the diagrams of
In addition, on the machine of
The above arrangement prevents any interference with the lattice arm 51, its stays 52, the stand 53, the manoeuvring ropes 54, and between the pipes of the system itself.
Hence, the subject of the invention is a set of sheaves set parallel to one another but of increasing diameters so that the primitive diameters are set on an imaginary surface of a conical shape.
Thus, by way of example, in the case where the bundle of pipes is deviated through ninety degrees, said bundle of pipes, which are horizontal and parallel as they enter, comes off as a bundle of parallel vertical pipes that lie in a plane inclined with respect to the initial direction of the pipes by an angle equal to the half-aperture of the cone.
With reference to the geometry of
Without departing from the scope of the inventive idea underlying this invention, the sheaves with different diameters may not be coaxial but have parallel axes, or else the bundle of incoming or outgoing pipes may not lie in a single plane, or again the sheaves of different diameters may not be enveloped by a cone-shaped imaginary surface as in
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