EXCAVATOR BUCKET

GODET D'EXCAVATRICE

English Abstract

An excavator bucket includes a mounting and a blade. The blade extends
downwardly
from the mounting at an angle of between 30 degrees and 55 degrees. The blade
has a
mounting attachment end which is attached to the mounting, a ground piercing
end, and
opposed upstanding outwardly angled sidewalls. The blade has a forward
oriented curvature
or bend spaced from the ground piercing end.

Claims

What is Claimed is:
1. An excavator bucket, comprising:
a mounting;
a blade extending downwardly from the mounting at an angle of between 30
degrees
and 55 degrees, the blade having a mounting attachment end which is attached
to the
mounting, a ground piercing end, and opposed upstanding outwardly angled
sidewalls, and
the blade having a forward oriented curvature or bend spaced from the ground
piercing end.
2. The excavator bucket as defined in Claim 1, wherein the bend is at an angle
of between 10
degrees and 30 degrees.
3. The excavator bucket as defined in Claim 1, wherein teeth project forward
from the ground
piercing end.
4. The excavator bucket as defined in Claim 1, wherein the curvature or bend
is spaced from
the ground piercing end approximately one third of the way along the blade.
5. The excavator bucket as defined in Claim 1, wherein the sidewalls slope
downwardly from
the curvature or bend to the ground piercing end.
6. The excavator bucket as defined in Claim 1, wherein the blade has a width
of between 3
inches and 96 inches.
7. The excavator bucket as defined in Claim 6, wherein the blade has a width
of between 36
inches and 96 inches.
8. The excavator bucket as defined in Claim 1, wherein the blade has a length
of between 3
feet and 9 feet.
9. An excavator bucket, comprising:

6
a mounting;
a blade extending downwardly from the mounting at an angle of between 30
degrees
and 55 degrees, the blade having a mounting attachment end which is attached
to the
mounting, a ground piercing end, and opposed upstanding outwardly angled
sidewalls, and
the blade having a forward oriented curvature or bend spaced from the ground
piercing end
and oriented at an angle of between 10 degrees and 30 degrees, the curvature
or bend being
spaced from the ground piercing end approximately one third of the way along
the blade, the
sidewalls sloping downwardly from the curvature or bend to the ground piercing
end;
the blade having a width of between 3 inches and 96 inches and a length of
between 3
feet and 9 feet.
10. The excavator bucket of Claim 9, wherein the width is between 36 inches
and 96 inches.
11. The Excavator blade as defined in Claim 9, wherein the blade has a width
and a length
that are roughly equal.

Description

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TITLE OF THE INVENTION:
Excavator bucket
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an excavator bucket designed to minimize
ground
disturbance during use.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is desirable to minimize ground disturbance when excavating. Canadian
Patent
Applications 2,549,370 and 2,557,838 disclose excavator buckets which were
developed to
minimize ground disturbance when working in environmentally sensitive areas.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
There is provided an excavator bucket which includes a mounting and a blade.
The
blade extends downwardly from the mounting at an angle of between 30 degrees
and 55
degrees. The blade has a mounting attachment end which is attached to the
mounting, a
ground piercing end, and opposed upstanding outwardly angled sidewalls. The
blade has a
forward oriented curvature or bend spaced from the ground piercing end.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other features of the invention will become more apparent from the
following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings, the
drawings are
for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to in any way limit
the scope of the
invention to the particular embodiment or embodiments shown, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of the excavator bucket constructed in
accordance with
the teachings of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the excavator bucket of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the excavator bucket of FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is a side elevation view of an altemative embodiment of the excavator
bucket
of FIG.1.
FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of a second alternative embodiment of the
excavator
bucket of FIG. 1.

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The prefen:ed embodiment, an excavator bucket generally identified by
reference
numeral 10, will now be described with reference to FIG. 1 through 3.
Structure and Relationship of Parts:
Referring to FIG. 1, excavator bucket 10 includes a mounting 12 including
mounting
plate 13 and a blade 14. Blade 14 extends downwardly from mounting 12 at an
angle of 45
degrees, but preferably between 30 degrees and 55 degrees. Referring to FIG.
3, blade 14 has
a mounting attachment end 16, a ground piercing end 18, and opposed upstanding
sidewalls
20. Referring to FIG. 2, sidewalls 20 may angle outwardly from blade 14, such
by an
outward bend of between 10 and 45 degrees. As sidewalls 20 extend upward and
outward, it
is easier to remove soil from blade 14 during digging. Getting the dirt out of
buckets or
blades is a particular concern in wet clay or sticky mud. If wet clay or mud
is being dug, it
may also be preferable to have shorter sidewalls 20. To improve the ground
piercing
capability of blade 14, teeth 22 may project forward from ground piercing end
18. Referring
again to FIG. 1, blade 14 has a forward oriented bend 24 at an angle of 20
degrees, but
preferably between 15 degrees and 25 degrees. As depicted, sidewalls 20 slope
downwardly
from bend 24 to ground piercing end 18, such that sidewalls 20 are negligible
at ground
piercing end 18. Bend 24 is spaced from ground piercing end 18 approximately
one third of
the way along blade 14. The length of blade 14 from attachment end 16 to
ground piercing
end 18 is greater than five times the width of blade 14 between sidewalls 20.
Operation:
Excavator bucket 10 is attached to a prime mover, such as a back hoe, by
mounting
12. Excavator bucket 10 is inserted and moves through the ground based
primarily on the
horizontal pulling force pulling toward the prime mover (not shown) to provide
the necessary
force to excavate. The pulling force of the excavator moves material into
excavator bucket 10
as blade 14 moves horizontally along the length of the ditch. It is to be
noted that this is a
horizontal force and does not use a tip radius or curl force, as do other
buckets. Teeth 22 help
ground piercing end 18 to break and pass through the soil. Bend 24 assists in
moving soil into
and upward along excavator bucket 10 from ground piercing end 18 toward
attachment end

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16. Once excavator bucket 10 is filled, low sidewalls 20 which are tilted
outwardly allows for
easy cleaning of excavator bucket 10 in most, if not all soil conditions.
While excavator bucket 10 may be made in any size, it is preferred that it be
made
long and narrow. The desired length will depend upon the depth of ditch or
trench being
excavated. It is preferred that the length of blade 14 be selected to enable
excavator bucket to
reach the desired depth for the trench without mounting plate 13 for the quick
attached
assembly entering into the ditch. This allows the trench to be much narrower,
perhaps as
much as one third of the width of trenches dug with conventional excavator
buckets.
Variation:
Referring to FIG. 4, instead of blade 14 having a single bend 24 as depicted
in FIG.
1, blade 14 could also have a curvature (continuous bend) that begins at
attachment end 16
and continues until ground piercing end 18, or that includes a substantial
portion of blade 14.
If this were done, it would be a tangent taken at a point partway along blade
14 that would be
at 45 degrees, and a tangent taken near ground piercing end 18 that would be
at 20 degrees.
Further Variation:
Referring to FIG. 5, excavator bucket 100 includes many elements similar to
those
described above, and are therefore indicated by similar reference numbers. In
this variation,
blade 102 also has a forward oriented curvature or bend 24 spaced from ground
piercing end
18 and oriented at an angle of between 10 degrees and 30 degrees, similar to
blade 14
described above. Curvature or bend 24 is spaced from ground piercing end 18
approximately
one third of the way along blade 14, with sidewalls 20 sloping downwardly from
curvature or
bend 24 to ground piercing end 18. The main difference in this variation is
that the width of
blade 14 is between 60 inches and 96 inches, rather than the more narrow blade
14 described
previously.
At the time that Canadian Patent Application 2,549,370 and Canadian Patent
Application 2,557,838 were filed, it was not appreciated that versions of the
excavator bucket
could be manufactured which would be capable of competing with a conventional
excavator
bucket. The earlier embodiments were all narrow and long. Early attempts were
made to limit

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the width to between 10 inches and 30 inches, with a length of between 5 feet
and 7 feet. It is
now appreciated that the workable range is much greater than originally
imagined. The width
can vary between 3 inches (narrower than first envisaged) and 96 inches (much
wider than
first envisaged). The length can vary between 3 feet and 9 feet. With the
embodiment
depicted in FIG. 5 the width and length of the blade are roughly equal. With
narrow blades
of less than 36 inches in width, the length will always exceed the width.
However, as the
blade is made wider, this changes until in the sizes over 36 inches, where
they the width and
length can be roughly equal. The term "roughly equal" is used, as the length
may be
marginally larger than the width. The key to understanding the advantages
provided by the
current blade in which the width and length are roughly equal lies in a
comparison of the
"bulk up factor" for the conventional excavator bucket, as compared to the
above described
excavator bucket. A conventional excavator bucket has a bulk up factor of 2.3,
whereas the
above described excavator bucket has a bulk up factor of 1.3. By way of
example, assume
that both buckets are working to dig a ditch that is 2 meters wide and 2
meters deep. The
minimum material excavated is 4 cubic meters. However, the additional material
that a
conventional excavator bucket invariably removes is 2.3 that amount for a
total of 9.2 meters
of material that must be moved and stored. When the same excavation is
performed with the
excavator blade described above, the minimum material excavated is still 4
cubic meters.
However, the additional material that is invariably removed is only 1.3 that
amount for a total
of 5.2 meters. The difference is the size of the right of way required to
store material and the
amount of material that must be removed and replaced is significant.
In this patent document, the word "comprising" is used in its non-limiting
sense to
mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically
mentioned are not
excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article "a" does not
exclude the
possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context
clearly requires that
there be one and only one of the elements.
It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that modifications may be made
to the
illustrated embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the
invention as
hereinafter defined in the Claims.

Representative Drawing