Asphalt aggregate paver for asphalting a surface to be asphalted

Abstract

An asphalt aggregate paver (1) for asphalting a surface (116) to be asphalted includes an asphalt aggregate receiving hopper (2), width-wise spreading means (4) for distributing the aggregate over the surface (116), and conveyor means (6) arranged between the receiving hopper (2) and the spreading means (4) for feeding said spreading means (4), by conveying said aggregate from the hopper to said spreading means (4) in a longitudinal direction (L). The paver further includes mixing means (8), which are a separate element of said conveyor means (6). The mixing means (8) are arranged between said receiving hopper (2) and said spreading means (4), and the mixing means (8) are movable with respect to the conveyor means (6) for stirring the aggregate when it is conveyed. The mixing means (8) are arranged outside and after the receiving hopper (2).

Claims

1. An asphalt aggregate paver for asphalting a surface to be asphalted, said paver comprising a) a receiving hopper for receiving asphalt aggregate, b) width-wise spreading means for distributing said aggregate over said surface to be asphalted, and c) conveyor means arranged between said receiving hopper and said spreading means for feeding said spreading means, by conveying said aggregate from said receiving hopper to said spreading means in a longitudinal direction, wherein it further comprises d) mixing means, said mixing means being a separate element of said conveyor means, e) said mixing means being arranged between said receiving hopper and said spreading means and said mixing means being movable with respect to said conveyor means for stirring said aggregate when it is conveyed from said receiving hopper to said spreading means, and f) said mixing means being arranged outside and after said receiving hopper, wherein said mixing means are arranged above said conveyor means.

2. The paver according to claim 1, wherein said mixing means are arranged inside a casing, after said receiving hopper, separating said mixing means from said receiving hopper.

3. The paver according to claim 2, wherein said mixing means are rotatably mounted about an axis.

4. The paver according to claim 2, wherein said mixing means comprise at least one rotor with a plurality of blades, said at least one rotor being rotatably mounted about an axis transverse to the longitudinal direction of said paver.

5. The paver according to claim 1, wherein the distal end of said mixing means adjacent to said conveyor means is arranged at a distance comprised between 10 and 70 mm above said conveyor means and more preferably between 20 and 50 mm.

6. The paver according to claim 5, wherein said mixing means are rotatably mounted about an axis.

7. The paver according to claim 1, wherein said mixing means are rotatably mounted about an axis.

8. The paver according to claim 7, wherein said mixing means are at least one worm screw and are arranged after said conveyor means.

9. The paver according to claim 8, wherein said mixing means are rotatably mounted about at least one axis oriented in the longitudinal direction.

10. The paver according to claim 1, wherein said mixing means comprise at least one rotor with a plurality of blades, said at least one rotor being rotatably mounted about an axis transverse to the longitudinal direction of said paver.

11. The paver according to claim 10, wherein a first imaginary plane for the conveyance of said aggregate passes over the upper surface of said conveyor means, and in that said at least one rotor is rotatably mounted about an axis oriented in a second direction parallel to said imaginary plane and perpendicular to said longitudinal direction of said paver.

12. The paver according to claim 10, wherein a first imaginary plane for the conveyance of said aggregate passes over the upper surface of said conveyor means, and in that said at least one rotor is rotatably mounted about an axis oriented in a first direction perpendicular to said imaginary plane.

13. The paver according to claim 12, wherein said plurality of blades projects from said rotor transversely, and preferably in the radial direction.

14. The paver according to claim 13, wherein each blade of said plurality of blades is planar, and in that each blade forms an angle with respect to a horizontal plane.

15. The paver according to claim 13, wherein said plurality of blades are distributed along the height of said rotor in said first vertical direction.

16. The paver according to claim 10, wherein said mixing means comprise at least two rotors with a plurality of blades, and in that said at least two rotors rotate in opposite directions with respect to one another.

17. The paver according to claim 16, wherein said mixing means comprise at least two rotors, a first rotor of said at least two rotors being offset with respect to the second rotor of said at least two rotors in the longitudinal direction.

18. An asphalt aggregate paver for asphalting a surface to be asphalted, said paver comprising a) a receiving hopper for receiving asphalt aggregate, b) width-wise spreading means for distributing said aggregate over said surface to be asphalted, and c) conveyor means arranged between said receiving hopper and said spreading means for feeding said spreading means, by conveying said aggregate from said receiving hopper to said spreading means in a longitudinal direction, wherein it further comprises d) mixing means, said mixing means being a separate element of said conveyor means, e) said mixing means being arranged between said receiving hopper and said spreading means and said mixing means being movable with respect to said conveyor means for stirring said aggregate when it is conveyed from said receiving hopper to said spreading means, and f) said mixing means being arranged outside and after said receiving hopper, wherein said mixing means comprise at least one rotor with a plurality of blades, said at least one rotor being rotatably mounted about an axis transverse to the longitudinal direction of said paver.

19. An asphalt aggregate paver for asphalting a surface to be asphalted, said paver comprising a) a receiving hopper for receiving asphalt aggregate, b) width-wise spreading means for distributing said aggregate over said surface to be asphalted, and c) conveyor means arranged between said receiving hopper and said spreading means for feeding said spreading means, by conveying said aggregate from said receiving hopper to said spreading means in a longitudinal direction, wherein it further comprises d) mixing means, said mixing means being a separate element of said conveyor means, e) said mixing means being arranged between said receiving hopper and said spreading means and said mixing means being movable with respect to said conveyor means for stirring said aggregate when it is conveyed from said receiving hopper to said spreading means, and f) said mixing means being arranged outside and after said receiving hopper, wherein said mixing means are arranged inside a casing, after said receiving hopper, separating said mixing means from said receiving hopper, and wherein said mixing means are rotatably mounted about an axis.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Further advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the following description, in which, without any limiting character, preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a schematic side view of a known method for spreading asphalt aggregate.

(3) FIG. 2 shows a schematic side view of the method for spreading asphalt aggregate according to the invention.

(4) FIG. 3 shows a schematic side view of an asphalt aggregate paver according to the invention.

(5) FIG. 4 shows a schematic sectioned top plan view of the paver of FIG. 3.

(6) FIG. 5 shows a schematic front detail view of the mixing means of the paver of FIG. 3.

(7) FIG. 6 shows a schematic front view of the paver of FIG. 3 with the receiving hopper in the maximum loading volume position.

(8) FIG. 7 shows a schematic front view of the paver of FIG. 3 with the receiving hopper in minimum loading volume position.

(9) FIG. 8 shows a schematic side view of a second asphalt aggregate paver according to the invention.

(10) FIG. 9 shows a schematic front detail view of the mixing means of the paver of FIG. 8.

(11) FIG. 10 shows a schematic side view of a third asphalt aggregate paver according to the invention.

(12) FIG. 11 shows a schematic front detail view of the mixing means of the paver of FIG. 10.

(13) FIG. 12 shows a schematic side view of a fourth asphalt aggregate paver according to the invention.

(14) FIG. 13 shows a schematic sectioned top plan view of the paver of FIG. 12.

(15) FIG. 14 shows a schematic front view of a fifth asphalt aggregate paver with the receiving hopper in the maximum loading volume position.

(16) FIG. 15 shows a schematic side view of the paver of FIG. 14.

(17) FIG. 16 shows a front perspective detail view of the mixing means of the paver of FIG. 14.

(18) FIG. 17 shows a bottom perspective view of the mixing means of the paver of FIG. 14.

(19) FIG. 18 shows a schematic top plan view of the inner mechanism of the mixing means of the paver of FIG. 14.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(20) FIGS. 3 to 7 show a first embodiment of the asphalt aggregate paver 1 according to the invention for asphalting a surface 116 to be asphalted.

(21) The paver 1 has a control cabin 18 under which the spreading elements are arranged.

(22) From right to left in FIG. 3, the paver 1 has a receiving hopper 2 for receiving asphalt aggregate. As can be seen in FIGS. 6 and 7, the receiving hopper 2 comprises two semi-casings 20, each of which is mounted in a rocking manner with respect to the body of the paver 1, about a longitudinal axis. This allows the aggregate not to get caught in the receiving hopper 2 and to be maximally utilized.

(23) Behind the control cabin 18, the paver 1 has width-wise spreading means 4 for distributing the aggregate over the surface 116 to be asphalted. The spreading means 4 of this embodiment consist of a worm screw. The worm screw has a first half 22, with the blades oriented in one direction, and the second half 24, with the blades oriented in the direction opposite that of the first half 22. The worm screw is arranged in a direction transverse to the longitudinal direction L of the paver 1. The spreading means 4 can thereby distribute the aggregate over the surface 116 to be asphalted on both sides of the central axis of the paver 1.

(24) To feed the spreading means 4, between the receiving hopper 2 and the spreading means 4 there are provided conveyor means 6 for feeding the spreading means 4. The conveyor means 6 convey the aggregate from the receiving hopper 2 to the spreading means 4, in the longitudinal direction L, parallel to the direction of forward movement A. The conveyor means are, for example, an articulated metal plate conveyor belt, capable of withstanding temperatures greater than 100° C. without becoming worn.

(25) To solve the objectives of the invention, the paver 1 furthermore has mixing means 8. These mixing means 8 are a separate element of the conveyor means 6.

(26) The mixing means 8 are arranged between the receiving hopper 2 and the spreading means 4. These mixing means 8 are movable with respect to the conveyor means 6. This movement has a direction that is different from the direction for the conveyance of the aggregate mass indicated by the longitudinal direction L.

(27) The conveyor means 6 are, in that sense, exclusively in charge of longitudinally moving the aggregate mass. In contrast, the mixing means 8 stir the aggregate mass, such that the outer cold layers move towards the center of the mass and the inner hot layers move towards the surface. What matters is that the mixing means 8 and the conveyor means 6 have, at least at some time, different movement speeds and/or different movement directions, which causes the aggregate mass to be stirred.

(28) It can be seen in the figures that the mixing means 8 are arranged outside and after the receiving hopper 2. To that end, the mixing means 8 are arranged inside a casing 10, after the receiving hopper 2. The casing 10 separates the mixing means 8 from the receiving hopper 2. This prevents the dump truck 100 from being able to damage the mixing means 8 when unloading the asphalt mass aggregate.

(29) The mixing means 8 can perform different movements that allow homogenizing the aggregate mass. For example, linear movements in the direction opposite the direction for the conveyance of the aggregate mass can be conceived. The mixing means can also move by undulating movement along the longitudinal direction of conveyance.

(30) Nevertheless, in this embodiment the mixing means 8 are arranged above said conveyor means 6 and are rotatably mounted about an axis.

(31) More particularly, the mixing means 8 of this embodiment are formed by two rotors 14. Each rotor 14 has two blades 16 kneading the aggregate mass during conveyance. Each rotor 14 rotates about an axis transverse to the longitudinal direction L of the paver 1. The rotors 14 rotate in opposite directions with respect to one another, as can be seen with the arrows of FIG. 4.

(32) It can be seen in FIGS. 3 to 5 that in this case the axis of rotation is a vertical axis. Specifically, a first imaginary plane P for the conveyance of the aggregate which corresponds with the upper surface of the conveyor belt of FIG. 3 passes over the upper surface of the conveyor means 6. So in this case, each of the rotors 14 rotates about an axis oriented in a first vertical direction V, being perpendicular to the imaginary plane P. The vertical direction obviously refers to the direction of the drawing, since the actual direction depends on the angle of inclination of the surface to be asphalted.

(33) It can be seen in FIG. 5 that the distal end 12 of the blades that constitute the mixing means 8 adjacent to the conveyor means 6 are arranged at a distance h comprised between 10 and 70 mm above the conveyor belt. In a particularly preferred manner, in order to reduce energy consumption of the mixing means without abandoning good homogenization, the distance h is comprised between 20 and 50 mm.

(34) As a result of the paver 1 according to the invention, a novel asphalting method which is described below can be put into practice.

(35) The asphalting method comprises a first step of receiving an asphalt aggregate mass in a receiving hopper 2.

(36) Then the method comprises a step of conveying said aggregate mass in a longitudinal direction L, from said receiving hopper 2 to spreading means 4 configured for carrying out a step of spreading said aggregate width-wise over the surface 116 to be asphalted.

(37) The method according to the invention comprises a step of mixing said asphalt aggregate using mixing means 8, said mixing step taking place between said receiving step and said spreading step for spreading the mass over the surface to be asphalted, said mixing step being independent of, but simultaneous to, a said conveying step.

(38) Finally, the method comprises a spreading step for spreading said aggregate mass width-wise across said surface to be asphalted.

(39) Said receiving, conveying, mixing, and spreading steps take place in one and the same paver.

(40) Other embodiments of the paver according to the invention which share many of the features described in the preceding paragraphs are shown below. Accordingly, only the different elements will be described hereinafter, whereas reference is made to the description of the first embodiment for the common elements.

(41) FIGS. 8 and 9 show a second paver 1 according to the invention. In this case, the mixing means 8 consist of two cylindrical rotors 14 with blades 16 extending along each of the cylinders.

(42) In this case, the rotors 14 are oriented in a direction that is horizontal and transverse to the longitudinal direction L. More particularly, like in the preceding embodiment, a first imaginary plane P for the conveyance of the aggregate passes over the upper surface of the conveyor means 6. Each of the rotors 14 is rotatably mounted about an axis oriented in a second horizontal direction H, which is parallel to the imaginary plane P. Therefore, this axis is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction L of the paver 1. This arrangement provides a more intense mixing. Nevertheless, it requires a higher mixing power than the preceding embodiment does.

(43) In this embodiment, furthermore, the two rotors 14 are offset with respect to one another. The first rotor 14, off to the side of the receiving hopper 2, is spaced from the second rotor 14 in the longitudinal direction L. This also increases homogenization of the aggregate mass in a notable manner.

(44) In the embodiment of FIGS. 10 and 11, the mixing means 8 are two worm screws arranged adjacent to one another, and they are rotatably mounted about axes oriented in the longitudinal direction L. In this case, these two worm screws are arranged after the conveyor belt.

(45) The embodiment of FIGS. 12 and 13 is based on the embodiment of FIGS. 3 to 7. In this case, the main difference consists of the mixing means 8 being formed by six rotors with a plurality of blades 16 arranged in twos. In this case, three rows of rotors 14 are formed. Each pair of rotors 14 of each row rotate in opposite directions with respect to one another, but furthermore, in the longitudinal direction L, the rotors 14 also rotate in directions opposite to the adjacent rotors 14, as indicated by the arrows in FIG. 13.

(46) The paver 1 of FIGS. 14 to 18 is similar to the paver 1 of FIGS. 12 and 13, i.e., the rotors rotate about a vertical axis in the direction of the arrows B in FIG. 16. Furthermore, three pairs of rotors 14 uniformly distributed in the longitudinal direction L are provided in this case.

(47) This embodiment differs from the embodiment of FIGS. 12 and 13 due to the fact that two groups of four blades 16 are provided in each rotor 14. Each group is distributed at a different height of each of the rotors 14 in the first vertical direction V. Depending on the dimensions of the paver 1, more than two groups of blades 16 could be provided.

(48) On the other hand, it should be mentioned that the number of blades 16 in each of the groups should not be interpreted in a limiting manner either, since three, five, or more blades could be provided in each group of one and the same rotor 14.

(49) In each group of blades 16, said blades 16 transversely project from the rotor 14 in the radial direction and are uniformly distributed about its perimeter. In particular, in this case, the blades 16 project perpendicular to the first vertical direction V, each blade forming an angle of 90° with respect to the adjacent blades. The blades 16 consist of laminar steel profiles with a rectangular cross-section, welded onto the axis of the rotor 14.

(50) As can be seen in FIG. 16, to achieve better stirring, each blade of said plurality of blades 16 is planar and has its own generating blade axis 32.

(51) The blade axes 32 of a group of blades are co-planar, in planes perpendicular to the first direction.

(52) It can be seen in FIG. 12 that each blade 16 is tilted about its own blade axis 32, such that it forms an angle α with respect to a horizontal plane, i.e., with respect to the plane perpendicular to the axis of the first vertical direction V. Furthermore, it is particularly preferred for the vertex of the angle α of the blades of the first and third rows of rotors to be located up ahead, in the direction of rotation B of the blades. This orientation of the inclination has the effect of causing an upward pushing on the aggregate mass. This pushing improves the mixing action in the mass. In contrast, in the rotor 14 that is adjacent in the direction of forward movement of the aggregate the vertex of said angle is located in the rear part in the direction of rotation of said rotor. FIG. 15 shows this situation, in which despite the three pairs of rotors being identical, the rotors 14 in the middle rotate in the opposite direction of the first and third pairs of rotors.

(53) In another embodiment not shown in the drawings, the blades 16 can be formed having a certain curvature along a generating trajectory.

(54) Finally, the driving principle of the six rotors 14 of this embodiment can be observed in FIG. 18. The drive wheel 26 is directly connected with the power output of the engine of the paver. In turn, each of the rotors 14 is meshed through a chain 28 with the drive wheel. As a result of this mechanism, two rotors 14 that are adjacent in the longitudinal direction L rotate in opposite directions.

(55) A tensioning sprocket 30 which keeps the chain taut at all times as a result of it being movable in the direction of the double arrow C of FIG. 18 is also provided.

(56) Finally, the effect of the inclination of the blades 16 with respect to their own axis depending on the direction of rotation of the blades can also be seen in FIG. 18. As can be seen, in the first and third rows of rotors 14, the blades 16 cause an upward movement of the aggregate. In contrast, in the second row of rotors 14, when the blades 16 rotate they cause a downward movement of the aggregate.

(57) While the present disclosure has been illustrated and described with respect to a particular embodiment thereof, it should be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that various modifications to this disclosure may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.