US 11,866,904 B2
Face shovel and method of operation
Marcus Bitter, Dortmund (DE)
Assigned to Caterpillar Global Mining LLC, Tucson, AZ (US)
Appl. No. 16/972,421
Filed by Caterpillar Global Mining LLC, Tucson, AZ (US)
PCT Filed Jun. 6, 2019, PCT No. PCT/US2019/035804
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Dec. 4, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/236855, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 12, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 1809326 (GB), filed on Jun. 6, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0230827 A1, Jul. 29, 2021
Int. Cl. E02F 3/30 (2006.01); E02F 3/407 (2006.01); E02F 3/42 (2006.01); E02F 3/43 (2006.01); E02F 9/20 (2006.01)
CPC E02F 3/308 (2013.01) [E02F 3/4075 (2013.01); E02F 3/422 (2013.01); E02F 3/435 (2013.01); E02F 9/2004 (2013.01); E02F 3/437 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A digging machine comprising:
a bucket,
an arm assembly supporting the bucket,
an actuator assembly for moving the bucket and arm assembly to crowd loose material into the bucket and to dump the loose material from the bucket, and
a control system including user controls, the control system being arranged to control the operation of the actuator assembly responsive to user commands received via the user controls;
the bucket comprising a front part, a rear part, and a digging aperture through which, in a digging configuration of the front part, loose material may be crowded into the bucket;
the rear part being pivotably mounted on the arm assembly;
the actuator assembly being configured to move the rear part in rotation, when considered in a vertical plane, in opposite, forward and rearward directions through a range of angular positions in an angular range of movement, wherein in the digging configuration of the front part,
the forward direction is defined as an angular movement away from an upwardly facing orientation of the bucket and towards a downwardly facing orientation of the bucket, and
the rearward direction is defined as an angular movement away from the downwardly facing orientation of the bucket and towards the upwardly facing orientation of the bucket;
the front part comprising a leading edge of the digging aperture;
the front part being moveable in rotation by the actuator assembly relative to the rear part between the digging configuration and a dumping configuration, wherein
in the dumping configuration respective edges of the front part and rear part are separated to define between said edges a dumping aperture through which loose material may fall downwardly out of the bucket in the upwardly facing orientation of the bucket, and
in the digging configuration the front and rear parts are closed together to retain the loose material in the bucket in the upwardly facing orientation of the bucket;
wherein the control system is arranged, responsive to at least a dump command received via the user controls, to control the actuator assembly to move the bucket in a dump sequence, the dump sequence comprising a predefined sequence of movements:
(i) in a pre-positioning step, in the digging configuration of the front part, to move the rear part in rotation to a first dump orientation, the first dump orientation being a first predefined angular position or range of angular position of the rear part in the angular range of movement; and then
(ii) after the pre-positioning step, in an opening step, to move the front part from the digging configuration to the dumping configuration.