Down-the-hole hammer with adjustable air consumption
AssigneeCaterpillar Inc.
InventorsKoushik Kabiraj, Akshay Deepak Mate, Ebi Bernard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A down-the-hole hammer includes a barrel having a longitudinal axis and defining a middle chamber and a bottom chamber, a piston defining a top chamber and slidable within the barrel between the middle chamber and the bottom chamber, a control tube having a distal port, and an air distributor having a first distal port and a second distal port. The control tube is indexable between a plurality of rotational positions to adjust which of the first distal port and the second distal port of the air distributor is aligned with the distal port of the control tube.
Claims17
A down-the-hole hammer comprising:
- a barrel having a longitudinal axis and defining a middle chamber and a bottom chamber;
- a piston defining a top chamber and slidable within the barrel between the middle chamber and the bottom chamber,
- a control tube having a distal port;
- an air distributor having a first distal port and a second distal port;
- and
- a check valve plug rotationally locked to the control tube, the check valve plug comprising a tool interface for receiving a tool for rotating the check valve plug,
- wherein the control tube is indexable between a plurality of rotational positions to adjust which of the first distal port and the second distal port of the air distributor is aligned with the distal port of the control tube.
A method for adjusting an air consumption of a down-the-hole hammer comprising a control tube and an air distributor, wherein the control tube comprises a distal port, wherein the air distributor comprises a first distal port and a second distal port, wherein the first distal port of the air distributor corresponds to a first target air flow rate and the second distal port of the air distributor corresponds to a second target air flow rate, the method comprising:
- rotating the control tube relative to the air distributor so that the distal port of the control tube aligns with one of the first distal port and the second distal port of the air distributor, comprising rotating a check valve plug rotationally locked to the control tube to cause the control tube to rotate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.