Pipelayer machine having hoisting system with pivotable fairlead
AssigneeCaterpillar Inc.
InventorsShawn Philip Fanello, Timothy Edward Camacho
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A machine includes a frame, ground-engaging elements coupled to the frame, and a hoisting system having a sideboom and a fairlead. The hoisting system also includes a hook pulley block and a hoisting cable extending through the fairlead and the hook pulley block and held in tension such that the hoisting cable couples pivoting of the fairlead to pivoting of the sideboom. The pivotable fairlead may be instrumented with position, cable loading, and cable feed sensors.
Claims37
A fairlead for a hoisting system in a ground-engaging machine comprising:
- a fairlead base for coupling to a frame of the ground-engaging machine;
- a fairlead boom;
- a pivot joint pivotably coupling the fairlead boom to the fairlead base;
- a plurality of feed pulleys mounted to the fairlead boom for feeding a hoisting cable through the fairlead between a winch assembly and a sideboom in the ground-engaging machine;
- and
- instrumentation circuitry including a wiring harness structured for electrically connecting to hoisting control circuitry onboard the ground-engaging machine.
A hoisting system for a ground-engaging machine comprising:
- a winch assembly;
- a sideboom;
- a fairlead for feeding a hoisting cable between the winch assembly and the sideboom;
- the fairlead including a fairlead base structured for coupling to a frame of the ground-engaging machine, a fairlead boom, and a pivot joint pivotably coupling the fairlead boom to the fairlead base;
- and
- a control system including instrumentation circuitry resident on the fairlead and having a wiring harness for electrically connecting to hoisting control circuitry onboard the ground-engaging machine.
A method of operating a ground-engaging machine comprising:
- producing a fairlead monitoring signal indicative of an orientation of a fairlead in a hoisting system of the ground-engaging machine, the fairlead being supported upon a frame of the ground-engaging machine and pivotable about a fairlead pivot axis relative to the frame;
- producing a load monitoring signal indicative of a load on a hoisting cable guided by the fairlead to and from a sideboom pivotable about a sideboom pivot axis relative to the frame;
- and
- outputting an overload alert based on the fairlead monitoring signal and the load monitoring signal.
A machine comprising:
- a frame including a front frame end and a back frame end;
- ground-engaging elements coupled to the frame;
- an operator station coupled to the frame;
- a hoisting system including a sideboom, a winch assembly, and a fairlead, coupled to the frame;
- the sideboom being pivotable about a sideboom pivot axis to vary an orientation of the sideboom between a raised sideboom position, and a lowered sideboom position at which the sideboom extends outboard of the frame;
- and
- the fairlead being supported upon the frame at a fairlead mounting location that is longitudinally between the front frame end and the back frame end and latitudinally between the sideboom and the winch assembly, and being pivotable about a fairlead pivot axis so as to position the fairlead at a range of orientations for feeding a hoisting cable between the winch assembly and the sideboom.
A fairlead for a ground-engaging machine comprising:
- a fairlead base structured for coupling to a frame of the ground-engaging machine;
- a fairlead boom including a first boom end and a second boom end, and having a through-channel extending between an inboard boom side and an outboard boom side at a location between the first boom end and the second boom end;
- a pivot joint pivotably coupling the fairlead boom to the fairlead base and defining a fairlead pivot axis;
- and
- a first feed pulley and a second feed pulley each mounted to the fairlead boom and positioned at least partially within the through-channel, and being arranged so as to feed a hoisting cable passed between the first feed pulley and the second feed pulley between a winch assembly and a sideboom in the machine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.