US 4,050,594 AGranted

Refuse loading apparatus

AssigneeLeach Corporation

InventorCyril R. Gollnick

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Abstract

A refuse loading apparatus for use in the hopper of a tailgate loading assembly at the rear of a vehicle having a refuse storage body. The packer plate is powered by a hydraulic actuation system including a first pair of hydraulic cylinders which cause rearward and forward motion of the packer plate, and a second pair of hydraulic cylinders which cause elevational movement of the packer plate in the hopper. The packer plate is guided and restrained in its movement by the interior parameters of the hopper and the limits of the hydraulic cylinder movement. The pairs of hydraulic cylinders are interconnected through the hydraulic actuator system such that when the hydraulic cylinders are fully extended, or when the packer plate contacts an obstruction, whether it be the parameters of the hopper or refuse which it cannot move through the hopper, the packer plate changes direction and moves toward completion of a cycle through the hopper. The packer plate will automatically move over any obstruction which it cannot push through the hopper so that an operator can remove the obstruction or condition it such that the packer plate will move it through the hopper and into the storage body.

Claims4

Dependent claims

In a refuse collection and transport vehicle of the type having a refuse storage body and a hopper for receiving refuse therein, loading apparatus for transporting batches of refuse from said hopper to said storage body, said loading apparatus including:

means including a packer plate positioned in said hopper for removing refuse therefrom,
actuating means including means for supporting said packer plate in said hopper,
said actuating means having means including a first hydraulic ram mounted in operative communication between said packer plate means and either one of said hopper and said storage body for controlling the vertical position of said packer plate in said hopper and means including a second hydraulic ram mounted in operative communication between said packer plate means and either one of said hopper and said storage body for urging said packer plate through said hopper;
said first hydraulic ram and said second hydraulic ram coacting to move said packer plate on an operating path therethrough so as to scoop batches of refuse contained therein into said storage body;
and
the improvement wherein
said second hydraulic ram is dominant over said first hydraulic ram,
said second hydraulic ram including means acting through said packer plate means for changing the movement of said first hydraulic ram against the direction of energised movement thereof, and
said change in movement of said first hydraulic ram being capable of extending over a substantial portion of the total operative length of travel thereof.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.