Environmental shield for a truck mounted concrete mixer

A concrete mixer comprising:

• a rotatable drum maintained in a frame;
• a drum opening at one end of the drum operable to receive contents to be agitated and further operable to discharge agitated contents from the drum;
• a motor operably coupled to the drum to rotate the drum in the frame;
• a charging hopper including a chute, a charging opening and a discharge opening;
• the charging hopper operably disposed proximate the drum opening;
• an environmental shield operably disposed proximate the discharge opening of the charging hopper;
• the environmental shield including a discharge cover having respective first and second faces, a first edge and generally curved second edge;
• the discharge cover operably coupled to the chute along the first edge;
• a generally flexible sealing member operably disposed on the second generally curved edge of the discharge cover, with the generally flexible sealing member operable to engage the drum opening such that undesired leakage of contents therefrom may be reduced;
• and
• a plurality of spring biased shield fingers operably coupled to the discharge cover and the generally flexible sealing member;
• and
• wherein the spring biased shield fingers are operable to maintain a leakage reducing seal between the generally flexible sealing member and at least a portion of the drum opening.

A concrete mixer comprising:

• a rotatable drum maintained in a frame;
• a drum opening at one end of the drum operable to receive contents to be agitated and further operable to discharge agitated contents from the drum;
• a motor operably coupled to the drum to rotate the drum in the frame;
• a charging hopper including a chute, a charging opening and a discharge opening;
• the charging hopper operably disposed proximate the drum opening;
• an environmental shield operably disposed proximate the discharge opening of the charging hopper;
• the environmental shield including a discharge cover having respective first and second faces, a first edge and generally curved second edge;
• the discharge cover operably coupled to the chute along the first edge;
• a generally flexible sealing member operably disposed on the second generally curved edge of the discharge cover;
• with the generally flexible sealing member operable to engage the drum opening such that undesired leakage of contents therefrom may be reduced;
• and
• a plurality of studs operably coupled to the generally curved second edge of the discharge cover;
• with the studs operable to couple the generally flexible sealing member to the discharge cover.

A concrete mixer truck having a rotatable mixer mounted thereon, the rotatable mixer including a drum with a drum opening at one end for receiving contents into and discharging contents from the drum comprising:

• a charging hopper having a discharge opening proximate a first end of a chute and a charging opening proximate a second end of the chute;
• the discharge opening disposed proximate the drum opening when the charging hopper is in a first position;
• an environmental shield operably disposed proximate the discharge opening of the charging hopper when the charging hopper is in the first position;
• the environmental shield including a discharge cover and at least one sealing member operably coupled thereto with the sealing member operable to engage at least a lower portion of the drum opening when the charging hopper is in the first position such that leakage of contents therefrom may be reduced and
• a plurality of shield fingers operably disposed proximate a first edge of the discharge cover;
• with the shield fingers operable to maintain the engagement between the sealing member and the drum opening when the charging hopper is in the first position.