US 7,510,225 B1Granted

Combined manure fork and fan-type shavings blower

OwnerRosemarie Stinnett, Lee Steininventors

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Abstract

For conserving bedding material such as wood shavings when cleaning livestock environments such as horse stalls, a lightweight manure fork, specially configured with an open flat working region with relatively short tines, is combined with a highly efficient fan-type blower unit attached to the handle. Delivering air-flow onto the tined working region in short blasts under finger control, the worker simply manipulates the fork in the normal manner to remove the manure; the loose bedding material is blown off the fork and back onto surrounding regions of the stall, thus saving a substantial portion of the usual replenishment costs. The invention thus accomplishes substantial overall cost savings and environmental conservation without requiring special supervision, unusual diligence, effort or skill on the part of the worker.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A combined manure fork and air blower, directed to conservation of bedding material in cleaning of livestock environments, comprising:

a tined portion of the fork in an open configuration with a substantially flat main floor region of which a major portion is made solid and a minor portion extends forward therefrom as a row of tines;
a handle attached to and extending from said tined portion;
at least one fan-type air blower, attached to said handle near said tined portion, made and arranged to generate a sufficient flow of air directed in a manner to blow loose livestock bedding material off said tined portion, thus enabling a worker, manipulating the tined portion in a conventional manner for cleaning the livestock environments, to blow off and recycle the bedding material;
said air blower comprising an electric motor, cylindrical in shape, having a rotational central shaft, and a fan having a plurality of fan blades affixed onto a hub secured onto the central shaft of said electric motor, the fan blades extending radially substantially beyond an outer diameter extent of said electric motor;
a tubular inner sleeve closely surrounding and attached to said electric motor;
a tubular outer shell, co-axially surrounding said motor, made, arranged and dimensioned internally to provide working clearance around said fan and to provide an annular passageway for air-flow associated therewith;
sleeve-to-shell spacer means made and arranged to locate and support said inner sleeve co-axially relative to said outer shell in a manner that allows the air-flow through the annular passageway;
and
handle-mounting means made and arranged to attach said tubular outer shell to said handle in a location selected to direct the air-flow onto said tined portion in an optimal manner to remove bedding material.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.