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US 8,240,070 B1Granted
Material conveyor system container
AssigneeMaxi-Lift, Inc.
InventorsPaul D. Phillips, Jon D. Fisher, Victor A. Sahm, III
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Molded polymer elevator buckets are reinforced by tapering the thickness of front and sidewalls and integral arcuate corner parts to improve bucket life without significant weight increase or reduced bucket capacity. Front lip wear indicators may be molded into the front wall section delimited by the lip and/or on the arcuate corner parts.
Claims19
An elevator bucket, comprising:
- a back wall, a bottom wall, opposed sidewalls and a front wall joined to the opposed sidewalls forming an open top, the front wall joined to the opposed sidewalls by arcuate corner parts, the front wall having a lip extending between the opposed sidewalls;
- wherein the thickness of the front wall and the arcuate corner parts is increased and gradually tapers to a lesser thickness from the lip to the back wall to maintain a constant working volume of the elevator bucket;
- and
- wherein a single material defines the thickness of the front wall and the arcuate corner parts.
1 more element
An elevator bucket, comprising:
- a back wall, a pair of opposed sidewalls and a planar bottom wall forming an upper opening;
- wherein the planar bottom wall has an increased thickness portion and a tapered thickness portion blending into a reduced thickness from a front lip to the back wall to increase the life of the bucket;
- wherein the increased thickness portion, the tapered thickness portion, and the planar bottom wall each are formed of the same uniform material;
- and
- wherein the bottom wall is joined to the opposed sidewalls by arcuate corner parts, the arcuate corner parts having an increased thickness portion and a tapered thickness portion blending into the reduced thickness.
2 more elements
A method of manufacturing an elevator bucket, comprising:
- forming a back wall;
- forming opposed sidewalls;
- and
- forming from a uniform material a planar front wall and an arcuate corner part at a juncture of the planar front wall with one of the opposed sidewalls, the planar front wall and the arcuate corner part each having an increased thickness portion and a tapered thickness portion, blending into a reduced thickness the increased thickness portion of the planar front wall defining a lip.
1 more element
An elevator bucket, comprising:
- a single uniform body formed of a single uniform material having portions comprising:
- a back wall, a pair of opposed sidewalks, and a bottom wall, the bottom wall having a lip portion opposite the back wall;
- a junction of each sidewall with the lip portion of the bottom wall defining respective arcuate edge portions;
- wherein the lip portion has an increased thickness tapering toward a lesser nominal wall thickness of the bottom wall;
- and
- wherein the arcuate edge portions have the increased thickness portion tapering toward the lesser nominal wall thickness of respective sidewalk.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.