Patent ID: 8382396
Filing Date: 2013-02-26
Classification: E01C

Abstract:
1. A paver for laying down a strip of concrete over a ground surface and for intermittently inserting into the strip spaced-apart dowel bars that are oriented substantially parallel to the length of the strip being laid down, the paver comprising: a tractor including a support structure and a propulsion system for moving the paver along the ground in a travel direction, a dowel bar inserter unit for orienting the dowel bars substantially parallel to the travel direction of the tractor and placing the dowel bars into the concrete while the strip is being laid down, the inserter unit including: a pair of spaced-apart, endless transport chains oriented transversely to the travel direction and substantially extending across a width of the inserter unit, each chain defining upper and lower strands, chain turn-around sections at respective ends of the chain strands, and an exterior chain side that faces away from the chain, a plurality of pairs of generally L-shaped cups, each pair of aligned cups being secured oppositely to each other on the respective exterior chain sides for holding a dowel bar so that the dowel bar can drop downwardly from the cups towards the concrete strip when the pair of cups holding the dowel bar are on the exterior chain side facing downwardly, a drive for moving the chains in a single direction, and a dowel bar holding magazine disposed above the upwardly facing sides of the chains, storing a multiplicity of dowel bars, and configured to drop a single dowel bar into empty pairs of cups as the chains move the cups past a dowel bar loading station defined by the magazine proximate one of the chain turn-around sections; wherein the dowel bar holding magazine is defined by a pair of spaced-apart, substantially parallel magazine plates having aligned, downwardly extending, dowel bar holding slots having downwardly open ends located at the dowel bar loading station; and wherein the dowel bar inserter unit includes a shuttle bar extending over a width of the inserter unit for supporting dowel bars transported by the inserter unit across the width of the concrete strip, and including a dowel bar turn-around guide cooperatively coupled to the magazine plates for guiding the dowel bars being moved by the cups from the loading station to the shuttle bar.