Radiator sand screen mounting arrangement

A sand screen mounting arrangement for a vehicle having an engine compartment housing a fan oppositely aligned to a radiator including a plurality of screen members. The screen members are generally rectangular in shape and have a lip formed on one short side and a plurality of clips formed on the other short side for mounting within the compartment. The screen members are vertically stacked in close adjacent proximity to said radiator to rails mounted to respective sides of the radiator. An access door is provided in the engine compartment and fan shroud to allow removal of the screen members.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to radiator sand screen mounting. 
Off-road vehicles are often called upon to operate in sandy soil whereupon 
airborne sand particles are frequently drawn into the engine compartment 
in response to the air flow generated by the vehicle's engine cooling 
system. An engine driven fan forces air through a heat exchanger thereby 
transferring heat energy from the engine coolant fluid to the traversing 
air. The sand particles within the traversing air stream impact the 
cooling vanes of the radiator at such an angle as to create an erosive 
effect on the cooling vanes. It is known that the erosive effect of 
particulates can be reduced by using a sand screen which directs the fan 
generated air stream perpendicularly through the radiator vane such that 
the sand particles do not impact the radiator vanes. 
It is often necessary to remove items plugged within the radiator core and 
sand screen. Conventional designs for mounting the sand screen and the 
radiator require that the sand screen be completely removed from the 
vehicle in order to clean the radiator core, and often times require 
disassembly of the vehicle's hood, grill housing, fan shroud, radiator 
supports and upper and lower radiator hoses and both engine compartment 
side shields. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to present a sand screen mounting 
arrangement which permits removal of the sand screen without disassembly 
of other engine compartment components. 
The engine compartment of some off-road vehicles includes a blower fan 
driven by an engine. Mounted adjacent to the blower fan is a radiator. A 
shroud is mounted within the engine compartment to extend between the 
radiator and the fan. Rails are mounted to respective vertical sides of 
the radiator to allow the sand screens to be vertically stacked and 
detachably mounted to the rails between the radiator and blower fan. Each 
screen has a generally rectangular shape and is mounted longitudinally 
lengthwise. At one vertical side of each screen is formed a plurality of 
clips to allow the screen to be clipped to one rail and formed along the 
other vertical side of each screen is a lip to allow the lip to be 
fastened to another rail by such means as screw. An access door is 
provided in the engine compartment hood and in the shroud to allow the 
screens to be removed therethrough without disturbing other engine 
compartment components.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring to FIG. 1 and 2, an off-road vehicle 11, such as a wheeled 
loader, includes an engine compartment 13 located rearwardly on the 
vehicle 11. Fixably mounted in the engine compartment 13 to the vehicle's 
frame 15 in a conventional manner in an engine (not shown) which among 
other things drives a blower fan 17 in a conventional manner. The blower 
fan 17 includes a plurality of radially spaced apart fan blades 19. 
Fixably mounted within the engine compartment 13 in a conventional manner 
opposite and in spaced apart relationship to blower fan 17 is a radiator 
21. Also, fixably mounted in a conventional manner within the engine 
compartment 13 opposite to the blower fan 17 and to the side of radiator 
21 is a heat exchanger 23. The heat exchanger 23 is conventionally 
associated with the vehicle's transmission cooling system which is well 
known to those skilled in the art. A shroud 25 is fixably mounted by any 
conventional means to extend depthwise between the radiator and a blower 
fan 17. The shroud 25 has a top portion 27 which extends forward and 
beyond the blower fan 17. 
Conventionally, the blower fan 16 draws ambient air into the engine 
compartment 13 and propells the drawn air through the shroud 25 to 
traverse the radiator 21 and heater exchanger 23. In this customary 
manner, fluid traveling through the radiator 21 and heat exchanger 23 is 
cooled. To protect primarily the radiator 21 from premature failure due to 
erosive properties of airborne and particles, a sand screen 29 is fixedly 
mounted immediately adjacent to the radiator 21 between the blower fan 17 
and radiator 21 on rails 31 and 33 in a manner to be described. 
Referring more particularly to FIGS. 2, 4a and 4b, comprising the sand 
screen 29 is a plurality of screen members 35, 36 and 37, respectively, 
vertically stacked. In the preferred embodiment, each screen member 35, 36 
and 37 is formed identically, therefore, in the interest of brevity, only 
screen member 36 will be described in detail. Preferably, screen member 36 
is a composition of a molded polymeric material, such as plastic. Screen 
member 36 is molded to have a core forming a plurality of generally 
rectangular cone shaped cells 39 of uniform thickness "t". The screen 
member 36 is molded such that each cell 39 is open ended and has a 
slightly diverging cross-sectional area with the divergence opposite the 
radiator 21. A lip 41 is formed molded vertically along one side of screen 
member 36 and a plurality of clips 43 are formed molded sequentially 
spaced apart and vertically along an opposite side of screen member 37. 
Rail 31 has a generally L-shaped cross section, and is fixedly mounted 
vertically along sidewall 45 of radiator 21 by any conventional means such 
as welding. The rail 31 includes a side 47 extending generally vertical 
and parallel to the inward face of radiator 21 such that lip 41 of screen 
member 36 can be positioned abutting along saide 47 and secured thereto by 
any conventional means such as screw 49. Rail 33 has a generally L-shaped 
cross section and is fixably mounted vertically along sidewall 51 of 
radiator 21 by any conventional means such as welding. The rail 33 
includes a side 53 extending generally vertical and parallel to the inward 
face of radiator 21 such that clips 43 of screen member 36 can be securely 
clipped to rail 33. In such manner, each screen member 35, 36 and 37 is 
detachably mounted to extend transversely across the inward face of 
radiator 21. 
Referring to FIG. 2, it is observed that the shroud 25 has an access door 
55 detachably mounted thereto by any conventional means such as a bolt 57. 
It is also observed that engine compartment hood 59 has a access door 61 
detachably mounted thereto by any conventional means aligned vertically 
opposite to access door 55. The screen members 35 and 37 can be removed in 
a manner identical to the removal of screen member 36 by opening door 61 
to allow access door 55 to be detached and withdrawn from the engine 
compartment 13. One is then able to gain access through the engine 
compartment hood and opening is shroud 25 to remove screw 49 and release 
clips 43. Thereafter, the screen member 37 may be rotated approximately 90 
degrees and drawn through the opening and through the engine compartment 
hood.