Tooth to adapter coupler

Couplers have been utilized to connect a tooth to an adapter of an implement. It is advantageous to have a coupler that effectively and efficiently transfers forces subjected to the tooth to the adapter of the implement. Furthermore, it is advantageous to have a coupler that can be quickly and easily mounted to the adapter and likewise is able to quickly and easily assemble and disassemble a tooth thereto. In the subject arrangement, a coupler is provided and has a tooth mounting portion with a nose portion having a pair of load bearing surfaces, a pair of spaced apart grooves, a pin opening, and a transverse opening that is oriented perpendicular with and in intersecting relationship with the pin opening. The coupler also includes an adapter receiving portion which has a cavity defined therein with a pair of spaced apart load transferring surfaces located in the cavity generally adjacent the bottom thereof and a retainer opening defined therein in intersecting relationship with the cavity. The subject arrangement effectively transfers forces from the tip to the adapter of the implement and, likewise, is quick and easy to assemble and disassemble.

TECHNICAL FIELD 
This invention relates generally to a coupler for connecting a tooth to an 
adapter and more specifically to the structure of the coupler. 
BACKGROUND ART 
Couplers have been used in many applications where the teeth and adapters 
that are mounted on an implement are quite large and/or experience high 
frequency of change due to rapid wearing of the respective elements. These 
known couplers must be able to have a tooth quickly assembled thereto or 
disassembled therefrom and likewise the coupler must be capable of being 
quickly assembled to or disassembled from the adapter on the implement. 
Furthermore, high forces imposed on the tooth, during operation, must be 
readily and effectively transferred through the coupler to the adapter on 
the implement in order to maintain maximum operating efficiency. 
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems 
as set forth above. 
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION 
In one aspect of the present invention, a coupler is provided and adapted 
to connect a tooth to an adapter. The coupler has a tooth mounting portion 
having a nose portion with a pair of spaced apart generally parallel 
transverse load bearing surfaces, a pair of generally parallel spaced 
apart grooves located adjacent the nose portion and extending rearwardly 
therefrom, a pair of generally parallel spaced apart mounting surfaces 
located adjacent to and in overlapping relationship with the nose portion, 
a pin opening defined therethrough between the pair of generally parallel 
spaced apart mounting surfaces and oriented generally perpendicular to the 
pair of load bearing surfaces, and a transverse opening defined in the 
nose portion generally perpendicular with and in intersecting relationship 
with the pin opening. The coupler also has an adapter receiving portion 
having an end surface, a cavity defined therein extending inwardly from 
the end surface, a retaining opening defined therein in intersecting 
relationship with the cavity, and a pair of spaced apart generally 
parallel load transferring surfaces located in the cavity generally 
adjacent the bottom thereof. 
The present invention provides a coupler that enables a tooth to be quickly 
mounted thereon and is effective to readily transfer forces from the tooth 
to an adapter mounted on an implement.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION 
Referring to the drawings, a coupler 10 is shown and adapted for connecting 
a tooth (not shown) to an adapter (not shown). The coupler has a tooth 
mounting portion 12 and a longitudinally disposed adapter receiving 
portion 14. The tooth mounting portion 12 has a nose portion 16 with a 
pair of spaced apart generally parallel transverse load bearing surfaces 
18 located adjacent an end surface 20 thereof. 
A pair of generally parallel spaced apart grooves 22 are disposed on the 
tooth mounting portion located adjacent the nose portion 16 and extends 
rearwardly therefrom. Each groove of the pair of spaced apart grooves 22 
is defined by a pair of side wall surfaces 24 angled one relative to the 
other, an end wall surface 26 and a generally flat bottom surface 28. 
A pair of generally spaced apart mounting surfaces 30 are provided on the 
tooth mounting portion 12 and located and in overlapping relation with the 
nose portion 16. A pin opening 32 is defined in the tooth mounting portion 
12 between the pair of spaced apart mounting surfaces 30 and oriented 
generally perpendicular to the pair of load bearing surfaces 18. A 
transverse opening 34 is defined in the nose portion 16 and oriented 
generally perpendicular with and in intersecting relationship with the pin 
opening 32. 
The adapter receiving portion 14 has an end surface 38 and a cavity 40 
defined therein extending inwardly from the end surface 38. A pair of 
aligned retainer openings 42, 42' each have an inner end located adjacent 
the cavity 40 and an outer end adjacent the outer side of the adapter 
receiving portion 14. The openings 42, 42' extend through the adapter 
receiving portion 14 in intersecting relationship with the cavity 40. A 
first protuberance 44 is disposed in one of the retainer openings 42 and 
located generally adjacent one end of the one retainer opening and on the 
side of the opening nearest the end surface 38. In the subject embodiment, 
the first protuberance 44 is located immediately adjacent the one end of 
the one retainer opening 42. In the subject arrangement, as illustrated in 
FIG. 3, the first protuberance 44 is a flat surface formed by material 
occupying a chordal sector of the retainer opening 42. A second 
protuberance 46 is disposed in a portion of the other retainer opening 42' 
and located immediately adjacent the outer end of the other retainer 
opening 42' and on the side nearest the end surface 38 of the adapter 
receiving portion 14. 
A pair of spaced apart generally parallel load transferring surfaces 48 are 
disposed in the adapter receiving portion 14 and located in the cavity 40 
adjacent the bottom thereof. The pair of load transferring surfaces 48 are 
oriented parallel with and in alignment with the pair of load bearing 
surfaces 18 of the tooth mounting portion 12. 
Each surface of the pair of side wall surfaces 24 form an angle in the 
range of 4 to 8 degrees with respect to a reference plane 50. The 
respective side wall surfaces of the pair of side wall surfaces 24 are 
preferably angled with respect to the reference plane 50 at an angle of 
approximately 6 degrees. The reference plane 50 is parallel with and 
passes through the transverse opening 34 and is oriented perpendicular to 
both the pin opening 32 and the retainer opening 42. The pair of angled 
side wall surfaces 24 are farthest apart along the intersection thereof 
with the generally flat bottom surface 28. 
A lifting eye 52 is disposed on the coupler 10 and located generally 
between the pin opening 32 and retainer opening 42 and operative to 
provide a connection for a lifting device for handling the coupler 10. 
It is recognized that various forms of the coupler 10 could be utilized 
without departing from the essence of the invention. For example, if the 
size of the coupler is sufficiently small, the lifting eye 52 would not be 
needed. Furthermore, even though the first and second protuberances 44,46 
are illustrated as material filling a chordal sector of the retainer 
opening 42 at opposite ends thereof, the first and second protuberances 
44,46 could be formed by various methods. Additionally, the first and 
second protuberances could be located anywhere along the retainer opening 
42 as opposed to being located immediately adjacent the opposite ends 
thereof as illustrated or could be completely eliminated. Likewise, the 
pair of side wall surfaces 24 of the respective grooves of the pair of 
spaced apart grooves 22 could be oriented parallel with the reference 
plane 50 instead of being angled therewith. 
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY 
In the assembly and operation of the coupler 10, the coupler 10 is mounted 
on the adapter of the implement in such a manner that the cavity 40 
encircles a portion of the adapter and a locking pin is placed through the 
retainer opening 42 to secure the coupler 10 to the adapter. Once the 
coupler 10 is secured to the adapter, a pin retaining member (not shown) 
is placed in the transverse opening 34 and the tooth is placed on the 
tooth mounting portion 12 such that tongues on the tooth are located in 
the respective ones of the pair of spaced apart grooves 22. The tooth is 
secured in position by a pin (not shown) being placed through openings in 
the tooth and the aligned pin opening 32, thus, securing the tooth in the 
installed position. The pin is held in its assembled position by the pin 
retaining member. The assembly and disassembly of the coupler to the 
adapter and the tooth to the coupler is both quick and relatively easy to 
accomplish. 
The pair of load bearing surfaces 18 on the tooth mounting portion 12 are 
operative to effectively transfer any loads being encountered by the tooth 
into the coupler 10. The pair of spaced apart load transferring surfaces 
48 located in the cavity 40 then effectively transfers the noted forces 
effectively into corresponding surfaces on the adapter of the implement. 
The pair of side wall surfaces 24 of the pair of spaced apart grooves 22 
are operative in use to mate with complementary surfaces on the tongues of 
the tooth to retain the tongues in their assembled position and to also 
receive forces therefrom and transfer the forces into the adapter. Since 
this arrangement effectively transfers forces from the tooth to the 
adapter of the implement, the coupler is very effective when being 
operated in harsh operating conditions. 
Other aspects, objects and advantages of this invention can be obtained 
through a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims.