Concrete leveling apparatus

A concrete leveler comprises rails that are laid on both sides of a poured concrete surface, a traveling beam that spans the rails and freely travels along them, a traveling unit that is mounted so as to be freely movable along the beam in a direction perpendicular with respect to the direction of travel of that beam, and a concrete leveler portion that is provided to the traveling unit, and wherein this concrete leveling portion has a screw that is axially mounted so as to be freely and rotationally driven between support legs of the traveling unit, and that crosses a direction of travel of the traveling unit.

TECHNICAL FIELD 
The present invention relates to a concrete leveling apparatus for 
performing the work of levelling a poured concrete surface when concrete 
floor surfaces and the like are being built. 
BACKGROUND ART 
When concrete floor surfaces and the like are being built, levelling the 
concrete to a smooth surface after it has been poured is conventionally 
performed manually by workers using trowels but not only is such manual 
work inefficient and involve much time, there are also many other problems 
such as a poor accuracy of leveling, and the difficulty of obtaining 
workers to perform it. 
Because of this, efforts are being made to bring into practical application 
machines that automatically run across a poured concrete surface after it 
has been poured and before it has completely hardened and perform the 
leveling of the concrete. 
However, such machines have wheels that run across the poured concrete and 
disturb the levelness of the surface and have another problem in that the 
weight of the machine is directly applied to the poured concrete surface 
and causes other problems of bending or otherwise damaging the steel 
reinforcement beneath the concrete surface. 
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION 
The present invention is configured by a concrete leveler portion that is 
supported to a traveling unit that is driven by a screw and that is 
mounted so as to be freely movable along a traveling beam that travels 
along left and right rails, and that automatically performs the work of 
leveling the poured concrete surface without leaving any tracks in it. 
In addition to this, the screw is configured by a main screw and an 
auxiliary screw so that surplus concrete is suitably discharged to 
portions of the surface that are still to be leveled. 
Furthermore, a vibrator plate or a vibrator plate and trowel are provided 
to the screw so that leveling tracks caused by the screw are leveled out 
by the fine vibration. 
Still furthermore, the height of the vibrator plate is automatically 
adjusted so that suitable leveling work is performed with respect to both 
horizontal or sloped surfaces. 
Yet furthermore, the traveling beam has a self-operating structure that 
does not require the laying of rails.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION 
The following is a description of embodiments of the present invention with 
reference to the appended drawings. 
The concrete leveling apparatus 1 comprises the traveling beam 2 and the 
concrete leveler portion 3 shown in FIG. 1, and the traveling beam 2 is 
provided with self-traveling drive portions 4, 4. 
As shown in FIG. 1 through FIG. 3, the traveling beam 2 is configured from 
rails 5, 5 that are laid on both sides of the poured concrete surface C, 
traveling leg portions 6, 6 that are provided so as to correspond to the 
rails 5, 5, and beam 7 that spans the upper portion between these 
traveling leg portions 6, 6. 
The traveling leg portions 6, 6 are each configured from a lower transverse 
member 8 provided parallel to the respective rail 5, and leg supports 10, 
10 and reinforcing members 11, 11 that are fixed to form a trapezoid shape 
with an upper transverse member 9 which is slightly shorter than the lower 
transverse member 8, and to both ends of the lower transverse member 8 are 
provided rollers 12, 12 so that the traveling beam 2 can travel along the 
rail 5. 
The beam 7 is configured from transverse beams 13, 13 that are provided to 
the top of the upper transverse members 9, 9 of the traveling leg portions 
6, 6, and form a right-angled rectangle with lower cross beams 14, 14 that 
are provided so as to span between the transverse beams 13, 13, and which 
are also provided with end members 15, 15, 15, 15 that slope upwards from 
both end portions of the transverse beams 13, 13 to form triangular 
shapes. To the respective apexes of these triangular shapes are fixed an 
upper cross beam 16 that is parallel to the lower cross beams 14, 14, and 
which is provided with vertical braces 17, 17, 17, 17 that fix the upper 
cross beam 16 and the lower cross beams 14, 14 between the end portions 
16a, 16a of the upper cross beam 16. In addition, a suitable number of 
diagonal braces 18, 18, 18, . . . are fixed between the end members 15, 
15, 15, 15, the lower cross beams 14, 14 and between the upper cross beam 
16 and the lower cross beams 14, 14, while cross struts 19, 19 are fixed 
so as to be parallel to the transverse beams 13, 13, between pairs of end 
members 15, 15. 
The drive portions 4, 4 of the running beam 2 are respectively provided to 
the upper portion of the lower transverse members 8, 8. More specifically, 
each of the drive portions 4, 4 is configured from a pulley 21 that 
engages with the shaft of a geared motor 20 that is mounted to the upper 
portion of the lower transverse member 8, and that has a belt 23 wound 
around a pulley 22 that engages with a shaft of a roller 12 of the lower 
transverse member 8. 
The concrete leveler portion 3 is configured from traveling members 24, 24 
that travel using the lower cross beams 14, 14 as the guide rails, a screw 
26 that is illustrated as being in the form of an auger and which is 
supported by the traveling members 24, 24 via the raising and lowering 
jacks 25, 25 that function as the raising and lowering, and level 
adjustment mechanisms, and a vibrating plate 27. 
To the traveling members 24, 24 are provided frames 28, 28 that sandwich 
the lower cross beams 14, 14 from both sides and perpendicular to these 
frames 28, 28 are provided a linkage member 29. Then an upper roller 30 
and a lower roller 31 are provided as a pair to the frames 28, 28 so as to 
sandwich the lower cross beams 14, 14 from the top and bottom but two 
pairs are provided to one side in the interval and one of these pairs has 
the rotation of the roller drive motor 32 transmitted to it. 
To both ends of the linkage members 29 are vertically provided raising and 
lowering jacks 25, 25 and to the distal ends of these raising and lowering 
jacks 25, 25 is coupled the frame 33, while underneath the frame is 
axially supported the screw 26. One pair of the raising and lowering jacks 
25, 25 has the combined function of a height adjustment and level 
adjustment mechanism, and height adjustment is performed by simultaneous 
operation of both raising and lowering jacks 25, 25, while level 
adjustment is performed by selectively operating either one of the raising 
and lowering jacks 25, 25. 
The height adjustment mechanism and the level adjustment mechanism can of 
course be performed using separate mechanisms. Also, the screw 26 has two 
screw blades 35 around the periphery of the screw shaft 34 and is covered 
from the front upper portion of the screw 26 to the rear lower portion by 
a cover 36. Furthermore, the rotational drive motor 37 of the screw 26 is 
mounted to the frame 33 so that the rotational force is transmitted from 
the motor 37 via the chain 38 to the screw 26. The chain cover is shown in 
the figure by the numeral 39. 
To the side of the rear of the frame 33 is a vibrator plate 27 which is 
supported via arms 40, 40. This vibrating plate 27 has a length that is 
about the same as the screw 26 and to the central portion of this screw 26 
is mounted a vibrator 41. The lower surface of the vibrating plate 27 is a 
smooth leveling surface 42 and the leveling surface 42 is positioned at 
substantially the same height as the lower end of the screw 35. 
Moreover, to the end portion of the frame 33 is provided a laser light 
receiver 43 that receives the laser light l that is emitted from the laser 
light emitter (not shown in the figure) at a planned height, and to the 
central portion of the frame 33 is provided a slope angle detector 44. 
FIG. 6 shows the control system for controlling the level and the height of 
the concrete leveler portion 3 while leveling work is in progress. 
Height control is performed by the laser light receiver 43 detecting the 
height of the concrete leveler portion 3 from the laser light 1 received 
from the laser light emitter 60 which emits the laser light at a planned 
height, while level control is performed by detecting the level of the 
concrete leveler portion 3 from the slope angle detector 44 and inputting 
the respective control signals to the control apparatus 45. 
The control apparatus 45 performs comparison calculation between the input 
values for the height and the slope angle and values that have been set 
beforehand, and the results of this calculation are used as the basis for 
sending instructions for extension and contraction operation to the 
raising and lowering jacks 25, 25. 
The following is a description of the operation of the embodiment described 
above. 
Concrete is poured to a floor or the like and while the poured concrete is 
still in the unhardened status, the raising and lowering jacks 25, 25 are 
operated so that the screw 26 is lowered via the frame 33 of the concrete 
leveler portion 3, and when the lower end of the screw blade 35 is 
positioned at the position of the planned level surface, the leveling 
surface 42 of the lower surface of the vibrating plate 27 is also set to 
the same height position. 
Then, the rotational drive motor 37 of the screw 26 starts and at the same 
time as when a rotational force is applied to the screw 26, the vibrator 
41 also starts and the concrete leveler portion 3 travels along the 
traveling beam 2 so that the screw 26 and the vibrating plate 27 smooth 
the surface of the concrete to a flat surface. When the leveling of the 
concrete surface at that position is finished, the geared motors 20, 20 
start and the traveling beam 2 is moved by a predetermined distance in the 
direction indicated by the white arrow, and stops there, and the concrete 
leveler portion 3 again travels and performs leveling in the same manner 
as has already been described above. At this time, any surplus concrete is 
discharged to the direction of the left in FIG. 4 or the direction of the 
left in FIG. 5 (the leveling direction) by the action of the screw blade 
35. After this, the concrete surface has the leveling tracks caused by the 
screw 26 removed by the leveling surface 42 because of the vibration in 
the up and down direction of the vibrating plate 27, and the surface is 
made a completely smooth surface. In addition, if the surplus concrete is 
discharged to the direction of the right in FIG. 5, then the screw 26 can 
be rotated in the direction of the left in FIG. 4. 
While the operation described above is taking place, the level and the 
height of the concrete leveler portion 3 is continuously detected by the 
laser light receiver 43 and the slope angle detector 44 and those 
converted signals are input to the control apparatus 45, comparison 
calculations are performed between those values and values that have been 
set beforehand, and when a difference of outside an allowable range occurs 
between the two, the control apparatus 45 immediately sends an operating 
instruction to the raising and lowering jacks 25, 25 so that the concrete 
leveler portion 3 is returned to a rated posture. 
In the embodiment described above, the raising and lowering mechanism need 
not be raising and lowering jacks, and can be a mechanical means of a link 
mechanism or the like. Also, the drive portion of the traveling beam is 
shown for the case when it used pulleys and belts but it can also use a 
sprocket and chain, while the drive of the concrete leveler portion can 
use a roller and a guide rail but a rack can be formed to the lower cross 
beam and a combination of this and a pinion used. The drive portion is not 
limited to these however. 
Therefore, according to the present embodiment, a concrete leveling portion 
is provided to the traveling beam that travels on rails that are laid on 
both sides of the poured concrete surface and so the traveling wheels do 
not travel directly upon the poured concrete surface and thus it is 
possible to level the concrete surface without disturbing it and without 
damaging the reinforcing rods beneath the poured concrete surface. In 
addition, it is possible to maintain a constant leveling level for the 
concrete leveling portion because of the rails that are laid on both sides 
of the poured concrete surface. 
Not only this, as in the case of the present embodiment, if a mechanism to 
detect the height and the level of the leveling portion and to perform 
automatic compensation is provided, then it is possible to obtain a level 
surface having good accuracy. 
FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 show an embodiment that can perform compaction of 
aggregate and leveling of the poured concrete surface and that can also 
smoothly finish the surface and the level of the concrete without there 
being any disturbances. 
More specifically, there is a compactor plate 46 provided to the vibrating 
plate 27 on its rear side with respect to the direction of travel. This 
compactor plate 46 is comprised of a flexible plate material such as 
hardened rubber or the like, and as shown in FIG. 7, the base portion 46a 
is mounted by a bolt 47 or the like to the surface on the side of the rear 
of the vibrating plate 27 and the surface of the lower side of the distal 
end 46b is set to a height so that it does not bounce from the poured 
concrete leveling surface C even if the vibrating plate 27 moves up and 
down, and so that the lower surface on the side of the distal end 46b is 
in flexible contact with respect to the set level for the poured concrete 
leveling surface C. 
Moreover, the means of applying flexibility to the compactor plate 46 can 
be the flexibility inherent to the material of the mechanism as described 
above, but as shown in FIG. 8, can also be due to the compactor plate 46 
being configured from a rigid material such as metal or synthetic resin, 
and having the base portion of the compactor plate 46 mounted so as to be 
movable in the up and down direction by a hinge 48 at the rear portion of 
the vibrating plate 27, and so that the lower surface on the side of the 
distal end 46b of the compactor plate 46 is urged by a hinge 49 so that it 
is urged in the downwards direction and is always in contact with the 
poured concrete leveling surface C. 
The vibrator means 41 can use an eccentric motor or the like. 
By this, after there has been leveling by the screw, the surface of the 
concrete is leveled to the leveling surface C by the up and down vibration 
of the vibrating plate 27, and aggregate that has risen to the surface is 
made to sink. After this, the compactor plate 46, in constantly pressing 
against the leveled concrete surface C, enables the concrete surface that 
has disturbed by the motion of the vibrating plate 27 to be finished to a 
smooth surface. Accordingly, the up and down motion of the vibrator plate 
27 sinks the aggregate at the same time as it levels the leveling tracks 
made by the screw, and the concrete surface is then compacted by the 
compactor plate so that it is possible to level the poured concrete 
surface and then both sink the aggregate and level the surface, and to 
also level out any disturbances caused by the vibrator plate, thus making 
the use of other finishing machines unnecessary. 
FIG. 9 through FIG. 11 show the case when a conventional leveling apparatus 
is used to perform the supply to a certain height (a height suitably 
higher than the leveling height), of concrete by manual or some other 
means to the area of the concrete that is to be leveled next, while 
leveling work is being performed in parallel, but conventionally, this 
leveling work is performed by workers and so there often occur surpluses 
and insufficiencies in the amount of concrete that is to be poured to the 
next area where leveling work is to be performed and there are often cases 
where this presents an obstacle to leveling to a uniform leveling height. 
Also, while the leveling work is being performed, the screw causes surplus 
concrete collects at the end on the side of concrete discharge and this 
concrete collapses into the leveled surface after the leveling work has 
been performed, and thus causes the problem of lowering the work 
efficiency since re-leveling has to be performed. 
With respect to these problems, the present embodiment is able to perform 
the suitable supply of concrete to the area that is to be leveled next, 
and also has no collecting of surplus concrete. 
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 9, the main screw 52 for concrete 
levelling is axially supported between the support legs 50, 51 to the left 
and the right of the frame that is supplied by the traveling unit 24, and 
the auxiliary screw 53 is axially supported on the outside on one side of 
the support leg 51. In the figure, 37 is a main screw drive motor and 37' 
is an auxiliary screw drive motor. 
In this embodiment, the main screw 52 and the auxiliary screw 53 are 
coaxial and the diameter of the auxiliary screw 53 is smaller than the 
diameter of the main screw 52, and there is a leveling height difference H 
(of 5 to 30 mm) between the main screw 52 and the auxiliary screw 53. In 
this case, the diameter of the auxiliary screw 53 can be either the same 
or different from that of the main screw 52 and the position of axial 
support to the support legs 51 can be different from the axial line of the 
main screw 52 so that the leveling height difference H can be made. The 
following is a description of the operation of this embodiment. 
When the main screw 52 and the auxiliary screw 53 are driven and rotated 
and the traveling unit 24 is moved in the direction indicated by the 
arrows in FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, the poured concrete surface is leveled by 
the rotation of the main screw 52 and the surplus concrete Ca is sent to 
the side of the auxiliary screw 53. This concrete that is sent from the 
end portion of the main screw 52 is continually sent further in the 
direction of the outer end by the auxiliary screw 53. When this is done, 
the height of the leveled surface P' due to the auxiliary screw 53 is 
higher by the amount H, than the height of the concrete leveling surface P 
due to the main screw 52. Accordingly, if the height of the leveling 
surface P' due to the auxiliary screw 53 is used as the reference when 
there is the supply of concrete to the next object area P" while this 
leveling work is being performed, then there will be no over- or 
under-supply in the amount of concrete. 
In this manner, when the traveling unit 24 has come to the end of the 
direction indicated by the arrow A, it is lifted from the concrete 
leveling surface and as shown by the arrow A' in FIG. 10, is returned to 
the start position while it is moved on the beam 7 to the side of the next 
object area P" (to the left in FIG. 11) by an amount equivalent to the 
length of the shaft of the main screw 52, and if the traveling unit 24 is 
moved in the direction indicated by the arrow B in the same manner as 
described above, the concrete that is supplied to this area P" is leveled 
as described above, along with the leveling surface P' that has already 
been leveled by the auxiliary screw 53, and the surplus concrete is 
leveled in the next object area by the auxiliary screw 53. 
In this manner and as shown in FIG. 10 at points (C) through (F), it is 
possible to repeat return work so that there is leveling to a uniform 
height for the entire surface. 
Moreover, the auxiliary screw 53 is desirably provided so that it protrudes 
to the outer side of the support leg 51 so that surplus concrete does not 
collect on the inside of the support leg 51 but when there is only a 
relatively small amount of concrete to be poured, it is possible to 
position the auxiliary screw 53 so that it is on the inside of the support 
leg 51. In addition, if the auxiliary screw 53 can be removed, then it is 
possible to exchange it with an auxiliary screw having a different 
diameter and therefore possible to use the main screw 52 to perform 
leveling up to wall surfaces. Also, it is possible for the auxiliary screw 
53 to be provided so that it is either to the forward side or the rearward 
side of the line of the axis of the main screw 52. 
Therefore, according to this embodiment, the work of supplying the concrete 
to the next area for leveling can be performed using the height of the 
surface leveled by the auxiliary screw as a guide so that there is no 
over- or under-supply in the amount of concrete supplied and so that the 
leveling work is performed quickly and favorably. In addition, surplus 
concrete does not collect at the end portion of the main screw and so it 
is possible to raise the efficiency without there being any disturbances 
in the leveled surface due to the collapse of surplus concrete onto the 
surface that has already been leveled by the main screw. 
FIG. 12 through FIG. 15 are of an embodiment that enables automatic control 
of the level of the apparatus even if leveling work is being performed on 
a sloped surface, and has a laser light receiver 43 that receives laser 
light emitted from a laser light emitter (not shown in the figure), at a 
planned leveling height, and to the central portion of the frame 33 is 
provided a slope angle detector 44. 
The laser light receiver 43 is raised and lowered by an up and down motion 
mechanism 54 as indicated in FIG. 12 and FIG. 13. The up and down motion 
mechanism 54 has a rack 56 inserted vertically into the lower portion of 
the laser light receiver 43 and is vertically supported at the upper end 
of the support 55 standing upright in the frame 33, and this rack 56 
engages with a pinion 58 that is rotated by the motor 57, thereby enabling 
the laser light receiver 43 to be moved up and down by the drive of the 
motor 57. 
FIG. 14 shows the control system so that the height and the level of the 
concrete leveling portion 3 can be made constant while leveling work is 
being performed. 
Height control is performed by receiving the laser light that has been 
emitted at the planned height from the laser light emitter 60 and 
detecting the height of the concrete leveling portion 3, while level 
control is performed by using the slope angle detector 44 to detect the 
level of the concrete leveling portion 3 and to input the various 
detection signals to the leveling portion control apparatus 61. 
Furthermore, slope control is performed by using the travel amount 
detector (encoder 59) to detect the amount of travel and input it to the 
light receiver side control apparatus 62, while the vertical displacement 
of the laser light receiver 43 is determined by comparison calculation 
with a set value for the slope, and by operating the up and down motion 
mechanism 54 to raise and lower the laser light receiver 43. 
The control apparatus 61 performs a comparison calculation of the input 
values for the slope angle and the height and the values that have been 
set beforehand, and uses the results of this calculation as the basis for 
giving extension and contraction operation instructions to the raising and 
lowering jacks 25, 25. 
The following is a description of the operation of this embodiment. 
At the time of commencement of the levelling by the concrete leveler 
portion 3 after the concrete of the floor surface or the like has been 
poured and while it is still in the unhardened status, the raising and 
lowering jacks 25, 25 that form the up and down adjustment mechanism and 
the level adjustment mechanism operate so that the concrete leveler 
portion 3 is at a rated height and posture, and then while there is this 
status, the height position of the laser light receiver 43 is adjusted by 
the up and down movement mechanism 54 so that laser light that has a 
required height and which is emitted from the laser light receiver 43 is 
received by the laser light receiver 43. When this has been completed, the 
concrete leveler portion 3 is driven and at the same time, the traveling 
members 24, 24 that has the concrete leveler portion 3, travels at a 
constant speed on the traveling beam 2 and the leveling work starts ((A) 
of FIG. 15). 
At the same time as when the drive force of the concrete leveler portion 3 
is applied to the screw 26 by starting the rotational drive motor 37 of 
the screw 26, the vibrator 41 starts operation and the concrete leveler 
portion 3 travels along the traveling beam 2 so that the screw 26 and the 
vibrating plate 27 smooth the concrete surface to a smooth surface. 
After this, the vibration in the up and down direction of the vibrating 
plate 27 smooths the concrete surface C so that leveling tracks due to the 
screw 26 are removed and so there is leveling to a perfectly smooth 
surface. 
Along with the traveling of the concrete leveler portion 3 ((B) of FIG. 
15), the encoder 59 which is the travel amount detection portion detects 
the amount of travel (distance of displacement) of the concrete leveler 
portion 3 and, at the same time, the value for the travel amount of the 
concrete leveler portion 3 and which has been obtained from the light 
receiver control apparatus 62, and the value that has been set beforehand 
for the slope are used as the basis for calculating the amount of up and 
down movement of the laser light receiver 43, and the laser light receiver 
43 is then moved up and down on the basis of the value calculated. When 
the laser light receiver 43 moves up and down, the point at which the 
laser light emitted at a required height is received by the laser light 
receiver 43, is displaced ((C) of FIG. 15) and the control apparatus 61 
immediately performs a comparison calculation between the value detected 
by the laser light receiver 43 and the value that has been set beforehand 
and these calculation results are used as the basis for operating the 
raising and lowering jacks 25, 25 of the up and down movement mechanism 
and positioning the concrete leveler portion 3 so that the laser light 
receiver 43 is always at a position of constant height ((D) of FIG. 15). 
The posture of the concrete leveler portion 3 is adjusted by a comparison 
calculation being made between the value for the slope angle of the 
concrete leveler portion 3 and which has been detected by the slope angle 
detector 44, and a value that has been set beforehand, and the results of 
that calculation being used as the basis for operating the raising and 
lowering jacks 25, 25 which are the level adjustment mechanism. 
According to this embodiment, it is possible to perform leveling work to a 
slope value and for concrete leveling on sloped surfaces to be performed 
automatically and accurately. 
FIG. 16 through FIG. 18 show an embodiment that successively sends rails so 
as to make the concrete leveling apparatus traveling and move. 
In the embodiments described above, the rails 5, 5 along which the 
traveling beam 2 travel were laid beforehand for along the entire length 
on both sides of the poured concrete surface and so it was not possible to 
avoid unleveled portions for these rail portions 5, 5 and the vicinity of 
them. Because of this, it was not possible to completely eliminate later 
manual leveling work for these rail portions. 
Not only this, leaving the rails in place creates obstacles for later 
finishing work and so unleveled portions would remain if the rails were 
simply left in place. Therefore, it was necessary for the rails to be 
dismantled and removed for those portions where the leveling work had been 
completed, and for those tracks to be leveled by manual labor afterwards. 
Because of this rail removing work that has no direct relationship with 
the leveling work, it was necessary to have workers constantly present, 
and this caused the problem of an insufficient labor and energy saving. 
In order to eliminate this problem, the work of removing the rails by 
manual labor is eliminated and the energy saving effect of mechanical work 
is increased further. 
A traveling beam 10 has the same configuration as in the embodiment 
described above, and to the lower portion of both ends of its beam 7 are 
vertically provided two legs 70, 70 on each side, and the lower ends of 
these legs 70, 70 are provided with pads 70a, 70a that are in stable 
contact with the poured concrete surface C. 
To the end portion on both sides of the traveling beam 10 are axially 
mounted upper portion rollers 71, 71 as shown in FIG. 16, and to the legs 
70, 70 at the lower portion are axially supported lower portion rollers 
72, 72. As shown in the enlarged sectional view FIG. 17, these lower 
portion rollers 72, 72 are formed with a shaft 72a of the lower portion 
rollers 72, 72 inserted into the long hole that is opened lengthways in 
the up and down direction in the side walls 73, 73 on the left and right 
sides of the leg 70, thereby making these lower portion rollers 72, 72 
movable in the up and down direction. Springs 77, 77 that have a tension 
action between the blocks 76, 76 fixed to the top of the leg 70 and the 
blocks 75, 75 of the end portion of this shaft 72a are placed and the 
lower portion rollers 72, 72 is always urged in the upwards direction, and 
the rail 78 is held between these upper and lower rollers 71, 72. 
The rail 78 consists of an upper pipe 79 and two lower pipes 80, 80 that 
are fixed by support plates 81, 81 in the shape of an isosceles triangle 
when seen from the end surface, and the upper pipe 79 engages with the 
groove in the direction of the peripheral surface of the upper roller 71, 
and the lower pipes 80, 80 are housed in between the flanges 72b , 72b of 
the lower roller 72. 
To the front and rear end portions of this rail 78 are attached jacks 82, 
82 in the vertical direction, and to the lower end of the rams 83, 83 of 
these jacks 82, 82 are provided pads 83a, 83a that are in stable contact 
with the ground surface. These jacks 82, 82 are extended and contracted by 
the rams 83, 83 that are either electrically or hydraulically driven. 
The upper roller 71 has its drive mechanism consisting of a sprocket 84 
that is fixed to the end portion of its shaft 71a and a drive sprocket 86 
for the motor 85 mounted to the traveling beam 10 and has a chain 87 
placed so that the upper roller 71 rotates by the drive of the motor 85. 
Moreover, this transmission mechanism can be a system of gears instead of 
the chain 87. In addition, the upper and lower rollers 71, 72 that are the 
sending means can be pinions instead of the roller that is shown in the 
figure, and the rack on the side of the rail 78 can be formed so as to 
function as the sending mechanism and the holding mechanism for the rail 
78. Other sending mechanisms can be formed by cylinders and chains and the 
like. 
The concrete leveler portion 3 is provided with the screw 26 shown in FIG. 
9, and is also provided with the vibrating plate 27. 
In FIG. 16, those portions of the configuration that correspond to portions 
of FIG. 5 are indicated with corresponding numerals, and the corresponding 
descriptions of them are omitted. 
The following is a description of the embodiment described above, with 
reference to FIG. 18 (A) through (H). 
The jacks 82, 82 of the rail 78 contract and bring the legs 70, 70 of the 
traveling beam 10 into contact with the ground. 
When this occurs, at the time of the start of leveling, the raising and 
lowering jacks 25, 25 that are the up and down adjustment mechanism and 
the level adjustment mechanism operate so that the concrete leveler 
portion 3 is adjusted to the rated position and the rated posture. 
When this adjustment is completed, the concrete leveler portion 3 is driven 
and travels from one end of the traveling beam 10 to the other end and 
performs the work for leveling the poured concrete surface C ((A) of FIG. 
18). 
When the concrete leveler portion 3 has come to the other end, the jacks 
82, 82 of the rail 78 are extended and the pads 70a , 70a rise ((B) of 
FIG. 18) and the motor 85 of the traveling beam 10 is driven so as to 
drive the upper roller 71 and the rotation of this upper roller 71 moves 
the traveling beam 10 by a single pitch portion ((C) of FIG. 18). 
Then, the jacks 82, 82 of the rail 78 are again brought into contact with 
the ground ((D) of FIG. 18) and the traveling members 24, 24 travel and 
the leveling of the poured concrete surface C is again performed. 
As shown in (E) to (F) of FIG. 18, when the traveling beam 10 has reached 
the end of the rail 78, the jacks 82, 82 of the rail 78 are contracted, 
then if the motor 85 is driven as soon as the pads 70a , 70a are brought 
into contact with the ground ((G) of FIG. 18), the upper pipe 79 that is 
pressed against the upper roller 71 by the springs 77, 77 is sent by the 
force of that friction and the rail 78 is sent in the forward direction as 
shown in (H) of FIG. 18. 
This status is the same as the status shown in FIG. 18 (A) for when the 
leveling work commenced, and after this, the operation shown in FIG. 18 
(B) through (H) is again repeated and the work of leveling the poured 
concrete surface C continues. 
The action of the concrete leveler portion 3 is such that the drive motors 
54, 55 of the screws 52, 53 are started so that at the same time as when 
the rotation force is applied to the screw, the vibrator 41 is also 
started and the concrete leveler portion 3 is made to travel along the 
traveling beam 10 so that the screws 52, 53 and the vibrating plate 27 
smooth the concrete surface to a flat status. 
When this occurs, surplus concrete is discharged in the direction of the 
left in FIG. 16 (the direction of leveling) by the action of the screw 
blade. After this, leveling tracks caused by the screw in the level 
surface are removed by the up and down vibration of the vibrator plate 34, 
and the concrete surface is made completely flat and smooth. 
The legs 70, 70 of the traveling beam 10 can be jacked and replaced by the 
jacks 82, 82 of the rail 78, which do not extend and contract. 
According to this embodiment, the work for the removal of the rails is not 
as it was conventionally, and it is possible for the energy saving effect 
due to mechanization to be exhibited to its fullest, and also for the work 
of laying the rails prior to the day of execution of the work to also 
become unnecessary and therefore represent a further raising of the work 
efficiency. Furthermore, when the length of execution of concrete pouring 
work is 100 m, this conventionally involved about fifty 4 m rails but only 
two rails are used with this embodiment and so this means a large 
reduction in the accompanying transportation costs. 
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY 
As has been described above, the concrete leveling apparatus according to 
the present invention enables the work of leveling a poured concrete 
surface to be performed for the floors of high-rise buildings, rooftops, 
the floors of gymnasium facilities, outdoors and other large areas.