Patent Publication Number: US-8985908-B2

Title: Device meant for forcing piles into the ground

Description:
The invention relates to a forcing equipment meant for forcing piles, steel profiles and other elongated objects into the ground which forcing equipment comprises a body adaptive to a power machine, a vibration device attached to the body with the help of damper cushions and moveable grip jaws adjusted to the mentioned vibration device in order to grip the object to be forced at least with a side grip. 
     Forcing devices according to the above mentioned preamble are previously known in which forcing devices a vibration device is attached to the body of the forcing device with the help of damper cushions and another body is attached to the body of the forcing device in which case the other body surrounds partly the mentioned vibration device. Grip jaws are attached to the other body either to be stiff or to be turned with the help of a joint. A Finnish patent publication nr 106219 (corresponding to PCT/FI11992/00259-WO93/07341 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,997) can be mentioned as an example. 
     In these solutions the whole structure must be disassembled if the vibration device needs to be changed. It is difficult to change the grip jaws because the moveable jaw can be changed only when the structure is disassembled and the change of the fixed jaw also demands the change of the other body at the same time. Usually in the known solutions the jaws are not changed. Instead the grip pieces of the jaws can be changed and then pieces with slightly different forms can be changed to replace them—if needed, such as for example when one forces round piles which have two slightly different diameter sizes. In the known solutions the vibration device is also not changed into a device of a second power class but a totally smaller of bigger forcing device will be provided. 
     In order to remove these disadvantages, a new forcing device has been developed which forcing device solves many problems related to the forcing devices and eases essentially the modifiability of the forcing device. It is characteristic of the invention that the body comprises an upper part including an attachment arrangement for attaching it to a working machine and comprises side parts directed from the upper part downwards between which side parts the vibration device and the grip jaws can be attached through cassettes comprising damping rubbers in which case the attachments comprise pin/hole attachments which can be opened by detaching the mentioned pins. 
     The advantage of the invention is the fact that thanks to a new type of a body chosen for the forcing device the vibration device with the grip jaws or only the grip jaws can be detached and changed. 
     When the vibration devices are thus interchangeable so that the distance s of their damper cushions stays constant in spite of the power class of the vibration device, vibration devices with various power classes can easily be changed into the forcing device. Similarly the grip jaws are congruent regarding their back part in other words their attachment in which case they are grip jaws which can be easily changed and are formed according to the objects to be forced. When the grip jaws are adjusted to the objects regarding their form the damages of the objects to be forced can be avoided during the forcing situations. 
    
    
     
       In the following the invention is described more detailed by referring to the accompanying drawings in which 
         FIG. 1  shows a body of a forcing device. 
         FIG. 2  shows a vibration device which can be adjusted inside the body of the forcing device of the  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  shows a forcing device seen from above when the body is partly cut out. 
         FIG. 4  shows a forcing device diagonally seen and partly disassembled. 
     
    
    
     In the  FIG. 1  there is a body  1  of the forcing device according to the invention on top of which body there is clip an attachment plate  2  for attaching it to a power machine, such as to an excavator through attachment elements  4 ,  5 . There are gaps holes  3  in the body  1  to which gaps holes some parts of the damper cushions of the vibration device are located for attaching the vibration device  6  to this body. 
     In the  FIG. 2  a vibration device  6  which can easily be changed and is adaptive inside the body  1  of the  FIG. 1  is shown of which vibration device it is characteristic that the measure s stays constant although the power class of the device changes. Several vibration devices  6  of various power classes can thus be adjusted to the forcing device if various forcing powers are needed. The weights or the width d included in the vibration device  6  can change when the power class changes. Damper cushions  9  are attached to the sides of the vibration device  6  as structural cassettes  7  in which case these cassettes  7  are attached to be opened easily to the sides of the vibration device  6 . Also gaps holes  8  have been directed through these cassettes  7  through which holes joint pins  20  or  21  related to the attachment of the grip elements as jaws  10  can be adjusted. There is a jaw  10  at the base of the vibration device  6  with which jaw  10  one can force from the top of the pile or pull the pile up. The jaw  10  comprises a fixed part  17 , a moveable part  18  and a cylinder  19  which moves the moveable part  18 . 
     In the  FIG. 3  a vibration device  6  located between the body  1  is shown which vibration device is attached to the body  1  with the help of damper cushions  9 . The arms of the grip jaws  10  are located on top of the damper cushion cassette  7  and underneath it. The holes  8  go through both the band  14 , the hole of the grip jaws  10 , through the hole of the cassette  7  and underneath correspondingly through the holes of the grip jaws  10  and further through the band  14  of the lower part. The attachment can be done with a long joint pin  20  which penetrates all the parts or with short pins  21  which are separately below or above. 
     The moving of the grip jaws  10  is made with the help of a cylinder  16  the heads of which are attached to pivots  15 . The cylinder  16  can be either at the upper or the lower part of the forcing device or at both parts or also at various heights of the long pin  12 . The grip jaws  10  comprise gripping pieces  22  which become in contact with the forced object. 
     It becomes clear from the  FIG. 4  how the vibration device  6  can be detached with the grip jaws  10  from the cassette  7  which is attached to the sides of the body  1  through rubber cushions  9 . When the pins  11  are detached from the holes of the vibration device  6  and from the holes  23  in the pieces  13  of the cassette  7 , the vibration device  6  comes loose from the cassette  7  for example downwards. It is possible to detach only the grip jaws  10 , too, when the pins  20  or  21  are detached and also the long pins  12  running through the heads of the cylinders  16  and through the pivots  15  are detached. 
     The changing of the grip jaws  10  can easily be done when the joint pins  20  or  21  have been removed. Possibly the cylinder  16  must be detached. Also the band  14  comes loose when the joint pins  20  or  21  are being detached. It is easy to use a grip jaw series with the forcing device which grip jaw series has jaws  10  for various objects to be forced because the jaws  10  can easily be changed.