American Hoist & Derrick Company

Longyear Company

Gary H Beckley

John T Hornagold

Ronald B Anderson

Walter W Svendsen

Ram N Rathi

Clifford Caneer, Jr

A rod break-out and make-up tool for screwing and unscrewing drill rods that includes a lower clamp assembly having a jaw holder that has trunnions pivotally mounted on a mounting frame, and piston cylinder combinations pivotally mounted by the jaw holder for moving jaws divergingly upwardly to a rod release position and convergingly downwardly to a rod clamping position, a high-low drive assembly having a housing that rotatably mounts a spindle that has drive lugs, a lower ring gear fixed to the spindle and driven at a high speed, low torque by a reversible hydraulic motor, an upper ring gear rotatable on the spindle and driven by a piston cylinder combination operated rack, a ratchet assembly for transmitting a driving force from the upper gear to the lower gear in one angular direction and permitting the lower gear rotating relative thereto in said one direction, legs pivotally mounted on the trunnions for supporting the drive assembly, and adjustment mechanism connected between the frame and the housing for retaining the housing in selected adjusted pivoted positions; and an upper clamp assembly having an annular piston combination for moving jaws radially inwardly to a rod clamping position, a driven member driven by said lugs and axially movable relative thereto for rotating said mechanism, and a coil spring between the upper clamp assembly and a ring joined to said lugs to permit self centering of the upper clamp assembly and support the upper clamp assembly.

Rod break-out and make-up tool

High-low speed rotary drive mechanism for rotatably driving driven elements of a tool, for example a hydraulic chuck, while permitting axial movement of the driven elements relative thereto, said mechanism including a housing, a tubular spindle rotatably mounted by the housing top and bottom walls, drive lugs joined to the spindle inner peripheral wall for driving the driven elements, an axially lower main drive gear fixed to the spindle to drive the spindle, a reversible hydraulic motor mounted on the housing for driving the main drive gear at high speed, low torque, an upper gear mounted on the spindle between the lower gear and the top wall for rotation relative the spindle, an elongated rack having teeth intermeshing with the upper gear for driving the upper gear at high torque, low speed, and a poppet type ratchet assembly mounted by the upper gear to rotate therewith. The ratchet assembly includes a ratchet member that in one angular position relative the upper gear is axially movable into a lower gear aperture to transmit a driving force from the upper gear when the upper gear is driven in one angular direction and permit the upper gear rotating relative the lower gear in the opposite angular direction, and a second angular position axially movable into a lower gear aperture to transmit a driving force to the lower gear when the upper gear is driven in the opposite angular direction.

High-low speed rotary drive mechanism

A steering mechanism particularly suited for vehicles of the type having a variable width track. The steering mechanism is flexible enabling it to automatically extend and retract laterally along with the track of the wheels of the vehicle. The mechanism acts on steering arms of the steerable wheels of a vehicle to simulate a conventional tie rod type of steering geometry. During turning, the inner wheel turns more than the outer wheel to minimize tire slippage or scrub. A flexible steering linkage assembly is connected between the steering arm ends of the pair of steerable wheels to maintain controlled spatial relationship between them which results in a simulation of tie rod steering geometry.

Growing community of inventors

Roseville, MN, United States of America

Gary H Beckley