Astec Industries, Inc.

Associated Dynamics, Incorporated

Jack D Smith

Jerry F Gilbert

Charles D Foran

A rock saw has a cutting wheel and a conveyor assembly capable of retrieving automatically essentially all materials excavated by the cutting wheel and of discharging the retrieved materials into an adjacent truck or the like. The conveyor assembly includes a loading conveyor which is movable from a raised transport position to a lowered operative position. When in its operative position, an inlet end of the loading conveyor is positioned on the ground in a discharge region of the cutting wheel and is biased into engagement with the ground so as not to bounce up and down in operation but so as to ride over rocks and other obstructions without damaging the conveyor. The cutting wheel is both pivotable and slidable with respect to the vehicle mainframe so as to be capable of cutting trenches of radically different depths while still assuring retrieval of essentially all excavated materials by the loading conveyor.

Rock saw with centerline conveyor assembly and method of digging a

An excavating machine includes a discharge conveyor which is movable (1) from an operative position in which an inlet end thereof is located directly under the outlet end of an associated loading conveyor (2) to a transport position in which the discharge conveyor extends substantially in parallel with the loading conveyor and in which the discharge end thereof is located between the inlet and discharge ends of the loading conveyor--thereby maintaining the discharge conveyor within the dimensional confines of the vehicle on which it is mounted. Movement of the discharge conveyor from its operative position to its stowed or transport position is facilitated by a support assembly including a slide and a turntable assembly. The slide includes a base which is mounted on rails or the like so as to move laterally with respect to the chassis, and the turntable assembly supports the discharge conveyor on the base for rotation about a vertical axis. By mounting the turntable assembly on a sliding base in this manner, 270.degree. rotation of the discharge conveyor is possible without interference from the loading conveyor.

Excavating machine with stowable discharge conveyor

A double helical gear set having a pair of driving pinions meshed with a pair of driven gears, respectively, is aligned by providing accurately aligned integral or demountable pinions on one shaft and aligning the driven gears using a fixture which is operable to locate a keyway or other aligning device on each of the driven gears so that the driven gears can be timed or aligned on their support shaft. The fixture has a hub member which fits in the bore of the gear hub and includes a locating pin engageable with opposed flanks of adjacent teeth at corresponding points on the tooth profile such as the pitch point. The fixture includes interchangeable locating pin support members for use in aligning helical gears having different diametral pitches and helix angles. Integral pinions of the opposed helical type are formed on a shaft and aligned with each other by providing aligned locating recesses in the shaft and mounting gear master parts on each end of the shaft which are used for centering a gear hob in the tooth spaces of the gear master parts prior to machining the gear teeth.

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The Colony, TX, United States of America

Jack D Smith