Morrison-knudsen Company, Inc.

Mathias F Rice

Samuel W Chambers

Lee W Miles

A rip-rap laying machine designed to lay approximately 270 tons of rip-rap per hour resembles a huge steel bridge frame. The self-propelled unit overlies an acutely angled bank of a waterway, channel, or canal and moves along the bank (40) to lay rip-rap uniformly. The machine uses two cable-controlled hoppers (34 and 36) mounted on rails (20 and 22). An operator rides with the feeder hopper (36) and controls a loading hopper (34) to run between a dump hopper (32) on one end of the bridge and the feeder hopper (36). The loading hopper (34) transfers rip-rap from a dump hopper (32) to the feeder hopper (36). The rip-rap is transferred from the feeder hopper (36) to a vibratory feeder (38), which vibrates the rip-rap onto deflector plate (44) before rolling gently onto sheets of filter cloth placed upon the bank (40). Uniform placement of the rip-rap on the bank (40) occurs as the vibratory feeder (38) travels from the bottom to the top of the bridge. The machine is propelled on four independently powered crawler tracks (46). With tracks (46) of this type, the rip-rap laying machine can be moved at a rate of about twenty-two feet per minute along the acutely angled bank (40). A method of laying rip-rap using a rip-rap laying machine according to this invention is also described.

Growing community of inventors

Cascade, ID, United States of America

Mathias F Rice