Astec Industries, Inc.

Roadtec, Inc.

Ri Properties, Inc.

Thomas R Campbell

Herbert E Jakob

David Swearingen

Chris McSharry

David Doering

A hopper insert for the hopper of a paving machine is installed above a hopper conveyor that conveys asphalt material in a hopper conveying direction. The hopper insert has a front end and a rear end and a plurality of walls that together define an opening adjacent to the hopper conveyor. The opening to the hopper conveyor increases in width from front end of the hopper insert to the rear end.

Hopper insert for asphalt paving machine

A plow assembly includes a housing, a shaft having a first eccentricity and a shaft having a second eccentricity. The shaft having a first eccentricity is mounted within the housing for rotation about a first axis of rotation, and the shaft having a second eccentricity is mounted within the housing for rotation about a second axis of rotation. The assembly also includes a surface breaker blade and a balancing assembly. The surface breaker blade is mounted on the shaft having a first eccentricity in such a manner that rotation of the shaft having a first eccentricity causes the surface breaker blade to move in response to the first eccentricity of the shaft. The balancing assembly is mounted on the shaft having the second eccentricity in such a manner that rotation of the shaft having the second eccentricity causes the balancing assembly to move in response to the second eccentricity of the shaft. The assembly also includes a mechanism for rotating the shaft having a first eccentricity about the first axis of rotation, and a mechanism for rotating the shaft having a second eccentricity about the second axis of rotation.

Vibratory plow

A vacuum system is mounted on a portable milling machine for extracting material cut by the milling drum of the machine from the surface of a roadway. The milling machine includes a frame, a propulsion system for advancing the machine across a surface to be milled, a milling drum mounted on the frame for rotation about its axis, and a conveyor for conveying material cut by the milling drum away from the drum. The vacuum system includes a vacuum pump having an air inlet and an air outlet and a nozzle mounted behind the milling drum having an opening for receiving material cut from the surface by the drum. The vacuum system also includes a material collector having an inlet, an air outlet and a material outlet. The collector is adapted for collecting material entrained in air by the pump through the collector inlet and for discharging such material through the material outlet onto the conveyor. The vacuum system also includes a first conduit and a second conduit. The first conduit connects the nozzle and the inlet of the material collector, and the second conduit connects the air, outlet of the material collector and the air inlet of the pump.

Vacuum system for milling machine

A milling machine is disclosed, which machine includes a frame, a drive mechanism for advancing the machine across a surface to be milled, and a milling assembly mounted on the frame of the machine for cutting a width of material from the surface in the path of the machine. The milling assembly includes a generally cylindrical milling drum having a plurality of cutting teeth, which drum is mounted for rotation about its axis. The milling assembly also includes a vibratory assembly which is mounted so as to impart vibration to the milling drum. The vibratory assembly includes an elongate shaft, a drive mechanism for rotating the shaft, and an eccentric weight that is mounted on the shaft. The eccentric weight has a non-symmetrical distribution of mass about the shaft so that vibration will be created upon rotation thereof. Also provided is a vibration isolator for isolating the vibratory assembly so as to limit the transmission of vibration created thereby to the frame of the machine.

Milling machine with vibrating mechanism and rotary drum

A screed assembly is disclosed for an asphalt paving machine that is used to pave the surface of a roadway with asphalt concrete paving material. This screed assembly includes a frame portion that is adapted for attachment to the paving machine, and a vibratory screed portion that is adapted for attachment to the frame portion. The vibratory screed portion includes a screed plate that is disposed towards the surface of the roadway, and a vibratory assembly which is mounted to the screed plate so as to impart vibration thereto. This vibratory assembly includes an elongate shaft, means for rotating the shaft, and an eccentric weight that is mounted on the shaft, which weight has a non-symmetrical distribution of mass about the shaft so that vibration will be created upon rotation thereof. The screed assembly also includes means for isolating the vibratory assembly so as to limit the transmission of vibration created thereby to the frame portion.

Vibratory screed assembly for an asphalt paving machine

A paving machine employs in combination a gravity feed HMA hopper and a tack spray assembly and storage tank. Use of the gravity feed hopper permits all HMA or other paving material stored therein to be discharged directly on top of the paving machine's distributing auger. Moreover, because the gravity feed hopper takes up a relatively small percentage of the horizontal area of the paving machine, a chassis of standard or near standard dimensions can receive a tack storage tank of sufficient capacity to permit the paving machine to operate an entire day without stopping the machine to refill the storage tank. Therefore, if used in conjunction with an HMA shuttling apparatus, the paving machine can simultaneously coat a surface to be paved with a tack material and pave that surface with HMA for prolonged periods of time without stopping to refill either the HMA hopper of the tack storage tank.

Method and apparatus for spraying a tack material from a paving machine

A method for desegregating and conveying aggregate includes reorienting aggregate from a side-by-side lateral orientation to a longitudinal orientation. The longitudinally oriented segregated aggregate may then be thoroughly desegregated in a second conveyor. Reorientation preferably occurs as the aggregate is conveyed along a drag slat conveyor which has a notch in the floor of its discharge end which causes larger aggregate at the lateral edges of the conveyor to drop out of the conveyor after smaller aggregate located between the lateral edges.

Method for conveying and desegregating aggregate

A paving machine has a gravity feed hopper which is capable of delivering by gravity to the paving apparatus substantially all of the paving materials stored in the hopper without employing any internal conveyors. The discharge opening of the hopper is selectively closed by a feeder gate, the degree of opening of which is preferably coordinated with other operating parameters of the machine such as vehicle speed, distributing auger height and/or speed, and screed operation. Use of the gravity feed hopper significantly reduces construction and maintenance costs, provides a more uniform feed of materials from the hopper, and permits the use of a smaller engine. The paving machine as thus constructed is also relatively easy to operate and thus can be controlled by a single operator seated in the vicinity of the screed.

Paving machine with gravity feed hopper and auger mechanism

An apparatus and method for desegregating and conveying aggregate. A drag slat conveyor has a notch in the floor of its discharge end which causes larger aggregate at the lateral edges of the conveyor to drop out of the conveyor after smaller aggregate located between the lateral edges. The larger and smaller aggregate are thereby reoriented from a side-by-side lateral orientation to a longitudinal orientation. The longitudinally oriented segregated aggregate may then be thoroughly desegregated in a second conveyor.

Method and apparatus for conveying and desegregating aggregate

A paving machine discharges HMA or other paving materials directly on top of a distributing auger located between the paving material storage hopper and the screed. The distributing auger is then capable of remixing any partially segregated paving materials and of uniformly distributing the paving materials directly adjacent a previously-paved segment. Materials may be discharged on top of the distributing auger from a discharge opening of a gravity feed hopper located adjacent the distributing auger or from an inclined conveyor delivering materials from a more standard hopper mounted near the front end of the paving machine.

Method and apparatus for discharging paving materials on top of

A paving machine is described which includes: a gravity feed hopper located near a front end of a chassis; a distributing auger mounted on the chassis near the rear end thereof and extending transversely across the chassis; a remixing device including a variable-pitch screw auger with i) a first flight section and ii) a second flight section, the second flight section being located transversely between a lower discharge opening of the hopper and the first flight section, the pitch of the first flight section being lower than the pitch of the second flight section so that volumes bounded by flights of the second flight section are greater than volumes bounded by flights of the first flight section, so as to enable finer paving materials, located in a transverse central portion of the hopper to enter void spaces in volumes bounded by flights of the second flight section and combine with coarser paving material, thereby remixing segregated paving materials; and a discharge conveyor assembly extending longitudinally and horizontally from the lower discharge opening to the distributing auger, the discharge conveyor assembly including a pair of parallel drag slat conveyors, each of the pair of parallel drag slat conveyors including a discharge end located directly above the distributing auger for discharging paving materials directly on top of the distributing auger, thereby remixing segregated paving materials. The remixing device and the discharge ends provide significant advantages in that they both remix segregated paving materials.

Paving machine with mixing device and discharge conveyor assembly for

A roadworking machine can be converted from front load road planing capability to cold in-place recycling capability by replacing the secondary conveyor on the front end of the machine with a mixer such as a standard pugmill. The machine can be converted in the field simply by detaching the conveyor from a-mounting assembly on the chassis and by attaching the pugmill to the same mounting assembly. The conveyor and pugmill are preferably attachable to the mounting assembly so as to be pivotable with respect to the chassis about both vertical and horizontal axes. The machine as thus constructed permits considerable versatility in both the discharge of milled materials from the secondary conveyor during front load planing and the discharge of recycled materials from the mixer during cold in-place recycling.

Field convertible apparatus for conducting either front load road

A paving machine employs at least one gate mechanism which can selectively alter the weighting of the flow of paving materials from the discharge opening of a hopper by adjusting the contour of the effective lower edge of the gate mechanism. This contour is preferably adjusted by forming the gate mechanism from front and rear vertically adjustable gates, the lower edges of which have opposed tapers. The discharge of materials from the opening is weighted towards one side when the front gate is raised and the rear gate lowered or partially lowered, and is weighted towards the other side when the rear gate is raised and the front gate lowered or partially lowered. Discharge may be prevented altogether by fully lowering both gates.

Paving machine incorporating automatic feeder control gates

An asphalt finishing screed is disclosed which is adapted to achieve essentially complete compaction of the asphalt mix over a range of finished mat thicknesses. The screed comprises a vertically adjustable strike off bar, a rotary compactor positioned immediately behind the bar, and a screed plate positioned immediately behind the rotary compactor. In one preferred embodiment, the rotary compactor comprises a rotor which includes a plurality of freely rotating rollers about the peripheral surface thereof. In operation, the adjustable strike off bar is set at an elevation so as to meter the material to the rotary compactor and to achieve the desired compaction for the particular thickness of the finished mat being laid. The rotary compactor then impacts the mat in an essentially vertical direction and so as to achieve complete compaction of the mix.

Asphalt finishing screed having rotary compactor

A self propelled apparatus for digging a shallow trench along one side of a roadway is disclosed, and which is useful as part of a roadway widening operation. The apparatus comprises a cutter drum mounted to one side of the chassis of the apparatus, and a conveyor belt is mounted to the same side of the chassis with an inlet end positioned immediately adjacent the cutter drum and an elevated outlet end positioned beyond the forward end of the chassis. An enclosure surrounds the cutter drum so that the drum may be rotated in a downwardly cutting direction, and the loosened soil or other material may be lifted and guided around the drum and deposited onto the conveyor. The cutter drum includes one or more extensions which may be coaxially mounted thereto, so as to permit the width of the cutter drum and thus the width of the resulting trench to be selectively varied.

Growing community of inventors

Chattanooga, TN, United States of America

Thomas R Campbell