Gh Hensley Industries, Inc.

Wesley E Martin

John A Ruvang

Howard W Robinson

A connector pin assembly for releasably retaining a replaceable excavating tooth point on an adapter nose has opposite rigid body portions that are threadingly connected to one another in a manner permitting them to be selectively moved axially toward and away from one another, and a resilient structure captively retained between facing ends of the body portions. The connector pin assembly may be operatively inserted into the aligned point and adapter openings without the need to pound it in. Once the connector pin assembly is in place within the point and adapter openings the rigid body portions are threadingly moved toward one another to thereby compress the resilient structure in a manner forcing it against an interior surface portion of the adapter opening.

Connector pin apparatus and associated methods

An excavation tooth point longitudinally extending along an axis and having a pocket area extending inwardly through a rear end thereof is telescoped onto a nose portion of an adapter structure by inserting the nose portion into the tooth point pocket area. The inserted nose portion has a tapered side opening therein that is positioned between a corresponding pair of similarly tapered tooth side wall openings. The tooth point is removably coupled to the adapter nose using an elongated, wedge shaped connector member which is inserted, small end first, through the generally aligned tooth and adapter openings. An internal passage longitudinally extends through the large connector member end and receives an inner portion of a force exerting member which compresses a spring within the passage, the spring in turn resiliently biasing an outer portion of the force exerting member into abutment with an interior surface portion of the tooth. The compressed spring, via the force exerting member, maintains the tooth point in an axially tightened orientation on the adapter nose, and automatically tightens the tooth further onto the adapter nose in response to tooth/adapter interface wear that would otherwise cause undesirable 'play' between the tooth point and the adapter nose portion. The connector may be removed by simply rotating the force exerting member to move its outer portion out of abutment with its opposing interior surface portion of the tooth.

Self-adjusting tooth/adapter connection system for material displacement

Mining shovel tooth

An improved excavating tooth and wear cap assembly is provided in which the front pin that interconnects the replaceable point to the adapter nose is protected from undesirable deformation by interlocking stabilizing lugs and grooves formed respectively on the wear cap and adapter base portions of the assembly. The cooperation between these lugs and grooves prevents earth forces from driving the wear cap portion of the assembly forwardly along the adapter base into the point and thereby causing the point to deform the connecting pin. Field installation of a lower wear cap portion of the assembly is facilitated by the provision of cooperating support lugs on the wear cap and shoulders on the adapter which, together with a pivotal interconnection between the adapter and wear cap, permits the lower wear cap to be hung from the adapter in a temporary support position until the point can be installed and interconnected to the wear cap to complete the assembly.

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Carrollton, TX, United States of America

Wesley E Martin