Pipe driver

A. C. RIPSTEIN

PIPE DRIVER

Filed March 19, 1956

April 14, 1959

2,882,011

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United States Patent Office

2,882,011

Patented Apr. 14, 1959

2,882,011

PIPE DRIVER

Archie C. Ripstein, Cheektowaga, N.Y.

Application March 19,1956, Serial No. 572,250

Claims. (Cl. 254—29)

This invention relates to a driving apparatus and more particularly to apparatus adapted to drive pipe or similar members horizontally through earth or the like.

The principles and the apparatus of the present invention may be variously applied but by way of setting forth the principles thereof the following specification sets forth a complete embodiment of one form of the apparatus of the present invention and describes its general manner of use. In this connection, reference will be had to a problem which is frequently presented in driving pipe or the like horizontally through earth.

In laying pipe for various purposes the ground is usually trenched to receive the pipe but when a paved roadway or the like is encountered it is often not permissible or economic to disrupt the same. It accordingly becomes desirable to drive the pipe horizontally beneath obstructions of this type.

A similar problem is encountered in the case of surface laid pipe, as in oil fields, where elevated roadbeds or similar elevated earth formations are encountered, through which the pipe must be driven.

Various forms of apparatus have been proposed in the prior art for effecting this kind of pipe driving operation, but none has proved particularly effective and expeditious. The problem of driving pipe under these circumstances is aggravated by the fact that the apparatus employed must be at least semi-portable in its nature, despite the rather substantial driving job which the apparatus must perform.

In one aspect of the present invention a novel hydraulic pressure activated force means is provided for the specific purpose of providing horizontal driving impulses for forcibly projecting pipe or the like through earth formations. This novel pipe driving force arrangement is further characterized by the fact that the supporting and controlling structure therefor may be conveniently located at a point above and offset from the actual application of driving force to the pipe, thus facilitating the usual pipe driving job which generally involves driving pipe from a point in an excavation through an earth formation rising above such excavation.

Another aspect of the present invention involves its combination with existing earth working apparatus as a convenient and very useful accessory thereto. In this connection, reference is had to power diggers of the actuated bucket type and more particularly, in the illustrative instance, to such power diggers of the so-called back hoe or back bucket type. In a common form of such diggers the bucket is pivoted to the lower end of a boom which may readily be moved to various positions, both horizontally and vertically. A hydraulic power cylinder associated with such boom extends to a point of eccentric connection with the pivoted bucket to pivot the bucket to various positions.

According to the present invention such apparatus is readily adapted to the purposes of the present invention by merely removing the bucket and connecting the outer end of the boom and the aforesaid power cylinder to applicant’s novel pipe driving apparatus.

Since a power digger of the back hoe or back bucket type is a common piece of equipment among those engaged in earth working, the apparatus of the present invention provides a relatively low cost accessory which greatly multiplies the usefulness of the relatively expensive power diggers and provides means for readily accomplishing a job which frequently presents a very difficult problem in laying pipe.

Various objects and advantages incident to use of the principles of the present invention will appear to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the form of the invention which is shown in the drawings and described in the following specification by way of example. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise form thus set forth in detail or in any other way excepting as defined in the appended claims. Various mechanical modifications may be made within the limits of the present invention and without departing from its spirit or scope.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a general side elevational view of one form of the apparatus of the present invention in association with power digger apparatus and in a conventional position of actual use in a horizontal pipe driving operation;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal cross sectional view of a portion of the apparatus, viewed as in Fig. 1 but on a larger scale;

Fig. 3 is an end elevational view of the apparatus of Fig. 2, viewed from the left hand end of Fig. 2 but on a still further enlarged scale; and

Fig. 4 is a detailed perspective view of one of the pipe gripping plates of the apparatus of Figs. 1 through 3.

Throughout the several figures of the drawing like characters of reference denote like parts and, referring particularly to Fig. 1, the numeral 10 designates generally a tractor or similar piece of mobile automotive equipment which is shown resting on an earth embankment 11 such as an elevated roadway or the like. The numeral 12 designates a trench or other earth surface lying at a lower elevation than the embankment 11 and a pipe 13 is shown in the process of being driven horizontally through embankment 11.

The numeral 14 designates generally a conventional supporting and manipulating linkage for a boom 16, this general structure being found in various forms of power diggers of the back hoe or back bucket type. A hydraulic cylinder 17 is commonly provided for pivotally manipulating a bucket which is pivotally attached to the lower end of boom 16 as at 2®, the lower pivoted connection 21 of the hydraulic piston and cylinder unit 17 being conventionally attached to the bucket at a point spaced from the pivoted connection 20 for rotating the bucket to various desired pivoted positions about the pivot 20.

The linkage 14 is adapted to dispose the boom 16 at various desired elevations and in various desired angular positions relative to the vertical in a manner which is conventional and well known to those skilled in the present art and power extension and contraction of the hydraulic piston and cylinder unit 17 is controlled remotely from the automotive unit 10, likewise in a conventional manner.

In adapting conventional power diggers of this general class to the use of the present invention and for association with the novel mechanism of the present invention the conventional bucket is removed and the boom pivot 20 and hydraulic piston and cylinder pivot 21 are associated with novel mechanism which will now be described with reference particularly to Figures 2 and 3.

2,882,011 «3*

The relatively fixed structure of the driving mechanism comprises an upwardly facing channel member 25 having an upstanding pair of bearing plates 26 fixed to its opposite sides about midway thereof. A pair of longitudinally spaced brackets 27 and 28 are welded or otherwise fixed to channel 25 and in turn have fixed thereto a tubular member 29 which serves as a guide for the pipe 13 which is to be driven. The lower pivot 20 of boom 16 which has been detached from the conventional bucket of the digger is pivotally attached to the bearing plates 26, as clearly shown in Fig. 2.

The driving means itself comprises a bell crank member designated generally by the numeral 30 and comprising a pair of spaced side plates 31 which are held in rigid spaced relation by cross members 32. Bell crank 30 is pivotally attached between bearing plates 26 by a pivot pin 34. One end of bell crank member 30 is pivotally attached to the lower end of piston and cylinder mechanism 17 by the pivot means 21 which has been previously referred to and which was detached from the conventional bucket of the digger mechanism generally. The lower end of each side plate 31 of the bell crank member 30 is pivotally attached to a vertically disposed plate 35, each plate 35 extending generally lengthwise of channel 25 and resting edgewise thereon as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the pivotal connections between each side plate 31 and its associated longitudinal plate 35 being designated 36.

The upper edge of each plate 35 is notched as at 38, the notches in the present instance being two in number. Each opposed pair of notches 38 receives a pipe gripping member designated generally by the numeral 40, one of the pipe gripping members being shown in detail in Fig. 4. Referring to Fig. 4, each pipe gripping member 40 comprises a top plate member 41 and a depending plate 42. Top plate 41 has outstanding ears or lugs 43 at its opposite ends to retain the same in the notches 38 and prevent undue lateral shifting. The depending plate 42 of each pipe gripping member 40 is provided with an opening 45 which extends about the pipe 13 to be driven. In the instance illustrated in the drawing, pipe 13 is being driven to the left as there shown and the gripping members 40 are accordingly angularly biased as shown in Fig. 2 by extension coil springs 48 and 49. The former engages between the two depending plates 42 and the latter engages between the right-hand plate 42 and an anchor member 50. A similar anchor member 51 is provided for use when pipe is to be driven in the opposite direction or pulled from a driven position, as the case may be.

In operation, the boom 16 tends to retain the fixed structure of the driving mechanism in a given position and hydraulic piston and cylinder mechanism 17 may then be reciprocated by the operator to reciprocate the plates 35 longitudinally. Movement of the plates 35 to the left as viewed in Fig. 2, with the gripping members cocked as shown, causes the openings 45 of the plates 42 of the gripping members to bind on pipe 13 and drive the same to the left. Retrograde movement of plates 35 cocks the gripping members 40 toward a vertical position by reason of which the plates 35 and gripping members 40 move to the right free of the pipe 13 to return for a fresh grip on the pipe.