Crest water diversion system

Abstract

A sand bag filler device attachment for vacuum trucks with conveyor-ramps for placement is disclosed. The apparatus consists of commercially available vacuum tuck with vacuum arm, conveyor-ramps and with the sand bag filler device attached. It can be retrofitted to the vehicle or attached temporarily, dependent on the needs of the operators. The bags can be tracked delivered or spring delivered on a bag conveyor to the device that is in position to open the empty bags with it's filler doors and insert the filler mouth inside to deposit the source material, this instance sand. The filled bags are then deported down controlled conveyor-ramps that can be raised or lowered or swivel to the left or to the right for bag placement.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is cross-referenced with application Ser. No. 29/156,419 filed Feb. 28, 2002 and is now U.S. Pat. No. D484148 Sand Bag Filler issued Dec. 23, 2003, invented by Roderick T. Floore, Ollie S. Walker III and David L. Williams. The Sand Bag Filler deposits sand into containers or bags to create walls or levees.

INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC

[0002] “Not Applicable”

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

[0003] “Not applicable”

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0004] Field of the Invention

[0005] This invention relates to devices and apparatus for assisting in repelling flood or cresting water by filling containers or sand bags and deporting completed sand bags for placement to build walls or levees in an expeditious and less manual labor intensive manner.

DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART

[0006] A machine that assists or augments the filling and placing of sandbags would introduce a concept that has not changed in decades. Temporary protection from flood or cresting water must be expeditiously implemented to protect lives and property. Large numbers of volunteers and laborers would employ the outmoded labor intensive opening and holding of bags for the sand to be inserted by hand or shovel. The finished bag must then be placed in position that adds another time consuming element. The U.S. Pat No. 5,215,127 (Bergeron) appears to convey source sand from a conveyor and distributes sand through a tube or pipe. The bags are to be placed and held on a stand to receive the sand. It does appear to have several tubes for several laborers to receive, tie and then place the bag in position. The U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,446 (Garden) receives source sand from dump tuck to the filling device. Again, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,127 (Bergeron) a laborer is needed in position to hold the unfilled bag with a second laborer stationed in what appears to be for the sealing or tying of the finished bag for placement. Directing sand from the dump truck can be introduced a number of ways that are just as fimctional and feasible. The U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,576 (Sutherlin) appears to allow multiple bags to be filled simultaneously The tying of the bags is part of the device and rudimentary but ftmctional. An integral part of thc system to place the finished bag does not appear evident. The system may not be portable or able to be retrofitted to add mobility. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,849 (Fields Jr.) appears to have mobility. There are aspects for seated operators to receive the finished bag. This will continue to be labor intensive as time introduces fatigue. Placement of the finished bag does not appear part of the mechanism. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,407 (Hogan et al) appears to fill multiple bags simultaneously. It appears stationary where mobility and flexibility may be a factor. The finished bag does not appear to be conveyed for placement. How many laborers to operate the system does not appear evident.

[0007] There is a need for a device that is simple in construction and can be applied or retro-fitted, if necessary, to existing technologies for operation and can introduce speed in the configuration of the sand-bags and eliminate fatigue in the placement of the filled bags. The system should supplant the need for large numbers of volunteers ,who succumb to fatigue which slows the process needed to fulfill the task of the sand bag configuration to protect lives and property from flood or cresting flood water.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] The commercially available vacuum truck with conveyor-ramps has the filler device attached. The filler device receives soirce sand that is on site or that can be transported to the location of the flooding or cresting water. The vacuum arm of the vehicle sucks the sand up and it goes to the device that takes a pre-determined amount of the sand and sends it through material feed shaft that is attached to the filler mouth. The filler mouth is receded in the housing behind the filler doors. Commercially available self sealing or self closing sand bags are conveyed under the filler door and the device opeas the bag and deposits the pre-set amount of sand into the bag. Once filled and closed(self sealing or auto-sealing) the bag is released on a conveyor-ramp that deports it to the rear of the vacuum truck vehicle for rapid placement. The truck has controls that can raise or lower the conveyor-ramp or allow it to swivel left or right. This allows for terrain or sites that are not structured for simple placement of the bags. The operation can be initiated by two or three laborers which eliminates the labor intensive number of laborers of other systems or devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTJON OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] FIG. 1 is view of sand bag filler attached to truck in use;

[0010] FIG. 1a is cut away view of sand bag filler with empty bag in position below filler;

[0011] FIG. 1b is cut away view empty bag in place with filler opening bag and filler mouth in position;

[0012] FIG. 2 is side view of sand bag filler;

[0013] FIG. 3 is side view of sand bag filler, mouth doors open, filler mouth shown. (note: track wheel, hydraulic intake and outtake tubes positioned differently to show device configuration versatility)

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0014] Refening to FIG. 1 with source sand 50 suctioned up through vacuum arm 40 of truck 4l to sand bag filler of FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b of FIG. 1. To view the operation of the filler we refer to FIG.2 where the invention consists of elbow pipe 5 with intake tube 6 and outtake tube 7 attached to elbow pipe 5's side by clamps 8 and bolts 9. The intake tube 6 and outtake tube 7 has hydraulic fluid inside.( fluid not shown) The hydraulic fluid going through intake tube 6 is controlled by intake regulator 11 that is fastened to intake tube 6 by tube connector 10. From the intake regulator 11 the hydraulic fluid enters the wheel intake tube 14 that is connected to intake regulator 11 by tube connectors 13. The hydraulic fluid now passing through wheel intake tube 14 and causes drive wheel 19(gear wheel) to spin around drive axle 20 on a counter-clock wise rotation. The drive wheel 19, sitting atop track wheel 21(large gear wheel) causes track wheel 21 to spin around the track axle 22. The track wheel 21 aligned on a tack(not shown) that is part of the mouth shaft 26 and this clockwise rotation of the track wheel 21 pushes the mouth shaft 26 upwards to the feed tube 27 that sits inside of the mouth shaft 26.

[0015] Referring again to FIG. 1 source sand 50 is suctioned in predetermined amounts and fed into elbow tube 5 to travel to feed tube 27. The mouth shaft 26 is on a piston upward movement to receive the pre-determined amount of sand 50.

[0016] Referring back to FIG.2 the outtake tube 7 receives hydraulic fluid that is controlled by an outtake regulator 12 fastened by tube connector 10. The hydraulic fluid then leaves the outtake regulator 12 going to wheel outtake tube 15 fastened to drive wheel 19 by tube connectors 13 The fluid in the wheel outtake tube 15 causes the drive wheel 19 to spin in a cloclcwise rotation around the drive axle 20. This clockwise spin causes the track wheel 21, that the drive wheel 19 sits atop, to spin in a counter-clockwise rotation along the track(not shown) of the mouth shaft 26 causing it to piston downward with pre-determined amount of sand 50.

[0017] Referring to FIG. Ia showing device with empty bag 60 below and in position to be opened by filler doors 23 of FIG. 1b and FIG. 3 to expose filler mouth 29 of FIG. 3 to fill the bag 60. This piston up to receive sand 50 and piston down to deposit sand 50 is repeated on a continuing basis till wall or levee is completed and will need minimum number of operators to continue replenishing bags 60 to allow for maintenance in the event of mecl cal failure. It should be noted the empty bags 60 can be quickly track loaded 61 thus not impeding the device operation where speed is necessary. Completed bags 60 are deported down conveyor-ramp 70 for expeditious placement refer to FIG. 1. The conveyor-ramp controls 80 can also be in the cab of the truck 41.

Claims

1. A sand bag filler device attachment for commercially available vacuum trucks with conveyor-ramps comprised of an elbow pipe connected to suction housing of the truck that vacuums source material, this instance sand, through a vacuum arm. The elbow pipe is fastened at it's base by a feed shaft that receives a pre-determined amount of sand.

2. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 2 has hydraulic intake an outtake tubes that are attached to the side of the elbow pipe by bolts and clamps that have hydraulic fluid inside(not shown).

3. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 3 has the hydraulic intake and outtake tubes of claim 2 fastened to intake and outtake regulators that control the amount of hydraulic pressure fluid and joined to the intake and outtake tubes of claim 2 by connectors.

4. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 4 has the intake and outtake regulators of claim 3 fastened to wheel intake and outtake tubes by connectors that receive the hydraulic pressure fluid that has been regulated.

5. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 5 has wheel intake and outtake tubes of claim 4 are connected to the drive wheel by connectors and receive the controlled hydraulic fluid that spins the drive wheel in a clockwise or counterclockwise rotation around the drive wheel axle.

6. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 6 has the drive wheel of claim 5 atop the track wheel (track wheel and drive wheel are gear wheels)and when the drive wheel spins it's rotation causes the track wheel sp ig along the track axle to spin, counter-clockwise when regulated intake fluid is sent to the wheel intake tube and clockwise when regulated outtake fluid is received from the wheel outtake tube.

7. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 7 has the track wheel of claim 6 aligned to the mouth shaft that has a track(not shown)that the track wheel travels to drive the mouth shaft up when the track wheel spins in a clockwise direction and sends the mouth shaft in an up direction.

8. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 8 has the mouth shaft of claim 7 piston up to meet the feed tube that has the source material, this instance sand, in a pre-determined amount.

9. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 9 has feed tube of claim 8 feed pre-determined amount of source material, this instance sand, to the mouth shaft that the feed tube is inserted inside, with the mouth shaft capable of sliding or piston up and down the feed shaft with the source sand material.

10. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 10 has the mouth shaft of claim 9 with the pre-determined amount of source sand coursing through the mouth shaft to the mouth housing that the mouth shaft is inserted inside and it also has the capability to piston up and down inside of the mouth housing.

11. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 11 has the mouth shaft of claim 10 with the base of the mouth shaft becoming the filler mouth.

12. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 12 has the filler mouth of claim 11 in position of filler doors, which comprise the base of the mouth housing.

13. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 13 has the filler doors of claim 12 above the empty bag to be filled with source sand that has been received from the mouth shaft and coursing down to filler mouth.

14. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 14 has the filler doors of claim 13 open the top of the empty bag and when open the doors expose the filler mouth that is inserted into the open bag to deposit pre-determined amount of source sand.

15. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 15 has the empty bag that has been filled by filler mouth of claim 14; and these bags can be transported by track or spring loaded in multiples awaiting to be positioned to be filled by the filler mouth of claim 11.

16. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 1 that is attached to a commercially available vacuum truck with conveyor-ramps that receives the filled bag of claim 14 to deport outside the vehicle for placement.

17. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 17 with the completed bags traversing the conveyor-ramp of claim 16 with the outside controls of the conveyor-ramp raising or lowering the conveyor-ramp, or being able to swivel left or to the right for the bag placement.

18. The sand bag filler device attachment of claim 1 of FIG. 2 has rear belt 16 and front belt 28 for stability.