SNOW SHOVEL AND PUSHER COMBINATION WITH 8 ADJUSTABLE SETTINGS
The invention provides a single improved snow shovel and pusher combination with eight adjustable settings that is capable of providing the user an opportunity to adjust it according to their need during the process of snow removal from ground or the surface to be cleaned that could be but not limited to driveways, walkways, passages, stairs, docks and decks. To select any one of the 8 settings or adjustments of this invention, the D shaped hand grip needs to be rotated 45 degrees in clock wise direction which will change its setting or locking position. These multiple settings are useful in situations when the snow is also required to be pushed simultaneously towards right or left hand side while pushing forward before lifted and thrown away by using the snow shovel mode/setting.
Snow shovels, pushers and some combinations have been known for a very long time, some of the following have patents in Canada and United States:
This improved design provides 8 selectable steps/options to the user to change the angle of the blade body relative to the ground or surface to be cleaned by just giving a twist of the D shaped hand grip.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONConsidered broadly, snow is removed by pushing it using a snow pusher which accumulates it and then lifted and thrown in a designated area by using snow shovel. The main difference between the two is the angle of the blade body relative to the ground or surface to be cleaned. In a snow shovel, the blade body is nearly horizontal to the ground or surface to be cleaned and in a snow pusher, the blade body is nearly vertical to the surface to be cleaned. If the snow is also required to be pushed towards right or left hand side simultaneously while being pushed forward which helps shifting more volume in the next pushing operation which collects the previously shifted snow along with a fresh layer of snow, then the process requires the blade body to have the ability to also rotate at another axis either to the right or left along with horizontal and vertical angles as required in a shovel and pusher. This angle shifts the pushed snow towards right or left, this shifting of snow is directly proportional to this angle, less shifting with smaller angle and more shifting with greater angle.
The design of snow shovel and pusher combination with 8 adjustable settings includes a blade body and an elongated handle. Closer to the blade body between the two ends of the long handle is a 360 degree rotating joint which is comprised of two flanges joined together with the help of a steel bolt, nut and two washers while having the ability to rotate with one flange face sliding in a circular motion on the other. This rotating joint comprises of two main parts namely a stationary flange and a rotating flange. The stationary flange has a circular sliding face with 8 concave recesses evenly divided on the sliding face at equal distance from centre. There is also male component attached to the other side of the flange to be inserted in to the blade body attaching receptacle which is part of the blade body. The rotating flange also has a circular sliding face equal to size as in stationary flange. This flange has two tubular housings. Each one to accommodate one spring and one steel ball that are required to achieve the 8 locking positions. There is also a female receptacle attached to the other side of the rotating flange at an angle as a part to be attached to the other end of the. The other end of the long handle has a D shaped hand grip attached to it which is normally found in long handle tools. During use, the blade body in snow pusher setting/mode should be nearly vertical to the surface to be cleaned and in snow shovel setting/mode blade body should be nearly horizontal to the surface to be cleaned. The rotating joint assembly has 8 adjustable setting positions that are lockable.
The invention with 8 setting options is very useful in operating the device most efficiently based on the need. A rotating movement of 180 degrees of the D shaped hand grip when it is parallel to the ground produces change in blade body position from snow pusher to snow shovel or visa a versa. In between these two settings are 6 other option available to user for simultaneously side shifting of snow towards left or right while pushing.
These and other features will become more apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings, the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to be in any way limiting, wherein:
The snow shovel and pusher combination with 8 adjustable settings will be described in details with reference to numbered parts
Claims
1. The snow shovel and pusher combination with eight adjustable settings comprising:
- a D shaped hand grip;
- an elongated long handle having a first end and a second end;
- a blade body with a first female receptacle;
- a stationary flange with a male component, also an extended part of the stationary flange is a flat circular sliding face or flange face with 8 concave recesses at equal centre to centre distance from rotational axis of the flange, each of the recess is to provide a stop or lock position for each of the settings;
- a rotary flange with a second female receptacle to be used for connecting to one end of the long handle, also an extended part of the stationary flange is a flat circular sliding face or flange face with two housings formed at the same centre to centre distance as the 8 concave recesses in the stationary flange, each to take up a spring loaded steel ball;
- a set of a bolt, lock nut and two plain washers to assemble the stationary and rotary flanges together with the two spring loaded balls inside the housings of rotary flange, these components when assembled together is to be defined as “rotating joint assembly”;
- the second female receptacle of the rotary flange is formed with an offset angle of 22.5 degrees in relation to the rotational axis of the rotating joint assembly, this angle is defined as the “handle offset angle”;
- the blade body with the first female receptacle is also formed at 22.5 degrees in relation to the face line angle of the blade to take up the male component of the stationary flange, this angle is defined as the “blade offset angle”;
- the “handle offset angle” and the “blade offset angle” are required to create the eight adjustable settings of the snow shovel and pusher combination;
- each 45 degree rotation of the D shaped hand grip on its rotational axis from one stop or lock position to next stop or lock position provides the operator to select one of the 8 adjustable settings of choice.
2. The snow shovel and pusher combination with eight adjustable settings of claim 1, be used as a straight snow pusher with the D shaped hand grip parallel to the surface to be cleaned and blade body nearly vertical to the surface to be cleaned, this position is be defined as initial or start position.
3. The snow shovel and pusher combination with eight adjustable settings of claims 1-2, the initial or start position be numbered as setting 1 and each consecutive clockwise rotation of 45 degree or next locking position be given numbers as 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, then each consecutive movement of 45 degrees will bring the following changes to the use of this invention:
- Position 2 will provide pushing and side shifting of snow simultaneously towards right;
- Position 3 will provide pushing and relatively more side shifting of snow simultaneously towards right as compared to position 2;
- Position 4 will provide pushing and relatively more side shifting of snow simultaneously towards right as compared to position 3 with some scooping action;
- Position 5 will convert the pusher into shovel, at this stage the blade position will be horizontal to the surface to be cleaned and the D shaped hand grip will be parallel to the surface to be cleaned;
- Position 6 will provide pushing and side shifting of snow simultaneously towards left as compared to position 5 with some scooping action;
- Position 7 will provide pushing and relatively less side shifting of snow simultaneously towards left as compared to position 6;
- Position 8 will provide pushing and relatively less side shifting of snow simultaneously towards left as compared to position 7.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 2, 2016
Publication Date: Aug 3, 2017
Inventor: MUHAMMAD MUZAFFAR IQBAL (Brampton)
Application Number: 15/013,776