Wear assembly

Abstract

A wear assembly for excavating equipment which has a wear member overlying a leading edge of the excavating equipment, a removable lock for releasably holding the wear member to the leading edge, and a stabilizer, wherein (i) the wear member has a pair of legs to straddle the leading edge with a first leg extending along a first side of the leading edge and a second leg extending along a second side of the leading edge opposite the first side, (ii) the first leg has an opening for receiving the lock and a second leg free of such locks, and (iii) the stabilizer is fixed to the second side of the leading edge and includes a holding surface to overlie a portion of the second leg to prevent the second leg from moving away from the second side of the leading edge.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] This invention relates to a wear assembly and, particularly, to a replaceable assembly for protecting a leading edge or edges of a bucket or other earth engaging equipment. BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0002] The invention finds utility in connection with excavating equipment, for example, along the leading edge of a dragline bucket, front end loader, face shovel, etc. In many instances the bucket may be equipped with transversely spaced excavating teeth to facilitate earth penetration. In the past, many operators have found it advantageous to protect both the bucket lip between the teeth and the bucket wings. One example of such a construction is disclosed in co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,594 marketed by ESCO Corporation of Portland, Oreg., U.S.A. under the trademark “ZIPPER LIP.” Another type of lip wear edge can be seen in co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,177. Other patents dealing with lip wear edges are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,995,384 and 4,748,754....

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0003] In this industry, it is advantageous for wear members to possess the conflicting goals of being reliably locked in place during operation yet being easily replaced when worn. The arduous environments and especially the ever present shock loads hinder the realization of these contradictory goals. It is also beneficial to keep the weight of the wear members to a minimum in order to maximize the potential carrying weight of the buckets. Further, it is generally desirable to limit costs, difficulties of use, and risks of failure.

[0005] To improve on this assembly, a stabilizer is provided to restrain the lower leg of the wear member, which previously freely extended along the bottom of the bucket. In this way, the stress in the wear member can be reduced in a simple, cost-effective, and low-weight manner. While leg restraints have been used in past assemblies, they have been limited to use facilitating the interaction of the lock and the leg. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,553,409; 5,052,134; and 3,736,664.

Problems solved by technology

The arduous environments and especially the ever present shock loads hinder the realization of these contradictory goals.

It has been found, however, that under heavy loading, particularly heavy loads applied upward against the bottom of the wear member, that high stresses can be found in the top leg of the wear member.

Such loading can lead to a shortened useable life for the wear member and even breakage.

While leg restraints have been used in past assemblies, they have been limited to use facilitating the interaction of the lock and the leg.

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