The present invention relates to an excavator shovel device. The device is especially useful in compacting materials when, for example, refilling ditches or similar.

When, for example, a ditch is to be refilled, the refilled material must be compacted. If this is not done or is not done to a sufficient degree, the material will subside over time, and a depression will gradually appear at the site. Of course, this is of particular significance if the ditch extends across a road. Compaction should be carried out at regular intervals without the ditch being filled with an excess of material between each compaction operation, which will make it very difficult to compact the material adequately.

Today, refilling a ditch is carried out by first filling the ditch with the material and then compacting the material with the aid of a hand-controlled ground vibrator or a vibrator mounted on an excavator. When using hand-controlled ground vibrators, "sheer muscle power" must often be used to position the vibrator in the ditch ready to compact. Once compaction is completed, the vibrator must again be lifted out of the ditch before the ditch can be filled with more material. When using an excavator-mounted vibrator, the equipment on the excavator must constantly be changed, since, as pointed out above, an excess of material should not be poured into the ditch between each compaction operation. When refilling a ditch, equipment (shovel to vibrator and vice versa) must therefore be changed several times. This involves the connection and disconnection of hoses and so forth. This change of equipment operation is very labour-intensive. In consequence thereof, too much material is frequently poured into the ditch between each compaction operation. The result is that the material subsides and a depression appears in, for example, the road after it has been in use for some time.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate completely these time-consuming reconnections. To this end, the vibrator is mounted on the excavator shovel in such manner that the excavator shovel can be used both for moving material and for compacting the material.

It is true that it is previously known to equip an excavator shovel with other movable equipment. Examples of this are taught in DE 3046474 which describes a loading hoe which is equipped in the bottom with parallel rollers. The hoe is designed to load, for example, beets from the ground onto a lorry. During loading the rollers are operated in rotation and soil clinging to the beets can thus fall out between the rollers. Furthermore, NO 164 790 teaches an excavator shovel wherein the forward part of the shovel is articulately connected to the rest of the shovel. This forward part is movable with the aid of a hydraulic cylinder. In this way, the shovel can be used as an impact device, thereby making it easier to dig in hard ground, e.g., frozen soil.

These devices cannot be used in the same way as the device according to the present invention, which device is defined in claim 1 below.

The invention will now be described with reference to the appended drawings, wherein

Figure 1 shows the excavator shovel and the outer part of the excavator arm, with the shovel in a digging position; and

Figure 2 shows the same shovel in a compacting position.

Figure 1 shows an excavator shovel 1, which is articulately connected to an excavator arm 2. On the underside of the excavator shovel, i.e., one of the faces of the shovel capable of being turned down towards the ground, and preferably that of these surfaces which is furthest from the teeth of the excavator shovel, has a recessed vibrator element 4. The vibrator element 4 is connected to a vibrating face 3, which is arranged preferably parallel to the underside of the excavator shovel 1, but which projects somewhat beyond this underside. The vibrating face 3 is slightly curved in the direction of the shovel 1 at its end faces, so that the shovel 1 can be guided along the ground (the material which is to be compacted) with the vibrating face 3 down, without the edges of the vibrating face 3 creating unnecessary friction.

The vibrator element may be a motor-operated excentric, wherein the motor preferably is hydraulic and is supplied with hydraulic pressure via hoses running along the excavator arm 2. However, the vibrator element may also be operated by hydraulic cylinders.

The arrangement of the vibrator element integrated into the shovel 1 will mean that the excavator shovel 1 will be slightly shallower. However, this will be of little consequence for the digging, and in any case will be fully compensated by the increased efficiency achieved by virtue of the fact that there is no need to change equipment on the excavator. In Figure 1 the excavator shovel is shown in a digging position, with the teeth of the excavator shovel facing downwards ready to penetrate into the ground or into loose material with which the ditch is to be filled.

In Figure 2 the excavator shovel is shown in a compaction position where the shovel 1 is drawn in towards the excavator arm 2 so that the vibrating face 3 is at approximately the same angle as the material which is to be compacted. The shovel is then put down on the material and the vibrator element 4 is started by remote control from the excavator. Without taking any action other than again stopping the vibrator element 4, the excavator operator can continue the refilling work immediately after compaction.

Owing to the fact that there is no longer any need to change any of the equipment on the excavator, it will no longer be as tempting to fill the ditch with an excess of material in between each compaction operation. In fact, the logical conclusion is that the excavator operator can now compact the material each time he has poured a shovel full of material into the ditch. This will give a substantially better result, as the well-compacted material will not have the same tendency to subside as more poorly compacted material.

In addition to there no longer being any need to change equipment on the excavator constantly, the present invention also means that the excavator operator will have less equipment to transport to and from the excavation site, and moreover that he will not risk facing a situation where for some reason or another he has no compactor when he needs one.

Although the foregoing exemplary embodiment shows a vibrator recessed in the excavator shovel, the invention also comprises variants where the vibrator is placed on the outside of the excavator shovel as additional equipment. The principle of the present invention is thus that an excavator shovel and vibrator can be connected to the excavator arm concurrently without any interference with each other's function.