The present invention concerns a method for the collection of sample bores from soil according to the introduction to claim 1 , and a vehicle and vehicle combination intended to be used with the method according to claim 5 and claim 10, respectively.

The assessment of condition and the inspection of roads and soil takes place through sampling with the aid of special soil samplers, which are normally of tubular type, screw drill type, wing drill type or cylindrical type. It is necessary in certain cases to free parts of the upper layer of the soil, simply by excavating it away by means of a backhoe before sampling can be carried out. The soil sampler is attached to a hydraulic motor on an arm that can be manoeuvred, such as the arm of an excavator. The bearing strength of the soil and its status are investigated during the assessment of condition by collecting sample bores.

A known arrangement for the collection of sample bores and samples of soil uses a vehicle that can be driven, such as an excavator or similar, whereby the soil sampler is fixed by a chuck in a manner that allows rotation into a hydraulic motor at the end of an arm that can be manoeuvred. The soil sampler supported by the arm is attached to the arm through the chuck and it is manoeuvred before sampling into a vertical position relative to the soil or road whose condition is to be assessed. The said manoeuvre operation and the alignment of the sampler take place by means of the arm or by means of operating and adjustment means arranged at the arm. One of the more time-consuming operations before soil sampling can take place is the alignment of the soil sampler that is suspended by the arm, since it is in general not oriented in a vertical direction, but is tilted in some direction away from the vertical. If alignment with respect to the vertical is not sufficiently accurate, it is not seldom that the front part of the sampler, which is provided with cutters, tends to "wander" sideways during the initial period of the sampling operation. These problems normally end when the sampler starts to work its way down into the soil, since when it has actually entered the soil the wall of the hole that is formed has a supporting effect on the sampler. The problems with wandering are particularly large when it is a case of extended samples, and in those cases in which the soil or surface is particularly hard. There is, at the same time, a desire to be able to use samplers that are as long as possible in order to avoid, particularly when sampling at great depths, the need to carry out sampling in several consecutive steps.

One disadvantage with vehicles that are currently used during the assessment of the condition of soil is that the complete vehicle must be displaced to a new location or position for each new sampling operation, and this not only constitutes a time-consuming operation in itself, it also has a disturbing effect on the traffic that passes the stretch of road at which sampling is taking place and thus increases the risk of traffic accidents taking place. A further disadvantage of the vehicles currently in use is that they require some form of supplementary vehicle for the transport of both equipment and materials that are used during the sampling, as of collecting the sample bores. This total traffic of vehicles around the sampling site, naturally, has a disturbing influence on the traffic that passes the sampling site. Further, the costs of the sampling are unnecessarily high through the need to maintain at least two units (one sampling vehicle and one lorry) in operation during the work. A further problem that can be mentioned is that sampling using the prior art technology is relatively dependent on the weather, and can be carried out only during suitable weather conditions. This is, of course, detrimental to efficiency. A first purpose of the present invention is to achieve a method for the collection of sample bores from soil, roads or similar that allows the work to be carried out in a considerably more efficient method than that achieved with methods currently known. In particular, when it is a case of sampling on roads, the purpose is to contribute to increased road safety around the relevant sampling area. To be more specific, what is striven after is a method that with a high efficiency makes it possible to carrying out a large number of sampling operations for soil at each location, i.e. in such a manner that the number of movements of vehicles around the sampling site is reduced. A second and a third purpose of the invention are to achieve a vehicle and a vehicle combination for the execution of the actual method. These three purposes of the invention are achieved with a method that demonstrates the features and characteristics that are specified in claim 1 and a vehicle and a vehicle combination intended to be used with the method according to the introductions to claim 5 and claim 10, respectively.

The insight that forms the basis of the present invention is that the soil sampler will strive always to be vertical or to be coaxial with the vertical line through the use of a vehicle with a manoeuvrable arm and that is mounted on this vehicle, which arm can be displaced up and down along a vertical guide, and which arm at its free end supports the soil sampler through a linkage that is jointed with a cardan suspension joint. The time normally required for the alignment of the soil sampler can in this way be considerably reduced. The soil sampler will be self-aligning, as is a plumb line, due to the cardan suspension joint. The soil sampler, which oscillates around the vertical and attempts always to achieve it, normally does not require alignment: it is self-controlling and can be fed down into the soil by driving in a vertical direction the manoeuvrable arm along the guide.

The invention will be described below in more detail in the form of embodiments with reference to the attached drawings, of which:

Figure 1 shows a side view of a vehicle in the form of a lorry parked on a road for the sampling of soil, Figure 2 shows a side view of a rear part of the vehicle provided with weather protection,

Figure 3 shows a view in perspective of tools for the sampling of soil intended to be attached to the end of a manoeuvrable arm that is a component of the arrangement, Figure 4 shows a side view of the vehicle in Figure 1 in an alternative design such as a vehicle combination consisting of a first vehicle 1A and a second vehicle 1B.

In Figure 1 , the reference number 1 denotes a motor-driven wheeled lorry, shown only partially, in the form of a lorry parked on ground in the form of a road, the condition of which is to be assessed with respect to its status and bearing strength. The lorry 1 has a chassis 2 equipped with a two-axle bogie 3. The chassis 2 of the lorry 1 has in a rear part a superstructure generally denoted by 4 and consisting of a hydraulically driven crane 5 with at least two arm sections 5 ¹ , 5" that are jointed to each other, and a cabin 6, which it is appropriate be equipped such that it is possible to dwell there for short periods. The hydraulically driven arm 5 is so designed that its free crane end can be manoeuvred freely in space, i.e. in the three degrees of translational freedom X, Y and Z as is illustrated in Figure 1. In the forward part of the superstructure 4 is collected all equipment that is necessary to carry out the sampling operations, such as a diesel-powered generator 7 to provide electrical power, a water tank 8, a diesel-powered hydraulic unit 9 to provide pressurised hydraulic fluid, a compressor 10 to provide pressurised air, a compartment 11 for the storage of sample bores from soil samplings carried out, together with gravel and filler material 12 for filling holes drilled into the soil and roadway. Foldable supporting legs 13 are mounted at the rear part of the chassis 2, which legs are arranged in pairs on each side of the chassis.

With reference also to Figure 2, the vehicle 1 comprises a guide, generally denoted by the reference number 20, which is arranged to extend vertically on the chassis 2. The hydraulically driven arm 5 is supported on a carriage 21 , which in turn can be transported up and down along the guide 20. A bracket 22, which in turn supports weather protection 23 or a covering construction, is mounted on a second carriage 24 that can travel vertically along the guide 20. The said second carriage 24 is located above the first carriage 21 on the guide 20. The weather protection 23 is constructed of a frame of connected beams 25 with a covering fabric 26 or similar material and extends as protection over the manoeuvrable arm 5 and the site of the sampling of soil. The carriage 21 with the hydraulically manoeuvrable arm 5 and the weather protection 23 are constituted by two separate units that can be displaced independently along the guide 20.

The guide 20 is constructed from one or more sections 20', 20", ... that can be mounted on each other by means of screw fixtures not shown in the drawings. The lowermost section of guide 20 is supported at its lowermost end on a pivoting crane construction 30, and it can be pivoted by the action of a hydraulic motor 31 that is provided with a toothed wheel around a vertical axis 32 (the Y axis). Each section of guide 20, 20' is constructed from a guide element in the form of a beam with two parallel cogged wheels and cogged rod rails 33. Due to the fact that the guide 20 can be rotated as a unit, it should be understood that the manoeuvrable arm 5 can be pivoted not only in a sideways direction (the Z axis), but can also be regarded as essentially pivoting in a circle.

It is assumed here as an example that the units 21 and 24 have construction features that are partially constructed in the same manner as the basic construction, described briefly below. In particular, each of the units has two driving units 34, one for each of the parallel cogged wheels and cogged rod rails 33. Each such driving unit comprises hydraulically driven cogged wheels or cogged rods (not shown in the drawings) that interact with the relevant cogged wheel or cogged rod rail 33. The driving units 34 for both the unit 21 and the unit 24 receive driving fluid from the diesel-powered hydraulic unit 9 that is mounted on the vehicle 1 , as also the manoeuvrable arm receives its driving fluid from the said hydraulic unit. Referring again to Figure 1 , the manoeuvrable arm 5 supports a soil sampler 40 of tubular type that is suspended from the arm by a chuck 41 , which in turn is mounted in a hydraulic motor 42 in a manner that allows pivoting. A cardan suspension joint, generally denoted by the reference number 43, is arranged between the hydraulic rotary motor 42 and the free end of the arm. This cardan joint is so designed that the freely suspended soil sampler 40 attempts always to take up a vertical position, independently of the positions of the arm 5 and the vehicle 1. Since cardan joints are well-known they will not be described in detail here, only to point out that they comprise in known manner two concentric rings that are diametrically and mutually perpendicularly mounted in bearings such that the soil sampler 40 can pivot or oscillate freely in two perpendicular vertical planes. It should be mentioned that in cases in which the soil sampler 40 is constituted by a cylindrical sampler intended to be driven axially downwards into the soil, a rotatable driving arrangement such as a drilling machine 42 into which the said cylindrical sampler can be arranged suspended directly at the arm 5 through the cardan suspension joint 43 is not needed.

The free end of the manoeuvrable arm is shown in Figure 3 and, as the drawing makes clear, it is provided with a tool fixture 50 of known rapid-lock type with a first fixture part 51 that demonstrates fork-shaped end parts 52 that can be caused hydraulically by means of power units or by means of wedges to grip a second interacting fixture part 53 that has been arranged at the tool in order to obtain a locking effect and that has fixed shafts 54. Furthermore, examples are shown in Figure 3 of some different types of tool that are frequently used during the sampling of soil, that can be alternately or interchangeably fixed to the end of the arm 5 by means of the tool fixture 50. It should be understood that while soil sampling tools of the type that are intended to be drilled or driven vertically downwards into the soil are equipped with the said cardan suspension joint 43 between the said second fixture part 53 and the actual soil sampling arrangement, the bucket 55 that is also shown in Figure 3 lacks, for reasons that are easy to appreciate, any cardan suspension joint 43. The bucket is, naturally, intended to be attached directly at the free end of the operating arm 5 by the rapid-lock fixture.

The lines required for the passage of driving fluid such as the hydraulic flow between the hydraulic unit 9 and the items that require hydraulic fluid, such as the operating arm 5, the hydraulic motor 42, the tool fixture 50, etc., have not been included in the drawings in the interests of clarity. A gripper 60 is shown in Figure 5, which gripper is supported by the vehicle 1 and is intended to grip a soil sampling tool such as a tubular soil sampler and hold it in a secure grip. The gripper 60 is fixed at the chassis 2 of the vehicle 1 at the rear and comprises two grip arms 62, 63 that can be operated by means of hydraulic cylinders 61 , and that are so designed that they can grip a sampler that has been placed in the gripper 60 by means of the manoeuvrable arm 5.

Figure 4 shows a vehicle 1 according to the invention for the collection of soil samples and sample bores inan alternative embodiment. This design differs from that described in the introduction principally in that the lorry is constituted by a vehicle combination of a forward motor-driven lorry 1A and a rear wheeled supplementary vehicle or trailer 1 B, intended to be drawn by the forward vehicle. The said supplementary vehicle 1 B has a chassis with a transverse rear frame. The supplementary vehicle 1 B is attached at its front end in a manner that allows it to be removed to the forward motor-driven lorry by means of a conventional drawing arrangement 70, and it is at its rear end provided with an arrangement 71 to dampen impacts, which in this embodiment is constituted by a dismountable impact protection known as TMA protection attached at the rear frame. This impact protection can be manoeuvred between a raised position and a lowered position by means of hydraulic cylinders 72. In the embodiment shown, the rear trailer 1B is provided with a storage compartment 74 for sample bores that have been collected.

The lorry according to the invention for the collection of sample bores from a road functions in the following manner:

With the lorry 1 parked at the stretch of road whose condition is to be assessed, the vehicle combination 1A, 1B is parked, and the supplementary vehicle is disconnected from the drawing vehicle 1A and the impact-dampening arrangement 71 (the TMA protection) is lowered. The drawing vehicle 1A is then driven forwards a certain distance and parked. The soil sampler 40 is manoeuvred by the hydraulic operating arm 5 such that the soil sampler is located directly above a pre-determined position above that part of the roadway the condition of whose underlying soil layers is to be determined. Due to the cardan suspension joint 43, the soil sampler 40 immediately takes up a vertical position and can, trough the carriage 21 and thus also the complete arm, being driven vertically downwards on the guide 20. When the soil sampler 40 has reached the intended depth, normally corresponding to the complete length of the soil sampler, the drilling machine is stopped such that the soil sampler 40 stops rotating and also stops its feed movement downwards. The carriage 21, and thus the arm 5, is then caused to move backwards up along the guide 20, whereby the soil sampler is withdrawn from the hole together with the undisturbed sample that has been collected inside the inner tube. The withdrawn soil sampler 40 is taken by the arm 5 to the gripper 60 and maintained in a fixed vertical position by means of the gripper while the sample bore is removed from the sampler 40, and which sample bore is subsequently placed into the storage compartment 11 of the drawing vehicle 1 A, or into the storage compartment 74 of the supplementary vehicle 1 B.

The present invention is not limited to what has been described above and shown in the drawings: it can be changed and modified in several different ways within the scope of the innovative concept defined by the attached patent claims.