Excavating attachment with laterally pivotable working arm for excavating beneath a buried utility

摘要

An attachment is provided for us on an articulated boom of an excavator in order to excavate earth from beneath a buried pipeline or other utility. The attachment features at least one working arm pivotally mounted to a base plate for movement relative to the base plate about an axis passing therethrough. A working end of the arm is thereby movable between a retracted position overlying the base plate and a deployed position reaching laterally outward from an edge of the base plate. With the excavator facing in a longitudinal direction of the utility, and the attachment carried beside the utility at a short depth therebelow by the boom of the excavator, the arm can be deployed and retracted in order to sweep material out from under the pipeline and onto the base plate. The material is then lifted to the surface by raising of the excavator boom.

主权项

1. An excavating attachment for use on an articulated boom of an excavator to clear earth out from beneath a buried utility, said excavating attachment comprising:
a base; a coupling unit attached to the base in a position standing upwardly away from a topside of the base and arranged for removable coupling to a free end of the articulated boom of the excavator at a spaced distance above the topside of the base in order to carry the excavating attachment at the free end of the articulated boom; a working arm situated in a working plane above the topside of the base and pivotally coupled to the base for pivotal motion in the working plane about a pivot axis passing through the base, the working arm having a working end for engaging the earth and a non-working end lying opposite said working end; and an actuator coupled to the working arm and operable to control movement of the working end of the working arm on a respective side of the coupling unit between a deployed position situated laterally outward from the base on the respective side of the coupling unit and a retracted position located nearer to the coupling unit than in the deployed working position; wherein the deployed position of the working arm reaching laterally outward from the base in the working plane above the topside of the base is operable to reach beneath the buried utility from a dug out hole therebeside, loosen earth beneath the buried utility using the working end of the working arm, and direct the loosened earth onto the topside of the base for lifting of said loosened earth to surface by raising of the articulated boom from the dug out hole.