Tip and adapter for an earthworking bucket

Abstract

A tip and adapter assembly for an earthworking bucket has a replaceable tip mounted on an adapter. The adapter has a mounting end fitted into a socket cavity of the tip, which are provided with suitable mating surfaces for transferring loading forces from the tip to the adapter. The adapter is provided with an ear that projects into a U-shaped notch in each side of the tip. A gap is provided between the ear and the notch to indicate that excessive wear has not occurred in the tip/adapter interface. However, contact between the ear and notch serves as a visual indicator that excessive wear has occurred. The notch also serves as a fuse to ensure that the tip breaks due to excessive loads before the adapter.

What is claimed is:  
     
       1. A tip and adapter assembly for an earthworking bucket, comprising: 
       an elongated adapter having a rear mounting portion adapted for mounting the adapter to said bucket and a front tip mounting nose for receiving a bucket tip, said tip mounting nose having a top surface, a bottom surface and a pair of side surfaces, each of said top and bottom surfaces having a longitudinally extending, centrally disposed rib protruding therefrom, and each of said side surfaces having a centrally located ear protruding therefrom; and  
       a replaceable tip having an elongated body disposed along a longitudinal axis and tapering from a wide rearward mounting end portion to a narrow forward ground engaging end portion, said mounting end portion having a rearwardly opening socket cavity for receiving the front tip mounting nose of said adapter, said socket cavity having pair of side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall, said top and bottom walls each having a central, longitudinally disposed recessed groove therein for receiving a respective one of said ribs of said adapter, and each of said side walls having a notch therethrough adapted to receive a respective one of said ears of said adapter.  
     
     
       2. The tip and adapter assembly of  claim 1  wherein said socket cavity has an open end and wherein each of said notches are generally U-shaped and extend forward from said open end toward said ground engaging end portion of the tip, each notch having a length sufficient to weaken said tip so as act as a fuse whereby before a vertical force acting upon the ground engaging end portion of the tip that would be sufficient to cause the breaking of said adapter on which said tip is mounted will result in the breakage of the tip first. 
     
     
       3. The tip and adapter assembly of  claim 2  wherein said cavity has an end wall defining a planar force transmitting surface oriented perpendicular to said longitudinal axis and said tip mounting nose of said adapter has a planar front end surface disposed in abutting contact with said planar surface of said cavity when said tip is mounted on said adapter, whereby longitudinally oriented forces on said tip are transmitted into said adapter through said abutting planar end surfaces of said tip and adapter. 
     
     
       4. The tip and adapter assembly of  claim 3  wherein each of said notches has an interior peripheral surface and each of said ears has an exterior peripheral surface, said ears being configured so as to create a gap between its exterior peripheral surface and the corresponding interior surface of its respective notch during use until an predetermined amount of wear has occurred on the abutting surface of the adapter, whereby contact between the peripheral surfaces of the ears and notches provides a visual indicator that the adapter needs replacing due to an excessive amount of wear on said abutting surface thereof. 
     
     
       5. The tip and adapter assembly of  claim 4  wherein said top and bottom walls of the socket cavity each have a first portion, said first portions generally tapering toward each other from said open end toward said end wall and a second stepped down forward end portion adjacent said end wall defining a pair of spaced apart and generally parallel end surfaces, and said top and bottom of said adapter each having a first portion disposed in a mating relationship with a respective one of said first portions of top and bottom walls of the socket cavity and a second portion transitioning from said first portion to a generally flat orientation disposed in a mating relationship with said end surfaces of second stepped down end portion so as to define a pair of load bearing surfaces disposed in abutting contact with said end surfaces of the socket cavity, through which vertical loads on said tip are transferred into said adapter. 
     
     
       6. The tip and adapter assembly of  claim 1  including an elongate retainer for detachably retaining said tip on said adapter, said retainer being compressible in a longitudinal direction, but substantially non-compressible in a transverse direction. 
     
     
       7. The tip and adapter assembly of  claim 6  wherein one of said top and bottom walls of the socket cavity has an elongate retainer opening adapted for receiving said retainer in a direction transverse to said longitudinal axis, said retainer opening defining a transversely extending, forwardly facing abutment surface along a rearward side thereof adapted for engagement with said retainer. 
     
     
       8. The tip and adapter assembly of  claim 7  wherein said retainer is a compression spring retainer having a pair of solid steel end portions and a compressible middle portion. 
     
     
       9. A replaceable bucket tip adapted to be detachably mounted to a mounting nose of a bucket adapter by means of a retainer, said replaceable bucket tip comprising: 
       an elongated body disposed along a longitudinal axis and tapering from a wide rearward mounting end portion to a narrow forward ground engaging end portion, said mounting end portion having a rearwardly opening socket cavity having a rectangularly shaped open end, said cavity being defined by pair of side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall, each of said top and bottom walls having a central, longitudinally disposed recessed groove therein, and each of said side walls being generally parallel to each other and each having a generally U-shaped notch extending forward from said open end toward said ground engaging end, said notch having a length sufficient to weaken said tip so as act as a fuse whereby before a vertical force acting upon the ground engaging end portion of the tip that would be sufficient to cause the breaking of said adapter on which said tip is mounted will result in the breakage of the tip first.  
     
     
       10. The replaceable bucket tip of  claim 9  wherein said socket cavity includes an end wall defining a planar force transmitting surface oriented perpendicular to said longitudinal axis. 
     
     
       11. The replaceable bucket tip of  claim 9  wherein said top and bottom walls each having a first portion generally tapering toward each other from said open end toward said end wall and a second stepped down forward end portion adjacent said end wall defining a pair of spaced apart and generally parallel end surfaces. 
     
     
       12. The replaceable bucket tip of  claim 10  wherein one of said top and bottom walls includes an elongate retainer opening therethrough, said retainer opening having a transversely extending, forwardly facing side with an arcuately shaped abutment surface thereon adapted for engagement with said retainer.