Grade propulsion system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9206562-B2
Application number	US-201313783482-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 4, 2013
Priority date	Mar 8, 2012
Publication date	Dec 8, 2015
Grant date	Dec 8, 2015

Abstract

A grade propulsion system provided herein includes: a propel pump; a brake system; an operator control configured to receive and transmit a propel command and a Hill Mode activation; and a controller electronically coupled to the propel pump, the brake system, and the operator control, the controller configured, after activation of the Hill Mode and the propel command, to transmit a propel current to the propel pump and disengage the brake system when the propel current is equal to or greater than a cracking current plus an offset current.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A paver comprising:
a propel pump;
a brake system;
an operator control configured to receive and transmit a propel command and a Hill Mode activation; and
a controller electronically coupled to the propel pump, the brake system, and the operator control, the controller configured, after receiving the Hill Mode activation and the propel command, to transmit a propel current to the propel pump and disengage the brake system when the propel current is equal to or greater than a cracking current plus an offset current.

2. The paver of claim 1 , further comprising a memory unit configured to store the cracking current and the offset current.

3. The paver of claim 1 , further comprising a memory unit configured to store a disable braking current.

4. The paver of claim 1 , further comprising a Hill Mode indicator for indicating the Hill Mode status to an operator.

5. The paver of claim 1 , further comprising an inclination sensor configured to detect a paving grade inclination and transmit a paving grade inclination to the controller, wherein the controller is further configured to activate Hill Mode if the paving grade is greater than or equal to a threshold grade.

6. The paver of claim 5 , wherein the threshold grade is greater than or equal to approximately 5 percent.

7. A paver comprising:
a propel pump;
a brake system;
an inclination sensor for detecting a current paving grade,
a controller electronically coupled to the propel pump, the brake system, the inclination sensor, and the memory unit, the controller configured to receive the current paving grade from the inclination sensor, and after receiving a forward propel signal, to determine an offset current according to the current paving grade, to transmit a propel current to the propel pump, and to disengage the brake system when the propel current is equal to or greater than a cracking current plus an offset current.

8. The paver of claim 7 , further comprising a memory unit configured to store an offset current-inclination map correlating a paving grade to a predetermined offset current.

9. The paver of claim 8 , wherein controller is further configured to determine the offset current according to the current paving grade and the offset current-inclination map.

10. The paver of claim 7 , further comprising a memory unit configured to store the cracking current.

11. The paver of claim 7 , further comprising a Hill Mode indicator for visually indicating a Hill Mode status to an operator.

Assignees

• Caterpillar Paving Prod

Inventors

• Frelich Toby A
• Chin Kea V
• Queen Steven R

Classifications

• B60W10/103

  of fluid type · CPC title

• B60W2552/15

  Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction · CPC title

• B60W30/18118 Primary

  Hill holding · CPC title

• B60W10/184

  with wheel brakes · CPC title

• E01C19/48

  for laying-down the materials and consolidating them, or finishing the surface {, e.g. slip forms therefor, forming kerbs or gutters in a continuous operation in situ (E01C19/002, E01C23/065 take precedence; devices for guiding or controlling the machines along a predetermined path E01C19/004)} · CPC title