US PATENT SUBCLASS 172 / 35
WITH DRIVE MEANS FOR TOOL OR CLEANER

Current as of: June, 1999
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172 /   HD   EARTH WORKING

35WITH DRIVE MEANS FOR TOOL OR CLEANER {37}
36  DF  .~> Subsurface shears or nippers
37  DF  .~> Tool rotated by attendant
38  DF  .~> With obstruction feeling device for moving or releasing implement
39  DF  .~> With cleaner or comminutor spaced from ground surface
40  DF  .~> Vibrating tool
41  DF  .~> Attendant supported tool
42  DF  .~> Guided by walking attendant {1}
44  DF  .~> Subsurface shaft or bar (e.g., rod weeder)
45  DF  .~> Flails
46  DF  .~> Coaxial tools oppositely rotated
47  DF  .~> With specific relationship of mast-type hitch (i.e., three-point hitch) to implement
48  DF  .~> Plural driven tools {6}
61  DF  .~> Intermittent drive for tool {1}
63  DF  .~> With non-driven tool (e.g., plow, harrow, drag, scraper, knife or roll, etc.) {8}
74  DF  .~> With power take-off from tool drive to adjust tool
75  DF  .~> Interconnected tool lift and drive control
76  DF  .~> Implement with ground support for depth control {3}
80  DF  .~> With wheel substitute (e.g., runner, etc.)
81  DF  .~> With plant deflector or protector
82  DF  .~> Driven tool selectively shiftable along line of travel {1}
84  DF  .~> Simultaneously reciprocating and oscillating blade having elongated shank {3}
90  DF  .~> Irregular or off-center ground-engaging wheel or support
91  DF  .~> Blade movable with respect to cyclically driven carrier {2}
97  DF  .~> Compound motion for tool (e.g., reciprocating and oscillating, reciprocating and rotating)
98  DF  .~> Tool mounted for lateral shifting {1}
100  DF  .~> Blade on endless driven belt or chain
101  DF  .~> Tool guided for rectilinear reciprocation {1}
103  DF  .~> With overload relief or clutch in drive train (e.g., overload release, etc.) {1}
105  DF  .~> Driven from rolling or driven ground wheel {1}
107  DF  .~> Tool driven about horizontal, longitudinal axis {1}
110  DF  .~> Tool driven about generally vertical axis (e.g., oscillating choppers, etc.) {1}
112  DF  .~> With deflector or shield for thrown material {1}
114  DF  .~> Specific propelling means {2}
117  DF  .~> Tool freely or yieldably mounted on chassis
118  DF  .~> Tool driven about axis transverse to draft line {5}
124  DF  .~> Tool driven about diagonal axis
125  DF  .~> Tool drive details

DEFINITION

Classification: 172/35

(under the class definition) Apparatus in which a power means is provided to move an earth working element with a regular cyclic motion relative to its support independently of or in addition to the motion imparted directly to said element by the translation of the device as a whole as it is moved across the surface of the ground being treated.

(1) Note. The moving means may employ a resilient element or gravity return arrangement during a portion of the movement.

(2) Note. The power means may comprise (1) a prime mover such as an engine or motor (2) a drive from a supporting wheel (other than where there is an integral wheel and earth working element or direct coupling therebetween) or (3) a manual means to continuously rotate the earth working element.

(3) Note. Where no more of the driving means for a driven earth working element is claimed than the driven shaft which supports said element the patent has been construed as a rotary implement subcombination, equally useful as a driven or a rolling earth working element and has been classified in

subclasses 518+ unless (1) the claimed structure, attitude, or relation of the element to the ground or to an adjacent, cooperating implement would require a drive means to operate it in the manner disclosed or (2) unless a disclosed drive means (more than a shaft) is claimed either broadly or specifically.

(4) Note. Driven earth working elements as contemplated by this definition usually engage earth which is either undisturbed or which rests on undisturbed earth immediately after it has been treated by another implement. As an exception to the above, driven elements which (1) are contiguous to a ground treating implement to clean it or (2) which are disposed in the path of the furrow slice or earth stream leaving the implement to pulverize said earth have been classified as driven earth engaging elements in subclasses 39, 50+, 66, and 67.

(5) Note. Provision of power means to shift an otherwise undriven earth working element at the option of the operator has not been considered to result in a driven earth working element for this definition in the absence of a regular and cyclic motion. For actuators for shifting earth working elements see subclass 663 and the subclasses there noted. (6) Note. Some drive connections to an earth working element actually retard the element and constrain it to rotate at a speed slower than that at which it would roll on the ground. Patents claiming such drives have been classified in this and indented subclasses provided that the drive is capable of positively rotating the element if it were not in contact with the earth.

SEE OR SEARCH THIS CLASS, SUBCLASS:

2+, for driven implements with automatic power control, especially subclass 5 for such implements with obstruction sensing means.

15+, for a lawn edger with a driven cutter.

19+, for driven sod cutters.

21, for driven lawn aerators.

28, for an earth working implement with adriven means for cutting or shredding plants without soil disturbance.

30, for an earth working implement with a driven means for shifting surface material without soil disturbance.

32, for an implement comprising a driven tool with means for separating earth after earth working.

33, for a power driven moldboard, conveyer, or handler.

236+, for an implement with a ground engageable draft

responsive lever. 292, for specific propelling means for traversing an implement over the ground.

518+, for rolling, rotating or orbitally moving tools, no detail of a drive for the tool being claimed. See (3) Note of this definition (35).

663+, and the subclasses there noted for power driven actuators for tools.

SEE OR SEARCH CLASS

15, Brushing, Scrubbing, and General Cleaning, appropriate subclasses for analogous apparatus used for cleaning.

30, Cutlery, appropriate subclasses for general utility cutting implements which may be power operated.

56, Harvesters,

10.1+, for motor driven harvesters and subclasses 500+ for stalk choppers for cutting dead crop material.

74, Machine Element or Mechanism,

11+, for power take-offs and subclass 16 for portable assemblies for driving auxiliary attachments.

111, Planting,

113, 122, and 158+ for power-operated rotary furrow openers claimed in combination with planting or soil treating devices. 171, Unearthing Plants or Buried Objects, appropriate subclasses, for analogous apparatus used for unearthing plants or buried objects.

173, Tool Driving or Impacting, appropriate subclass for a means to drive or impact a tool, and particularly

184+, for such means mounted on a wheeled vehicle. Class 172 has not been cleared as to conflicting subject matter with Class 173, therefor a disclosed use as a drive for an agricultural earth working tool will cause classification in Class 172.

175, Boring or Penetrating the Earth, appropriate subclasses for analogous apparatus used for boring small diameter holes in the earth, for example, for artesian wells, oil wells, post holes, or the like.

180, Motor Vehicles, especially

20, for motor vehicles with rollers, and subclasses 53.1+ for

a motor vehicle in which the motor is used as a source of external power to drive an external device. The line between Classes 172 and 180 as to this subject matter is that Class 172 will take a patent in which (1) the external device is claimed as being an earth working implement or (2) the claim includes an external device and the sole specific disclosure relates to an earth working implement, or (3) the external device is claimed by name only and there is also claimed a means for manipulating the device relative to the motor vehicle in a manner consistent with the manner in which an earth working implement would be manipulated.

299, Mining or In Situ Disintegration of Hard Material,

29+, for a hard material disintegrating machine having a driven cutter and particularly subclasses 36.1+ for such a machine described as working on a hard, solid floor or road surface.

404, Road Structure, Process, or Apparatus,

122+, for a rotating drum, roller, or tire means to compact the earth and drive means therefore. See search notes thereunder for similar devices.