Live Swivels

Live swiwels are not adequate for 360 degree Backhoes

See [1]

Rotary Unions in 360 Excavator

• A specialized rotary union is used, not just a simple live swivel - [2]
• Explanation from hydraulics and pneumatics - [3]
• In real life: Infinite spin is attained. From Reddit thread - [4] -

Backhoe vs Excavator

• Backhoe spins 200 degrees, excavator a full 360 degrees. [5]

Shopping

• $1500 for 1/2: rotary union [6]. But what about the female socket part?

OSE Solution Patent Unpending

Here is a simple open source solution - use radio frequency control or Ardupilot to provide remote control to a track unit, which has its own drive system - controlled remotely from the operator cab. This is a $100 solution (cost of Arduino-based RF control system), or about 15x lower cost than industry standards.

Concept:

1. Operator sits in the cab, or drives the 360 excavator remotely all together.
2. Cab has its own hydraulic power unit for excavator boom, stick, and bucket.
3. Second hydraulic power unit on the track system runs track drive (minimum of 2 hudraulic motors or 4 hoses).
4. Second hydraulic power unit - either electric or fuel-based - is run via remote control - avoiding necessity of hoses running through a 360 degree, infinitely rotating joint.
5. This eliminates the need of an industry standard rotary union, at $1500 [7] and up [8] for 4 hoses, and provides a solution at about 15x-50x lower cost than industry standards.
6. We feel that this concept is obvious to any interdisciplinary technician, and thus should not be patented to promote the public good: providing affordable industrial equipment to lower barriers to entry to enterprise that allows the post-scarcity economy to be realized, consistent with the OSE Vision

This concept is published in the public domain for the benefit of all, and to provide patent prior art to prevent patent trolls from privatizing this obvious concept. Any patent based on this prior art may be revoked as it is not original. This wiki constitutes a legal record of prior art, as it has an irrevokable time stamp in the page version history. Note that OSE is providing this patent troll notice as a matter of protecting any future users of this concept from patent trolls. We have never heard of this concept being used anywhere, and as such believe that it would be novel and patentable if it were not declared for the public domain as in this notice.