SWATH CUTTING AND GRIPPING TREE DELIMBER

摘要

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREApparatus for removing limbs of standing treesto maintain a power line right-of-way free of tree limbinterference comprising a self-propelled vehical havingpower operated ground stabilizing support leg assemblies,a telescoping boom mounted on said vehicle for horizontalswinging movement about an upright axis and for verticalpivoting movement and a limb cutting assembly on the oppo-site free end of the boom. The limb cutting assembly in-cludes a mounting structure mounted on the boom for move-ments about a longitudinal axis with respect to the boom,a power operated cutter having a convex cutting peripherymounted on the mounting structure for movement between aretracted inoperable position and an extended operativeposition wherein convex cutting periphery extends longi-tudinally outwardly from the mounting structure and isexposed both longitudinally outwardly and transversely out-wardly so as to enable the same to be moved with a trans-verse swath cutting action by virtue of the movements ofthe boom, and limb gripping arms carried by the mountingstructure for movement from an inoperative position disposedlongitudinally inwardly of the cutter so as to permit theswath cutting action thereof and an operative positiondisposed longitudinally outwardly of the cutter when thelatter is in its retracted position so as to grippinglyengage a limb or a group of limbs and hold the same in aposition to be cut in response to the movement of the cutterfrom its retracted position into its extended position.