Concrete screed means for aligned moulds

Claim 1

Concrete screed means for the discharging and screeding of wet mix concrete into a series of aligned moulds each of shape for the moulding of concrete sleepers and each positioned betweEn the rails of a pair of guide rails extending along respective sides of the series of moulds, said screed means comprising: a frame, support wheels supporting the frame, a hopper on the frame having a front wall which slopes downwardly and rearwardly, two side walls and a rear wall but no base, a rearwardly extending flow guide plate, and resilient means interconnecting the flow guide plate and the hopper rear wall, at least one vibrator mounted directly on said front wall for the vibration thereof and at least one vibrator on said flow guide plate for the vibration thereof, so constructed and arranged that when the wheels engage the guide rails they are guided thereby to guide the hopper for movement over the moulds so that when the hopper is thus moved concrete is discharged therefrom into the moulds; when the vibrators are operated they are so operated as to vibrate only that concrete in their immediate respective vicinities, so that the lower portion of the concrete discharged from the locality of the front wall is densified by vibration thereof and the upper portion of the concrete is densified by vibration of the flow guide plate, said flow guide plate having a front vertical portion, a rearwardly curved portion and a trailing portion, there being two said vibrators, one on each of the front vertical and trailing portions, the front portion of said flow guide plate being solely supported on said hopper.