Patent ID: 8230988
Filing Date: 2012-07-31
Classification: B61B,B62D

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for transferring vehicles onto a conveyor, comprising: an elevator moving vertically with respect to the conveyor that supports and conveys vehicles by means of wheels; wherein the elevator is provided with a front wheel supporting means and a rear wheel supporting means that support front wheels and rear wheels of the vehicles respectively in terms of the convey direction at a predetermined level above the conveyor; wherein either one of the front wheel supporting means and the rear wheel supporting means is provided with a pair of front and rear wheel supporting arms that freely open and close in a horizontal direction between a closed posture for supporting the wheels at a predetermined position in terms of the convey direction and an opened posture for releasing the wheels to the convey direction; and wherein the other one of the wheel supporting means is provided with a wheel supporting plate that supports the wheels of the vehicles without determining the position thereof in terms of the convey direction so as to be able to switch the posture thereof between a horizontal posture and a front-down tilted posture in terms of the convey direction; and a posture switching means that changes the posture of said other one of the wheel supporting means to the tilted posture at least when the elevator, which supports a vehicle with the wheel supporting arms of said one of the wheel supporting means in the closed posture and the wheel supporting plate of the other one of the wheel supporting means in the horizontal posture, is at a lowermost position for transferring the vehicle onto the conveyor.