Patent GB-640422-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to stillages
Inventor: SIMPSON FREDRICK LEVESON
IPC: B65D90/66
Filed: 1948-04-19
Abstract: 640,422. Pallets for lifting trucks. MINISTER OF WORKS. April 19, 1948, No. 10761. [Class 78 (iv)] A stillage for use with a stacking machine or vehicle of the kind having two horizontal spaced arms for raising and lowering the stillage comprises a frame or container for receiving the articles to be lifted, projections on its sides or ends for engaging the arms of the stacking or loading machine or vehicle, one or more movable doors or ledges near the bottom which are normally retained closed to support the articles and means whereby the doors or ledges open automatically to deposit the articles when the stillage is deposited on a supporting surface and the arms of the stacking machine or vehicle lowered. The stillage shown for carrying a stack of bricks comprises a box-structure formed of lengths of angle and channel iron welded together as shown in plan in Fig. 3. Two ends and one side are covered in by metal sheets 2, 2<1> tack welded to the frame. One side is left open so that the stillage may be used with a stacking vehicle in which the raising of the stillage is accompanied by a lateral movement. The bottom of the stillage is normally partly closed by two doors 3, 4, Fig. 4, each welded to a shaft 5, 6 carried in bearings 5<1>, 6<1> secured to angle iron members 7, 8 of the stillage. Each shaft 5, 6 has projecting ends on each of which are welded two spaced apart levers 9, 10 carrying between them a pin 91, 101 each of which engages with a hook 11 depending from opposite ends of a cross-bar 12 mounted on a slide 13. The slide 13 can move in a hollow box 14 on the end of the stillage and carries arms 15 by which the stillage is lifted. Normally the doors 3, 4 are held closed by engagement of the hooks 11 with the pins 9<1>, 10<1>, the slide 13 and hooks 11 being held by a pin 18 passing through holes in fixed members 17 on the frame and in a member 16 on the slide. Bricks are stacked inside the stillage which is then raised by a stacking vehicle, the arms of which engage the arms 15. The pin 18 is removed and the stillage is lowered on to a scaffold platform and the arms 15 permitted to fall so that the doors 3, 4 open and the stack of bricks falls on to the platform. A spring 19 connected between the cross-bar 12 and the frame of the stillage assists the opening movement, while if the doors stick, cam surfaces 20 above the hooks 11 engage the pins 91, 10<1> to push the doors open. The arms of the stacking truck are then raised to raise the arms 15 and the hooks 11 which are now disengaged from the pins 91, 101 and then to raise the stillage by means of fixed arms 21, leaving the stack of bricks behind. In order that the stillage may be moved away without upsetting the stack where the stacking truck causes a lateral movement of the stillage, provision is made to raise the shaft 5 on the open side of the stillage when the doors 3, 4, open. The shaft S is supported in a bearing S<1> partly open at the top and at one side and carries at each end a lever 23 connected by a cable 22 passing over pulleys 24, 25 to a pulley 26 under which it passes to an anchorage 28 on the stillage. The pulley 26 carries a weight 27 sliding between the sheets 2, 21 (Fig. 3) and normally held by a pin 29. The pin 29 is removed after the stillage has been raised as described, and when the doors 3, 4 open as described above the pull by the cable 22 on the shaft S is in a direction to raise it from its bearings to near the top of the stillage. The upward movement of the arms 15 is limited by guide-rods 30 which engage in slots 31 so that the hooks 11 do not pull the doors out of their bearings.