Patent GB-133125-A (GB)
IPC: B65G17/00
Abstract: 133,125. Lloyd, G. E. Sept. 23, 1918. Mechanical dispatch apparatus. - Relates to apparatus for sorting, handling, and distributing parcels, bales, or loads of goods and the like, of the kind wherein the parcels are loaded on trays which are transported with the aid of continuously moving truckers or " givers " passing other truckers or " takers,'' such as are, for example, described in Specifications 3979/13 and 21056/13, and consists in the provision of transferring- means so constructed that a non-circular tray, while being transferred from one trucker to another, is rotated round a point thereon in the same sense as, or the opposite sense to, the revolution of the said point around the approximate centre about which the transferring arm rotates. The directions of rotation and revolution of the tray are preferably the same. The transferring- means may comprise bodies such as cam pins fixed to the tray and engaging bodies such as cams fixed to the truckers or " givers " or " takers," or cams on the tray engaging, cam pins on the truckers, or one or more movable members such as arms pivoted on one or both co-operating truckers and positively turned, or a combination of fixed bodies and movable members may be used. Various arrangements are described, namely :-(1) One point 5, Fig. 1, on the tray is both guided and moved by engagement with an arm 4 pivoted on the " giver " and positively turned, whilst a cam pin 7<a> on the tray constrains the movement of the latter by engagement with a cam on the " giver," (2) one point 5, Fig. 2, on the tray is guided and moved by engagement with an arm 4 pivoted to the " giver," while a second point 5<a> is guided by a link mounted on the arm so as to slide in it and controlled radially by a cam pin 7 engaging a cam 8, (3) the tray is engaged at two points by longer and shorter arms 4, 4<b>, Fig. 3, mounted on separate pivots on the " giver " or " taker," one of the arms being positively moved, and (4) the tray is engaged throughout transfer by one arm 4, Fig. 4, pivoted to the giving trucker and by one arm 8 pivoted to the taking trucker, either of the arms being positively moved. In the preferred arrangement, the tray is engaged at two points 5, Fig. 5, by engaging means on a single pivoted arm 4. When the radius to the leading point becomes normal to the track of the " taker," the tray is disengaged from the arm and engaged to the trucker at this point. a similar action taking place at the trailing point when its radius becomes normal to the " taker " track. The engagement means are preferably vertically sliding bolts or pieces capable of turning on vertical axes, and may be operated bv electro-magnets energized through strips and wipers on the co-operating truckers, or by cams and cam pins, or by star wheels or strikers engaging pins. One such arrangement is shown in Fig. 15, in which a hole 5 in the flange 3 of a tray has just been engaged by a bolt 14 in a trucker and just disengaged by a bolt 15 in the arm 4. The bolt 15 has been raised by an eccentric 18 rotated by the engagement of.star wheels 16 mounted on arm 4 with a lug 17 on the deck 1 of the " giver," the bolt 14 being simultaneously raised. Three transferring arms 4 may be mounted on one pivot at 120 degrees apart, the arms then being moved always in one direction through this angle at each transfer. Where the transferring arm is intended to be oscillated, the arrangement shown in Fig. 16 may be employed. The arm 24 engages in turn each of two cams 26 mounted in the same plane on the co-operating trucker. The cam pin is furnished with a group of three rollers 27 to enable it to cross the gap at the crossing of the two cams. With this arrangement, one trucker moves the arm one way and the next returns it. In a modification, the two cams are mounted in different planes. 'The cam pin has one roller, which is supported as shown in Fig. 18, the gap necessary in the cam nearer the arm being narrow and oblique, so that the roller, when in that cam, passes smoothly over it. Where the trays are adapted to bear loads of goods in railway wagons, a bridging segment 30, Fig. 19, of track may be raised or slid into position to enable a wagon which has been taken from a trucker 2 by a " taker " 1 to be rolled from its tray into a siding 29. The bridging segment is then lowered or withdrawn to allow the tray to be moved on to a trucker and carried to a " giver '' for further use.