Patent GB-1229261-A (GB)
IPC: B60K1/02
Filed: 1968-06-11
Abstract: 1,229,261. Motor vehicles; assembling ships K. H. SCHMIDT. 11 June, 1968 [12 June, 1967], No. 27785/68. Headings B7H and B7S In a method of assembling a ship from a number of prefabricated sections, each section 1 initially rests above the ground on supports, one or more wheeled vehicles 2 having all the wheels thereon steerable is driven beneath the section 1, a lifting device provided on each vehicle is engaged through adhesion means 3 with the underside of the section 1 and actuated to lift the section clear of the supports, and the vehicles 2 are driven with the section 1 to an assembly site where the section is secured to another section. The vehicles 2 are mechanically connected to one another only by their engagement with the section 1, and movements of the vehicles and of their lifting devices are co-ordinated from a control station which is on a control vehicle 5, on one of the vehicles 2, or at a stationary location. The vehicles 2 may be remotely controlled from the control station either electrically through cables 4 or by radio, or each vehicle 2 is manned and commands are transmitted thereto from the control station through the cables 4, by radio, or by means of optical or acoustic signals. If the vehicles 2 fail by more than a predetermined amount to execute simultaneous movements automatic means provide an alarm signal or halt the vehicles. Steering means for the wheels on the vehicles 2 is so arranged that all the wheels can be simultaneously turned in the same direction for travel in a straight line or can be turned in such a way that the vehicles travel along a curved path. Each vehicle, Figs. 3, 4, has a star-shaped frame 6 with front and rear legs 6a, 6b and shorter lateral legs 6c extending from a central platform 6d. A frame portion 6e attached to the front legs 6a carries a driving cab 7 and an internal combustion engine 8 which is coupled to an electrical generator 10. At the end of each leg a pair of wheels is carried in a wheel fork 12 which is steerable about a vertical pivot axis by means of a chain drive 14 and one of steering motors 17. Each pair of wheels is mounted in the wheel fork 12 with provision for oscillation of the wheels about a horizontal axis by means of fluid pressure jacks, Fig. 5 (not shown), which maintain the vehicle in a horizontal position on an uneven surface. Electric motors 21a, 21b are coupled to drive shafts extending upwardly from differential gearing between the wheels of each front and rear pair, and are supplied with current either from the generator 10 or through the cable 4 from the control vehicle 5. The adhesion means 3 is detachably connected by means of a ball- and-socket joint to the lifting means which comprises a fluid-pressure jack or shockabsorber carried on the platform 6d. Auxiliary jacks, Fig. 9 (not shown), may be provided for controlling the attitude of the adhesion means 3. The adhesion means 3 comprises a spherical or ellipsoidal cup or a square, rectangular or triangular trough connected to a vacuum source and having a peripheral rubber-sealing bead. The adhesion means 3 may alternatively comprise a resilient support pad surrounded by an annular cup of flexible material, or an electromagnet.