Patent GB-691787-A (GB)
Title: Vehicles equipped with goods-handling apparatus
IPC: B60P1/52
Filed: 1949-09-07
Abstract: 691,787. Loading pallets into vehicles; hoists with guided platforms; rope railways. KAPPEN, J. W. Sept. 7, 1949. No. 23227/49. Classes 78 (iii), 78 (iv) and 104 (ii). Goods are carried in trailer on pallet members 8 (Fig. 1) mounted on rollers 7 on the side walls of the trailer body for movement tu and from an elevator at the rear of the trailer. Further rollers 7' are carried bv the rear doors 4 of the trailer so that when the doors are open and locked in alignment with the side walls a pallet 8 may, after stops (not shown) at the end of the roller tracks 7 have been retracted, be moved tu a position directly above the carriage 31 of the elevator where stops 16 check them. Rollers 7<SP>11</SP> carried in frames 11 hinged to the side walls bridge the gap between the rollers 7 and 7<SP>1</SP>. The carriage 31 is mounted on a bar 17 (Figs. 1 and 3) carried by shoes 18 running in guides 19 and adapted to be raised by cables 22 secured to a frame 20 sliding in guides immediately below the roof of the vehicle and operated through pulley tackle 25, 28 from a motor-driven winch 27. Thus, in unloading. the empty carriage 31 is raised until fork members 34 detachably secured to the bar 17 engage grooves 14 (Fig. 12) in transverse members 13 on the pallet 8 and raise it from the rollers 71. The doors are then unlocked and fully opened so that the carriage 31 carrying the pallet 8 may be lowered to the ground. This process is reversed to load the trailer. While the pallet is on the carriage 31 it may be fitted with wheels 35 and skids 36 (Fig. 12). The wheels 35 are carried by a plate 39 which takes between a flange 40 and the bottom of the pallet and which is locked in position by a turn button 43. The skids' 36 are carried by a plate 80<SP>1</SP> similar to the plate 39 and similarly held in position. Two wheels 35 are provided for each pallet : they may be carried on a common axle or on independent castoring mountings. As shown in Fig. 3, a carriage 44, 45 may be employed to raise the skids 36 from the ground when the pallet is to be moved. The winch for the elevator is controlled by push-buttons which may be mounted at the rear of the trailer or may be carried by a flexible cable which is connected into the control circuit by a plug-andsocket connection. Alternatively the hoist may be screw-and-nut actuated. Each series of rollers 7, 7<SP>1</SP> may be replaced by tracks on which run rollers on the pallets 8. The pallets may be driven to and from the elevator by correspondingly directed, pawls 53 (Fig. 14) carried on a block 47 which slides on a guide 46 and is driven under the control of push buttons by an endless rope 48 from the motor of the elevator or from a separate motor. The pawl 53 not in use may be manually locked in a downward inoperative position. The pallets 8 are formed of wood or metal : if formed of metal they preferably have transverse channels formed on their bottoms for engagement by the pawls 53. The sides of the pallets are reinforced by metal channels which take over the rollers 7, 7<SP>1</SP>. The trailer may be constructed for access from the side instead of from the rear.