Patent Description:
The invention relates in particular to a sensitive load safety system which enables achieving loading operation to be carried out in a controlled manner that minimizes operator errors in inloader vehicles carrying loads sensitive to breaking, getting damaged in glass carriers, concrete block carriers and panel carriers etc..

Various types of securing system and members are included in panel type load carrying vehicles (inloader vehicles) that are used in the transportation of sensitive loads in which problems of breakage, scratching, cracking, etc. are likely to be experienced. Hydraulic securing systems are the configurations which are commonly used in recent years. Hydraulic securing systems consist of holding mechanisms which support the load from its both sides following loading of sensitive loads on the vehicle, and hydraulic cylinders which push these holding mechanisms toward the load in the stationary position.

Although hydraulic securing systems operate trouble-free and are quite effective in the undamaged transportation of the load, occasionally operator oriented problems can be experienced since the control of the system is being achieved by the operator. Activation of the system so as to hold the load securely is being achieved by the operator following completion of loading operation. Breakages occur and significant material damage forms as a result of lateral forces which exert on the load in the process of transportation in the event when the operator forgets to activate the system.

Application number <CIT>) has been encountered in the literature survey related to safety system. Said application relates to a safety system which indicates that the load has been secured and that the vehicle can proceed in order to prevent accidents and formation of damages in the transportation of loads such as glass sheets. The safety system basically possesses locking circuits for load safety and chassis locking, and pressure sensors which detect the weight of the load. A sensor is included in the control circuit of the system which reacts to loading of the vehicle and transmits signal to unlock the chassis lock only when the load has been secured. The control circuit is fully automatic and operates independently from the operator. The sensor employed in the system is a pressure sensor and the sensor signal is being fed to a converter which produces an audible or visual warning concerning that the load has been secured.

Consequently, the existence of the above problems and insufficiency of existing solutions on the subject have made it compulsory to perform a development in the respective technical field.

The present invention relates to a load safety system aimed at to be used in inloader vehicles which eliminates the above mentioned disadvantages and which provides new advantages to the respective technical field.

The prioritized object of the invention is to set forth a sensitive load safety system which hinders damage and material losses by preventing load securing errors caused by the operator in inloader type vehicles.

An object of the invention is to set forth a sensitive load safety system in which loading operation can be controlled.

In order for fulfilling the objects discussed above, the invention relates to hydraulic cylinders activated via a hydraulic valve block in order to enable securing of sensitive loads that are to be loaded onto an inloader vehicle, and load holding mechanisms driven by said hydraulic cylinders, suspension air bags which are in communication with the wheels of the inloader vehicle, and a load safety system in which an EBS modulator is included. Accordingly, said load safety system contains an electronic control unit which activates said load safety system by receiving "the vehicle has been loaded signal" produced by said EBS modulator in line with the "suspension pressure" that has been formed by the total load of the vehicle; which receives a "hydraulic pressure" information from said hydraulic valve block upon activation of said load holding mechanism by the operator; and which generates "brake activation signal" which enables the EBS modulator to shift the brake to active or passive state by comparing with the ideal pressure value.

In order to fulfill the objects of the invention, said load safety system contains a pressure sensor which has been provided in said hydraulic valve block which transmits "hydraulic pressure" data of the hydraulic cylinders to said electronic control unit.

In order to fulfill the objects of the invention, total load of said vehicle is a reference value determined by the sum of the weight of the vehicle and the weight of the load to be transported.

In order to fulfill the objects of the invention, said "suspension pressure" data is being provided via suspension air bags.

In order to fulfill the objects of the invention, said "the vehicle has been loaded signal" is being generated in the event when the total load of the vehicle is above or equal to the reference value.

In order to fulfill the objects of the invention, in the event when said "hydraulic pressure" information reaches to ideal pressure value, a "hydraulic control signal" is transmitted from said electronic control unit to the hydraulic valve block to enable stopping the pump and valves.

The invention relates to also hydraulic cylinders activated via a hydraulic valve block in order to enable securing the sensitive loads that are to be loaded onto an inloader vehicle, and load holding mechanisms driven by said hydraulic cylinders, suspension air bags in communication with the wheels of the inloader vehicle, and the method of operation of a load safety system in which an EBS modulator is included. Accordingly, said method of operation contains the following operation steps:.

In order to fulfill the objects of the invention, in said method of operation, in the event when the reference starting period has been exceeded, in order to enable the operator to notice that sensitive load has not been secured, "brake activation signal" is being transmitted to the EBS modulator from the electronic control unit in order for the activation of brakes of the vehicle, and the movement of the inloader vehicle is being limited.

In order to fulfill the objects of the invention, in said method of operation in the event when the total load of the vehicle is smaller than the reference load value, "the vehicle has been loaded signal" is not being transmitted from the EBS modulator to the electronic control unit, and the load safety system is being operated in the manual mode upon discretion of the operator.

Structural and characteristic features all advantages of the invention will be understood more clearly by means of the drawings and the detailed description written by referring to those drawings given below, and hence it should be appreciated by considering these drawings and the detailed description.

The drawings do not necessarily be in scale and details which are not required to understand the present invention could have been omitted. Furthermore, members which are at least substantially identical or having at least substantially identical functions have been indicated with the same number.

In this detailed description load safety system of the invention is described aimed at only better understanding of the subject and without forming any limiting effect.

The load safety system of the invention is being associated with an inloader vehicle (<NUM>) the rear view of which has been given in <FIG>, and is being used to hinder glass carrier, prefabricated panel and similar sensitive loads getting damaged once they are loaded on the inloader vehicle (<NUM>) because of problems caused by operator errors. The operation of the load safety system begins at the moment when the load to be transported is loaded on the vehicle, continues during the cruise and ends when the last load unit is unloaded.

The load safety system the schematic view of which has been given in <FIG> consists of a load holding mechanism (<NUM>) to enable the load placed on the inloader vehicle (<NUM>) in stationary position, hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>) which provide drive to said load holding mechanism (<NUM>) in order to form holding force, and a hydraulic valve block (<NUM>) connected to said hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>). Pressure to the hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>) is being provided by the hydraulic pump. Compression/decompression valves and a pressure sensor (<NUM>) are included in said hydraulic valve block (<NUM>) which enables hydraulic pressure to be measured.

An EBS modulator (<NUM>) is included in the load safety system. Said EBS modulator (<NUM>) houses and controls all brake and suspension functions of the inloader vehicle (<NUM>). Suspension air bags (<NUM>) are included in the wheels of the inloader vehicle (<NUM>). Determination of the pressure formed by the load of the vehicle is being provided by said suspension air bags (<NUM>). The load safety system also comprises an electronic control unit (ECU) (<NUM>) provided between the EBS modulator (<NUM>) and the hydraulic valve block (<NUM>). The load safety system is being controlled through a control panel (<NUM>).

In the loading of the inloader vehicle (<NUM>) possessing load safety system <NUM> reference values are required to be determined. These reference values are that which the inloader vehicle (<NUM>) will be considered as being loaded after what weight and how many seconds later the load safety system will activate the brakes once the load has been detected. In standard applications, brakes become activated <NUM> seconds after the load has been detected in the event when the vehicle total load consisting of the sum of the weight of the vehicle and the weight of the load to be transported is above <NUM> tons. In the alternative configurations of the invention, it is possible to use different reference values for vehicle total load and brake activation period.

"Suspension pressure" value formed by the total load of the vehicle over the suspension air bags (<NUM>) is being transferred to the EBS modulator (<NUM>). EBS modulator (<NUM>) transmits "the vehicle has been loaded signal" to the electronic control unit (<NUM>) and receives the "brake activation signal". Electronic control unit (<NUM>) receives "hydraulic pressure" data from the hydraulic valve block (<NUM>), and transmits "hydraulic cylinder control signal". Load safety system has two modes of operation one of which is the automatic mode which becomes activated when the EBS modulator (<NUM>) detects the inloader vehicle (<NUM>) as being loaded and the other one which is the manual mode when it is activated by the operator.

When the sensitive load has been loaded on the inloader vehicle (<NUM>), the EBS modulator (<NUM>) measures the total load of the vehicle via "suspension pressure" value determined with the suspension air bags (<NUM>), and determines whether or not it is greater than or equal to <NUM> tons (reference value). In the event when the vehicle total load is greater than or equal to <NUM> tons, the EBS Modulator (<NUM>) sends "the vehicle has been loaded signal" to the electronic control unit (<NUM>) and the load safety system starts operating automatically. Upon starting operation of the load safety system, the defined <NUM>-second reference starting period defined in the electronic control unit (<NUM>) begins. Within this period of time, the operator must secure the sensitive load by operating the load holding mechanism (<NUM>) via control panel (<NUM>). In the event when the period is exceeded, the electronic control unit (<NUM>) send the "brake activation signal" to the EBS modulator (<NUM>) in order to activate the brakes of the vehicle. The brakes of the inloader vehicle (<NUM>) become activated with the "brake activation signal" and movement of the inloader vehicle (<NUM>) is being limited. Upon limiting the movement of the inloader vehicle (<NUM>), the operator activates the hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>) by operating the pump and valves which are connected to the hydraulic valve block (<NUM>) by the electronic control unit (<NUM>) via control panel (<NUM>) by noticing that the sensitive load has not been secured. And the hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>) enable holding the sensitive load securely by directing the load holding mechanisms (<NUM>). At this stage, "hydraulic pressure" data in the direction of compression is being transmitted to the electronic control unit (<NUM>) by the pressure sensor over the (<NUM>) hydraulic valve block (<NUM>), and the electronic control unit (<NUM>) controls the incoming "hydraulic pressure" data for reaching the ideal pressure value. When the hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>) reach the ideal compression pressure, the electronic control unit (<NUM>) stops the pump and valves connected to the hydraulic valve block (<NUM>) with a "hydraulic control signal", and cuts off the "brake activation signal" which it has sent to the EBS modulator (<NUM>). In this way, the EBS modulator (<NUM>) fades the brakes and the operator is able to move the inloader vehicle (<NUM>) safely.

When sensitive load is loaded on the inloader vehicle (<NUM>), the EBS modulator (<NUM>) measures the total load of the vehicle determined by the suspension air bags (<NUM>) via "suspension pressure" value, and determines whether it is greater than or equal to <NUM> tons (reference value). In the event when the vehicle total load is less than <NUM> tons, the EBS Modulator (<NUM>) does not send "the vehicle has been loaded signal" to the electronic control unit (<NUM>). Despite this, the operator may wish to activate the load safety system. In this case, the operator activates the hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>) by operating the pump and valves connected to the hydraulic valve block (<NUM>) by the electronic control unit (<NUM>) via control panel (<NUM>). And hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>) enable securely holding the sensitive load by directing load holding mechanisms (<NUM>). At this stage, "hydraulic pressure" data in the direction of compression is being transmitted to the electronic control unit (<NUM>) by the pressure sensor (<NUM>) over the hydraulic valve block (<NUM>), and the electronic control unit (<NUM>) controls the incoming "hydraulic pressure" data for reaching the ideal pressure value. When the hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>) reach the ideal compression pressure, the electronic control unit (<NUM>) activates the load safety system by stopping the pump and valves connected to the hydraulic valve block (<NUM>). In this way, in the event when the total load of the vehicle is smaller than <NUM> tons too, it can safely move the inloader vehicle (<NUM>).

In cases when the inloader vehicle (<NUM>) is cruising, when the load safety system is active, the electronic control unit (<NUM>) continuously controls the pressure of the hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>) by the pressure sensor (<NUM>) over the hydraulic valve block (<NUM>). In the event when decrease in the "hydraulic pressure" value has been determined, the reduced pressure is enabled to be made up automatically by the load safety system by operating the pump and valves connected to the hydraulic valve block (<NUM>).

Claim 1:
A load safety system in which hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>) which are being activated via a hydraulic valve block (<NUM>) in order to enable securing of sensitive loads to be loaded on an inloader vehicle (<NUM>), and load holding mechanisms (<NUM>) which are driven by said hydraulic cylinders (<NUM>), suspension air bags (<NUM>) in communication with the wheels of the inloader vehicle (<NUM>) and an EBS modulator (<NUM>) are included, wherein it comprises an electronic control unit (<NUM>) which;
- activates said load safety system by receiving "the vehicle has been loaded signal" generated by said EBS modulator (<NUM>) in line with the "suspension pressure" formed by the total load of the vehicle,
- receives a "hydraulic pressure" information from said hydraulic valve block (<NUM>) upon activation of said load holding mechanisms (<NUM>) by the operator, and
- generates a "brake activation signal" which enables the EBS modulator (<NUM>) to shift the brakes to active or passive state by comparing with the ideal pressure value.