Patent ID: 7380506

Claim:
An arrangement with which a plurality of sleepers intended for a railroad section can be gripped and released with the aid of a plurality of units from gripping claws carried in pairs by a beam structure, wherein a plurality of mutually parallel and loosely stacked closely adjacent sleepers can be gripped by an arrangement-associated unit, wherein the arrangement includes means for increasing or decreasing the distance between adjacent units and adjacent sleepers, wherein pairs of gripping claws in a unit are adapted to hold a respective sleeper firmly through the medium of an end-orientated clamping action, wherein the arrangement is adapted to move a respective sleeper through a distance corresponding to a unit spacing or sleeper spacing suitable for a railroad bed and to open said unit-associated gripping claws in this position so as to release said plurality of sleepers, wherein said means has the form a frame structure, wherein said units are adapted to grip and firmly hold a plurality of closely adjacent sleepers extending in one and the same plane when said units are in a combined first position and to lift said sleepers and move the same towards and over the railroad bed and distribute said units and the sleepers held thereby to a desired sleeper spacing, and wherein said arrangement also includes means for spacing adjacent units and sleepers equidistantly, wherein said means ( 10 ) includes frame-associated and centrally pivotal arms ( 40 , 41 ) whose outer arm portions ( 40 a , 40 b ; 41 a , 41 b ) co-act pivotally with one end of a respective brace or link ( 51 , 52 ; 61 , 62 ) whose respective other ends are pivotally fastened to a respective outer unit (B 1 , B 4 ); and in that one end of a respective brace or link ( 71 , 72 ; 81 , 82 ) is pivotally fastened to central regions ( 40 ′, ( 40 ′); 41 ′, ( 41 ′)) of the arm, whereas the other ends of said respective brace or link are pivotally fastened to a respective intermediate unit (B 2 , B 3 ).