Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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This invention relates to freight transporters.
In particular, this invention relates to a load shifting
mechanism incorporated in a freight transporter.
In the transportation of freight on trucks, trains,
aircraft and ships, considerable difficulty has long been ex-
perienced in moving load units toward and away from the loadLng
end.
In transport trucks, it has been common practice to
provide a roller conveyor extending along the bed of the truck
along which load units may be rolled so as to be moved toward
and away from the loading end. Such conveyors do, however,
permit the load to shift during transportation and this can
create a serious hazard during acceleration and deceleration
of the transporter.
The present invention overcomes the difficulties of
the prior art and provides a simple and efficient mechanis~
which enables ~oad units to be moved toward and away from the
loading end of the transporter.
;~ To achieve the required movement of load units, a
carriage is pro~ided which can be driven along a loading path
extending inwardly from the loading end of the transporter and ~ -
elevator means is ~rovided which permits adjustment of the
height of the carriage relative to the load supporting face of
the transporter so that loads may be selectively supported by
; the load supporting face of the transporter or the carriage.
The elevator means may be such that the relative movement is
achieved in a number of different ways. One such way is to
pro~ide a mechanism which will penmit adjustment of the height
of the carriage so that by adjusting the height of the carriage
~he load carrying face thereof may be raised or lowered.
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In an alternative construction, the carriage may
ride on support rails, the support rails being height ad-
justable so as to raise and lower the carriage. In yet
another alternative, the load support means of the freight
transporter may be height adjustable so as to raise and
lower load units out of and into engagement with the
carriage.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention,
iO a freight transporter for use in transporting load units com-
prises a load support means on the transporter, said load
support means having a loading end for receiving load units
and a load support face extending inwardly from said loading
end in a loading path, said load support face being disposed
in a substantially horizontal plane to underlie and support
: load units during transportation thereof, a carriage located
on said transporter proximate said load support means for
movement relative to said load support means in said loading
path, said carriage having a load carrying face, elevator
means for adjusting the relative positions of the load carry-
ing face of said carriage and said load support face between
a first position and a second position, in said first posi-
tion of said elevator means the carriage may be moved along
the loading path below and out of engagement with load units
mounted on said load support means in use, and, in response
to movement to said seco~d position, a load unit initially
supported by said load support means will be transferred
to the carriage to be supported thereby for movement with
said carriage along said loading path.
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The invention will be more clearly understood after
reference to the following detailed specification read in con-
junction with the drawings wherein,
Fig. 1 is a pictorial view of $he interior of a
freight transporter constructed in accordance with an embodi-
ment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a sectional view along the line 2-2 of Fig.l;
Fig. 3 is an enlarged pictorial view of a portion of
the elevator me~hanism of Fig. 2;
Fig. 4 i5 a side view in the direction of the arrows
4-4 of Fig. 2;
Fig. S is a side view of a carriage and its elevator
; and drive mechanism;
Fig. 6 is a side view of the carriage of Fig. 5 in
the elevated position;
Fig. 7 is a side view of a carriage and its drive
mechanism illustrating an alternative elevator mechanism;
Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 7 illustrating a
further alternative elevator mechanism;
Fig. 9 is a view similar to Fig. 8 illustrating yet
another elevator mechanism;
Fig. 10 is a side view of a carriage illustrating a
, still further elevator mechanism;
Fig. 11 is a pictorial illustration of a portion of a
height adjustable support rail.
With reference to Fig. 1 of the drawings, the refer-
ence numeral 10 refers generally to the container body portion
of a road going freight transporter vehicle. The body in-
cludes a bed 1~ which has a loading end 14 at sne end thereof
; 30 and an inner en~ 16 at the other end thereof. Four load
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support beams 18 extend inwardly from the loading end 14 of
the bed to the inner end 16 in a spaced parallel relationship.
The beams 18 are arranged in pairs and have load suppDrt faces
20 directed upwardly therefrom. The load support faces 20
serve to support the load units during transportation thereof
by the freight transporter. The beams 18 may be made from any
suitable material with wood being a particularly suitable
material because it will resist tendencies for the load to
shift during transportation as a result of acceleration and
deceleration of the transporter.
A channel 22 is formed between each pair of beams 18.
A pair of height adjustable support rails 24 are located in
each channel 2~ and arranged one adjacent each beam 18. The
height adjustable rails 24 extend over substantially the full
length of the bed 12 from the loading end 14 to the inner end
16.
A carriage 26 is positioned to run in each channel
22 and has support wheels 28 mounted for rotation thereon.
The wheels 28 are arranged to run on the height adjustable
rails 24. An endless drive chain 30 is provided for driving
each carriage 26. The drive chain 30 has one end connected to
the back end of its associated carriage 26 and the other end
connected to the front end thereof. The chain 30 extends
around sprockets 32 located at the loading end 14 of the
transporter and sprocket 34 located at the inner end 16. The
sprockets 32 are driven by a suitable drive motor 36 ~Fig. 5)
so as to ~Plectively drive the carriages 26 along their res-
pective height adjustable support rails 24 between the loading
end and the inner end of the transporter.
; 30 Each carriage 26 has a load carrying face 38 which
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may be moved relative to the load support fa~es 20 of its
associated load support beams 18 by activating the height ad-
justable rails 24. By activating the height adjustable rails
24 so that the carriage 26 is lowered, the carriage 26 may be
driven along the channel 22 which forms a guide path which ex-
tends below load units 40 mounted on the beæms 18. ~y acti-
vating the height adjustable support rails 24 to raise the
carriage 26, the carriage 26 may raise any overlying load unit
40 to a level above the load supporting faces 20 so that the
load unit may be transported by the carriage along the quide
rail by powering ~he drive chain 30.
The structure of the height adjustable support rail
24 is best seen with reference to Figs. 2, 3 and 4 of the
drawings to which reference is now made. Each height adjust-
able support rail 24 consists of an in~erted channel shaped
rail 42 which has a plurality of rollers 44 mounted for rota-
tion therein at spaced intervals along the length thereof. A
base plate 46 is mounted on the bed 12 dire~tly below each
channel member 42 and has a plurality of wedge shaped ramps
48 located thereon at spaced intervals along the length thereof.
One such ramp 48 is arranged to be associated with each roller
44.
An expandable hydraulic cylinder 50 is located at the
inner end of each rail 42. One end of the hydraulic cylinder
unit 50 is mounted on the inner end of the rail 42 and the
other end is secured with respect to the bed of the transporter.
By activating the hydraulic cylinder 50, the rail 42 can be
moved longitudinally to cause the wheels 44 to rEmp up and down
the ramps 48 to xaise and lower the rail 42 as required in
use.
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In use, the carriage 26 may be initially locateG
inwardly from the loading end of the freight transporter. A
load unit 40 ~ay be positioned by means of Conventional fork
lift truck or the like resting on the load support faces 20 of
a pair of beams 18 at the loading end. In order to transfer
this load unit 40 inwardly, the height adjustable rails 24 are
positioned in the lowered configuration and the carriage drive
mechanism is activated to cause the carriage to move to the
loading end and, in so doing, to pass under the load unit.
When the carriage is located in the required location below the
load unit, the height adjustable rails 24 are activated to be
raised to r ~ e the carriage 26 upwardly into engagement with the
load unit ~0 to an exten~ sufficient to raise the load unit 40
upwardly from the load supporting surface 20. The carriage
drive mechanism is then activated to move the carriage 26, with
the lond 40 mounted thereon, inwardly away from the loading
end to the required storage location. When the load has been
txansported to the required storage location, the height ad-
justable rails 24 are lowered causing the carriage 26 to be
lowered and thereby lower the load unit 40 onto the load support-
ing faces 20 of the beams 18 at the required location. The
; carriage 26 is now free of engagement with the load unit 40 and
may ~e returned to the loading end to receive a further load
unit as required in use. The unloading operation is the reverse
described above.
From the foregoing it will be apparent that the
mechanism described above provides a simple and efficient
mechanism for effecting relative movement between the load
qupport face 20 of the beams 18 and the load carrying face 38
of the carriage 26. The provision of a mechani~m for achieving
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this relative movement permits load units to be selectively
supported by the load supporting means of the transporter or
the carriages 26. When the load i~ carried by the carriages 26,
it may be moved freely alo~g the length of the transporter and
when it is lowered onto the load supporting beams, it is ~e-
strained against longitudinal movement by frictional engagement
with the beams.
The height adjustable support rails described in the
preceding embodiment provide a particularly attractive mechanism
for achieving the relative movement between the carriage and the
stationary supports because the mechanism required for adjust-
ing the height of the rails is inexpensive, simple and easy
to maintain in good working order. Various other mechanisms
may, however, be provided for effecting the required height
adjustment between the load carrying face 38 of the carriage
26 and the load supporting face 20 of the beams 18. In one
such alternative, the carriage 26 may be made height adjustable
and in another alternative the support beams 18 may be made
height adjustable.
Examples of height adjustable carriage are illustrated
in Figs. 5 to 10 of the drawings.
As shown in Figs. 5 and 6 of the drawings, the
carriage 26 has an undercarriage which includes a tie bar 60
extending between each set of wheels 28 and link arms 62 pivot-
ally connected to the carriage frame. The link arms 62 extend
parallel to one another so that the undercarriage is in the
form of a parallelogram linkage. A tension spring 64 connects
the undercarriage to the frame of the carriage. One end of
the drive cbain 30 is connected to the undercarriage and the
~0 other end thereof is connected to the frame of the carriage.
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A tensioning mechanism 70 is provided for applying varying
tension to the drive chain 30. The tension mechanism includes
a pair of fixed sprockets 72 and a moving sprocket 74. The
moving sproc~et 74 is mounted on the end of a ram 76 of an
hydraulic cylinder 78. By activating the hydraulic cylinder 78,
the sprocket 74 may be moved between the position shown in
solid lines in Fig. 5 and the position shown in broken lines
in Fig. 5. To adjust the height of the carriage 26 between
the position shown in Figs. 5 and 6 of the drawings, the
hydraulic cylinder 78 is activated to move the sprocket 74 to
the extended position shown in broken lines in Fig. 5. In so
doing, increased tension is applied to the chain 30 which
causes the parallelogram linkage of the undercarriage to pivot
to the position shown in Fig. 6 of the drawings, thereby rais-
ing the carriage 26. The carriage 26 can be lowered simply by
activating the hydraulic cylinder 78 to return to the retracted
position, the tensioning spring 64 serving to cause the under-
carriage 60 tQ pivot with respect to the carriage 26.
An alternative mechanism for raising and lowering
the carriage 26 is illustrated in Fig. 7 of the drawings wherein
a p~ir of hydraulic cylinders 80 and 8~ are coupled so as to be
slaves of one another. The hydraulic cylinder 80 is fixed with
respect to the carriage and has a ram 84 slidable therein.
The hydraulic cylinder 82 has one end connected to one of the
wheel sets 28 and a ram connected to the other wheel set 28.
By activating the hydraulic cylinder 78 as previously described
and the embodiments illustrated in Fig. 5, the chain 30 may be
extended to cause the ram 84 to move with respect to the
cylinder 80 to eject hydraulic fluid into the cylinder 82
which in turn cau~es the cylinder 82 and its acsociated ram 86
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to expand, thereby tO move the wheel sets 28 away from one
another to pivot about their pivotal connection with the
carriage and thereby raise the carriage to the position shown
in broken lines in Fig.7.
Yet another mechanism for pro~iding a height aa just-
able carriage is illustrated in Fig. 8 of the drawings wherein
the carriage 26 has a movable platform 90 and ~n air bag 92 is
located between the platform 90 and the frame of the carriage
26. By inflating the air bag 92 through a flexible conduit 94
from a suitable source of pressurized air, the platform 90 may
be raised or lowered as required.
In a further embodiment illustrated in Fig. 9 of the
drawings, the carriage 26 may be wheelless and may be in the
form of a ground effect device to which air issupplied under
pressure through conduit 96 to be discharged downwardly against
the bed 12 of the vehicle to raise the carriage as re~uired,
the air supply being cut off or substantially reduced to permit
the ground effect carriage to be lowered as required in use.
In yet another embodiment of a height adjustable
carriage as illustrated in Fig. 10, the carriage includes a
frame 98 upon which a plurality of hydraulic jacks 100 are
mounted. A platform 102 is mounted on the jacks 100 and may be
raised and lowered by the jacks 100 as required in use. ~-
As previously indicated in a~ alternati~e construction,
the height of the support beams 18 may be adjusted while the
height of the carriaye 26 remains constant. A support beam
suitable for providing height adjustment is illustrated in Fig.
11 of the drawings and is identified generally by the reference
numeral 18a. The support beam 18a includes a U-shaped channel
member 104 which has a plurality of rollers 106 located at
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spaced intervals a~ong the length thereof. A support plate 10
is disposed below the rail 104 and extends longitudinally
thereof. A plurality of wedge shaped ramps 110 are located at
spaced ~nter~als along the length of the ~upport plate 10~ so
as to underlie each roller 106. An hydraulic cylinder 112 has
one end connected to the rail 104 and its other end secured ~ith
respect to the bed 12. By activatLng the hydraulic cylinder
112, the rail 104 may be driven longitudinally with respect to
the ramps 110 causing the rollers 106 to ride up and down the
ramps 110 to raise and lower the load support ~ace 2 0 of the
rail 104 as required in use. This mechanism is substantially the
same as that described above with respect to the height adjust-
able support rails 24. It will be seen that by activating the
hydraulic cylinder 112, the height of the load support face 20
may be adjusted with respect to the height of the load carrying
face 38 of the carriage 26.
~t will be apparent that the carriage 26 may be moved
longitudinally of the transporter to effect movement of a load
therealong regardless of the mechanism ~sed for raising and
lowering the relative positions of the surfaces 20 and 28.
By the sim~le expedient of providing a carriage for transporting
the load and a m~chanism for ad~usting the relative height of
the position of the carriage and the load suppor~in~ surface of
the transporter, it becomes a simple matter to ~ffect movement
of a load unit w~th re8pect to th~ transporter.
It will b~ apparent that the freight transporter ~n
which the loa~ transfer ~echanism i~ incorporated may ~e any o~e
of a num~er of di~ erent types of t~ansporters incluaing road
goLng truc~s, air planes, railroaa cars and ships.
A road go~ng b~ck is~ however, a particularly convenient
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transporter in which to incorporate a load moving mechanism
because these vehicles tend to be used for transporting load
units to and from a plurality of job sites which cannot justify
the expense involved in providing elaborate loading mechanisms.
Various modifications of the present invention
will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example,
while in the preferred embodiment a drive mech~nism is pro-
vided for driving the carriage along the loading path, the
carriage might also be manually pushed. There is, however,
considerable advantage to the provision of the drive mechanism
Ln that it permits the load to be moved while the operator is
out of the path of travel and not, therefore, likely to be
injured by the moving load.
A further important, although not essential,
feature of the present invention is in the provision of two
load transporting mechanisms arranged side by side on the
transporter. The provision of the two units permits two sides
of the transporter to be loaded independently and at the same
time with palletized load units or the like. I~ will be noted,
however, that the two carriages may be operated in unison in
order to move full width loads along the bed of the trans-
porter. These and other aspects of the present invention
will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
The transporter may have a second load transporting
mechanism.located above the first mechanism illustrated in
Fig. 1 such that load units may be loaded into the trans-
porter at two levels, one above the other. The secondload
transporting mechanism being used to load a second load
supporting platform arranged above the load of the transporter
so that the full height of the container space may be
utilized.
