Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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~PP.aRAllTS FOR TRAIISLOADI~G LOAD ~JNITS BI~TWEl~N RAILWA;Y Vl~ICLES
A~ID ROAD V~ICLES AND VICI~ VE~SA
SPECIFICATION
FI~LD OF TH~ INVENTION
My present invention relates to an apparatus for the
transloading of load units, like containers, trailers for
- semitrailers or trailer-tractor combinations, and the like,
between rail vehicles and road vehicles or between road vehicles
and rail vehicles utilizing a traveling transloading device which
is displaceable along the rail line or the roadway.
BACRGRO~ND OF THE lNv~.-lON
For transloading of load units between rail and road
vehicles or between road and rail vehicles, it has been necessary
heretofore not only to bring the road vehicle to standstill but
also to bring the rail vehicle or train to standstill so that the
transloading device can engage a load unit on the vehicle or
deposit a load vehicle on the vehicle. As a consequence, long
standstill periods characterized the loading and unloading of
trains which significantly delay the operation of nontransport
systems involving railway vehicles. While long layover times
often characterize truck transport, the fact that a truck is at
standstill for a long period of time may not be as detrimental
since a truck at standstill does not block a line which might
otherwise be used for travel as in the case of railway vehicles.
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OBJBCT8 OF THB INVENTION
It is, therefore, the principal object of the present
invention to provide an improved transloading apparatus for the
purposes described which can effect operations in a shorter
period of time than has hitherto been the case.
Another object of the invention is to provide an
improved system for the transloading of load units to and from
rail vehicles which will reduce the standstill time of such
vehicles and hence obstruction of a railway track.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an
improved system for the handling of load units, particularly
containers and trailer units, which simplifies loading and
unloading.
81~1aRY OF THE: INVE NTION
These objects and others which will become apparent
hereinafter are attained, in accordance with the invention, by
providing parallel to the railway track or roadway and to the
road-vehicle roadway, a transport stretch for receiving load
units unloaded from the rail vehicle or to be loaded onto the
rail vehicle. This enables unloading or loading of the rail
vehicle with the traveling load shifter while the rail vehicle is
in motion. In the case of the loading of a rail vehicle, the
load unit prior to the arrival of the train is removed from the
25 road vehicle via the traveling load shifter and deposited upon
the transport stretch. From the latter, while the load unit is
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displaced along the transport stretch and while the rail vehicle
is traveling therealong with reduced speed, the traveling load
shifter can pick up the load unit and deposit it upon the rail
vehicle with zero relative speed in the travel direction between
the load unit and the car of the train upon which the latter is
deposited.
In the case of unloading of load units from the
vehicle, the load units are engaged by the traveling load shifter
while the train is in motion and deposited upon the transport
stretch so as to move along the latter parallel to the train, the
load unit being later loaded onto the railway vehicle from the
transport stretch.
According to a feature of the invention, the transport
stretch is a roller conveyor, the rolls of which are individually
provided with respective drives or are driven in groups by
suitable drives. This allows the speed of the transport stretch
to be matched to that of the traveling load shifter and the
railway vehicle and can also ensure that the angular velocity of
the rolls can be equal and controlled so that the rolls can be
accelerated to the speed necessary to receive a load unit or
deliver a load unit and can be brought to standstill where
desired, thereby ensuring that transfer of load units from and to
the transport stretch by means of the traveling load shifter
takes place at zero relative speed of the load unit and the
transport stretch in the direction of travel.
According to a feature of the invention on the side of
the road-vehicle roadway opposite that along which the transport
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stretch is provided or between the road vehicle roadway and the
transport stretch, a storage area or store is located on which
load units can be stored. A conveyor system operating at a right
angle or perpendicular to the roadways and transport stretch can
carry load units to and from the store. The transverse conveyor
thus can move load units from the roadway vehicles onto the
storage site for later delivery to the transport stretch or from
the transport stretch to the storage site for later delivery to
road vehicles.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention between two
stores, an alley or gap is provided and the transverse conveyor
is provided in this gap at a right angle to the rail vehicle and
road vehicle roadways.
While it has been proposed heretofore to provide a
system for the loading or unloading of rail vehicles while they
travel at an average speed of about 0.4 m/s through the system,
the so-called rendezvous technique, the pick-up of the load units
and their depositing poses difficulties because of the need to
accelerate masses of up to 60 metric tons or brake such masses in
effecting the transfer.
With the system of the invention, the transfer is
effected between load units and rail vehicles at zero relative
speed in the travel direction of the railroad car. The vehicle
preferably is displaced at a speed of about 0.1 m/s through the
loading zone. By comparison with the earlier system, therefore,
the invention has the advantages of no need to accelerate
suspended loads, short travel times of the traveling load shifter
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parallel to the rail line since loading and unloading are speeded
up, and minimal requirements with respect to acceleration or
breaking of the load units.
The unloA~n~ of units from a rail vehicle is
simplified even further when these load units are, as is
customary, brought to standstill on the transport stretch.
After positioning of the load unit on the rolls of the
roller conveyor, the latter can accelerate the load unit to the
requisite speed before the transverse conveyor is braked and the
load is transferred thereto.
The rail vehicle can move through the transfer region
continuously or the system can be operated in a cadence whereby
the railroad vehicle is brought to standstill, then accelerated
and then braked, as long as, in accordance with the invention,
the transfer of the load unit to and from the rail vehicle is
effected while the latter and the traveling load shifter are in
motion.
According to another feature of the invention, the
transport stretch is made up of carriages which are also the
load-carrying elements of the transverse conveyor and at the
junction between the transport stretch and the transverse
conveyor, a transfer unit is provided for transferring the
carriages between the transport stretch and the transverse
conveyor.
In this construction, the unloading of load units from
a rail vehicle and the passage of the load units onto the
transverse conveyor can be carried out especially simply.
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The transverse conveyor can be so constructed that the
vehicle roadway passes over the transverse conveyor and the
carriages thereof. This is also the case when the road vehicle
roadway is provided between the transport stretch and store.
It has been found to be an especially effective
construction, according to the invention, to provide the
carriages with four wheels oriented for movement of the carriages
along the transverse conveyor and another set of four wheels
oriented for movement of the carriages along the transport
stretch. One wheel of each set at least can be provided with the
drive. The latter can be formed by a single motor and two shafts
with a transmission between the shafts. This arrangement
simplifies speed and direction control of the carriage.
The transfer unit at the junction of the transverse
conveyor and the transport stretch can have two pairs of rail
sections oriented orthogonally to one another which can be
selectively raised into position or lowered out of engagement
with the carriage.
More specifically, an apparatus for transloading load
units can comprise:
a railway roadway and a railway vehicle traveling along
the railway roadway;
a road-vehicle roadway parallel to the railway roadway,
and at least one road vehicle adapted to travel along the road-
vehicle roadway;
a transport stretch extending parallel to the roadways
and provided with means for displacing a load unit along the
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transport stretch parallel to the roadways and vehicles traveling
thereon; and
a traveling load shifter shiftable along the roadways
and engageable with a load unit on a vehicle traveling on one of
the roadways while the vehicle is in motion on the one of the
roadways for transferring an engaged load unit from the vehicle
in motion on the one of the roadways to the transport stretch,
and for engagement with a load unit while it is being displaced
along the transport stretch for transferring same to a vehicle
moving along one of the roadways.
BRIBF DBRCRIPTION OF THB DRAWING
The above and other objects, features, and advantages
will become more readily apparent from the following description,
reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which:
FIG. 1 is a highly diagrammatic plan view of
transloading apparatus according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is a highly diagrammatic plan view drawn to a
smaller scale than FIG. 1 of another transloading apparatus
rotated through 90 from the view of FIG. l;
FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but illustrating
another embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 4 is a bottom view of a conveyor carriage
according to the invention drawn to a much larger scale than
FIGS. 1-3;
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FIG. 5 is a longitll~inAl cross sectional view through
the transverse conveyor showing a transfer unit at the junction
with the transport stretch;
FIG. 6 is a section through the conveyor of FIG. 5; and
FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic elevational view illustrating
the traveling load shifter of the invention in the form of a
portal crane.
~r~l~lC DESCRIPTION
FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the invention in which a
railway track 1 is provided parallel to a roadway 2 for road
vehicle 6, for example, a truck drawing a trailer which can be a
load unit or on which a container can be placed, the truck 6
being shown to have a tractor 6a towing the trailer 6b. The
railway track 1 supports a train of rail cars which can be
flatbed cars adapted to receive load units in the form of the
road vehicle trailers mentioned previously and/or containers as
represented at 5. Between the railway track 1 and the roadway 2
is a roller conveyer 3 forming a transport stretch along which
the load units 5 can be driven, e.g. by motorized drives for the
rollers 9 of the roller conveyor 3. The containers 5 can be
unloaded from the railway cars 4 onto the roller conveyor 3 or
loaded from the roller conveyor 3' to the railway cars 4 while
the cars are in motion.
The traveling load shifter comprises a portal crane 7
which spans the set of parallel roadways and the transport
stretch and is displaceable on rails 8 parallel to them. In the
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case of an unloading of the railway cars 4 with the load units 5,
the load units 5 before the arrival of the train of railway cars
are transferred from the road vehicles 6 to the roller conveyor 3
and are then loaded from the latter onto the railway car. In the
case of an unloading, the load units 5 are removed from the
railway cars 4 and placed on the roller conveyor 3 from which at
a later time they can be transferred to the road vehicle.
In both cases the transloading is effected by means of
the traveling load shifter 7 which is displaced parallel to the
railway track and the roadway 2 on rails 8. The rollers 9 may be
individually driven, e.g. by motors 3a or driven in groups as
shown via motor 3b and an appropriate transmission system
represented by the broken lines 2c in FIG. 1.
As can be seen from FIG. 7, the traveling load shifter
7 can comprise a portal frame 7a riding via wheels 7b driven by
motors 7c on tracks 8 parallel to the railway track 1 and the
roadway 2 and, of course, parallel to the roller conveyor 3 as
previously mentioned.
A pair of carriages 7d and 7e can ride by rollers 7elon
the lower flange 7f of a beam 7g forming the upper member of the
portal frame and may carry transverse beams 7h which are
perpendicular to the plane of the paper in FIG. 1.
At the ends of these transverse beams, downwardly
extending columns 7i are provided and carry vertically-moving
lifting members 7j which have claws or other formations
engageable in suitable recesses or pockets in the container 5 so
as to lift them from the bottom along the columns 7I.
_ g _
., . . . . . . . , . ~ . . . ~ . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . .
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The carriages 7d and 7e can be displaced independently
to bring the columns against the container and then can be moved
~ointly, once the container 5 has been lifted to carry the
container form the transport stretch 3 to the rail car 4 on the
track 1. The portal frame shown in FIG. 7 can travel parallel to
the rail line and roadway at the speed of the railway train and
the speed at which the load unit is displaced on the roller
conveyor 3.
FIG. 2 shows an embodiment which is generally similar
to that of FIG. 1 in that a railway track 1 is provided parallel
to a road vehicle roadway 2 and a roller conveyer 3 is provided
between the road-vehicle roadway and the railway track.
The portal crane 8 forming the load shifters are here
also provided, traveling on tracks 8.
In this embodiment, in addition, there are three
storage areas 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3 for the load units S. The
three storage areas 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 or a ~stores~ are separated
by two alleys or gaps in which respective transverse conveyors 11
and 12 are provided.
The transloading apparatus has a gate 13 for the rail
and road vehicles 4 and 6 and a gate 14 for the rail vehicles 4.
The term ~gaten is used here to refer to a detection and
registration station at which the vehicles passing the gate are
detected for subsequent positioning and direction and the
positions of the vehicles and their status can be registered so
that destinations within the apparatus can be established and
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completion of loading, state of loading, etc. can be registered
and acknowledged.
From the gate 13 to shortly before the store 10.1,
there extends a preliminary zone 15 (see the top of FIG. 2) to
which a first transloading region/rail 16 is connected. The
transloading region/rail 16 extends along the store 10.1 and the
transverse conveyor 11. It is followed by a transfer region/rail
vehicle 17, a further transloading region/rail 18 (which extends
along the transverse conveyor 12 and the store 10.3)
and an after zone 19 running to the gate 14.
On the opposite side of the transloading apparatus,
shown at the bottom part of FIG. 2, there is provided a further
street vehicle roadway 2'. This street vehicle roadway 2' forms
a transloading region/road 20 which extends along the three
stores 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 and the transverse conveyors 11 and 12
between them.
For the transloading zone/rail 16 and the transloading
zone/rail 18, respective transloading units 7 (FIG. 7) are
provided. In the transloading zone /road 20, for loading and
unloading the road vehicles or trucks 6, two further transloading
units 21 are provided in the regions of the transverse conveyors
11 and 12. These transloading units 21 can be portal cranes of
the type shown in FIG. 1, each, however, may be movable on rails
as described for the unit 7 or can be stationary as may be
desired.
The transverse conveyors 11 and 12 can have transverse
conveyor carriages 11 with respective drives displaceable in two
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planes and in both directions, as will be described in connection
with FIGS. 4-6.
The embodiment of FIG. 3 differs from that of FIG. 2 in
that, while the transport stretch 3 in FIG. 2 is formed by a
roller conveyor, in FIG. 3, this transport stretch is formed by a
succession of the carriages 22 which can travel parallel to the
track 1 and the roadway 2. At the crossing between the transport
stretch and each transverse conveyor 11, 12, a transfer device 23
is provided which can place a carriage 22 from the transverse
conveyor onto the transport stretch or return a carriage 22 from
the transport stretch to the transverse conveyor, with or without
a respective load unit thereon.
FIG. 4 shows the underside of one such transverse
conveyor carriage 22 which can be seen to have a first set of
four wheels aligned for movement of the carriage 22 in the
direction of arrow 25, i.e. along the transverse conveyors 11, 12
(see FIGS. 2 and 3).
The transverse conveyor has another set of four wheels
26 for movement of the transverse conveyor carriage 22 in the
direction of arrow 27, i.e. along the transport stretch (FIG. 3).
Two of the wheels of each set of wheels 24 and 26 are driven by a
drive which comprises a motor 28, the drive shafts 29 and 30 and
a transmission coupling the drive shafts 29 and 30 with one
another and represented at 31.
As has been represented by broken lines in FIG. 4, the
wheels 24 of the transverse conveyor carriage 22 rode on rails 33
while the wheels 26 are adapted to ride on rails 34. In the
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region of the transfer unit 23 (compare FIGS. 3), the rails 33
and 34 have respective segments 33A and 34A which are raisable
and lowerable. When the transverse conveyor carriage 22 is fed
onto the transverse unit 23, for example via the rails 33,
section 33A is aligned therewith while section 34A has been
lowered, the latter section lying at a right angle to section
33A. When the carriage 22 comes to standstill, section 34A is
raised and section 33A lowered so that travel can continue along
the rails 34. Transfer from the transport stretch to the
conveyor 11 or 12 is effected in the opposite sequence. The
sections 34A and 33A terminate so that the rails do not overlap,
thereby allowing one of the rail sections to be lowered and the
other raised.
FIG. 5 shows a transverse conveyor 11 with the
associated transfer unit 23 which has a hydraulic lifting system
32 allowing the carriage 22 to be lowered after removal of a load
unit therefrom onto the lower stretch of the conveyor. The upper
and lower stretches are also visible in FIG. 6. In FIGS. 5 and 6
the wheels of the carriage 22 have been omitted to simplify the
illustrations.
