Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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LIFTING APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING A RECTILINEAR MOVEMENT OF
A HANDLING DEVICE
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates, in general, to a
lifting apparatus for implementing a rectilinear movement of
a handling device, e.g., a manually-operated manipulator.
Such a vertical lifting apparatus in the manner of
a lifting upright for a manually guided manipulator is
known, for example, from German Pat. No. DE 43 42 716 A1.
The lifting apparatus includes a longitudinal member to
serve as guide part, and a lifting beam which is guided on
the longitudinal member for movement in a longitudinal
direction. The lifting beam has a lower end for attachment
of a load-receiving member. Operation of the lifting beam
is implemented by a drive in the form of a cylinder which is
actuated by a pressure medium and securely fixed to the
longitudinal member. The cylinder has a movable part a
piston which is connected to the lifting beam.
This lifting apparatus suffers shortcomings
because of the complexity to suit the lifting apparatus to
different operating conditions.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous
to provide an improved lifting apparatus for realizing a
rectilinear movement of a handling device, which obviates
prior art shortcomings and is easy to suit to different
operating situations, while being producible in almost any
desired length and adaptable to a wide range of different
length requirements, such as, e.g., to the length of the
lifting beam and to the fastening height of the lifting
apparatus.
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SZJ1~IARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention there is
provided a lifting apparatus for implementing a rectilinear
movement of a handling device, comprising: a pair of
longitudinal members arranged in spaced parallel
relationship in a common plane and securable to a stationary
or movable carrying unit; at least one connecting element
rigidly interconnecting the longitudinal members; a drive
mechanism; a lifting beam movable by the drive mechanism
longitudinally along the longitudinal members and having
attached thereon, directly or indirectly, a handling device;
and a guide rail extending parallel to and supporting the
lifting beam, said guide rail being received in carriages,
arranged at a distance from one another, for displacement in
longitudinal direction in a freely running manner as the
lifting beam is moved by the drive mechanism, wherein the
carriages are arranged in the space between the longitudinal
members and secured to the connecting element, wherein the
longitudinal members and the lifting beam are formed with
longitudinal grooves for engagement by sliding blocks so
that the connecting element, the drive mechanism and the
carrying unit are securable to the longitudinal members in
any desired longitudinal position, and the guide rail is
securable to the lifting beam in any desired longitudinal
position.
The present invention resolves prior art problems
by providing a lifting apparatus in which the essential
length-determining elements, i.e., the lifting beam and the
two parallel longitudinal members are provided with
continuous longitudinal grooves for cooperation with
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fasteners that engage in the grooves. As a consequence, the
lifting beam and the longitudinal members may be made from
aluminum profiles of square or rectangular cross section,
which have been produced preferably through extrusion.
Aluminum profiles can be cut to size in any desired length
and can be produced very cost-effectively. The provision of
longitudinal grooves allows the user to suit the position of
the lifting beam to the situation at hand before fastening.
Furthermore, the longitudinal members may be mounted to a
trolley at a desired height, without need for any additional
measures. In case of changes to the work area, the height
can thus be altered to new height conditions
(trolley/handling device spacing) in an easy manner by only
a few adjustments.
According to another preferred feature of the
invention, the carriages may be guided by recirculating
balls, thereby allowing easy guidance of the lifting beam at
little amount of play.
According to another preferred feature of the
invention, the connecting element may be provided by a metal
plate which is easy to produce.
According to another preferred feature, the drive
mechanism may be implemented by a cable balancer having a
cable secured to a lower end of the lifting beam. This
configuration is suitable, in particular, for a vertical
lifting beam which under its own weight moves automatically
downward into a position predetermined by the cable length.
The handling device, which may be a load-receiving
member or a tool, may be fastened, for example, to an
intermediate attachment element which is a horizontal member
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designed as an aluminum profile. Suitably, the attachment
element is mounted to the lifting beam via a load-moment
support.
According to another preferred feature, the
longitudinal members may have stop members secured by
sliding blocks for limiting a lifting path of the lifting
beam.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
Other features and advantages of the present
invention will be more readily apparent upon reading the
following description of a preferred exemplified embodiment
of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawing,
in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective illustration of a lifting
apparatus according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a front view of the lifting apparatus of FIG.1;
FIG. 3 is a side view of the lifting apparatus of FIG. l;
FIG. 4 is a cross section of the lifting apparatus, taken
along the line I-I in FIG. 3; and
FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a mounting for
securement of the lifting apparatus on a trolley.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Throughout all the Figures, same or corresponding
elements are generally indicated by same reference numerals.
Turning now to the drawing, and in particular to
FIG. 1, there is shown a perspective illustration of a
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vertical lifting apparatus according to the present
invention having an upper end for attachment to a trolley as
a moveable carrying apparatus, as will be described in more
detail with reference to FIG. 5. In this way, the lifting
apparatus can be moved in a horizontal direction. Of
course, the lifting apparatus may certainly also be fixedly
secured, for example to a support beam in a ceiling region
of an assembly building or to a wall mounting.
As shown in particular in FIGS. 2 and 3, the
lifting apparatus includes two longitudinal members 1, which
are arranged in parallel relationship in a common plane at a
distance to one another to thereby define a space 2
therebetween. The two longitudinal members 1 are rigidly
interconnected transversely to one another by an
intermediate connecting element 3 in the form of a metal
plate. As best seen in FIG. 4, each of the longitudinal
members 1 is formed on its outer sides with longitudinal
grooves la to allow securement of the connecting element 3
to the longitudinal members 1 via suitable sliding blocks 4,
which engage behind the longitudinal grooves la. Of course,
it is also possible to use sliding-block strips for
realizing a securement of the connecting element 3.
Fastened to the inside of the connecting element 3
by screw fasteners 6 are two carriages 5 which are guided
by, not shown, recirculating balls and spaced from one
another in longitudinal direction so as to be located at the
top and bottom of the connecting element 3. A guide rail 7
is slidably mounted to the two carriages 5 so as to run
freely in the longitudinal direction thereof. The guide
rail 7 and the two carriages 5 are arranged in the space 2
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between the two longitudinal members 1, as shown in
particular in FIG. 4.
The guide rail 7 carries a lifting beam 8 in
parallel relationship thereto, as shown in FIG. 4, whereby
the lifting beam 8 is fastened to the guide rail 7 by
sliding blocks 4a which engage behind longitudinal grooves
8a of the lifting beam 8. In this manner, the lifting beam
8 can be shifted into a desired longitudinal position,
before being fastened to the guide rail 7, without any need
for additional measures. As depicted in FIG. 1, an
attachment plate 9 is fastened to a bottom end face of the
lifting beam 8 via an interposed load moment support 10,
which, in turn, is mounted on the lifting beam 8 by sliding
blocks 4.
In order to limit the lifting path, stop angles 11
are fastened to the lifting beam 8 to interact with buffer
elements 12, which are mounted to the longitudinal members
1, so as to define the two end positions of the lifting beam
8. The stop angles 11 and buffer elements 12 are also
secured by sliding blocks 4 so as to allow a rapid change of
the desired lifting distance by making only a few
adjustments.
The lifting beam 8 is displaced longitudinally by
means of a cable balancer 13 which is arranged at the top
region of the longitudinal members 1 and fastened by angle
brackets 14 to the two longitudinal members 1 using sliding
blocks 4. The cable balancer 13 has a cable 15 which is
connected to the attachment plate 9 at the bottom end of the
lifting apparatus. Of course, the cable balancer 13 is only
one of a number of drive options. Another example includes
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a pneumatic pulling cylinder or the like for use as a drive
mechanism.
Unwinding of the cable 15 thus results in
rectilinear downwards extension of the lifting beam 8 as a
consequence of the effective weight force of the lifting
beam 8. A raising and/or retraction of the lifting beam 8 is
realized by winding up the cable 15 onto a cable drum 16 of
the cable balancer 13.
The lifting beam 8 and the longitudinal members 1
may be configured as aluminum profiles which are made
through an extrusion process and have a square or
rectangular cross section.
Although not shown in detail in the foregoing
figures, a horizontal member in the form of an aluminum
profile may, for example, be fastened as intermediate
element to the attachment plate 9, for supporting at one
end, for example, a tool or a load-receiving member. Of
course, it is certainly also possible to secure the tool
directly to the attachment plate 9.
Referring now to FIG. 5, there is shown a
schematic illustration of a possible securement of the
lifting apparatus to a trolley having a frame plate 17 which
may, for example, be part of a trolley frame. Angles 18 are
mounted to the frame plate 17 and formed with bores 19 for
receiving sliding blocks 4 by which the frame plate 17 can
be mounted to the longitudinal grooves la of the
longitudinal members 1, as the longitudinal members 1 is
placed through a large opening 20 of the frame plate 17.
Also, in this case, the longitudinal position of the frame
plate 17, and thus of the trolley, on the lifting apparatus
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can be suited to the situation at hand and secured in place
in an easy manner. All of the grooves that receive the
sliding blocks 4 may be under cast grooves.
While the invention has been illustrated and
described as embodied in a lifting apparatus for
implementing rectilnear movement of a handling device, it is
not intended to be limited to the details shown since
various modifications and structural changes may be made
without departing in any way from the spirit of the present
invention.
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