GB1150300A - Pallet Loading Machine. - Google Patents

Abstract

1,150,300. Pallet loading machine. E.C.C. QUARRIES Ltd. 15 Feb., 1968 [15 Feb., 1967], No. 7202/67. Heading B8C. A pallet loading machine raises a stack of pallets in steps, the top one being loaded by conveyer means and pushed via a transfer passage on to the top of a stack of loaded pallets which are lowered in identical steps to the steps in which the pallets are raised. The articles are of no greater height than the pallet runners and capable of fitting between them so that loaded and unloaded stacks are of equal height. A stack 6 of pallets 12 on a stillage 13 is delivered via conveyers (9 and 7, Fig. 1, not shown) to a supply compartment 2. The stack and stillage are then pushed by a framework 18 on to a horizontally movable conveyer 19 within the pallet loading compartment. Here prongs 25 of a fork-lift arrangement 27 raise the stack in steps leaving the stillage on the conveyer. The stack is lifted one step equivalent to the height of a pallet, and the top pallet of the stack loaded with an article e.g. a cementitious slab, transported from a machine making it, by a carriage from which depends a suction head 35, see also Fig. 3 (not shown). The suction head can be spring-loaded so that on releasing the articles the head lifts for clearance purposes. The loaded pallet is then pushed via ram 14, on to a transfer platform 33, in turn pushing one already in this position on to the top of the loaded pallets stacked on prongs 26, of a forklift arrangement 28. The latter is coupled to the fork-lift 27 via chain 30 so for any step up by 27, 28 is similarly lowered. The stack is thus formed and lowered on to the stillage 13 prepositioned by the conveyer 19. In an alternative arrangement (not shown) the stillage and conveyer 19 are not used, thereby increasing the stack capacity.