GB2222992A - Improvements relating to trolley suspension systems - Google Patents

Abstract

A trolley suspension system has a suspension rail 10, preferably of inverted U-shape in cross section, and at least one trolley 12 for suspending garments in a warehousing environment on the rail. The trolley 12 has first wheels 22 (24) which lie with their axes horizontal and run on the top of the rail and has second wheels 44 which lie with their axes vertical and lie between the limbs of the rail to stabilize the trolley as it runs on the rail. The trolley can be removed from the rail by first raising it followed by tilting so that the first wheels are clear of the rail, followed by lowering of the trolley; and it can be re-mounted by the reverse procedure. In an alternative embodiment, a rib is provided forming a downward extension of the rail, and the trolley is provided with two stabilising spherical rollers spaced to allow the rib to fit between the rollers. Mounting and demounting of the trolley is achieved in a similar fashion to the described above. <IMAGE>

Description

Improvements Relating to Trolley Suspension Systems This invention relates to trolley suspension systems being systems wherein trolleys run on rails for the support and transport of articles such as garments and garment parts. It is appreciated that the type of article which is transported by the trolley on the trolley support rail arrangement is not of material importance to the general scope of the invention, and although reference is made hereinafter mainly to garments and garment parts, as the invention is specifically directed to this field, it is not intended that the invention be limited to this application.

The trolleys of the trolley system to which the invention relates comprise running elements which run on the support rails of the trolley suspension system, and each trolley may comprise a single rolling element, for example for the suspension of a single article, or more usually the trolley will comprise at least two spaced rolling elements with a trolley frame interconnecting the elements, for the support of a plurality of articles.

Conventionally, a trolley suspension system comprises a trolley support frame being an elongated member at the ends of which are roller brackets, each bracket supporting a trolley wheel, typically a wheel known as a diablo wheel of which the periphery is waisted so as to define a diablo shape, and the diablo rollers simply run on a round section support rail. The trolleys may run on the support rail under power, or they may run under gravity, or they may be propelled by hand, and in any one system a combination of such propulsion arrangements may be used, but in any case the trolleys are required to run freely on the support rail for the transport of the articles between different locations.

The suspension brackets carrying the diablo rollers are designed such that the trolleys can simply be hooked onto and hooked off the support rail for replacement, repair, and for relocation of the trolleys and different rail portions within the system.

In the environment of a garment making or a garment storage factory, the trolleys are subjected to rough handling so much so that there is a tendency for the trolleys to jump from the rails, which is of course undesirable.

Various designs have been produced to mitigate against such disadvantage, and one such arrangement is described in European Patent No. 0110196 wherein the suspension rail is designed in the form of a pair of spaced rails, and between the spaced rails a trolley having specially designed roller heads is fitted enabling the trolley to run on the rail in such a fashion as to make the jumping of the trolley from the rails highly unlikely.

An advantage of the arrangement described in said European Patent is that by virtue of the design of the twin rails and the trolley roller heads, the trolley can be provided with an arm which can be cantilevered outwardly from the plane of the suspension rails and can support a load in the form of suspended articles and the connection between the trolley roller heads and the suspension rail exercises a restraining couple to counteract the couple which exists as the result of the support of a load on the said arm when cantilevered outwardly. Such trolleys are however used mainly in garment production systems and support partly completed garments which are moved from work station to work station so that different operations can be performed thereon in the process of completing manufacture.

The present invention is an alternative means of holding the trolley in position on its rail, and yet is a simpler, trolley and suspension rail arrangement making the trolley and its rail arrangement more suitable for warehousing applications wherein the articles are stored but can be moved from location to location by being carried by the trolleys.

According to the present invention, there is provided trolley suspension system comprises a suspension rail defining a running surface on which a trolley wheel can run, and an elongated restraining means extending in the direction of the rail, a trolley comprising at least one trolley wheel for running on said running surface, and a stabilizing means for engagement in use with said restraining means, the trolley being arranged so that the trolley can only be operatively linked to the rail by operatively positioning of the stabilizing means in relation to the restraining means1 followed by a tilting of the trolley to bring the trolley wheel into operative alignment with the running surface.

The stabilizing means preferably is a wheel means.

By such arrangement, certain advantageous results are achieved. When the trolley is in operative engagement with the rail, by virtue of the restraining means and stabilizing means, the trolley can support lateral loads. Also, for the trolley to jump from the rail not only must the trolley roller wheel leave the running surface, but the stabilizing wheel means must also leave the said restraining means.

In a particularly simple and advantageous arrangement, the guide rail is of inverted U-section, and the running surface is formed by the outer top surface of the U-section, whilst the space between the limbs forms a groove defining the restraining means in which the wheel means is located. The limbs of the U-section are preferably of equal length.

The trolley preferably comprises a pair of spaced trolley wheels connected to suspension brackets, the brackets being interconnected by a trolley frame, bar or other means, and under each trolley wheel and supported by the frame or bar is a stabilizing roller forming said wheel means located with its axis at right angles to the axis of the trolley wheel, the trolley wheels and stabilizing rollers being so spaced apart that in order to connect the trolley to the rail, the trolley is tilted at an appropriate angle, the stabilizing wheels are fed into the space between the limbs of the support rail, the trolley is moved bodily so that the stabilizing wheels enter further into said space between the limbs until the trolley can be tilted to a vertical position in which case the trolley rollers come into running engagement with the top running surface of the rail.

When the trolley is in operative position on the rail, the trolley rollers, typically diablo rollers will engage the top surface of the rail whilst the stabilizing rollers will be located between the limbs, making it almost impossible for the trolley to leave the rail during normal use.

Such an arrangement can be power driven, hand driven and/or gravity driven as required aad such an arrangement lends itself to simple switching devices enabling the trolley to be diverted from one section of suspension rail to another.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a trolley and a section of suspension rail of a trolley suspension system according to the invention; Fig. 2 is an end view of the arrangement shown in Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is an end elevation similar to Fig. 2, but showing how the trolley is initially fitted to the suspension rail.

Referring to the drawings, in Fig. 1 a length of a suspension rail 10 for a trolley suspension system is shown. The section of rail 10 is shown as supporting a trolley 12 which can run on the rail 10 as indicated by arrow 14. In the arrangement shown, the trolley 12 is for manual propulsion, but it could be adapted for power propulsion around the suspension system. It will be appreciated that the rail 10 will travel extensively throughout the area to be served by the suspension system, and the rail will be provided with switch devices enabling the trolleys to be diverted from and back into the system as required.

The rail 10 is of inverted U-section as shown more clearly in Figs. 2 and 3 such that the rail 10 has two limbs 16 and 18 which are connected by a curved portion 20. The curved portion 20 forms a running surface for two diablo rollers 22 and 24 of the trolley 12, the trolley 12 comprising suspension brackets 26, 28 which extend from a support bar 30 as shown. Under the support bar 30 is mounted a holding bar 32 which is connected to the bar 30 so as to be spaced therefrom to enable hangers as shown in Fig. 2 to be suspended therefrom.

In alignment with each diablo wheel 22, 24 but located thereunder, is a restraining roller 44 which is rotatable about an axle 46 which is vertical when the apparatus is in use. The rollers 44 are of the generally truncated, conical form shown so as to be of smaller diameter at the top than at the bottom and to have curved sides to facilitate the connection and disconnection of the trolley to the rail as will be explained hereinafter. The restraining rollers 44 locate in the groove or space between the limbs 16, 18 with clearance so as to restrain the trolley from turning on and jumping from the rail 10 when the trolley is in use. These trolleys are used in a busy environment and are constantly being moved from location to location. They are subjected to jostling and lateral loads and tend to be knocked from the rails.With the trolley mounting arrangement described however, jumping from the rail and lateral loads will be resisted by the roller 44 engaging on the inner side of either limb 16 and 18 depending upon the direction from which the lateral load is applied.

If reference is made to Fig. 2, this effect can be better explained. If the couple on the trolley is such as to tend to turn the trolley on the rail 10 clockwise at indicated by arrow 50, restraining roller 44 will ride upon the inner surface of limb 16 of rail 10, and vice versa, keeping the trolley stably carried by the rail 10.

As the restraining roller 44 is located between the limbs 16, 18 of the rail 10, the trolley will be restrained from falling from the rail 10 or from jumping from the rail 10 when in use making the mounting particularly stable.

The trolley is coupled to the rail 10 in the manner indicated in Fig. 3. The geometrical location of the rollers 22, 24 in relation to the restraining rollers 44, the profile of the rollers 44, and also related to the dimensions of the rail 10 are such that the trolley as shown in Fig. 3 is initially tilted by some 30-40 relative to the vertical so that the restraining rollers 44 lie to the underside of the rail 10 in line with the space between the limbs 16 and 18. In this position the rollers 22 and 24 are outside the plane of the rail 10. The trolley is now raised so that the restraining rollers 44 move into the space between the limbs 16 and 18, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3.The rollers 22, 24 also as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3 move to a position above the top running surface of the portion 20 of the rail and the trolley can now be tilted to the vertical position shown in Fig. 2 and lowered so that the rollers 22 rest upon and can run on the portion 20 of the rail. To remove the trolley, the trolley is moved initially vertically upwards to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 2, and then the trolley is tilted in the direction of arrow 50 in Fig. 2 until it reaches the inclination shown in Fig. 3. By lowering the trolley, it can therefore be removed from the rail.

The particular embodiment of the invention provides an extremely efficient trolley and rail system enabling ready coupling and de-coupling of the trolley from the rail but whilst maintaining that the trolley will remain stably on the rail and will not tend to jump therefrom, and also that the trolley can resist loads which are disposed laterally of the plane containing the rail.

In an alternative embodiment, the guide for the stabilizing wheels comprises simply a rib forming a downwards extension of the rail, and the said stabilizing rollers comprise pairs of rollers, suitably spherical rollers, which are spaced to allow the rib to fit between the roller pairs. The trolley is fitted to the rail in similar fashion by tilting the trolley so that the rib can be located between the roller pairs by moving the assembly upwardly in the tilted position, in similar fashion to that shown in Fig. 3, until the trolley rollers can be moved onto the running surface of the rail by tilting of the trolley.

Claims (8)

1. A trolley suspension system comprising a suspension rail defining a running surface on which a trolley wheel can run, and an elongated restraining means extending in the direction of the rail, a trolley comprising at least one trolley wheel for running on said running surface, and a stabilizing means for engagement in use with said restraining means, the trolley being. arranged so that the trolley can only be operatively linked to the rail by operatively positioning of the stabilizing means in relation to the restraining means, followed by a tilting of the trolley to bring the trolley wheel into operative alignment with the running surface.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the stabilizing means is a wheel means.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the guide rail is of inverted U-section, and the running surface is formed by the outer top surface of the U-section, whilst the space between the limbs forms a groove defining the restraining means in which the wheel means is located.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the limbs of the U-section are of equal level.

5. A system according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the trolley comprises a pair of spaced trolley wheels connected to suspension brackets, the brackets being interconnected by a trolley frame, bar or other means, and under each trolley wheel and supported by the frame or bar is a stabilizing roller forming said wheel means located with its axis at right angles to the axis of the trolley wheel, the trolley wheels and stabilizing rollers being so spaced apart that in order to connect the trolley to the rail, the trolley is tilted at an appropriate angle, the stabilizing wheels are fed into the space between the limbs of the support rail, the trolley is moved bodily so that the stabilizing wheels enter further into said space between the limbs until the trolley can be tilted to a vertical position in which case the trolley rollers come into running engagement with the top running surface of the rail.

6. A system according to any of claims 2 to 5, wherein said stabilizing wheel means comprises generally conical, truncated rollers.

7. A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the trolley wheels are diablo wheels.

8. A trolley suspension system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.