GB735907A - Improvements in or relating to overhead conveyor systems - Google Patents

Abstract

735,907. Overhead conveyer systems. STAHLINDUSTRIE UND MASCHINENBAU AKT.-GES., and NEUTSCH, E. March 12, 1953 [March 12, 1952], No. 6892/53. Class 104 (2). An overhead conveyer system has a plurality of carrier elements connected to rail mounted trolleys driven by a single driving device consisting of drivers connected to an endless chain and capable of engagement and disengagement with the carrier elements or the trolleys and lifting elements which raise the drivers to disengage them from the carrier elements in order that the carrier elements can push one another forward until re-engaged by the drivers. As shown in Figs. 1 and 2 a chain 6 mounted on trolleys provided with wheels 5 running on the upper flanges 4 of U-shaped rails drives a loadcarrying trolley 3, mounted on wheels 2 running on the lower flanges 1 of the U-shaped rails, by means of a pivotally mounted hooked arm 8 engaging a driving member 7 on the trolley 3. Lifting elements 9 fixed to the U-shaped rails at stopping points raise the arms 8 or the wheels 5, and hence an abutment 8<SP>11</SP>, Fig. 5 (not shown), out of driving engagement with the member 7. At the stopping points the trolleys 3 are gradually pushed by succeeding trolleys to the exit end of the element 9 at which point the hooked arm 8 drops into engagement with the member 7. The elements 9 may be adjusted in height by means of screwed members engaging slots in the rails, Fig. 4 (not shown). In modifications, Fig. 3 (not shown), the arm 8 is arranged as a pivoted pusher arm and in Fig. 5 (not shown), as a fixed downwardly extending lug. In the arrangement shown in Fig. 6 the load carriers 12 provided with a driving member 14 and running on rails 13 arranged above the driving chain 19 are driven by a double arm lever 15 pivotally mounted on the driving chain 19 and normally held in the driving position by a spring 16. The lever 15 has a roller 17 mounted thereon which engages guide rails 18 arranged below or laterally to tilt the lever 15 out of driving engagement with the member 14. As shown in Fig. 7, the arm 8 is lifted by a pivoted lever 20 through a cam 21 rotated by a guide wheel 11 driven by the driving chain 6. In a further modification the driving chain trolleys run on the same rail as the load-carrying trolleys which are driven by elements 7 mounted thereon, being engaged by driving abutments 8<SP>11</SP> on the chain trolleys. At stopping points the track is downwardly curved so that the load-carrying trolleys move out of driving engagement with the chain trolleys, Fig. 8, and at the exit end of the stopping point the chain trolley track is downwardly curved; Fig. 9, so that the chain trolleys are moved into driving engagement and on a common track with the load-carrying trolleys. As shown in Fig. 11, load suspension members of the load-carrying trolleys 3 are swung about a vertical pin 23 by a double arm lever 24 engaging an abutment 25.