WO2006087595A1

WO2006087595A1 - Modules for providing roller fields for horizontally moving and/or arranging large objects

Info

Publication number: WO2006087595A1
Application number: PCT/HU2006/000015
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lajos VIRÁGH
Original assignee: Mikon Mérnöki, Müvészeti És Idegenforgalmi Kft.
Priority date: 2005-02-17
Filing date: 2006-02-17
Publication date: 2006-08-24
Also published as: HU0500213D0; HUP0500213A2

Abstract

The modules according to the invention are rectangular and have the same size. There are rotatable load bearing elements along the perimeter of the modules (1) and at least two driven actuating elements for moving said objects said elements being arranged within and/or along the perimeter of said modules. There are means for guiding the objects to be moved parallel to the sides of the modules (1), being arranged on a unit carrying said load bearing elements and/or said elements for moving the objects. The modules (1) are further provided with means (8) for lifting or lowering the unit for carrying said load bearing elements and/or said elements for moving the objects and/or said guiding means. The actuating elements for moving said objects/containers may be gears (5) or drive wheels (5a). The guide means are U - profiles (4) and/or rails (12), or sometime they are provided as rims (17) on the drive wheels (5a).

Description

MODULES FOR PROVIDING ROLLER FIELDS FOR HORIZONTALLY MOVING AND/OR ARRANGING LARGE OBJECTS

Technical Field

The present invention relates to modules for providing roller fields for horizontally moving and/or arranging large objects, particularly containers. The invention may be applied mainly on the field of combined transportation by railway and on public roads.

It is well-known that the loading of railway or public vehicles is ;not up to the modern technologies, or to the development pace of the vehicles.

Background Art of the Invention

The transport of goods shifted to public roads during the last 30 years, while the quantity and tons of goods/km transported by railway decline year by year. The proportion of transport of goods by camion including semi-trailer containers increases year by year. The advantages of public transport of goods represent short time of delivery, less damage during door to door delivery and transport without reloading.

On the other hand, drawbacks of the public transport of goods are the higher cost of energy and live labour, as well as increased environment pollution. Drawbacks are the higher costs, greater administration and the more difficult loading. Further problem is to ensure adequate maintenance and development of public roads for reliable transportation, meanwhile the existing railway net is not utilized adequately.

Comparison of the advantages and drawbacks leads to the conclusion that the initial advantages have recently lost much of their attraction. The reason for this is that the 30 consistently increasing traffic entails slowing down the transportation. This is especially true to the international camion and container transport, since the time of frontier crossings increases year by year. The costs and load of the public roads are also on the increase.

The advantages of shipping goods by rail could be improved again by solving the problem of loading and container maneuvring.

It is common knowledge that the category of transcontainers or big containers includes the containers without carriage according to the international standards.

Loading, unloading or transferring such containers is generally carried out by cranes or other lifting devices, wherein the containers are lifted from the side or from the top, depending on the corresponding standard. Moving containers by cranes however, is a problem at all railways with overhead wires. For safety reasons, special Diesel mechanical locomotives must be used to move the trains from the electric system to a loading station wherein moving of the containers can be carried out without the danger of contacting the overhead wires.

A drawback of the presently known transcontainer transport system is that the technical requisites are of intermittent operation entailing high loss of capacity due to the idle return movement, i.e., the cranes are suitable mainly for lifting, their operation for long distance horizontal movement is expensive and difficult. The technical solution of lifting - conveying vehicles is complicated, consequently both the cost of investment and operation is high. These costs are further increased by the costs of the rails and ramps needed for the operation.

A further drawback of the currently known and used transcontainer transport system is that the technical equipment provided for moving the containers does not conform flexibly to the volume of the containers to be moved, the technical equipment in places of light traffic has to be similar to the one used in places of heavy traffic approaching the capacity limit of the requisites employed.

A further problem is that the presently used requisites do not allow automatization of handling the various container-loaders, reloaders and terminals. For the time being, the simplified system of loading, manoeuvring and reloading is as follows: "active" packed goods, or vehicles move on "passive" path (road, paved space, loading surface, etc). Their operation may be self-powered (trolley, cars, wheel-mounted containers, etc), or externally powered (mobile cranes, frame cranes, etc). Lifting from "passive" path characteristic to the operation (generally with eccentric lifting) is conveyance by lifting.

Nowadays, it is clear that the only way of increasing the volume of shipping goods by rail is decentralization. Loading and unloading should be available even when turnover of goods is relatively small, for increasing the speed of transportation and decreasing the costs thereof.

However, even the most modern systems are incapable of eliminating the idle runs and recording the existing position of the moved units.

The matter of parking in big cities raises similar problems. The construction of garages, parking stations, lags behind the increasing number of cars. Due to the high cost of construction, demand for large space and difficult operation, the number of parking stations is insufficient. As a result of the high costs, the parking fee is also high.

The parking stations built to date were constructed with traditional building units (steel structure, concrete, brick, etc). Ramps, communication roads requiring large space serve for driving in and out of cars, and for communication between the levels. Moving between and within the levels is done by the car itself. This is rather difficult, for the maneuvring requires large space and specially trained driver. Due to the exhaust gases, high capacity ventilation and strict fire protection regulation are imperative.

A further drawback of the traditional parking stations is that they can accommodate a small number of cars only, compared with the large dimensions because of the space required for communication roads and turns. For these reasons, they are not suited to solve the parking problems of big cities. EP 89108986 offers an installation for moving and/or arranging large objects, particularly containers, wherein rollers are arranged in rectangular fields such that the rollers provided within the individual fields are disposed parallel to each other while including an angle with the rollers disoosed in the adjacent fields, and that the individual fields are adapted to be vertically movable.

The application of this installation could solve some of the above problems and is capable of eliminating the idle runs and recording the existing position of the moved units.

However, the system is not widespread as it contains too many rollers and there were problems with the correct guiding of the large objects to be moved.

Summary of the Invention

The object of the present invention is therefor to provide an apparatus or system, whereby large objects, e.g. containers, vehicles can be moved or maneuvred with the aid of rollers or roller conveyors, and in addition, moving, maneuvring of the containers, vehicles, etc in a much smaller space is simpler and quicker than in the traditional solutions, but it enables at the same time the automatic tracking and recording of the objects moved in the system from the moment of entry to exit, with the aid of computer system.

This aim is achieved according to the present invention in that the modules for providing roller fields for horizontally moving and/or arranging large objects, particularly containers are characterized in that said modules are rectangular and have the same size; there are rotatable load bearing rollers along the perimeter of the modules; there are at least two actuating elements for moving said objects said elements being arranged within and/or along the perimeter of said modules; there are means for guiding the objects to be moved parallel to the sides of the modules, said means being arranged on a unit carrying said load bearing rollers and/or said elements for moving the objects and the modules are provided with means for lifting or lowering the unit for carrying said load bearing rollers and/or said elements for moving the objects and/or said guiding means. The modules are preferably oblong and they contain a dividing beam which is co-directional with the shorter sides of said oblong. The load-bearing elements are cylindrical bodies shafts or pins perpendicular to the sides of the oblong and/or balls arranged in seats and being rotatable in all directions.

The actuating elements for moving said objects may be gears and/or drive wheels, and may be at the same time load bearing rollers, too. The guide means may be U - profiles and/or rails or rims on said drive wheels. The lifting means can be hydraulic, pneumatic, electric or mechanic means.

The modules are preferably provided with intermediate elements as frames or trays for holding the objects to be moved. These elements should have flat lower surface and/or gear rack for transmitting the drive force.

Brief Description of Drawings

The invention will be described more in detail by way of examples, with reference to the drawing, in which

Fig 1. is a top view of an embodiment of the module according to the invention,

Fig 2. is a flowchart showing the path of a container in a roller field consisting of the modules according to the invention,

Fig 3. is the cross section of the module of Fig 1., showing the load bearing elements, guide means and actuating elements as well as an intermediate frame,

Fig 4. is a bottom view of the intermediate frame shown in Fig 3.,

Fig 5. is the III - lit. section of another embodiment of the module shown in Fig 1.

Fig. 6 is top view of yet another embodiment of the module according to the invention,

Fig 7. is the combined unit of the module shown in Fig 6. in upper position and Fig 8. is the combined unit of the module shown in Fig 6. in lower position.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

The module 1 according to the invention, shown in Fig 1. is oblong and its measures are adjusted to that of the large object, e.g. a cargo container. An arbitrary number of such containers may be arranged side by side for providing an M moving and/or arranging field, wherein the containers 2 can be moved as shown in Fig. 2. The modules 1 are rectangular (generally oblong), of uniform size and are provided with load bearing elements, actuating elements, guide means and lifting means. There may be intermediate elements on the modules 1 for holding the containers 2.

The load bearing elements in Fig.3 are cylindrical rollers 3 arranged along the sides of the modules 1 and rotatable around shafts or pins perpendicular to the sides of the module 1. There are guide means as part of the units holding the load bearing elements, for keeping the containers 2 in the right direction. In the embodiment according to Fig. 3., the shafts holding the load bearing rollers 3 are fixed on a U - profile 4, which has an outer leg longer, than the inner one, and - in this way - acting as guide means.

The actuating elements are gears 5 arranged within the modules 1 in a way that there is always a connection between the moving intermediate element 6 and one of the gears 5. There are gear racks 7 on the bottom of the intermediate elements 6 (or - if no intermediate element is provided - of the containers 1) mating with the gears 5. For coupling the gears 5 to the gear racks 7, there are lifting means 8. The actuating elements, which can be adhesion disks as well, are rotated by drive means 9.

The guide means belonging to the load bearing elements arranged on the other parallel sides of the modules 1 remain at that time below the level of the bottom of the intermediate element 6, in order to allow the movement thereof parallel to the longer sides of the oblong module 1. These load bearing elements are also provided with lifting means 8, which will be in upper position when the containers 2 should be moved parallel to the shorter sides of the modules 1. Said lifting means 8 for lifting and lowering the load bearing elements and the actuating elements may be hydraulic, pneumatic, electric or mechanic means, whatever is needed.

The load bearing elements may be cylindrical rollers 3 or balls 11, the actuating elements for moving said objects may be gears 5 and/or drive wheels coupled by drive means 9.

The intermediate elements 6 (in this embodiment frames) engage with the load bearing elements on the sides of the modules 1 by flat bottom parts and with the actuating elements (arranged inside the modules) by gear rack(s) 7. In this way, both moving and guiding of the containers 2 can easily be performed.

In some cases it is recommended to divide the modules 1 between the shorter sides as shown in Fig.1 , in order to avoid bending deflection due to the too long span between the shorter sides. In such cases, a dividing beam 10 is applied, which is provided with appropriate load bearing elements and/or guide means, similar to that on the shorter sides of the module 1.

The guide means in the embodiment on Fig. 5 are arranged at the gears 5, instead of the load bearing elements. Due to this arrangement, guiding is performed within the modules 1 , meanwhile the load bearing elements are balls 11 , which can rotate in any direction. The guide means consist in this case of two parts: the leg(s) of a U - profile supporting the gears 5 and one or two rail(s) 12 at the side(s) of the gear rack 7.

The load bearing elements in the embodiment on Fig. 6 are arranged on the sides of the module 1 as already shown in Fig.1 , but in this construction, contrary to that in Fig. 1 , the guide means, lifting means and actuating means are also arranged on the sides of the module 1. The way of operation of the module is similar to that of the module shown in Fig.1 , however, there is no need of any gear rack on the bottom of the frames or trays, as the actuating elements are drive wheels 5a, which are at the same time load bearing elements, too. Drive wheels 5a are hold by shafts in combined units 13 shown in Figs. 7. and 8. Combined units are connected to a common drive shaft (or drive chain) 14, which in turn are connected to a drive motor 9 on each side of the module. 5a drive wheels are disposed in box links 16 on stands 15 and are provided with rims 17 and, accordingly they can guide the containers. The level of the drive wheels 5a can be adjusted by horizontally displaceable wedges 19 which can lift (Fig.7) or lower (Fig. 8) said box link 16 as pushed or pulled back by hydraulic cylinder 18. If the containers should be moved parallel to the longer sides of the module, combined units on the shorter sides are in lower position and have no contact with the containers (or intermediate elements), those on the longer sides are in the upper position and move the container in longitudinal direction. If the container should be moved parallel to the shorter sides of the module, combined units on the shorter sides are in upper position and those on the shorter sides are in the lower position.

The examples shown above clearly demonstrate that the roller fields composed of the modules according to the present invention perfectly eliminate the drawbacks of the prior solutions for moving or arranging large objects. The use of these modules is not affected by overhead wires, the trains need not be moved to distant places and idle operation can be eliminated. The path and actual position of the waggons can continuously be traced, recorded and controlled. Preferably, the modules and as well as the whole system is conform with the measures of the standard containers, but the intermediate elements enable to move smaller objects, too. If the size of the object to be moved exceeds that of the modules, it is possible to move it resting on two intermediate elements, with co-ordinated operation of neighbouring modules.

Further advantage of the invention is that it eliminates the problems outlined in connection with the installation according to EP 89108986: the large objects can be moved in a system being simpler and cheaper than that and containing considerably smaller amount of construction elements. Furthermore, deviation from the correct direction due to different frictional forces is prevented by the guide means applied for that purpose. The invention is not restricted to the above examples, it can - of course - be produced in many ways within the scope claimed in the attached claims. It is possible to apply any kind of trays, pallets or frames as intermediate elements, the number and construction of load bearing elements, actuating elements and guide means can be changed in accordance with the requirements. The large objects can be cars or other vehicles and the field can be used in arranging stations, park-houses, harbours or airports.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS

1. Modules for providing roller fields for horizontally moving and/or arranging large objects, particularly containers, characterized in that

• said modules (1) are rectangular and have the same size;

• there are rotatable load bearing elements along the perimeter of the modules (1);

• there are at least two driven actuating elements for moving said objects said elements being arranged within and/or along the perimeter of said modules;

• there are means for guiding the objects to be moved parallel to the sides of the modules (1), said means being arranged on a unit carrying said load bearing elements and/or said elements for moving the objects and

• the modules (1) are provided with means (8) for lifting or lowering the unit for carrying said load bearing elements and/or said elements for moving the objects and/or said guiding means.

2. The modules as claimed in claim 1 , characterized in that they are oblong.

3. The modules as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that they contain a dividing beam (10) which is co-directional with the shorter sides of said oblong.

4. The modules as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the load bearing elements are cylindrical rollers (3) arranged on shafts or pins perpendicular to the sides of the oblong and/or balls (11) arranged in seats and being rotatable in all directions.

5. The modules as claimed in any of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the actuating elements for moving said objects are gears (5) and/or drive wheels (5a).

6. The modules as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the actuating elements for moving said objects are at the same time load bearing rollers (3), too.

7. The modules as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the guide means are U - profiles (4) and/or rails (12).

8. The modules as claimed in claim 7, characterized in that the guide means are provided as rims (17) on said drive wheels (5a).

9. The modules as claimed in any of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the lifting means (8) are hydraulic, pneumatic, electric or mechanic means.

10. The modules as claimed in any of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that they are provided with intermediate elements (6) for holding the objects to be moved.

11. The modules as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that the intermediate elements are frames.

12. The modules as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that the intermediate elements are trays.

13. The modules as claimed in any of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that the intermediate elements have flat lower surface and/or gear rack (7) for transmitting the drive force.