AU2003204524A1 - Improved roller - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT (Original) APPLICATION NO:

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RELATED ART: NAME OF APPLICANT: ACTUAL INVENTORS: ADDRESS FOR SERVICE: INVENTION TITLE: ANDERSON COMPANY LIMITED ROONEY ENGINEERING THOMAS JAMES ROONEY WILLIAM JOHN ANDERSON LORD COMPANY, Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, of 4 Douro Place, West Perth, Western Australia, 6005, AUSTRALIA.

IMPROVED ROLLER DETAILS OF BASIC CONVENTION APPLICATION: NEW ZEALAND PATENT APPLICATION NO. 517016 FILED ON JUNE 4,2002 The following Statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me/us: TITLE: Improved Roller The present invention relates to a roller for supporting a rotating load. The invention has been designed with particular reference to rollers for supporting rotating milking platforms for the dairy sheds, and will be described with especial reference to this application. However, it will be appreciated that the roller of the present invention could be used for supporting many other types of rotating load.

In a rotary dairy shed, the cows to be milked stand on a platform, generally made of concrete, which is circular in plan and the edge of which is supported by a reinforcing member, generally a steel beam, which also is circular in plan. The platform and the reinforcing member rotate about the centre of the platform.

In a majority of modern dairy sheds, the platform is supported upon a series of spaced rollers which lie beneath the reinforcing member. Each roller is mounted upon a stand, the base of which is secured to the floor of the dairy shed. In some older sheds, the platform is supported upon a series of spaced rollers which are actually secured to the reinforcing member and which contact a groove or track formed on the base of the shed floor. Typically, a 12 m diameter platform is supported on about 25 rollers.

The rollers used in both modern and older sheds need to provide a relatively large contact area to support the platform stably, and as result tend to wear unevenly:- the outer edge of the reinforcing member is of greater diameter than the inner edge and hence moves slightly faster. Thus, when the platform is moving relative to the rollers, (or, in the case of the older sheds, when the rollers move on the floor) part of the contact surface of the reinforcing member/floor skids on the surface of the roller, resulting in excessive wear on part of the roller surface.

An object of the invention is to provide a roller capable of accommodating an uneven rotating load with reduced wear on the roller surface, and thus requiring less lubrication.

The present invention provides a roller including a single axle carrying two or more identical roller units.

Preferably, the axle carries at least three identical roller units, and each roller unit is separated from the or each adjacent unit by a spacer.

Preferably, each roller unit has a spacer formed integrally with each side.

The present invention further provides a roller stand for use in combination with a pair of the above described rollers, said roller stand including an upright having a ground engaging portion at one end and at the other end a roller support means which is pivoted to the roller stand so as to be capable of limited pivotal movement about a substantially horizontal axis; said roller support means being adapted to support a pair of aligned, spaced rollers.

Preferably, the roller stand also includes axle adjustment means for adjusting the angle of the roller axis in a horizontal plane.

By way of example only, a preferred embodiment of the present invention is described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Fig. 1 shows in isometric view of a roller of the present invention supported upon an axle stand of known type; Fig. 2 shows a side view of a roller of the present invention, on a larger scale than Fig.

1; Fig. 3 shows an end view of the roller of Fig. 2 in the direction of Arrow III; Fig. 4 shows the roller of Fig. 1 in use; and Fig. 5 shows the axle stand of the present invention in combination with two rollers in accordance with the present invention.

Referring to the Fig.s 1-3, a roller 2 in accordance with the present invention comprises three separate identical roller units 3,4,5 mounted upon a single axle 6. Each roller unit 3,4,5 comprises a curved contact surface 3a, 4a,5a, which is circular in plan and a pair of spacers 7,8, one formed on each side surface of each roller unit. Each spacer is circular in plan and is formed as a shallow boss, integrally with the side surface of the roller unit.

For quiet operation, and to minimize the lubrication required, rollers formed of a suitable hard-wearing, low-friction plastics materials nylon) are preferred. If plastic materials are used, then the spacers may be formed integrally with the roller units as described above, and the roller units are mounted directly on the axle 6 without a bearing, or mounted on the axle on a bearing. However, it would also be possible to make the roller units of metal, steel) in which case they would be mounted on the axle on a bearing a ball bearing) and the spacers would be formed as separate washers of a low friction material a plastic material).

The above described roller 2 may be mounted on a known design of stand 9 which includes a ground engaging surface 10, an upright 11 and parallel support plates 12 for receiving and supporting the axle 6 in known manner. The roller 2 and stand 9 are used in the same manner as conventional rollers, i.e. arranged to engage the lower surface 13 of a platform reinforcing member 14 as shown in Fig. 4. As is clear from Fig. 4, the roller 2 has a width sufficient to support substantially the whole of the lower surface 13 of the reinforcing member 14, but since the roller 2 is made of three separate roller units 3a,4a,5a, these units can rotate at slightly different speeds to accommodate the difference in speeds between the outer rim of the reinforcing member and the inner rim.

This avoids any skidding or dragging of the reinforcing member on the roller, and thus avoids excessive wear of the roller.

The above described roller 2 may be used for both locating and idler rollers. Locating rollers are side rollers which are used to keep the rotating platform concentric.

However, for reasons of clarity, the additional side roller used as part of a locating roller has been omitted. The rollers also may be used to support the older designs of platform, i.e. connected to the platform. The rollers may be retrofitted to existing platforms and roller stands.

Fig. 5 shows a roller stand which is designed to accommodate a track which is not level, i.e. not uniformly horizontal. In the design shown in Fig. 5, two aligned rollers 2 are mounted on a common stand 16 which incorporates a pivoted roller support means 17 in the form of a pair of plates 18. The plates 18 are spaced apart by the width of the rollers 2 and are secured to the upright 19 of the stand 16 by a horizontal pivoted axle which passes through the upright 19 adjacent its upper end.

The stand 16 includes a ground engaging portion 21 at the lower end of the upright 19.

The plates 18 support the rollers 2 one on either side of the axle 20; each axle 6 of each roller 2 passes through the plates 18. Since the plates 18 are pivoted to the upright 19, the plates 18 and the attached rollers 2 has a small degree of movement relative to the stand 16 in the directions of Arrow A and B; this degree of movement preferably is of the order of a few degrees and is sufficient to accommodate an uneven track.

The stand shown in Fig. 5 may also incorporate an axle adjustment device 22 which, for reasons of clarity, is illustrated on the right-hand side roller 2 only. The adjustment device 22 comprises a bolt 23 which is screw threadedly engaged with a flange 24 formed at the end of one of the plates 18; the bolt 23 projects through the flange 24 to engage the end of the corresponding axle 6. The bolt 23 can be screwed into contact with the axle 6 to alter the angle of the axle such that the axle is aligned with a radius of the platform. The bolt 23 is secured in the correct position with a nut Preferably, each of the rollers 2 on the stand is provided with an axle adjustment device 22:- if the axles 6 are aligned with radii of the platform, this further reduces the wear on the rollers.

Claims (10)

1. A roller including a single axle carrying two or more identical roller units.

2. The roller as claimed in claim 1, wherein the roller includes three roller units.

3. The roller as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein each roller unit is separated from the or each adjacent roller unit by a spacer.

4. The roller as claimed in claim 3, wherein each roller unit has a spacer associated with each side of the roller unit. The roller as claimed in claim 4, wherein each spacer is formed integrally with the adjacent side of the roller unit.

6. The roller as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein each roller unit is made of plastics material.

7. The roller as claimed in claim 6, wherein each roller unit is mounted directly on the axle.

8. The roller as claimed in any one of claims 1 4, wherein each roller unit is made of steel and is mounted on the axle on a bearing.

9. The combination of a roller as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, and a roller stand which includes a ground engaging portion supporting a substantially vertical upright, the upper end of which is adapted to support the axle of the roller, with said axle substantially horizontal. 7 The combination of a roller stand which includes an upright having a ground- engaging portion at one end and at the other end, a roller support means which is pivoted to the roller stand so as to be capable of limited pivotal movement about a substantially horizontal axis; said roller support means carrying a pair of aligned spaced, rollers, each roller being as claimed in any one of claims 1 8, and the axle of each roller being substantially horizontal.

11. The combination as claimed in claim 10, further including an axle adjustment device fitted to at least one of the roller axles; said adjustment device including a bolt which can be screwed into contact with said roller axle so as to alter the angle of said axle in the horizontal plane.

12. An improved roller substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings. Dated this 4th day of June 2003 ANDERSON ROONEY ENGINERING COMPANY LIMITED By their Patent Attorneys LORD COMPANY PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA