AU2016100141A4

AU2016100141A4 - A mobile crane for lifting and transporting beehives

Info

Publication number: AU2016100141A4
Application number: AU2016100141A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Ian Edmonds
Original assignee: Edmonds Ian Dr
Current assignee: Edmonds Ian Dr
Priority date: 2016-02-10
Filing date: 2016-02-10
Publication date: 2016-03-10
Anticipated expiration: 2024-02-10

Abstract

A mobile crane for lifting and transporting beehives. The crane comprises a four wheeled garden trolley (2) on which is mounted a base plate (3) and support (4) for a vertical column (5) tat acts as the crane tower. A rotating stirrup (6) on the top of column (5) allows a beam (7) to traverse about the vertical axis of the column. Chain (13) from trolley (2) to hook (14) allows for levelling of the beam (7). Roller (8), which carries manual winch (9), can roll along beam (7). Manual winch (9) is connected by winch rope to shackle (10) which connects to grabber (11) which hooks and locks onto a beehive super (12). The mobile crane of this innovation provides for strain free lifting of beehive supers off beehives and onto trolley (2) for maintenance or transport. -' 1 Figure 1

Description

1 A MOBILE CRANE FOR LIFTING AND TRANSPORTING BEEHIVES BACKGOUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] Beekeeping is a major agricultural industry in Australia providing edible and medicinal honey and nurturing bees, a major source of plant pollination. The scale of beekeeping ranges from single hives in backyard gardens to large scale operators having hundreds of beehives. A beehive consists of a brood chamber with up to three honey supers above. Each brood chamber and each honey super can weigh up to 35 kilograms. Maintenance of beehives involves lifting the supers off the hive for examination and maintenance of each super and the lower brood chamber. For small scale beekeepers with up to about ten hives this usually involves manual lifting as conventional truck or trailer mounted cranes are prohibitively expensive for a small scale beekeeper. Single wheel or two wheel trolleys with a lifting attachment are available at lower expense. However, these require considerable strength for manoeuvring when loaded with a 35 kilogram super. Thus, usually, small scale beekeepers rely on manual lifting for beehive maintenance. A small scale operator servicing five beehives may make up to thirty 35 kilogram lifts, a total of more than one tonne, in a maintenance session. This type of lifting may lead to hand, arm and back injury - "beekeepers back". There is thus a need for an inexpensive beehive lifter that allows a small scale operator to maintain hives with no lifting. DESCRIPTION [0002] The mobile beehive lifter of this invention adapts the four wheeled type of garden trolley, mass produced for the home garden market and available at moderate expense from garden and hardware centres, as a mobile crane. [0003] Figure 1 illustrates the method of adapting a garden trolley as a mobile crane. A plywood base plate (3) is fixed to the tray of the garden trolley (2). A plywood support bracket (4), consisting of a back plate and two triangular side plates, is fixed to the base plate (3). A square section wooden column (5) slides into metal brackets 2 (23) fixed to support bracket (4). A metal stirrup (6) can rotate on its shaft which is set into a hole drilled into the top of the column (5). A rectangular section metal or wooden beam (7) can rotate in the vertical plane about a bolt set across the stirrup (6). The beam (7) is adjusted to horizontal by a chain (13) linked between the tray of garden trolley (2) and a hook (14) at one end of the beam (7). Thus the beam can rotate about the axis of the support column (5) in the horizontal plane and swing up or down in the vertical plane. [0004] For lifting supers to and from the hive the beam (7) has a roller (8) that supports a winch (9). The roller (8) is suspended from cylindrical rollers inside the roller that bear onto the top of beam (7), see Figure 2 for detail. This allows the roller (7) and attached winch (9) to be pushed forward or pulled backward on beam (7) with relative ease. The winch rope is attached via shackle (10) to a grabber (11) which locks into the standard grooves cut into the sides of the honey super (12). Detail of the grabber is given in Figure 3. [0005] Operation of the mobile crane involves steering the front part of the crane under the stand on which the beehive sits. The roller and winch is pushed out over the beehive and the winch is shackled to the grabber which has previously been locked to the honey super. The super is then winched up and the winch locked. The roller with super attached is then pulled back towards the support column. The winch is then unlocked and the super lowered onto the base plate (3) of the trolley and the grabber (11) unlocked. Further supers are removed from the hive to the trolley by repeating this operation. [0006] An alternative mode of operation is provided, as illustrated in Figure 4, by clamping a wooden strut (22) to the vertical support column (5) by a clamp (23). This prevents the crane from overbalancing to the side and allows for side loading of supers from a beehive on the side of the crane on which the strut (22) is clamped. [0007] Figure 2 shows detail of the roller (7) and winch (9). The roller (7) comprises two vertical plates fixed to an upper and a lower divider of width slightly wider than the width of the beam (7). Two cylindrical rollers move on axle shafts set in the plates and bear on the top surface of the beam (7). The winch (9), in the case shown a 3 manual winch, is fixed to the lower divider. A locking screw (16) screws into the lower divider and bears onto the lower surface of beam (7) to enable locking of the roller (8) onto the beam (7). Locking screw (16) also provides a handle for moving the roller (8) along beam (7) when locking screw is unlocked. [0008] Figure 3 shows detail of the grabber (11). The grabber comprises a support shaft (17) which is suspended by chains (18) to shackle (10). At each end of the support shaft (17) are metal hooks (19) that can rotate on axles fixed to the top of support shaft (17). One hook is fixed in orientation while the other can be rotated to close into the groove cut in the side of the honey super (12). This hook (19) can be locked into the super (12) by adjustment of screw (20) via nut (21). This securely locks the grabber onto the honey super. [0009] The manual winch (9) used in this mobile crane is of the geared type used to manually load a boat or a dingy onto a boat trailer. It has a load capacity of about 500 kg. As the load in the present application of the winch as part of a beehive lifter is typically 35 kg it follows that operation of the winch requires only modest hand force. Provided the beam (7) of the crane is levelled to near horizontal by the adjusting chain (13) the force required to move to load along beam (7) in the horizontal plane is also modest. Thus lifting and loading honey supers can be obtained with relatively modest force as compared with the force required for direct lifting of supers. The load capacity of the garden trolleys used in this invention is typically 135 kg. Thus the mobile crane can transport up to three full honey supers when used as a transporter.

Claims

1. A mobile crane for lifting beehives comprising a four wheeled trolley to which a base plate is fixed, said base plate having fixed to it a back vertical back plate and two triangular side plates that form a rigid support bracket for a vertical column that forms the tower of the crane, said vertical column having a metal stirrup set into its top that allows a rectangular beam suspended in the stirrup by a bolt through the stirrup to rotate around the vertical axis of the column, said rectangular beam supporting a roller that can roll back and forth along the beam, said roller having a winch fixed underneath that links via the winch rope of the winch to a grabber that has hooks at either end which can be locked into the support grooves at either end of the conventional honey supers that form a beehive.

2. A mobile crane according to claim 1 wherein the four wheeled trolley is the type of mass produced garden trolley available commercially at garden centres and hardware stores.

3. A mobile crane according to claim 1 wherein the levelling of the crane beam is achieved by a chain linked from the four wheeled trolley to a hook at one end of the crane beam.

4. A mobile crane according to claim 1 wherein the grabber that hangs from the winch and can grab onto a honey super comprises a horizontal support plank linked by four chains to a shackle, said support plank having at either end hooks made from T section aluminium, said hooks being able to rotate about axles fixed on top of each end of the plank, one hook being fixed in position and the other hook being able to swing from an open position to a closed position when it hooks into the groove on a honey super, said hook able to be locked in position on the honey super by a horizontal bolt and nut fixed to the top of the support plank, said horizontal bolt able to be screwed against the face of the hook so as to lock the hook in position in the groove of the honey super. 2

5. A mobile crane according to claim 1 wherein the roller that supports a winch and rolls along the crane beam is fitted with a locking screw that allows the roller to be locked in position on the crane beam.