CN117105131A

CN117105131A - telescopic fork

Info

Publication number: CN117105131A
Application number: CN202310592394.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 卢卡·普里奥洛; 乔治·坎特洛; 西蒙内·毛里诺
Original assignee: Yorfok Co ltd
Current assignee: Yorfok Co ltd
Priority date: 2022-05-24
Filing date: 2023-05-23
Publication date: 2023-11-24
Also published as: IT202200010787A1; DE102023113382A1

Abstract

A telescopic fork (9) extendable between an extended operative condition and a retracted operative condition, the telescopic fork comprising: a base (10) extending in a longitudinal direction and having an upper raceway (38) and a lower raceway (39); an intermediate slider (20) which is telescopically extendable in a longitudinal direction with respect to the base (10) and has a plurality of rollers (50) supported by the intermediate slider (20) and rotatably mounted about a horizontal axis (50 a); and a distal slider (30) which is telescopically extendable in the longitudinal direction with respect to the intermediate slider (20) and has an upper raceway (43) and a lower raceway (44). During at least a portion of the stroke of the fork (9) in which the fork approaches the retracted operating state, the rollers (50) of the intermediate slide (20) are in simultaneous rolling contact and engagement with the raceways (38, 39) of the base (10) and the raceways (43, 44) of the distal slide (30).

Description

Telescopic fork

Technical Field

The invention relates to a telescopic fork. Telescoping forks are used in the fields of automated handling and industrial automation and have a wide range of applications, for example in automated warehouses, often associated with stacker cranes and carts for handling goods, particularly on containers and pallets. The cargo may be stored on shelves at first, double and triple depths.

Background

As is known, a telescopic fork is a machine consisting of a base, which can be mounted on a trolley or stacker crane, and one or more superimposed extension elements which move in a bi-directional telescopic manner to move the load. The number of movable telescopic elements (one, two, three or four) is chosen according to the total travel to be achieved and the amount of cargo to be supported.

A telescopic pallet fork of a known type is described in EP 2261168 B1. The fork includes a fixed base and a plurality of telescopically extendable movable slides. Each slide slides on a roller and is driven by a chain or alternatively a hybrid chain/gear. The forks are capable of achieving a fully retracted operative condition in which the slides are stacked and vertically aligned above the base and a fully extended operative condition in which the slides are longitudinally extended and vertically offset from each other and from the base.

Patent documents DE 2409504 A1, US 3883022A, FR 2681055 A1 and US 5207555A each describe an extendable and retractable telescopic fork comprising a base attached to a carriage, an intermediate slider and a distal slider movable relative to the base.

In the telescopic fork of DE 2409504 A1, the base has on the outside a raceway arranged to engage with a corresponding roller arranged on the intermediate slider. The intermediate slide has a raceway on the outside arranged to engage with a corresponding roller arranged on the distal slide.

In patent document US 3883022A, the base has rollers arranged to engage corresponding raceways obtained on the intermediate slider. Furthermore, the intermediate slide in turn has rollers arranged to engage the respective raceways of the distal slide.

In patent documents FR 2681055 A1 and US 5207555A, the base and distal slider have rollers which can engage corresponding raceways arranged on the intermediate slider, so as to control the stretching movement and the lateral translation of the movable slider when it moves with respect to the fixed base.

For a better understanding of the prior art, a fork 9 of a known type will now be described with reference to fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings. The telescopic fork 9 comprises a base 10 mountable on the self-propelled trolley, a first intermediate slide 20 telescopically movable in the longitudinal direction with respect to the base 10, and a second distal or top slide 30 telescopically movable with respect to the first intermediate slide 20.

The intermediate slide 20 has a first lower channel 11 and a second upper channel 12 extending longitudinally along the intermediate slide 20. Each channel 11, 12 is U-shaped and has a respective raceway 13, 14 at the bottom of the channel.

To ensure the extension and retraction movements of the movable slides 20, 30, the first set of rollers 15 rolling along the raceways 13 of the intermediate slide 20 are rotatably supported by a horizontal pin 16 supported by the base 10. The second set of rollers 17 rolling along the raceways 14 of the intermediate slide 20 is rotatably supported by a horizontal pin 18 supported by the distal slide 30.

Telescoping forks of the type described above have drawbacks related to structural and assembly complexity due to the number of rollers used to ensure telescoping extension and retraction movements of the slider. In particular, the pins about which the rollers rotate are each supported by the base 10 and the distal slider 30 by means of a C-shaped bracket integrally attached thereto.

Disclosure of Invention

The object of the present invention is to ensure a more efficient distribution of the cargo between the distal slider of the telescopic fork and its base, in order to reduce and optimize the number of parts of the telescopic fork.

These and other objects and advantages, which will be better understood hereinafter, are achieved in accordance with the present invention by a telescopic fork having the features defined in the appended claims.

In general, the fork includes: a base extending longitudinally and having an upper raceway and a lower raceway; at least one intermediate slider telescopically extending in a longitudinal direction with respect to the base and provided with a plurality of rollers supported by the intermediate slider and rotatably mounted about respective horizontal axes; and a distal slider that is telescopically extendable in a longitudinal direction with respect to the intermediate slider and that provides an upper raceway and a lower raceway. The rollers of the intermediate slide are in simultaneous rolling contact and engagement with the race provided by the base and the race provided by the distal slide during at least a portion of the travel of the fork during which the fork approaches the retracted operating condition.

Drawings

A number of preferred non-limiting embodiments of a telescopic pallet fork according to the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a prior art telescoping fork in a fully retracted operating state;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a pair of telescoping forks in a fully extended operating state in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of a portion of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal view of the telescoping fork of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a telescoping fork in a fully retracted operating condition in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged schematic cross-sectional view of a portion of the telescoping fork of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of an intermediate slide according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 is a longitudinal view of the intermediate slide of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a telescoping fork in a partially extended operating condition in accordance with the present invention; and

fig. 10 is a perspective view of a pair of telescoping forks in a fully extended operative condition in a direction opposite to that of fig. 2.

Detailed Description

Referring now to fig. 2 and 3, there is shown a pair of telescoping forks (or single forks) 9, each of which is capable of being extended and retracted in a longitudinal direction as defined herein. The two forks 9 are parallel to each other and spaced apart in the transverse and horizontal directions.

Each telescopic fork 9 comprises a base 10 mountable on a self-propelled trolley, in particular a stacker crane or a shuttle, a first intermediate slide 20 telescopically movable in a longitudinal direction with respect to the base 10, and a second distal (or top or end) slide 30 telescopically movable with respect to the first intermediate slide 20 (fig. 2-4). In this context, terms and expressions indicating relative directions and positions, such as "longitudinal" and "transverse" should be understood to refer to the "longitudinal" direction in which each fork extends.

In the exemplary embodiment shown in fig. 2-4, the fork has two movable slides. Embodiments of the present invention are not limited in the number of sliders. The invention is applicable to forks comprising two, three or more movable slides.

The general telescopic solution of the forks depicted in the drawings is considered well known. Accordingly, in the following description, only elements that are particularly relevant and interesting for embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. For the realization of parts and elements not shown in detail, reference may therefore be made to telescopic forks of any known type, for example as described and shown in EP 2261168 B1 or EP 2 463 226 B1, which are incorporated herein by reference.

In the example of fig. 2-4, the telescoping forks 9 are shown in a "vertical" arrangement, i.e., oriented such that the distal slides 30 of the pair of forks each have their own flat surfaces 31 facing vertically toward the opposite fork. This configuration should not be considered limiting.

Each telescoping fork may include a pusher member, typically two pusher members 21, 22 mounted on the distal slider 30 at longitudinally spaced apart locations. The pushing means is intended to act in a pushing relationship to carry goods to be inserted into or removed from a storage location on a shelf in an automated warehouse.

In the example shown in fig. 5, the base 10 has a parallelepiped box 32 elongated in the longitudinal direction, and a pair of vertically spaced apart horizontal flanks 33, 34, respectively at the upper and lower portions. The upper wing 33 has an upper channel 36 and the lower wing 34 has a lower channel 37. The upper channel 36 and the lower channel 37 extending in the longitudinal direction have an upper raceway 38 and a lower raceway 39, respectively, which raceways are straight, horizontal and face upwards and downwards, respectively.

According to the embodiment shown in fig. 5, the distal slider 30 has a horizontal top surface 40 and two channels 41, 42 extending in the longitudinal direction, which are provided at an upper and a lower portion of the distal slider 30, respectively. The upper channel 41 has an upper raceway 43 and the lower channel 42 has a lower raceway 44, which faces downward and upward, respectively. The raceways 43, 44 are horizontal and straight along the longitudinal direction of the distal slider 30.

In each telescopic fork 9, the intermediate slider 20 has a plurality of rollers 50 rotatably mounted about respective horizontal axes 50a supported by the intermediate slider 20 (fig. 5 and 6).

The telescoping fork is capable of achieving an operational condition approaching a retracted fork condition in which the rollers 50 are in simultaneous rolling contact and engagement with the raceways 43, 44 provided by the distal slider 30 and the raceways 38, 39 provided by the base 10.

This simultaneous rolling contact and engagement of the rollers 50 with the raceways 43, 44 provided by the distal slider 30 and the raceways 38, 39 provided by the base 10 is also maintained in the fully retracted fork operating condition.

Advantageously, under the above operating conditions, the vertical load acting on the distal slider 30 is transmitted directly from this distal slider to the base 10 without burdening the intermediate slider 20.

As shown in fig. 2, 7 and 8, the intermediate slider 20 of the telescopic fork has two sets of rollers, a first set of rollers 51 disposed toward the first end 20a of the intermediate slider 20 and a second set of rollers 52 disposed toward the second end 20b of the intermediate slider 20, respectively, to ensure telescopic extension movement of the fork.

In the example shown in fig. 2 and 4, a first set of rollers 51 is arranged on the intermediate slider 20 so as to engage at least the raceways 38, 39 of the base 10, and a second set of rollers 52 is arranged on the intermediate slider 20 so as to engage at least the raceways 43, 44 of the distal slider 30 during normal use of the fork 9.

Each roller set 51, 52 includes two or more rollers disposed at an upper portion of the intermediate slide 20 and two or more rollers disposed at a lower portion of the intermediate slide 20.

Preferably, each set of rollers comprises two rollers arranged in an upper portion of the intermediate slide 20 and two rollers arranged in a lower portion of the intermediate slide 20 (fig. 7 and 8).

This arrangement of the rollers on the intermediate slide is particularly advantageous for load transfer from the distal slide 30 to the base 10, in case the fork may have a bi-directional extension, i.e. the fork is capable of extending the telescopic slides 20, 30 in both directions in relation to the base 10 in the longitudinal direction.

The upper and lower rollers of each roller set may be vertically aligned two by two (fig. 7 and 8), i.e., each roller in the upper portion of the intermediate slide 20 may have a corresponding roller in the lower portion.

The rollers of the first set 51 and the second set 52 may be made of a metallic material, such as steel, and/or of a plastic material, such as polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon). The base 10, the intermediate slider 20, and the distal slider 30 may be made of a metallic material.

The fork is capable of achieving a fully retracted operational state (fig. 5) in which the slides 20, 30 are superimposed and vertically aligned on the base 10, and a fully extended operational state (fig. 2 and 4) in which the slides 20, 30 are longitudinally extended and vertically offset from each other and from the base 10.

When the fork is in the fully retracted operating state, the first and second sets of rollers 51, 52 of the intermediate slide 20 are in contact with both the raceways 38, 39 of the base 10 and the raceways 43, 44 of the distal slide 30.

During extension of the fork in the extension direction shown in fig. 2 and 9, i.e. from the fully retracted operating state to the fully extended operating state, a gradual disengagement of the rollers of the first set of rollers 51 from the raceways 43, 44 of the distal slider 30 and a gradual disengagement of the rollers of the second set of rollers 52 from the raceways 38, 39 of the base 10 occurs.

Preferably, during at least a portion of the fork's travel, at least one roller 50 is capable of simultaneously rolling contact and engagement with the upper race 43 provided by the distal slider 30 and the upper race 38 provided by the base 10.

Additionally or alternatively, during at least a portion of the travel of the fork, at least one roller 50 can simultaneously rollingly contact and engage the lower race 44 provided by the distal slider 30 and the lower race 39 provided by the base 10.

During progressive extension of the slider in the extension direction shown in fig. 2 and 9, the rollers of the first set of rollers 51 remain in rolling contact and engagement with at least the raceways 38, 39 of the base 10, and the rollers of the second set of rollers 52 remain in rolling contact and engagement with at least the raceways 43, 44 of the distal slider 30.

When the fork is in the fully extended operating state (fig. 2 and 4), the rollers in the first set of rollers 51 remain in contact with only the raceways 38, 39 of the base 10, and the rollers in the second set of rollers 52 remain in contact with only the raceways 43, 44 of the distal slider 30. That is, the rollers in the first set of rollers 51 lose contact with the raceways 43, 44 of the distal slider 30, and the rollers in the second set of rollers 52 no longer make contact with the raceways 38, 39 provided by the base 10.

In the fully retracted operating state and in the fully extended operating state in the extended direction shown in fig. 2, the rollers of the first set of rollers 51 are in rolling engagement with the raceways 38, 39 of the base 10 and the rollers of the second set of rollers 52 are in rolling engagement with the raceways 43, 44 of the distal slider 30.

In the embodiment shown in the drawings, each slide is moved by a chain drive or alternatively a hybrid chain/gear/belt drive. The intermediate slide 20 is moved in a known manner by a drive comprising a chain 60 driven by a sprocket 61 rotated by a motor 62 (fig. 5). Distal slide 30 may be moved by a belt drive 63 (fig. 4).

Preferably, the telescopic fork 9 may have a bi-directional extension capability, i.e. a capability of alternating extension in two opposite longitudinal directions with respect to the base 10. Such a telescopic fork may have two sets of rollers 51, 52 on the intermediate slide 20, at least two rollers at the top of each set and two rollers at the bottom.

According to these embodiments, the extension of the telescopic fork in the extension direction opposite to that shown in fig. 2 and 4 involves the gradual disengagement of the rollers of the first set of rollers 51 from the raceways 38, 39 of the base 10 and the gradual disengagement of the rollers of the second set of rollers 52 from the raceways 43, 44 of the distal slider 30 (fig. 10).

Alternatively, the telescopic pallet fork 9 may have a unidirectional extension capability, i.e. the capability to extend in only one direction along the longitudinal direction.

Other embodiments, not shown, may provide for the forks 9 to be oriented horizontally with the base 10 positioned below, the distal slider 30 implemented as a horizontal upper platform, and with its top planar surface 31 facing upwardly to serve as a support surface for the goods to be handled. In this case, the telescoping forks may operate as a single fork without being associated with a second fork parallel thereto. In such an embodiment, the pushing means may be arranged at the distal end of the distal and top slider 30.

It will be appreciated that the present invention ensures that the roller 50 is capable of retaining in rolling contact and engagement with both the raceways 38, 39 of the base 10 and the raceways 43, 44 of the distal slider 30 during at least a portion of the travel of the forks, wherein the forks are approaching a fully retracted operating state.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described and illustrated herein, which are to be considered as examples; rather, the invention is susceptible to modification in shape, size, arrangement of parts, construction details and operation.

Claims

1. A telescopic pallet fork (9) extendable between an extended operative condition and a retracted operative condition for automated handling of goods, the telescopic pallet fork comprising:

a longitudinally extending base (10) mountable on a stacker crane or trolley and having an upper raceway (38) and a lower raceway (39);

at least one intermediate slider (20) which is telescopically extendable in a longitudinal direction with respect to the base (10) and is provided with a plurality of rollers (50) supported by the intermediate slider (20) and rotatably mounted about respective horizontal axes (50 a);

a distal slider (30) which is telescopically extendable in a longitudinal direction with respect to the intermediate slider (20), and which provides an upper raceway (43) and a lower raceway (44);

wherein the rollers (50) of the intermediate slide (20) are in simultaneous rolling contact and engagement with the raceways (38, 39) of the base (10) and the raceways (43, 44) of the distal slide (30) during at least a portion of the stroke of the fork (9), the fork approaching a retracted operating state.

2. Telescopic fork (9) according to claim 1, wherein the base (10) has a pair of vertically spaced upper (33) and lower (34) horizontal flanks; wherein the upper wing (33) has an upper channel (36) in which the upper raceway (38) is arranged facing upwards, and wherein the lower wing (34) has a lower channel (37) in which the lower raceway (39) is arranged facing downwards.

3. Telescopic fork (9) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the distal slider (30) has: an upper channel (41) in which the upper raceway (43) is arranged facing downwards; and a lower channel (42) in which the lower raceway (44) is arranged facing upwards.

4. A telescopic fork (9) according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the rollers (50) of the intermediate slider (20) comprise:

-a first set of rollers (51) arranged towards a first end (20 a) of the intermediate slider (20) and adapted to engage in rolling manner at least with raceways (38, 39) of the base (10); and

a second set of rollers (52) arranged towards the second end (20 b) of the intermediate slider (20) and adapted to engage in rolling manner at least with the raceways (43, 44) of the distal slider (30).

5. The telescopic pallet fork (9) according to claim 4, wherein each set of rollers (51, 52) has two or more rollers arranged at an upper portion of the intermediate slider (20) and two or more rollers arranged at a lower portion of the intermediate slider (20).

6. Telescopic fork (9) according to claim 5, wherein the rollers (50) arranged at the upper and lower parts of the intermediate slider (20) are vertically aligned in pairs.

7. Telescopic fork (9) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein at least one of the rollers (50) is adapted to simultaneously contact and engage in a rolling manner during at least a portion of the stroke of the fork (9)

An upper raceway (43) of the distal slider (30) and an upper raceway (38) of the base (10), or

A lower raceway (44) of the distal slider (30) and a lower raceway (39) of the base (10).

8. Telescopic fork (9) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the telescopic fork is arranged to extend the slider (20, 30) selectively and alternatively in either longitudinal direction with respect to the base (10) and is able to reach a fully extended operating position in which the rollers of the first set of rollers (51) are in contact with the raceways (38, 39) of the base (10) and the rollers of the second set of rollers (52) are in contact with the raceways (43, 44) of the distal slider (30).

9. A system comprising two telescopic forks (9) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the two telescopic forks (9) are arranged in parallel and laterally spaced apart, and wherein the distal slider (30) of each fork (9) has a flat surface (31) arranged vertically and facing the flat surface (31) of the distal slider (30) of the opposite fork.

10. Telescopic pallet fork (9) according to any of claims 1-8, which is oriented horizontally such that a distal slider (30) of the pallet fork (9) has an upwardly facing flat surface (31) for supporting goods.