DK2824238T3

DK2824238T3 - Procedure for operating winter service

Info

Publication number: DK2824238T3
Application number: DK14177173.3T
Authority: DK
Inventors: Paul Rosenstihl
Original assignee: Küpper-Weisser GmbH
Priority date: 2009-12-29
Filing date: 2010-12-29
Publication date: 2017-07-17
Also published as: LT2354309T; HUE033605T2; LT2824238T; ES2630105T3; PT2354309T; EP2354309B1; ES2599066T3; HRP20161360T1; EP2824238A1; EP2354309A2; EP2824238B1; DE102010029142A1; HUE031672T2; PL2824238T3; HRP20170977T1; PL2354309T3; DK2354309T3; EP2354309A3

Description

The invention relates to a logistics method for the transport of liquid thawing materials for use in winter service.

Winter service spreading apparatus are known either as so-called attachment apparatus which are placed onto loading platforms of trucks or they form a permanent part of a winter service vehicle.

Until a short time ago, either dry salt or humidified salt was spread in winter service. When humidified salt is spread, the salt is humidified with a liquid upon spreading, meaning that salt and liquid are distributed together. The liquid is usually a salt solution, so-called "brine", which is admixed to the salt either on the spreading disk or on the way to the spreading disk.

For producing brine, frequently fresh water is pumped through underground rock salt deposits in order to solve the salt in the water. But there is also brine yielded from natural sources. The brine is subsequently either transported to the commercial customers in tank trucks or so-called refined salt or evaporated salt is obtained from the vaporization of the brine, from which the customers produce brine again subsequently. However, refined salt can be obtained for example also by vaporizing seawater and be used for producing the brine required for the purposes of winter service.

The brine is disposed in an additional tank on the spreading vehicle, which is mounted on the side of the spreading material container, for example, in which the spreading salt is kept. A standard spreading apparatus with a capacity for 5m3 spreading salt has such an additional tank with a tank volume of 2260 L for example.

Recently, frequently pure brine is "spread", i.e. sprayed onto the road, instead of spreading dry salt and humidified salt. In order to spread a standard spreading path of around 50 km with pure brine, a tank volume of around 8000 L is required. Accordingly, around 5700 L of brine tank need to be complemented. For this purpose, cascade tanks are used, meaning that for example four brine tanks of the conventional type are mutually coupled in cascading fashion.

However, due to the available top-attachment length of the trucks available for winter service, the desired volume cannot always be reached. The location of the center of mass of such a top attachment with three additional tanks for example has the result that in certain states either the front axle or the rear axle is overloaded. EP 0 597 311 A1 shows a winter service apparatus which comprises a frame that is placed on a vehicle and carries a number of liquid tanks with a fixed volume and a funnel-shaped spreading material container for spreading materials. In the spreading material container, a further liquid tank with variable volume can be accommodated in addition, wherein both spreading materials and brine from the spreading-material container and the liquid tanks are spreadable via a spreading disk.

It is the object of the present invention to make available a logistics method for the transport of liquid thawing materials for use in winter service.

This object is solved by a logistics method having the features of the independent claim 1. In claims dependent on these advantageous embodiments and developments of the invention are specified.

Similar to the previously described state of the art, a separate liquid tank is inserted in the spreading-material container. This liquid tank has a liquid connector with which the liquid tank can be coupled to a liquid discharge opening of the spreading material container. The term "coupling" has to be understood in a broad sense in this case, and includes the case that the liquid connector of the liquid tank is merely guided towards the outside through the liquid discharge opening or vice versa, for example a hose connection is connected through the liquid discharge opening of the spreading material container to the liquid connector of the liquid tank inserted in the spreading material container. In order to prevent that spreading salt penetrates through the liquid discharge opening of the spreading material container when the spreading material container is not employed as brine tank, the liquid discharge opening can be lockable from the inside or from the outside, for example by means of a simple flap or of a simple slider, which are preferably operable from outside of the spreading material container.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the brine received in the spreading material container is not guided immediately to the spraying device, but to an additional tank which is in turn coupled or couplable to the spraying device. Such additional tanks are usual components of a winter service spreading apparatus already today, as explained at the outset. Their usual function in the past was to admix brine to the spreading salt conveyed from the spreading material container for the purpose of spreading humidified salt. However, nowadays the additional tank or tanks is/are used alternatively for pure brine spreading.

The advantage of not guiding the brine transported in the spreading material container immediately to the spraying device, but of filling with it the additional tanks that are as a rule already present, consists in that already existing spreading apparatus can be subsequently fitted without any problem. In particular, these additional tanks already have an optimally adapted pump system for conveying brine. The principle of refilling the additional tank or tanks with the brine received in the spreading material container can be implemented both for the case that the brine is stocked in a separate liquid tank inserted in the spreading material container and for the case that the brine is stocked "loosely" in the - correspondingly sealed - spreading material container. It is possible in both cases to transfer the brine from the spreading material container or from the liquid tank received therein to the additional tank or tanks coupled with the spraying device, for example by means of a delivery pump, such as a immersion pump, and a corresponding delivery hose.

The system is preferably configured such that the above-mentioned pump is activated when a predetermined liquid level in an additional tank is undershot. Via a float in the additional tank and a control connected to the float and the pump this can be realized easily. Other control systems are conceivable likewise.

Instead of using a pump, it is also conceivable to pressurize the liquid volume and to open an overpressure valve merely at times when brine is to be transferred to the additional tank. For this purpose, the liquid tank received in the spreading material container can be of a sack-like configuration, for example, and can be weighted down from above by a corresponding weight.

Employing the previously mentioned liquid tanks inserted in the spreading material container for receiving the brine, in addition to the circumstance that no additional sealing has to be effected on the spreading apparatus, offers the particular further advantage that loading the spreading material vehicle can be accomplished very quickly by exchanging an empty liquid tank for a full liquid tank. For this purpose, the liquid tank is preferably correspondingly adapted for insertion in a spreading material container, in particular with regard to its dimensioning. Thus, the liquid tank should have a substantially triangular, trapezoidal or generally funnel-shaped vertical cross section, in order to be able to insert it in usual spreading material containers while making optimal use of the available space. Such a liquid tank can have several separate or preferably interconnected chambers. However, it is also possible to insert several of these liquid tanks in series in the spreading material container.

For optimal handling of the liquid tanks, these preferably have transport elements for lifting the liquid tank. Preferably, the transport elements are configured for transporting the liquid tanks by means of a forklift truck. The transport elements correspondingly have the fork tine spacing of conventional forks of forklift trucks.

In this context it is particularly advantageous to attach the transport elements to an upper side of the liquid tank, so that the liquid tanks can be lowered from above into the spreading material container in a simple manner. Instead of a forklift truck it is of course also possible to employ a crane. For this purpose it can be expedient to provide a centrally arranged transport element, for example an eyelet for a crane hook, on the upper side of the liquid tank.

Such liquid tanks can be stored easily, for example in bay warehouses, and can be taken from storage as required and exchanged for an empty liquid tank.

According to the invention, in this manner an optimized logistics method can be created for the transport of liquid thawing materials (brine) for use in winter service. For this purpose a number of liquid tanks is filled with liquid thawing materials at a thawing material supplier, for example directly at a saline, and delivered to a thawing material consumer, for example to an authority in charge of the winter service. The liquid tanks then remain with the consumer until the liquid thawing materials are used up, and are subsequently transported back to the thawing material supplier. The essence of this logistics method is that the liquid tanks made available by the thawing material supplier do not only remain with the consumer, but are in addition carried along on a winter service vehicle of the consumer in use in winter service.

It is particularly advantageous when the liquid tanks are substantially formed by a flexible sheath. The internal volume is reduced to almost zero when the liquid tanks are empty. Conversely, the volume of the liquid tanks is increased by filling the sheath with liquid thawing material. This has the advantage that the space requirement for storing the empty liquid tanks is minimized and also the return transport of the empty liquid tanks to the thawing material supplier costs less effort.

In the following, the invention is represented by way of example on the basis of a preferred embodiment. The figures are described as follows:

Figure 1: an isolated spreading apparatus in a perspective, if schematic, view with the spreading device pivoted away,

Figure 2: the spreading apparatus of Figure 1 with spreading device in the spreading position,

Figure 3: a spreading apparatus according to a first embodiment example of the invention,

Figure 4 a spreading apparatus according to a second embodiment example of the invention.

In Figure 1 an attachment spreading apparatus 1 is represented, forming a top attachment on a loading platform of a truck. Onto a welded carrier frame 2 there is mounted a spreading material container 3 having a funnel-shaped cross section, so that thawing materials received in the spreading material container will collect on the conically tapered bottom of the spreading material container 3. A screw conveyor at the bottom of the spreading material container transports solid thawing materials, in particular spreading salt, from the spreading material container 3 out to an outlet 4 through which the thawing materials in turn can drop, due to the force of gravity, into the chute 5 of a spreading device 6 and through the chute 5 onto a spreading disk 7 of the spreading device 6.

In the representation shown in Figure 1 the spreading device 6 is represented in a state tilted away from an "interface" 9 about a pivot axis 8, however. The interface 9 is configured as a flange to which the spreading device 6 can be coupled when the spreading apparatus 1 is to be used for spreading solid thawing materials while employing the spreading device 6, as represented in Figure 2. Two additional tanks 10 for a liquid, in particular for a salt solution, are provided in order to admix liquid in a suitably dosed amount in this case to the dry thawing materials falling through the chute 5. This is effected in a manner known per se via a suction conduit 15.2, employing a correspondingly controlled pump 16. The admixing location does not necessarily have to be in the chute itself, but -different to what is shown in Figure 2 - can also be effected only at the lower end of the chute 5 on the spreading disk 7, for example.

Further additional tanks 10 can be provided for example upstream of the spreading material container 3. In particular, the additional tanks 10 can be configured to be substantially smaller than represented in Figure 1 for the sake of increasing the content of the spreading material container 3. If several additional tanks 10 are provided for admixing liquid thawing materials, they are interconnected via conduits.

The spreading device 6 can be locked in any desired tilting position and is arranged such that it occupies as little space as possible behind the spreading apparatus 1 in the tilted-away state. When the spreading device 6 is tilted away, the spreading apparatus 1 can be used for "spreading" or spraying pure brine. For this purpose, the connecting port 14 of a suction conduit 15.1 is coupled to the flange or the "interface" 9 instead of the spreading device 6, and the spreading material container 13 is employed for receiving liquid thawing materials, in particular pure brine. By means of a suitably controlled pump 16 then the brine can be supplied from the spreading material container 3 through the suction conduit 15.1 to a spraying device 17 - represented purely schematically in Figure 1 - and distributed over road surfaces via the same.

Like the spreading device 6 can be tilted away from the interface 9 about a pivot axis 8, also the connecting port 14 of the suction conduit 15 can be tilted about a pivot axis 18. Instead of tilting away the entire spreading device 6 - or possibly only shifting it - it is also possible to tilt away or shift only a part of the spreading device 6, for example a section of the chute 5. Likewise, the connecting port 14 can be configured to be shiftable instead of tiltable.

The connecting port 14 provides a liquid-proof seal vis-å-vis the interface 9 and for this purpose has corresponding sealing elements, for example an o-ring seal, which withstands the hydrostatic pressure built up in the spreading material container 3 by the brine. The bearings of the (not represented) screw conveyor on the bottom of the spreading material container 3 likewise need to be protected against penetration by the aggressive salt solution by means of suitable seals, for example lip seals.

The function of pure brine spreading, as shown in Figure 1, and of pure dry salt or humidified salt spreading, as represented in Figure 2, can be achieved with one single pump 16 and suitable valves 11.1 and 11.2. By means of the valve 11.1 configured as a three-way cock (e.g. ball cock) the spreading material container 3 employed as a brine tank and the additional containers 10 can be connected to the pump 16 on the suction side for pure brine spreading. The valve 11.2 disposed downstream of the pump 16, likewise configured as a three-way cock (e.g. ball cock), is so adjusted in this case that it connects the pump 16 to the spraying device 17. The valves can be adjusted either manually or electromotively, in automatically controlled fashion, with the aid of a proximity switch on the connecting port 14.

The three-way cock 11.1 has a T-branching and the three-way cock 11.2 has an L-branching, so that through a suitable position of the valve, as represented in Figure 2, it is possible to switch from the pure brine spreading to the pure humidified salt spreading. For this purpose the three-way cock 11.1 with the T-branching merely continues connecting the two additional tanks 10 to the pump 16 on the suction side, and the three-way cock 11.2 with the L-branching connects the pump 16 to the spreading device 6. In case it is intended to spread dry salt, thus without admixing brine from the additional tanks 10, it is possible to either switch off the pump 16 or preferably the three-way cock 11.2 is additionally pivoted such that the conduit path from the pump 16 is interrupted to both the spraying device 17 and the spreading device 6.

On the other hand, it is also possible to bring the three-way cock 11.2. from the position represented in Figure 2 to a position in which it connects the pump 16 to the spraying device 17. Then it is possible to spread both dry salt by means of the spreading device 6 and pure brine by means of the spraying device 17. A spreading of humidified salt via the spreading device 6, i.e. with simultaneous supply of brine from the additional tanks 10, and the distribution of pure brine via the spraying device 17 is not possible with the arrangement represented in the Figures 1 and 2. However, it is also within the scope of the invention to ensure also this function by suitably modifying the system, for example by different or additional directional valves and/or additional conduits and/or branchings of conduits and/or by one or several further pumps.

For filling dry thawing materials into the spreading material container 3 a protective grid (not shown) is provided, which can be placed onto support elements 13 of the spreading material container 3. The filling of the spreading material container 3 is then effected through the protective grid, so that clumps of spreading materials are broken up upon passing through the protective grid.

Figure 3 shows a first embodiment example that can be implemented in combination with the logistics procedure of the invention, wherein a liquid tank 40 is inserted in the spreading material container 3 in order to receive the brine therein. The liquid tank 40 can be filled with brine via a filling port 42.

Handles 41 for transport are provided on the upper side of the liquid tanks at a distance that is coordinated with the fork tine spacing of the forks of forklift trucks. A further handle is provided centrally for transporting the liquid container 40 with a single crane hook, if required.

The liquid container 40 has a liquid connector (not visible here), which cooperates with the liquid discharge opening 30. For example, this could be an easily operable bayonet connection. However, ideally the liquid discharge opening 30 cooperates with the liquid connector of the liquid container 40 in such a fashion that the suction conduit 15.1 can be connected to the liquid connector of the liquid tank 40 through the liquid discharge opening 30. The liquid tank 40 can then be inserted in the spreading material container 3 from above and subsequently the suction conduit 15.1 can be connected to the liquid connector of the liquid tank 40 through the liquid discharge opening 30 of the spreading material container 3, for example by means of a quick connector.

Figure 4 shows a second embodiment example, which differs from the first embodiment example substantially in that the brine received in the spreading material container is not supplied immediately to the spraying device 17, but to an additional tank 10 first.

For this purpose a pump 51 is placed above a filling port of the additional tank 10 and sucks the brine accommodated therein into the additional tank 10 via a hose 50 protruding into the spreading material container 3. Instead of the suction pump 51, also an immersion pump can be provided at the correspondingly other end of the hose 50. By means of a float 52 arranged in the additional tank 10, the filling level of the additional tank 10 is monitored. As soon as the filling level undershoots a predetermined level, this is signaled by the float 52 to a control device C, which starts the pump 51 in response. The respective switch-on time of the pump 51 can be determined in many ways, can for example be limited to a predetermined period of time in dependence on the delivery capability of the pump or can be stopped upon reaching an upper liquid level in the additional tank 10 detectable by the float 52. Instead of the electronic control C also a purely mechanical solution can be realized for activating and deactivating the pump 51, for example by the float 52 being configured as a component of the pump 51 and protruding into the additional tank 10 through the filling port of the additional tank 10.

The hose 50 is connected to the filling port 42 of the liquid tank 40, and from the filling port 42 there extends a hose extension 50a into the liquid tank 40. Alternatively, it is also possible to configure the hose 50 and the hose extension 50a integrally, guiding it through the filling port 42 down to the bottom of the liquid tank 40.

Claims

A logistical method for transporting liquid thawing materials for use in winter service, comprising a plurality of liquid containers (40) for receiving the liquid thawing materials, wherein the liquid containers are filled with liquid thawing materials by a thawing material supplying container and being supplied to a thawing material container. until the liquid thawing material is consumed by the thawing material consumer and is subsequently transported back to the thawing material supplier, where the liquid containers are intended to be carried and replaced on a winter service vehicle when used in winter service.

The logistics method according to claim 1, characterized in that the liquid container is arranged to be inserted in a spreading material container (3) of a spreading device (1) for winter service vehicles.

The logistics method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the liquid container (40) has a substantially triangular, trapezoidal or generally funnel-shaped vertical cross section.

The logistics method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the internal volume of the liquid container is defined by a flexible casing and can be expanded by filling the casing with liquid thaw material.

The logistics method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized by transport elements (41) for transporting the liquid container by means of a forklift truck or crane.

The logistics method according to claim 5, characterized in that a centrally arranged transport element, for example an eye to the crane hook, is provided on the upper side of the liquid container.

The logistics method of any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized by a suction pump (51) or a dive pump for conveying liquid thawing materials out of the liquid container configured to suck liquid received therein via a hose (50) projecting into the spreading material container (3).

The logistics method of claim 7, characterized by a float (52) and a control connected to the float (52) and the pump, wherein the controller is configured to activate the pump when the float (52) signals the failure of a predefined fluid level to the controller.

The logistics method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that the hose (50) is connected to a filling opening (42) of the liquid container (40) and a hose extension (50a) extends from the filling opening (42) to the liquid container (40).

The logistics method according to claim 9, characterized in that the hose (50) and the hose extension (50a) are of integrated configuration and arranged to be passed through a filling opening (42) of the liquid container (40) to the bottom of the liquid container (40).

The logistics method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the liquid container (40) has a liquid connection, for example a bayonet connection which is configured to cooperate with a liquid discharge opening (30) of a spreading material container (3) of a winter service vehicle.

The logistics method of any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the volume of liquid is pressurized and an overpressure valve is opened when the liquid is to be transferred to an additional container.

The logistics method according to claim 12, characterized in that the liquid container (40) is of a bag-like configuration and is pressurized by being weighed down with a weight from above.

The logistics method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the liquid container (40) has a plurality of separate or mutually connected chambers.

The logistics method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that a plurality of the liquid containers (40) are inserted into the spreading material container (3) in series.