Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B66—HOISTING; LIFTING; HAULING
  • B66C—CRANES; LOAD-ENGAGING ELEMENTS OR DEVICES FOR CRANES, CAPSTANS, WINCHES, OR TACKLES
  • B66C1/00—Load-engaging elements or devices attached to lifting or lowering gear of cranes or adapted for connection therewith for transmitting lifting forces to articles or groups of articles
  • B66C1/10—Load-engaging elements or devices attached to lifting or lowering gear of cranes or adapted for connection therewith for transmitting lifting forces to articles or groups of articles by mechanical means
  • B66C1/101—Load-engaging elements or devices attached to lifting or lowering gear of cranes or adapted for connection therewith for transmitting lifting forces to articles or groups of articles by mechanical means for containers
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B66—HOISTING; LIFTING; HAULING
  • B66C—CRANES; LOAD-ENGAGING ELEMENTS OR DEVICES FOR CRANES, CAPSTANS, WINCHES, OR TACKLES
  • B66C1/00—Load-engaging elements or devices attached to lifting or lowering gear of cranes or adapted for connection therewith for transmitting lifting forces to articles or groups of articles
  • B66C1/10—Load-engaging elements or devices attached to lifting or lowering gear of cranes or adapted for connection therewith for transmitting lifting forces to articles or groups of articles by mechanical means
  • B66C1/62—Load-engaging elements or devices attached to lifting or lowering gear of cranes or adapted for connection therewith for transmitting lifting forces to articles or groups of articles by mechanical means comprising article-engaging members of a shape complementary to that of the articles to be handled
  • B66C1/66—Load-engaging elements or devices attached to lifting or lowering gear of cranes or adapted for connection therewith for transmitting lifting forces to articles or groups of articles by mechanical means comprising article-engaging members of a shape complementary to that of the articles to be handled for engaging holes, recesses, or abutments on articles specially provided for facilitating handling thereof
  • B66C1/663—Load-engaging elements or devices attached to lifting or lowering gear of cranes or adapted for connection therewith for transmitting lifting forces to articles or groups of articles by mechanical means comprising article-engaging members of a shape complementary to that of the articles to be handled for engaging holes, recesses, or abutments on articles specially provided for facilitating handling thereof for containers

Definitions

• the invention relates to a spreader, which has a middle frame, which middle frame has a lower surface, at least one first telescopic arm protruding in a first direction from the middle frame, in the end of which telescopic arm there is a first end frame, and at least one second telescopic arm protruding in a second direction from the middle frame, in the end of which telescopic arm there is a second end frame, which end frames have gripping means for gripping a container and which telescopic arms can be moved into a first position, where the distance between said gripping means of the first end frame and gripping means of the second end frame is at Its shortest.
• freight containers When transporting goods, land and sea transport generally uses freight containers, which can be moved from one transport means to another without reloading the contents.
• the freight containers can have different sizes.
• the most common containers in accordance with ISO standards have nominal lengths of 40, 30 or 20 feet and a nominal width of 8 feet.
• So-called euro containers are also known, which are larger than the ISO containers.
• Cranes and telescopic lifts, which are equipped with a spreader, are used in harbours and terminals for lifting and moving containers.
• the spreader has locking means, by means of which it can grip container locks in the corners of the containers.
• Spreaders can to their structures be fixed-frame devices suitable for only one container size or devices with an adjustable size, which are suitable for several different container sizes.
• Adjustable spreaders have a middle frame and telescopic arms moving in and out of the middle frame. In the ends of the telescopic arms there is a transverse end frame, where the gripping means for gripping the con- tainer have been placed.
• Spreaders equipped with telescopic arms have been presented among others in publications US 7128353, US 4471989, US 4017110, US 3992050 and US 3514146.
• the adjustment range for the length of the telescopic arms should be as large as possible.
• the solutions used in known spreaders provide a movement of the telescopic arms, which makes possible the handling of 20-45 foot long containers.
• the length of the largest special containers can however be as much as 57 feet. Only a small part of the total amount of containers in transport are such containers, so it is not expedient to arrange a spreader just for them. Instead a need exists to increase the adjustment range for the length of the adjustable spreaders, so that they can be used to handle con- tainers which are as much as 48 feet long. Simultaneously it must be ensured that the same spreaders can also be used to handle short, 20 foot long containers.
• the invention relates to a spreader, which can be attached to a crane, a forklift or a telescopic lift, by means of which spreader containers, such as freight containers and sea transport containers, can be lifted and moved from one place to another.
• the spreader has a middle frame, which has a lower surface, at least one first telescopic arm protruding in a first direction from the middle frame, in the end of which telescopic arm there is a first end frame, and at least one second telescopic arm protruding in a second direction from the middle frame, in the end of which telescopic arm there is a second end frame.
• the end frames have gripping means for gripping a container.
• the gripping means are advantageously container locks, which can be used to grip corner locks in the corners of the container. Due to the moveable telescopic arms the gripping means of the spreader can be adjusted to a desired distance from each other, whereby the spreader can be used to grip containers with different lengths.
• the telescopic arms can be moved into a first position, where the distance between said gripping means of the first end frame and second end frame is at its shortest.
• the basic idea of the invention is that in the first position of the telescopic arms the end frames are at least partly under- neath the lower surface of the middle frame, whereby they do not significantly increase the total length of the spreader.
• the middle frame and telescopic arms arranged in the middle frame can thus be made longer, which increases the length of the telescopic arms in the protruding position and thus makes possible the handling of longer containers.
• the shortest distance between the gripping means of the first end frame and the gripping means of the second end frame is advantageously smaller than the length of the middle frame.
• the length of the middle frame here means the longest distance between the opposite end edges of the lower surface of the middle frame, measured in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the middle frame.
• the telescopic arms have an end surface, an upper side and a lower side and said end frames are supported on the end surface of the telescopic arm and/or the upper side of the telescopic arm.
• the lower surface of the middle frame can extend closer to the end surface of the telescopic arm on the lower side of the telescopic arm than on the upper side of the telescopic arm.
• a second advantageous embodiment of the spreader according to the invention has two first telescopic arms, the ends of which are connected to each other with the first end frame, and two second telescopic arms, the ends of which are connected to each other with the second end frame.
• Said end frames advantageously have a lower panel extending beneath the telescopic arms, said gripping means are attached to the lower panel and there is a gap between the lower panel and the lower side of the telescopic arm.
• the wall of the lower surface of the middle frame settles in the gap between the lower panel and the lower side of the telescopic arm.
• the distance between the end surface of the first telescopic arm and the end surface of the second telescopic arm is larger than the shortest distance between the grip- ping means of the first end frame and the gripping means of the second end frame.
• the gripping means are thus located in the area between the end surfaces of the telescopic arms.
• the distance between the gripping means of the first end frame and the gripping means of the second end frame is in the first position of the telescopic arms substantially as large as or smaller than the distance between the corner locks of a 20 foot long container in the longitudinal direction of the container.
• said telescopic arms can be moved from inside the middle frame to a protruded second position, where the distance between said gripping means of the first end frame and gripping means of the second end frame is substantially as large as or larger than the distance between the corner locks of a 48 foot long container in the longitudinal direction of the container.
• Figure b shows the spreader shown in Figure 1 a seen diagonally from below
• Figures 2a and 2b show as an example an end frame of a spreader according to the invention, when the telescopic arms are in the second position and Figures 3a and 3b show as an example an end frame of a spreader according to the invention, when the telescopic arms are in the first position.
• Figure 1a shows as an example a spreader according to the invention seen diagonally from above and Figure 1 b shows the same spreader seen diagonally from below.
• the spreader has an elongated middle frame 10, two first telescopic arms 50 protruding from the first end of the middle frame and two second telescopic arms 51 protruding from the second end of the middle frame.
• the telescopic arms are elongated beam-like parts with a rectangular cross-section.
• first telescopic arms are connected to each other with a first end frame 70, which is transverse to the longitudinal direction of the telescopic arms, and the ends of the second telescopic arms are connected to each other with a second end frame 71 , which is transverse to the longitudinal direction of the second telescopic arms.
• the middle frame 10 has two parallel, substantially identical hollow frame beams 12, which have a rectangular cross-section, which have an upper surface 14, a lower surface 16 and two side surfaces 18. The side surfaces have holes 20 for reducing the weight of the beams.
• In the upper part of the middle frame there are two transverse connecting beams 22, which bind the first ends and second ends of the frame beams together by their upper surfaces.
• In the lower part of the middle frame there are two connecting plates 24, which bind the first ends and second ends of the frame beams together by their lower surfaces.
• a suspension part 30 by means of which the middle frame is attached to a lifting machine, such as a crane, a telescopic lift or a forklift. The suspension part is attached to the upper surface of the frame beams.
• FIG. 1a and 1 b show the spreader in the second position, where the telescopic beams pro- trude from inside the middle frame as much as possible.
• the end frames 70, 71 in the first ends of the telescopic arms 50, 51 are thus as far away from each other as possible.
• the telescopic arms can be moved also substantially completely inside the frame beams, whereby the end frames in the ends of the telescopic arms settle immediately against the end edges 40 of the frame beams 12. This position of the telescopic arms is in this presentation called the first position.
• the spreader further comprises actuator mechanism for moving the telescopic arms.
• actuator mechanism comprise slide bars, which make possible the move- ment of the telescopic arms, actuators and motors used for providing the movement and control and adjustment means controlling the movement.
• actuator mechanism comprise slide bars, which make possible the move- ment of the telescopic arms, actuators and motors used for providing the movement and control and adjustment means controlling the movement.
• the end frames 70, 71 connecting the ends of the telescopic arms have an end plate 74 settling against the end surface of the telescopic arms and a lower panel 72 turning in an angle from the plane of the end plate.
• a gripping means 100 ( Figure 1 b) in both ends of the lower panel, which gripping means can be attached to a standardised attaching part in the corners of the freight container, a so-called corner lock.
• a corner lock in this presentation means a known locking means used in containers, such as ISO and euro containers, which comprises a metal casing, in the wall of which there is an elongated or oval hole for receiving a lock pin.
• the gripping means in the end frames are so-called container locks especially designed for gripping on to corner locks in freight containers, which container locks have a lock pin, which is rotatable around the longitudinal axis.
• a lock pin In the free end of the lock pin there is a locking protrusion, the cross-sectional shape of which corresponds to the shape of the hole in the corner locks in the freight container.
• the lock pin is rotated into a position, where the locking protrusion is parallel with the hole in the corner lock, and the lock pin is fitted into the hole in the corner lock. Thereafter the lock pin is turned by about 90 degrees, whereby the lock pin is locked onto the corner lock.
• the spreader has four gripping means 100, which are used to grip the corner locks in the corners of the upper surface of the container.
• Figures 2a and 2b show as an example the first end frame 70 of a spreader according to the invention, when the telescopic arms are in the second position.
• Figure 2a shows the end frame seen from the side and Figure 2b as a cross-sectional view cut along sectional line A-A.
• the end frame has an end plate 74 settling against the end surface 52 of the telescopic arm 50 and a lower panel 72 in the direction of the lower side 56 of the telescopic arm.
• the end plate and the lower panel are connected by their longitudinal edge in a fixed manner to each other, i.e. they form a uniform rigid structural part.
• a gap 58 Between the lower panel and the lower side 56 of the telescopic arm there is a gap 58, the width of which is slightly larger than the thickness of the wall of the lower surface 16 of the frame beam 12.
• the support plate is attached to the lower panel with a suspension plate 75 between the ends of the telescopic arms, which suspension plate is attached by its first edge to the lower panel and by its second edge to the support plate with a welding attachment.
• gripping means in both ends of the lower panel, which gripping means comprise a lock pin 102 and an actuator 104 for rotating the lock pin.
• the end frame can be attached to the corner locks of the container.
• the container When the container is lifted into the air, its weight is conveyed through the lock pins to the lower panel.
• the loads on the lower panel are transferred through the end plate to the end surfaces of the telescopic arms and through the support plate to the upper sides of the telescopic arms.
• Figures 3a and 3b show as an example the first end frame 70 of a spreader ac- cording to the invention, when the telescopic arms are in the first position.
• Figure 3a shows the end frame seen from the side and Figure 3b as a cross-sectional view cut along sectional line B-B.
• the end plate 74 of the end frame 70 is pressed almost flush to the end edge 40 of the frame beam 12.
• the walls of the side surfaces 18 of the frame beam are bevelled at their upper corners and the wall of the upper surface 14 of the frame beam is shorter than the wall of the lower surface, so the support plate 76 on the upper side of the telescopic arms does not limit the movement of the telescopic arms into the frame beams.
• the gap 58 between the lower panel 72 of the end frame and the lower side of the telescopic arm makes possible the movement of the lower panel underneath the lower surface of the frame beam 12 in the area between the opposite end edges of the lower surface of the frame beam.
• the lock pin 102 is now in the area between the end edges of the frame beam, especially in the area between the opposite end edges of the lower surface of the frame beam, when seen in the longitudinal direction of the frame beam. In the first position the distance between the lock pins is thus smaller than the distance between the oppo- site end edges of the lower surface of the frame beam.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Load-Engaging Elements For Cranes (AREA)

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Citations (5)

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• 2010
  • 2010-12-13 FI FI20106315A patent/FI20106315A/fi not_active Application Discontinuation
• 2011
  • 2011-12-08 EP EP11849406.1A patent/EP2665673A4/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2011-12-08 WO PCT/FI2011/051088 patent/WO2012080567A1/en active Application Filing

Patent Citations (5)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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