GB1281027A - Self-levelling frame for use in handling freight containers - Google Patents

Abstract

1281027 Frames for handling freight containers KAMEL PRODUCTS Ltd 24 Sept 1970 [2 Oct 1969] 48523/69 Heading B8H A lifting frame comprises two side members 1 and two end members 2 joined at four corners where turnlocks 3 depend for releasable attachment to a freight container. The frame is suspended by four wires 5 each rove about a corner sheave 4, passing along a side member 1 and terminating in a non-rotatable screw threaded into a rotatable nut otherwise not movable with respect to the member 1. The frame is rendered self-levelling by operation of an appropriate switch (35) in a control circuit, Fig. 4 (not shown), the effect being that, after the turnlocks 3 are correctly engaged, on lifting the container if it is not balanced the frame is tilted and a mercury or gravity switch (38) actuated causing the nuts 7 at the high end of the frame to rotate to increase the effective length of the ropes 5 at that end until the container is substantially level. The normal effective length of the ropes 5 is regained automatically when the container is disengaged and the frame lifted. The self-levelling effect may be switched out of the circuit and the level adjusted if required by the loading conditions (such as a ship trimmed by say 10 degrees by the stem). In a modification (not shown) the screw-andnut devices may be replaced by hydraulic piston-and-cylinder devices, the levelling being performed without power by operating appropriate bleed valves.