GB1311082A - Transport apparatus and elements for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

1311082 Passenger transport systems; seat arrangements NATIONAL RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CORP 25 March 1970 [26 March 1969] 15796/69 Headings B7J and B7L A transport apparatus comprises a plurality of oblong conveyer elements in the form of flat wooden boards 11 assembled in a row side-byside so that the long sides 12, 13 of adjacent elements 11 slide against one another by means of rollers 24 rolling against catch strips 28 and the surfaces of the row of elements 11 form a pavement. A drive mechanism allows the pavement to be driven along rails 20 which define paths 32, 33, by way of castors 17, 18 carrying bogies 19. The direction of motion is normal to the long sides 12, 13 of elements 11 and sliding contact of sides 12, 13 allows the pavement to follow paths lying up to a certain angle to the normal. The rails 20 rest upon sleepers 21 and the essential parts of the drive system are represented by male and female members 22, 23 respectively. The member 22 may represent a driven variable-pitch screw mounted on the sleeper 21 and the member 23 may represent a co-operating nut fitted to each element 11. Alternatively, 23 may be a " stator " portion of an electric motor and 22 one of a series of rotor portions. At least some of the elements 11 have at least one side of circular arcuate shape, in which curved side engagement between adjacent elements is between a convex side on one of them and a concave one of equal radius on the other, and in which adjacent platforms, by sliding their adjacent curved faces against each other, may substantially change their inclination to the path and thus the effective width and speed of the moving pavement. In the apparatus described with reference to Fig. 4, the elements 11 are of similar shape and arrows 34 indicate the direction of travel, while 35 is a stationary platform upon which passengers from a high speed portion of the pavement may alight at arrow 36 or where they may board the high speed pavement at arrow 37. The width of the pavement is inversely related to its speed of travel at that point, so that, over regions 38 and 39, the pavement is moving fast, while between these regions, it slows down to a minimum speed over region 40 where passengers alight and board at the inside edge 41. In an embodiment described with reference to Fig. 13, each element 11 has a wall 59 mounted along its side 15 and a shorter wall 60 extends a short way down side 13. A seat 61 is mounted at the wider end of each element 11 so that the walls 59, 60 form the back and side arm of seat 61.