GB1588522A

GB1588522A - Activator for fork-lift trucks

Info

Publication number: GB1588522A
Application number: GB585577A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: TRUCK SALES PETERBOROUGH Ltd
Current assignee: TRUCK SALES PETERBOROUGH Ltd
Priority date: 1978-02-02
Filing date: 1978-02-02
Publication date: 1981-04-23

Description

(54 IMPROVED ACTIVATOR FOR FORK-LIFT TRUCKS (71) We, TRUCK SALES (PETER BOROUGH) LIMITED, a British Company of Oxney Road, Peterborough, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following state ment :- This invention concerns attachments for fork-lift trucks.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an attachment for mounting on the vertically sliding carriage of a forklift truck to provide a mounting for pick-up devices, buckrakes, bins and the like.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an attachment which is capable of imparting a further degree of movement to the device etc. which is mounted thereon. To this end the attachment will be referred to as an activator.

According to the present invention an activator comprises a main frame adapted to be mounted on a vertically displaceable carriage of a forklift truck, a subsidiary frame pivotably mounted on the main frame for angular displacement relative thereto about a horizontal pivot axis when the activator is mounted on the forklift truck, the the subsidiary frame being pivotable between a position transverse to the main frame and a position parallel to and adjacent the main frame, hydraulic drive means arranged to pivot the subsidiary frame about said pivot axis, additional hydraulic drive means connected to the main frame and adapted for connection to a said carriage of a forklift truck whereby the main frame may be moved laterally relative to the carriage, and and hook-like members at the upper end of the main frame for sliding engagement with a horizontal rail of a forklift truck carriage, in which said additional hydraulic drive means is located vertically above the hooklike members so that the main frame can be mounted flush against the carriage.

Preferably the additional hydraulic drive means is a double-acting hydraulic ram so that powered lateral movement in both directions is possible.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a perspective view of an activator attachment for mounting on a forklift truck.

As shown in the drawing, the activator is adapted to be mounted on the two horizontal parallel rails 10 and 12 of the conventional carriage (not shown) adapted for vertical sliding movement up and down the mast.

of a fork-lift truck.

To this end the activator attachment comprises two vertical frame members 14 and 16 each in the form of a channel section for housing two double-acting rams 18 and 20 respectively.

The rams are pivotally mounted at the upper ends of the channel sections and act on the inboard ends of two pivotal arms 22 and 24 respectively which are hinged at the; lower ends of the channel sections of the members 14 and 16. In the drawing the.

hinge pivot for the nearer arm 22 can be seen and is denoted by reference numeral 26.

The two vertical frame members 14 and 16 are joined by a number of horizontal members such as 28 and 30 to form an integral frame and include two aligned brackets 32 and 34 respectively located at the upper rear ends.

of the two members 14 and 16 to provide mounting hooks for hooking the integral frame over the upper horizontal rail 10 of the fork-lift truck carriage.

The hooks formed by the brackets 32 and 34 are designed to slide on the upper horizontal rail 10 so that the integral frame can slide as a single unit laterally relative to the carriage formed by the two horizontal rails.

10 and 12.

The lateral sliding movement is controlled by a double-acting hydraulic ram generally designated 36 one end of which is mounted on a bracket 38 attached to the upper rail 10 and the other end of which is pivotally joined by a pivot pin 40 to a bracket 42 carried at the upper end of the vertical member 14. Extension of the ram 36 will move the integral frame to the left as shown in the drawing (relative to the carriage formed by the rails 10 and 12) and retraction of the ram 36 will cause lateral movement of the integral frame in the opposite direction (i.e.

to the right hand side as shown in the drawing).

It will be noted that by mounting the double-acting hydraulic ram 36 in line with the carriage formed by the rails 10 and 12, the integral frame can be mounted directly against the carriage formed by the rails 10 and 12. This is of advantage when dealing with heavy loads since it will be appreciated that if the activator attachment formed by the integral frame and forwardly pivoting arms 22 and 24 were mounted forward of the carriage formed by the rails 10 and 12 so as to allow an additional frame to be located between the carriage and integral frame formed by vertical members 14 and 16 and transverse members 28 and 30, the load would be situated further forward than is the case in the present design and the load carrying capacity of the arms 22 and 24 would be less than is the present case. (By load carrying capacity is meant the maximum safe load which can be carried by the arms 22 and 24 when in their fully forward extended position as shown in the drawing, before tipping of the trunk will occur about its front axle.) For a number of applications of a fork-lift truck it is not necessary to utilise the pivoting facility of the arms 22, 24 and to this end, two parallel rails 44 and 46 are mounted on the underside of the two arms 22 and 24. The two rails 44 and 46 correspond in all respect to the two rails 10 and 12 of the original fork-lift truck carriage and by extending the rams 18 and 20 so that the two arms 22 and 24 are pivoted into a fully upright position, the two rails 44 and 46 are moved into a substantially vertical plane in which configuration the attachments normally mounted on the rails 10 and 12 can be mounted on the rails 44 and 46.The two rails 44 and 46 can thus take the place of the two rails 10 and 12 and since they are mounted only slightly in advance of the original rails 10 and 12 of the fork-lift truck carriage, the load carrying capacity of an attachment mounted on the rails 44 and 46 is very similar to the load carrying capacity of the same attachment mounted on the original rails 10 and 12.

The advantage gained by using the conventional attachment on the rails 44 and 46 instead of dismantling the activator and removing it from the rails 10 and 12 so that the attachment can be mounted directly on the original rails 10 and 12, is that the double-acting ram 36 allows control of the lateral position of the rails 44 and 46 and therefore the lateral position relative to the fork-lift truck of any attachment or implement mounted thereon.Thus in addition to the pivoting movement which is possible about the pivots such as 26 under the control of the hydraulic drives 18 and 20, the attachment or implement mounted on the forklift truck can also be moved laterally and this is of great advantage when operating in confined spaces since the lateral movement allows the truck driver to locate his truck less accurately relative to the load to be picked up and final adjustments to bring the tines or other attachment into correct alignment with the load can be made using the double-acting ram 36 to control the lateral position of the attachment.

In known manner the arms 22 and 24 are provided with quick hitch attachments (not shown in detail) and pick-up points denoted by reference numerals 48 and 50 whereby the arms can be offered up to a suitable implement having hooks (not shown) under which the pick up pins 48 and 50 can be located so that the arms 22 and 24 can be moved to pick-up an implement which can then be locked in position using locking means actuated by hydraulic cylinders 52 and 54 so that pick up and release of implements having quick hitch facilities can be effected without the truck driver leaving the cab. As with implements mounted on the rails 44 and 46, final accurate alignment of the quick hitch pins 48 and 50 can be achieved using the lateral movement possible under the control of the double-acting ram 36 so that location of the truck can be much less critical than hitherto.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. An activator for forklift trucks comprising a main frame adapted to be mounted on a vertically displaceable carriage of a forklift truck, a subsidiary frame pivotally mounted on the main frame for angular displacement relative thereto about a horizontal pivot axis when the activator is mounted on the forklift truck, the subsidiary frame being pivotable between a position transverse to the main frame and a position parallel to and adjacent the main frame, hydraulic drive means arranged to pivot the subsidiary frame about said pivot axis, additional hydraulic drive means connected to the main frame and adapted for connection to a said carriage of a forklift truck whereby the main frame may be moved laterally relative to the carriage, and hook like members at the upper end of the main frame for sliding engagement with a horizontal rail of a forklift truck carriage, in which said additional hydraulic drive means is located vertically above the hook-like members so that the main frame can be mounted flush against the carriage.

2. An activator as claimed in claim 1,

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Claims

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move the integral frame to the left as shown in the drawing (relative to the carriage formed by the rails 10 and 12) and retraction of the ram 36 will cause lateral movement of the integral frame in the opposite direction (i.e.

to the right hand side as shown in the drawing).

It will be noted that by mounting the double-acting hydraulic ram 36 in line with the carriage formed by the rails 10 and 12, the integral frame can be mounted directly against the carriage formed by the rails 10 and 12. This is of advantage when dealing with heavy loads since it will be appreciated that if the activator attachment formed by the integral frame and forwardly pivoting arms 22 and 24 were mounted forward of the carriage formed by the rails 10 and 12 so as to allow an additional frame to be located between the carriage and integral frame formed by vertical members 14 and 16 and transverse members 28 and 30, the load would be situated further forward than is the case in the present design and the load carrying capacity of the arms 22 and 24 would be less than is the present case. (By load carrying capacity is meant the maximum safe load which can be carried by the arms 22 and 24 when in their fully forward extended position as shown in the drawing, before tipping of the trunk will occur about its front axle.) For a number of applications of a fork-lift truck it is not necessary to utilise the pivoting facility of the arms 22, 24 and to this end, two parallel rails 44 and 46 are mounted on the underside of the two arms 22 and 24. The two rails 44 and 46 correspond in all respect to the two rails

10 and 12 of the original fork-lift truck carriage and by extending the rams 18 and 20 so that the two arms 22 and 24 are pivoted into a fully upright position, the two rails 44 and 46 are moved into a substantially vertical plane in which configuration the attachments normally mounted on the rails 10 and 12 can be mounted on the rails 44 and 46.The two rails 44 and 46 can thus take the place of the two rails 10 and 12 and since they are mounted only slightly in advance of the original rails 10 and 12 of the fork-lift truck carriage, the load carrying capacity of an attachment mounted on the rails 44 and 46 is very similar to the load carrying capacity of the same attachment mounted on the original rails 10 and 12.

The advantage gained by using the conventional attachment on the rails 44 and 46 instead of dismantling the activator and removing it from the rails 10 and 12 so that the attachment can be mounted directly on the original rails 10 and 12, is that the double-acting ram 36 allows control of the lateral position of the rails 44 and 46 and therefore the lateral position relative to the fork-lift truck of any attachment or implement mounted thereon.Thus in addition to the pivoting movement which is possible about the pivots such as 26 under the control of the hydraulic drives 18 and 20, the attachment or implement mounted on the forklift truck can also be moved laterally and this is of great advantage when operating in confined spaces since the lateral movement allows the truck driver to locate his truck less accurately relative to the load to be picked up and final adjustments to bring the tines or other attachment into correct alignment with the load can be made using the double-acting ram 36 to control the lateral position of the attachment.

In known manner the arms 22 and 24 are provided with quick hitch attachments (not shown in detail) and pick-up points denoted by reference numerals 48 and 50 whereby the arms can be offered up to a suitable implement having hooks (not shown) under which the pick up pins 48 and 50 can be located so that the arms 22 and 24 can be moved to pick-up an implement which can then be locked in position using locking means actuated by hydraulic cylinders 52 and 54 so that pick up and release of implements having quick hitch facilities can be effected without the truck driver leaving the cab. As with implements mounted on the rails 44 and 46, final accurate alignment of the quick hitch pins 48 and 50 can be achieved using the lateral movement possible under the control of the double-acting ram 36 so that location of the truck can be much less critical than hitherto.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. An activator for forklift trucks comprising a main frame adapted to be mounted on a vertically displaceable carriage of a forklift truck, a subsidiary frame pivotally mounted on the main frame for angular displacement relative thereto about a horizontal pivot axis when the activator is mounted on the forklift truck, the subsidiary frame being pivotable between a position transverse to the main frame and a position parallel to and adjacent the main frame, hydraulic drive means arranged to pivot the subsidiary frame about said pivot axis, additional hydraulic drive means connected to the main frame and adapted for connection to a said carriage of a forklift truck whereby the main frame may be moved laterally relative to the carriage, and hook like members at the upper end of the main frame for sliding engagement with a horizontal rail of a forklift truck carriage, in which said additional hydraulic drive means is located vertically above the hook-like members so that the main frame can be mounted flush against the carriage.
2. An activator as claimed in claim 1,

in which the additional hydraulic drive means is a double-acting hydraulic ram so that powered lateral movement in both directions is possible.
3. An activator for fork-lift trucks constructed arranged and adapted to operate substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.