GB1594394A

GB1594394A - Load handling trolley

Info

Publication number: GB1594394A
Application number: GB881578A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: HORVILLE ENG CO Ltd
Current assignee: HORVILLE ENG CO Ltd
Priority date: 1978-05-31
Filing date: 1978-05-31
Publication date: 1981-07-30

Description

(54) LOAD HANDLING TROLLEY (71) We, HORVILLE ENGINEERING COMPANY LIMITED, a British Company of Marlowe House, Station Road, Sidcup, Kent, 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 statement: This invention relates to a collapsable load-handling trolley.

The invention broadly resides in a nestable load-handling trolley for propulsion by hand, wherein there is a load-supporting deck and at least two load-retaining side walls each of which when the trolley is in its load-carrying condition extends over substantially the full width of one side of the trolley, the said walls if there are only two of them being at opposed sides of the trolley; wherein said trolley in its said load-carrying condition is substantially square in plan aspect; wherein the deck is hingeable upwardly and one or more of the side walls is or are hingeable about a vertical axis or axes to bring such deck and said hingeable wall(s) into (a) position(s) along (a) said limb(s) thereby to convert the trolley into a nestable condition in which in plan aspect it substantially conforms to the L-shaped plan configuration of said rigid structure; and the trolley wheels are disposed so that both in that nestable condition and in its load-carrying condition the trolley is stably supported for propulsion.

Any number of the trolleys according to the invention. when in their L-shaped nestable condition, can be nested one into another, so that they can be stored in a relatively small space.

The trolleys incorporate a combination of features which afford advantages in use.

One of these features is the substantially square plan-form of the trolley in its loadcarrying condition. This form is such that the trolley in its nestable condition is substantially symmetrical about its most natural direction of movement when propelled by a person holding the trolley at its vertical free edges which coincide with the free ends of the L. The trolley forms a Vee in front of the user and it most naturally advances in the general direction in which the apex of the Vee points. This is of advantage of course also when propelling a group of the trolleys nested one into another. And it also promotes manouvreability and convenient and compact stowage of nested trolleys.

A substantially square-plan format enables the or each hingeable side wall to be hinged into the position required to achieve the L-plan form for nesting and at the same time to obtain favourable load-handling properties of the trolley both in its load carrying and in its nestable condition. If the sides of the load-supporting deck were of substantially different lengths, in other words if the deck were notably elongate in plan, it would not be possible (in the case of a trolley with four side walls) conveniently to convert the trolley to L-form in plan unless one or more side walls were formed in relatively hingeable sections, involving additional cost and complication in use. And in the case of a trolley with two- or three- side walls the two opposed walls, in the load-carrying condition of the trolley, would have to be located at its narrower sides.Such a placement of opposed walls would not be conductive to good handling properties of trolleys having a deck area adequate for many purposes, particularly industrial goods-handling systems.

One of the most important fields of use or potential use of nestable load-handling trolleys is the transportation of unit loads of manufactured products, particularly grocery products, between wholesale depots and retail outlets, the trolleys being loaded at the wholesale depot, transported with their unit loads in transport vehicles, and wheeled into the various retail premises for unloading, collapse and storage, at the retailers convenience. Trolleys according to the invention can be constructed which have a favourable load-carrying capacity/size ratio for such use, and which at the same time have good handling properties, can be very easily and quickly folded to nestable condition and restored to load-carrying condition when required, and in their nestable condition can be accommodated in a relatively small stor age space.

With regard to the disposition of the trolley wheels. it is preferable to provide three wheels in triangular formation on the rigid L-shaped structure and to provide a fourth wheel on the or a hingeable side wall of the trolley. The wheels can be of any desired kind. They are preferably castors.

A trolley according to the invention is preferably constructed so that the space beneath the load-supporting deck and between the trolley wheels is sufficient to permit the forks of a fork-lift to have access beneath the deck from any side of the trolley.

The load-supporting deck of a trolley according to the invention is preferably constructed in one piece. However it is within the scope of the invention to make the said deck in two component parts which are hinged at opposed sides of the trolley.

The invention includes two-, three- and four-walled trolleys. As will hereafter be explained trolleys according to the invention can easily be made which can be converted to a trolley with a different number of side walls; e.g. a four-walled trolley can be converted into a three-walled or a two-walled trolley.

Certain trolleys according to the invention have four load-retaining side walls, one at each side of the trolley and also have the following features: a substantially square load-supporting deck; two mutually adjacent side walls (hereafter called "fixed walls") are connected together and form what in plan aspect is a substantially L-shaped structure; the load-supporting deck and the other two side walls are hingeable from their operative positions into positions such that all of the side walls and said deck then conform to the said L-shaped plan configuration; and the trolley has wheels placed so that it is stably supported in its operative and collapsed condition and during conversion from one such condition to the other.One of said other two side walls should preferably be also hingeable outwardly to facilitate loading and unloading of the trolley and it is preferably hingeable outwardly from its operative position into a position alongside tne exterior of the adjacent fixed wall. There may be a top panel or lid which can be secured in closed position for security and is hingeable into a vertical plane against a side wall of the trolley. The two hingeable walls may have components of a pin and eye fastening and one of such walls can be bodily raisable relative to the fixed wall to which it is hinged in order to engage or disengage said fastening. The load-supporting deck may be hinged at a side of the trolley at which is a said fixed wall and when in its lowered operative position may be supported at its two edges or margins which are adjacent that at which its hinge is located.

The load-retaining side walls of a trolley according to the invention serve to retain or to assist in retaining a load on the loadsupporting deck and may be or any suitable form for that purpose. For most industrial goods handling systems, for example in containerisation systems as used in the unit loading and transportation of grocery packages as between wholesale depots and retail outlets, it is preferable to provide walls comprising a system of wires or bars, e.g.

forming a mesh. It is in all cases preferable for the load-retaining walls at least to comprise frames and for there to be on two adjacent sides of the trolley, side frames which compose or are formed by the afore- said substantially rigid L-shaped structure.

Accordingly the present invention includes: a nestable load-handling trolley for propulsion by hand comprising in its loadcarrying condition a horizontal substantially square load-supporting deck and three vertical substantially rectangular side frames, two of the side frames either having a common vertical member or being otherwise joined together to form a rigid framework which in plan is L-shaped and extends substantially along the full lengths of two adjacent sides of the deck, the third side frame extending in plan substantially along the full length of a third side of the deck, the deck being so joined to the lower horizontal member of one of the side frames that it may be hinged upwardly into a substantially vertical position and the third side frame being so joined to the adjacent of the two other said side frames that it may be hinged inwardly to lie along the said adjacent side frame, the arrangement being such that the trolley may be converted into a nestable condition in which it is of substantially equal limbed Lshape in plan, the trolley being supported on trolley wheels so placed that the trolley is stably supported in its load carrying and nestable conditions and during conversion from one such condition to the other. Various optional features which can with advantage be incorporated in such a trolley are defined in claims 3 to 18 of this specification.

A said rigid L-shaped framework may be formed by vertical and horizontal bars which define two rectangular frames, one at each of two contiguous sides of the trolley. When making a two-sided trolley, one of these frames can have a load-retaining panel or panel-forming members to serve in retaining packages smaller than the frame. The opposite load-retaining side wall can be hingeably connected to the open frame. if it is required to make a three-sided trolley it is preferable for both frames of said framework to be occupied by a said load-retaining panel or by panel-forming members and hingewise to connect the third load-retaining side wall to one of such frames leaving one of the other sides of the trolley entirely free from obstruction for loading purposes.However as an alternative one of such frames can be left open and two other load-retaining side walls may be provided which are hingewise connected one to each of said frames. Loading can then take place through the open frame.

One or each frame of a said L-shaped framework can be occupied by a panel formed by wires or bars. In certain embodiments of the invention at least one such panel is employed which can be removably attached to a said frame.

An embodiment of the invention, selected by way of example is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the trolley ready for use, Fig. 2 is a plan view of the trolley in collapsed condition, and Fig. 3 shows a detail of a hinge connection.

The trolley has a substantially rigid framework structure comprising a side frame 1 and a side frame 2 which are rigidly connected together at right angles. The structure is therefore of L-shape in plan as appears in Fig. 2. The frames I and 2 are occupied by series of intersecting vertical and horizontal wires and therewith form two fixed loadretaining walls. This L-shaped structure is supported by three castors 3, 4 and 5 in right triangular formation. The fourth castor 6 of the trolley is on a third load-retaining side wall 7 which is connected by hinges 8 to frame 1. A fourth load-retaining side wall 9 is connected by hinges 10 to frame 2. A loadsupporting deck 11 is connected by hinges 12 to the bottom of frame 1.

When wall 7 is in its operative position, parallel with the opposite fixed retaining wall 2 and the deck 11 is in its lowered operative position as shown in Fig. 1, the deck is supported at its sides on those two parallel walls. For this purpose the deck at each of those side edges has laterally projecting lugs such as 13 which rest on the bottom rails of the walls 2 and 7. Those rails have vertical pins such as 14 which extend through holes in the lugs. Hinged wall 7 is thereby locked in its operative position.

Wall 9, at its vertical edge opposite hinges 10, has coupling pins 15 and can be bodily raised relative to wall 2 sufficiently to permit these pins to be engaged in coupling eyes 16 on wall 17, thereby fastening wall 9 in closed position after loading the trolley. The hinges 10 are arranged so that wall 9 can be swung into a position against the outside of wall 2 so that the wall 9 offers no obstruction in the working space adjacent the trolley.

When it is desired to collapse the trolley the load-supporting deck I I is hinged upwardly into a substantially vertical plane. The deck actually hinges into a position between the side uprights of frame I as indicated by the broken lines in Fig. 2. Then the wall 9 is swung inwardly into a position alongside the inner face of wall 2.

Finally, wall 7 is swung inwardly into a position alongside the inner face of wall 1.

The trolley is now fully collapsed and has the L-shaped plan configuration shown in Fig. 2.

In this condition the castors 3, 4 and 5 stably support the trolley and it can be propelled in any direction. The collapsed trolley can be nested into a similar collapsed trolley. A given number of the trolleys can in that manner be stored in a very small space.

It is advantageous to provide between the side wall 2 and the wall 9 a type of hinge connection which permits the wall 9 to be swung through 360 : through 90 from collapsed to operative position and outwardly from its closed position through a further 270 so that it then occupies a position in which it is alongside the exterior of fixed wall 2 and does not obstruct adjacent space when the trolley is being loaded. Fig. 2 shows part of a hinge connection which permits this large angle of movement of the wall 9. The figure shows part of wall 9 in the position which it occupies when it is co-planar with wall 2, i.e. when the wall 9 has been swung outwardly through 90 from its operative position.The fixed wall 2 has upper and lower fixed hinge pins, the upper one of which, designated 17, appears in the figure.

These hinge pins intrude into opposed ends of a tube 18 so that that tube is captive but is free to rotate about the pins. Upper and lower sleeves are welded to opposed end portions of that tube, the upper sleeve, designated 19, being shown in the figure.

These sleeves receive upper and lower hinge pins welded to wall 9, the upper one of such hinge pins, 20, being shown in the figure. The tube 18 with the attached sleeves, is capable of turning around the hinge pins of fixed wall 2 into a position in which the sleeves 19 abut against the adjacent upright of wall 2.

Thereafter wall 9 can swing through the required further angle relative to the said sleeves.

The trolley can be provided with a top panel for closing the top of the load space.

Preferably a said top panel is hinged to the top horizontal rail of said wall I so that the said panel when not in use can hang down in a substantially vertical plane between the side uprights of frame 1, above the position occupied by the deck I 1 when it is in its raised position indicated in Fig. 2. Once the top panel has been lowered into that position the side walls 7 and 9 can be swung inwardly into their positions shown in Fig. 2. The front edge of the top panel opposite its hinge can have an attachment such as an angled plate which when the top panel is closed engages over the top horizontal rail of wall 9 and can be secured to that wall, e.g. by means of a padlock.

In a modification of the illustrated trolley, wall 9 was omitted, thereby making a threesided trolley with one hingeable side wall. In a further modification, wall 9 was omitted and the frame I was left open, i.e.

without a wire grid panel, thereby making a two-side trolley loadable either through the frame I or at the completely open and unobstructed side.

In a further modification a trolley as shown in Figs. I and 2 was made with a detachable front wall 9 and a rear wall or panel which is hingeable outwardly through 270 into a position alongside the external face of the side wall 2 or 7, thereby leaving the trolley open at both front and back for loading or unloading from either of those positions. For example the rear frame I can have a panel of wire mesh or other form connected to it so that the panel is hingeable as aforesaid relative to that frame 1. The panel may have its own relatively lightweight frame for imparting rigidity.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A nestable load-handling trolley for propulsion by hand, wherein there is a loadsupporting deck and at least two loadretaining side walls each of which when the trolley is in its load-carrying condition extends over substantially the full width of one side of the trolley, the said walls if there are only two of them being at opposed sides of the trolley; wherein said trolley in its said load-carrying condition is substantially square in plan aspect and the trolley incorporates a substantially rigid structure which in that aspect is of L-shape with the limbs of the L running along two neighbouring boundaries of the square; wherein the deck is hingeable upwardly and one or more of the side walls is or are hingeable about a vertical axis or axes to bring such deck and said hingeable wall(s) into (a) positions(s) along(a) said limb(s), thereby to convert the trolley into a nestable condition in which in plan aspect it substantially conforms to the L-shape plan configuration of said rigid structure; and the trolley wheels are disposed so that both in that nestable condition and in its load-carrying condition the trolley is stably supported for propulsion.

2. A nestable load-handling trolley for propulsion by hand comprising in its loadcarrying condition a horizontal substantially square load-supporting deck and three vertical substantially rectangular side frames, two of the side frames either having a common vertical member or being otherwise joined together to form a rigid framework which in plan is L-shaped and extends substantially along the full lengths of two adjacent sides of the deck, the third side frame extending in plan substantially along the full length of a third side of the deck, the deck being so joined to the lower horizontal member of one of the side frames that it may be hinged upwardly into a substantially vertical posi tion and the third side frame being so joined to the adjacent of the two other said side frames that it may be hinged inwardly to lie along the said adjacent side frame, the arrangement being such that the trolley may be converted into a nestable condition in which it is of substantially equal limbed L shape in plan, the trolley being supported on trolley wheels so placed that the trolley is stably supported in its load carrying and nestable conditions and during conversion from one such condition to the other.

3. A trolley according to claim 2, wherein in the load-carrying condition the deck is supported at least partially by two opposite side frames.

4. A trolley according to claim 2, wherein the deck is hinged to one of the side frames which form the rigid framework and is supported by the two side frames adjacent to the said side frame.

5. A trolley according to any of claims 2 to 4 wherein two load-retaining panels extend one over the area of each of two opposite side frames.

6. A trolley according to claim 5, wherein each of said load-retaining panels comprises a plurality of bars or wires.

7. A trolley according to any of claims 2 to 6, having a fourth vertical substantially rectangular side frame which in the loadcarrying condition extends in plan along substantially the full length of the fourth side of the deck and is so joined to that adjacent side frame which forms part of the rigid framework that it may be hinged outwardly for loading and unloading and inwardly to lie along the said adjacent side frame in the nestable condition.

8. A trolley according to claim 7, wherein four load-retaining panels extend one over the area of each of the four side frames.

9. A trolley according to claim 8, wherein each of said four load-retaining panels comprises a plurality of bars or wires.

10. A trolley according to claim 5, 6, 8 or 9 in which at least one load-retaining panel is arranged to be removeable in one piece from the frame to which it is attached.

11. A trolley according to claim 7, 8 or 9, wherein the third or fourth side frame may also be hinged outwardly from its loadretaining condition and into a position alongside the exterior of the side frame to which it is hingeably joined.

12. A trolley according to any of claims 7 to 11 having a top panel or lid hingeably joined to the upper horizontal member of one of the side frames and the arrangement being such that the top panel or lid may be secured in a closed position when the trolley is in its load-carrying condition and may be

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. In a modification of the illustrated trolley, wall 9 was omitted, thereby making a threesided trolley with one hingeable side wall. In a further modification, wall 9 was omitted and the frame I was left open, i.e. without a wire grid panel, thereby making a two-side trolley loadable either through the frame I or at the completely open and unobstructed side. In a further modification a trolley as shown in Figs. I and 2 was made with a detachable front wall 9 and a rear wall or panel which is hingeable outwardly through 270 into a position alongside the external face of the side wall 2 or 7, thereby leaving the trolley open at both front and back for loading or unloading from either of those positions. For example the rear frame I can have a panel of wire mesh or other form connected to it so that the panel is hingeable as aforesaid relative to that frame 1. The panel may have its own relatively lightweight frame for imparting rigidity. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A nestable load-handling trolley for propulsion by hand, wherein there is a loadsupporting deck and at least two loadretaining side walls each of which when the trolley is in its load-carrying condition extends over substantially the full width of one side of the trolley, the said walls if there are only two of them being at opposed sides of the trolley; wherein said trolley in its said load-carrying condition is substantially square in plan aspect and the trolley incorporates a substantially rigid structure which in that aspect is of L-shape with the limbs of the L running along two neighbouring boundaries of the square; wherein the deck is hingeable upwardly and one or more of the side walls is or are hingeable about a vertical axis or axes to bring such deck and said hingeable wall(s) into (a) positions(s) along(a) said limb(s), thereby to convert the trolley into a nestable condition in which in plan aspect it substantially conforms to the L-shape plan configuration of said rigid structure; and the trolley wheels are disposed so that both in that nestable condition and in its load-carrying condition the trolley is stably supported for propulsion.

hinged downwardly in the nestable condition.

13. A trolley according to any of claims 7 to 12, in which the third and fourth side frames carry components of a pin and eye fastening and one of said side frames can be bodily raised relative to the rigid framework without becoming disconnected therefrom in order to engage or disengage the said fastening.

14. A trolley according to any preceding claim, wherein there are four trolley wheels, three of which are in triangular formations on a rigid framework and the other of which is carried by a hingeable side frame.

15. A trolley according to any preceding claim, wherein the space beneath the deck and between the trolley wheels is sufficient to permit the forks of a fork lift truck to pass beneath the deck from any side of the trolley.

16. A trolley having three side frames substantially as described herein by reference to Figures 1 and 2.

17. A trolley having four side frames substantially as described herein and shown in Figures 1 and 2.

18. A trolley having four side frames substantially as described herein and shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3.