GB2084110A

GB2084110A - A method for transferring a container to or from the loading floor of a vehicle and a hydraulic cylinder for carrying out this method

Info

Publication number: GB2084110A
Application number: GB8129174A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Woude Eelke V D
Current assignee: Woude Eelke V D
Priority date: 1980-09-30
Filing date: 1981-09-28
Publication date: 1982-04-07
Also published as: NL8005426A; FR2491049A1; DE3138443A1; SE8105732L

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for transferring a container (1) to or from the loading floor of a vehicle. The method utilizes upright hydraulic piston- cylinder assemblies (2,2a) for lifting and lowering a container to be placed on or to be removed from a vehicle, respectively. The vehicle may be moved underneath the container when the container is in lifted position or removed from underneath said container in the lifted position. The invention also provides a hydraulic cylinder (3) for carrying out the method, said cylinder (3) or the piston rod (4) thereof being provided with projections (11,11a) accommodating rotatable axes (13,13a) for fastening the cylinders to the container. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A method for transferring a container to or from the loading floor of a vehicle and a hydraulic cylinder for carrying out this method.

In a first aspect the invention relates to a method for transferring a container to or from the loading floor of a vehicle.

Presently travelling cranes or sophisticated auto matically or semi-automatically operated installations mounted fixedly at docks or railway yards are used for transferring a container from the ground to the loading floor of a vehicle or vice versa. If a container has to be transferred to or from a truck or trailer at an arbitrary location a travelling crane has to be used. Because of the transport of such a crane as well as the necessity of an individual crane driver loading and unloading a container is expensive.

Moreover loading and unloading the container requires only little time relative to the time required for the transportation of the crane to the location at which the container has to be placed on the loading floor of the vehicle or has to be removed from said loading floor.

The invention envisages to eliminate of these drawbacks and to provide a method by means of which a container may be placed on the loading floor of a vehicle or may be lifted therefrom without employing a travelling crane or a sophisticated expensive installation.

According to the invention the above mentioned method is characterized in that the container - close to each one of its vertical ribs - is fastened in a detachabie manner to an upright hydraulic pistoncylinder combination, which combinations are made to extend by supplying hydraulic medium till the bottom of the container is lifted to a level higher than that of the loading floor of said vehicle, whereupon the vehicle is moved into or from the position, respectively, wherein its loading floor is below said container and finally the pressure of the hydraulic medium is released in order to lower the container onto the loading floor or onto the ground and the like, respectively.

It is important that the hydraulic piston-cylinder combinations may be taken along with the truck or trailer on which the container has to be loaded or from which the container has to be removed. The combinations may be handled by two persons. It is also possible to have only one operator if the truck or trailer has been provided with a loading crane as will be applicable in many cases.

Each one of the four piston-cylinder combinations will be connected to the hydraulic medium by means of flexible tubings and to a pumping means for the hydraulic medium by way of a distributor block having manually operated valves, which pump may be driven by the motor of the truck or otherwise, for example by means of a separate combustion motor or electromotor operated on the battery of the trailer ortruck.

Lifting the container occurs by extending the piston-cylinder combinations the supply of the hydraulic medium being controlled for that matter by manually operating the four push button operated valves.

When the piston-cylinder combinations are in the extended position and the container is hence lifted to a level higher than that of the loading floor of the vehicle said vehicle may be driven into the position underneath the container. By releasing the pressure on the hydraulic medium the container will be lowered onto the loading floor of the vehicle.

Contrary thereto the container may of course also be lifted from the loading floor whereupon the vehicle is driven away so that the container may be lowered to the ground and the like by releasing the hydraulic pressure.

Furthermore the invention relates to as hydraulic cylinder suitable for carrying out the above described method. In order to facilitate joining the piston-cylinder combinations with a container it is preferred that either the piston rod or the cylinder is provided with projections to which an axle box is connected; said axle box accommodating an axle which may be rotated over at least 90 and both ends of which have been bent at right angles.

At locations where containers have to be loaded on or unloaded from vehicles regularly it is possible to fixedly join said four piston-cylinder combinations together by means of a frame in such a manner that the vehicle may be driven between said piston combinations.

Likewise it is possible to use wheels for mounting the frame joining said four piston-cylinder combinations together whereby it becomes movable and bound in a lesser degree to a fixed location.

The invention will now be elucidated further with reference to the drawings in which embodiments have been depicted.

Figure 1 shows a side elevation of a container which has been brought into the lifted position by four hydraulic piston-cylinder combinations.

Figure 2 shows a front elevation of the container of Figure 1.

Figure 3 shows a cross section of a piston-cylinder combination.

Figure 4 shows a side elevation corresponding to that of Figure 1 in which the hydraulic combinations have been joined by means of a frame.

Figure 5 shows a front elevation of the device according to Figure 4.

It is apparent from Figures 1 and 2 that the container 1 has been lifted by means of four hydraulic piston-cylinder combinations 2, 2a which have been fastened to the container in a detachable manner. The level is such that the loading floor of a vehicle may be moved below the container or may be removed therefrom.

Figure 3 shows a cross section of a hydraulic piston-cylinder combination. The cylinder 3 together with the piston rod 4 are both accommodated in rectangular boxes 5 and 6, respectively, the box 6 slidably fitting on the box 5. By means of the coupling 7 onto which a flexible supply tube for the hydraulic medium may be connected, the hydraulic medium is fed to the cylinder.

At its lower side the cylinder is mounted on a base by means of a hinge 8. The piston rod 4 is likewise hingedly connected to the upper part of the box by means of the hinge 9. The upper part of the box 6 has been provided with an eye 10 in order to to enable lifting the same by means of a crane. The box 6 carries two projections 11 and 11 a each of which has been provided with an axle box 12, 12a. Each of said axle boxes accommodates an axle 13 and 13a. At both ends thereof these axles have been bent at right angles. The bent part facing the box 6 serves for manually rotating the axle over 90 .

The bent part opposite to the box which in the Figure is at an angle of 90 with the axis of the cylinder is pushed into a horizontal slot-like opening present in the container whereupon the axle is rotated over 90 . In this way a cylinder may be fastened both to the lower part and to the upper part of the container. In this design it has been assumed that containers are of standardized dimensions and are provided with the said standardized slot-like openings.

Figures 4 and 5 show a side elevation of a device in which the four hydraulic piston-cylinder combinations are joined together by means of a frame 14.

Also in this instance the container 1 has been represented in lifted position. By providing the base elements 15 with wheels the whole may be rendered movable.

Claims

1. A method for transferring a container to or from the loading floor of a vehicle, comprising the steps of detachably fastening the container, at a location close to each one of its vertical ribs, to a substantially upright hydraulic piston-cylinder combination, casing said combinations to extend by supplying hydraulic medium until the bottom of the container is lifted to a level higher than that of the loading floor of said vehicle, moving the vehicle into or from the position where its loading floor is below said container, and releasing the pressure of the hydraulic medium to lower the container onto the loading floor of the vehicle or onto the ground.

2. A hydraulic cylinder for carrying out a method as claimed in claim 1.

3. A hydraulic cylinder as claimed in claim 2, wherein either the piston rod or the cylinder is provided with projections to which an axle box is connected, said axle box accommodating an axle which may be rotated over at least 90 and both ends of which are bent at right angles.

4. A combination of four hydraulic cylinders, each as claimed in either claim 2 or claim 3, the four being joined together by a frame.

5. A method for transferring a container to or from the loading floor of a vehicle substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

6. A hydraulic cylinder substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

7. A combination of hydraulic cylinders substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.