GB2232395A

GB2232395A - Hoist

Info

Publication number: GB2232395A
Application number: GB9007555A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Harald Bitsch; Heinz Flaig; Heinz Hasselmann
Original assignee: Mannesmann AG
Current assignee: Vodafone GmbH
Priority date: 1989-04-04
Filing date: 1990-04-04
Publication date: 1990-12-12
Anticipated expiration: 2010-04-04
Also published as: DE3911292A1; GB9007555D0; IT9019932A1; FR2645138B1; IT9019932A0; JP2694238B2; FR2645138A1; GB2232395B; IT1239523B; JPH03200695A; DE3911292C2

Description

1 Compact lifting equipment The invention relates to compact lifting

equipment such as an electrically operated chain hoist.

German Patent Publication No. 3330528 discloses compact lifting equipment in which the chain wheel is located between the motor and the gears. With this coaxial method of construction of the motor shaft and driving shaft, in which the rapidly rotating drive is produced by the slow-running driving shaft, there is a good weight balance but there are considerable disadvantages in terms of assembly and maintenance, high replacement part costs for worn parts and extremely low flexibility, which does not permit the compact lifting equipment also to be equipped with other winding devices or larger chain wheel variants in place of the standard chain wheel.

With such an arrangement, the chain wheel, which often becomes worn in the event of intensive use, can only be replaced after taking apart the gears and dismantling the motor. In this operation, the gear oil also has to be drained and then filled up again.

Furthermore, in the event of wear on the chain wheel, which occurs particularly rapidly if the operator of the chain hoist does not regularly grease the chain, the complete driving shaft, which is integral with the chain wheel, must be replaced. Since the housing takes over the function of chain guidance and therefore closely surrounds the chain wheel, possible variations in the chain wheel, e.g. by providing a larger number of pockets or by increasing the diameter or even installing cable reels which wind in multiple layers, are not possible.

It is an object of the invention to avoid these drawbacks and to provide compact lifting equipment which 1 2 is particularly easy to assemble, maintain and repair.

According to the present invention there is provided compact lifting equipment of the type comprising a central load-bearing housing and encased gears located opposite a motor, the motor having a motor shaft extending to the gears which passes coaxially through a gear driving shaft which is a hollow shaft and bears a winding device, in which the motor shaft is mounted in a gear cover located opposite the motor and the gear driving shaft is mounted in the wall of the load-bearing housing on one side and in a bearing plate of the motor on the other side, the loadbearing housing having a centring opening for the bearing plate of the motor which is larger than the diameter of the winding device.

In the compact lifting equipment of the invention the motor shaft is mounted in a gear cover located opposite the motor and that the gear driving shaft is mounted in the gear-side wall of the load-bearing housing on one side and on a bearing plate of the motor on the other side. In order to dismantle the chain wheel, neither the motor nor the gears need to be opened, and the chain wheel or other winding devices can be replaced through the large assembly opening produced upon dismantling the motor without further dismantling of parts. In one embodiment of the invention only four motor flange screws need to be unscrewed. The replacement time for a chain wheel in the mounting arrangement according to the invention is only a few (about 7) minutes, while it is about 0.5 to 1 hour in the case of other known chain hoists of similar construction.

The compact lifting equipment of the invention is inexpensive and flexible to use compared with known equipment and is capable of automatic assembly. In one 3 is embodiment of the invention, the centring opening of the load-bearing housing for a bearing plate of the motor is larger than the diameter of the chain wheel or another winding dev ice. The chain wheel or other winding devices which are mounted with a slide fit on involute teeth with head centring of the gear driving shaft can be assembled or dismantled through this opening.

In another embodiment of the invention, the compact lifting equipment has on its upper side an opening which can be closed by a cover, through which opening the carrier means may optionally emerge. Attachment surfaces for control elements, such as connecting strips, protective attachment rails, pulse generators and/or limit switches are preferably present on the outside of the gear cover. Furthermore, the load-bearing housing has various hole patterns for screwing on a plurality of motor sizes. This produces a great variance in the capacity, i.e. load and lifting speed. Furthermore, additional holes on the side of the load- bearing housing present the possibility of also flange-mounting the lifting equipment laterally, which is advantageous in the case of stationary operation or for certain installation requirements.

Furthermore, the compact lifting equipment according to the invention may possess a connection face for selectively receiving various carrier means guide elements at the lower carrier means emergence point.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the housing cover and/or gear cover has insertion openings into which different inserts accommodating control means, such as electrical installation, may be positively inserted in any arrangement desired, e.g. for supply cables of different dimensions, control cables including pull relief means, plug-in connection and for receiving electrical switches for the limit switch-off 4 is mechanism. Furthermore, the system permits lateral insertion of the electrical fittings which are prefabricated and tested outside the compact lifting equipment.

For the simple attachment of devices for the limit switch-off mechanism of the lifting equipment there are prepared holes on the underside of the load-bearing housing, into which holes attachment screws can be screwed directly. Installing directly acting switch elements into an enclosed chamber, preferably formed between the gear cover and a cowling, provides a high electrical protection system and high mechanical protection in an inexpensive manner. According to the invention, externally attached levers actuate the directly acting switch elements via sealed rubber membranes. This means that cable bushings from external switches are not necessary and the electric control unit can be installed completely pre- wired. Furthermore, the load-bearing housing has a lateral recess in the region of the carrier means emergence point which makes it possible to deflect the carrier means almost vertically upwards in order to obtain a favourable trolley length.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 shows a general drawing of compact lifting equipment with various chain wheels or winding devices; Figure 2 shows a horizontal longitudinal section through the compact lifting equipment; Figure 2a shows the compact lifting equipment of Figure 2,. but with the motor dismantled; Figure 3 shows the load-bearing housing of the compact lifting equipment of Figure 2 in a side view; Figure 4 shows the section IV-IV through Figure 3; Figure 5 shows a top view of Figure 3; 1 Figure 6 shows a view, from below, of the limit switch attachment to the load-bearing housing and to the gear cover; Figure 7 shows the section VII-VII through Figure 6; Figure 8 shows the switching lever of Figure 6 in the view X on a larger scale; Figure 9 shows the compact lifting equipment on a short overhead conveyor trolley with a flat cable for bottom flanges; Figure 10 shows the compact lifting equipment on a short overhead conveyor trolley with deflection of the chain to the load hook suspended at the top; Figure 11 shows side views of various carrier means guidance elements.

Figure 1 shows a load-bearing housing 1 with suspension pin 2 located between a motor 11 and a gear area with an electric cowling 22. A gear driving shaft 14 for winding devices which can be reciprocally exchanged is located in the load-bearing housing 1. The winding devices may be a normal chain wheel 23a, double chain wheel 23b, chain wheel for roller chain 23c, toothed belt roller 23d, flat cable reel 23e or a round cable reel 23f, as desired.

In Figure 2, the load-bearing housing 1 has on one side a housing wall 5 with a bearing 6 for the gear driving shaft 14, which carries a chain wheel 23a. The other side of the housing has a large centring opening 4 for the bearing plate 12 of the motor 11, in which the second bearing 15 of the gear driving shaft 14 is located. A gear cover 17 which is screwed to the loadbearing housing 1 has a motor bearing 16 for the gearside end of the motor shaft 13. Figure 3 shows that the flange surface 9 of the load-bearing housing 1 has 6 close to the centring opening 4 a plurality of threaded holes 7 for connecting motors of different sizes. Furthermore, the flange surface 9 has two attachment holes 8 for connecting the compact lifting equipment to some supporting structures.

Referring to Figures 2, 4 and 6 the load-bearing housing 1 has on its underside insertion grooves 10 for various carrier means guide elements 28a to 28d, through which the respective carrier means 29 which are used are guided. In the embodiment of Figure 2, this is a chain, for which the load-bearing housing has on its upper side an opening 30 for an insert 31 with a carrying bolt 32, which prevents the chain from forcing its way out of the chain wheel 23a. The load-bearing housing 1 has a recess 34, which can be seen in Figure 5, for guiding the carrier means according to Figure 10.

The gear cover 17 has a plurality of attachment surfaces 25 for control elements 26 which protrude into the built-in electrical space 33 surrounded by an electric cowling 22, and also insertion openings loa for cables and for switch elements 18b. Figure 2a shows the motor 11 removed from the load-bearing housing 1 and the chain wheel 23a which has been removed from the large centring opening 4.

Figures 6 to 8 show the components of the limit switch-off mechanism, for the upper hook position A and lower hook position B. A screw 19 is screwed into the load-bearing housing 1, on the head of which screw is supported a two-armed lever 20 which is held by a spring 35. The lever causes the actuation of switch elements 21 which are provided with rubber membranes 24 and are fastened in the gear cover 17 by means of inserts 18b.

The two levers 20 protrude by means of projections 20a into holes 3a of a switching lever 3 which rests with a contact surface 3b which is visible in Figure 8 7 on the guide element 28a for the carrier means 29 under the action of springs 35a which are supported on the heads of screws 19a. The actuation surfaces 3c of the switching lever 3 are arranged in a roof shape and permit the reciprocal actuation of the switch elements when the switching stops 36 of the carrier means 29 are driven into the uppermost or lowermost load position.

Figure 9 shows the compact lifting equipment on a short overhead conveyor trolley, with a flat cable carrier means 29 being guided from the flat cable reel 23e to a fixed point 39 through the upper opening 30 about deflection pulleys 37 and a bottom flange 38.

In the embodiment of Figure 10, the load-bearing housing has on its underside a chain deflection element 28c from which the carrier means 29 leads through the recess 34 via a deflection pulley 37a to a load hook 40 which can be pulled close to the compact lifting equipment so that the clearances C and L are small.

Figure 11 shows a single chain guide element 28a, a double chain guide element 28b, the chain deflection element 28c of Figure 10 and also a pressure roller element 28d for a flat cable.

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Claims

Claims is 1. Compact lifting equipment of the type comprising a central

load- bearing housing and encased gears located opposite a motor, the motor having a motor shaft extending to the gears which passes coaxially through a gear driving shaft which is a hollow shaft and bears a winding device in which the motor shaft is mounted in a gear cover located opposite the motor and the gear driving shaft is mounted in the wall of the load-bearing housing on one side and in a bearing plate of the motor on the other side, the load-bearing housing having a centring opening for the bearing plate of the motor which is larger than the diameter of the winding device.
2. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in Claim 1 in which the gear driving shaft has involute teeth with head centring and slide fit at least in the region of the winding device and of a gear bearing on the motor side.
3. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 in which the load-bearing housing has on its upper side an opening which can be closed by a cover through which opening the carrier means optionally emerges.
4. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in any preceding Claim in which attachment surfaces for control elements are present on the outside of the gear cover.
5. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in any preceding claim in which the load-bearing housing has a connection surface for receiving carrier means guide elements on the carrier means emergence side.

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6. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in any preceding Claim in which the load-bearing housing is provided on the motor side with a plurality of threaded holes for attaching motors of different sizes.
7. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in any preceding Claim in which the load-bearing housing is provided with additional attachment holes and a flange face.
8. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in any preceding Claim in which the gear cover has insertion openings in its underside for receiving inserts accommodating control means.
9. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in any preceding Claim in which the load-bearing housing is provided with holes for screws for mounting of levers for actuating electric switch elements.
10. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in Claim 9 in which the switch elements for switching off in the extreme position are located inside a closed chamber formed by the gear cover and a cowling, and can be actuated from outside by the levers via sealing rubber membranes.
11. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in any preceding claim in which the load-bearing housing has a lateral recess as a lead-through for a deflected carrier means with load hooks.
12. Compact lifting equipment as claimed in any preceding Claim in which the winding device comprises a chain wheel.
13. Compact lifting equipment substantially as herein described with reference to any one of the accompanying drawings.

is Published 1990 at The Patent Office. State House. 66'71 High Holborn. London WCIR4TP. Further copies maybe obtained from The Patent Office. Sales Branch, St Mary Cray, Orpington, Kent BR5 3AD. Printed by Multiplex techniques Itd, St Mary Cray, Kent, Con. 1187