GB661215A - Transfer mechanisms for containers - Google Patents

Abstract

661,215. Handling transferable load-containers. HODGES RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CO. Feb. 18, 1949. [March 29, 1948] No. 4470/49. Class 78(iv). In means for transferring a wheeled freight-container from one vehicle or platform to another, articulated bridging elements are slidably mounted in wheelguides recessed in the surface of one vehicle or platform. In Fig. 2 each of the bridging elements comprises a central section 39 sliding in a guide 20 on a railway car platform 11 and articulated at each end to sections 40, 41, 42 by means of vertical pivots 48, 50 and a horizontal pivot 49. The whole of the bridging means may be housed in the guide 20 and may be withdrawn so that, as shown in Fig. 2a, the section 42 may rest by a tongue 51 on the base of a channel 54 on the platform 12 of a road vehicle trailer and be secured in position by a pin 60 passing through holes in lugs 58 forming adjustable ends for the channel 54 and through a vertical slot (not shown) in the section 42. The container 10 (Fig. 1) to be moved is equipped with hydraulic jacks 14 which may be removable and which each carry a wheel 18 formed with a central groove 19 (Fig. 3). When the jacks 14 are extended with the container 10 on the railcar, the flanges 28, 29 of each wheel 18 engage tracks 26, 27 on members 24, 25 secured with the aid of spacers 30, 31 in the guide 20 so that no pressure is exerted on the bridging element. The tracks 26, 27 are formed at their ends with ramps 32, 33 (Fig. 2) down which the flanges 28, 29 of the wheels 18 roll until the groove 19 engages the upper surface of the bridging element means. To facilitate passage of the wheels 18 the upper surface of the bridging means is reduced in width at 38a, 38b adjacent the vertical pivots 48, 50. The upper surface of the tongue 51 is formed as a ramp 52 to lower the wheels 18 until the flanges 28, 29 engage the base of the channel 54. The central section 39 of each bridging element is guided in the guide 20 by shoes 43, 44 (Figs. 2 and 3) pivoted at 45 to the section 39 and adapted to engage the undersides of the members 24, 25. The means for moving the containers between the vehicles comprises winches 63, 64 mounted on a shaft 65 on the railcar and controlled in their rotation together in either direction by a. lever 66. Cables 80, 82 are oppositely wound on the winches 63, 64 respectively and pass under rollers 73 in brackets 67, 68 and over pulleys 71 or 72 in frames 69, 70, pivoted in the brackets 67, 68, for connection at 81, 83 respectively to the container 10. The cable 80 passes between the pulley 71 and connection 81 by way of a pulley 75 in a bracket 77 pivoted at 78 to the trailer 12 and held against lateral movement in the position shown by horns 79.