GB873314A - Improvements in or relating to devices for driving and braking conveyor loads - Google Patents

Abstract

873,314. Conveyers. REGIE NATIONALE DES USINES RENAULT. March 25, 1958 [April 5, 1957], No. 9620/58. Class 104 (2). A coupling spring member made of resilient material and adapted to be mounted on one of two movable means of which one is intended to drive and/or control the other, the coupling spring-member having a transverse recess in which a projection provided on the other of the two movable means can be locked and on opposite sides of the recess a pair of receding cam-like surfaces adapted to co-operate with the projection, the arrangement being such that upon engagement of one or other of the receding cam-like surfaces by the projection, the coupling spring member will gradually yield to allow relative sliding movement between the projection and one or other surface until the recess can be snapped over the projection to lock the latter therein. A pneumatic cylinder 13 has a piston-rod 12 on the end of which a guide 11 supports the spring-member 6. A trolley 3 supporting a load container runs by inertia and/or gravity along a track and actuates a relay valve 16 supplying compressed air from a distributer 14 to operate the cylinder and cause the trolley projection 5 to lock in the central transverse recess 7 of the spring member. The cylinder rod drives the trolley to a position where a pair of spaced cam-members 20 engage and lift the lateral bearing-faces 9 and 10 of the spring-member to release the projection 5 therefrom. The trolley then operates a relay valve 17 controlling the return movement of the cylinder rod. A number of spring-members may be mounted on a conveyer such as a chain or on trolleys. The spring-member may have a web 21 which bulges downwardly with two narrower raised portions 22 forming a recess 23 between them.