GB949202A - Improvements in or relating to conveyor installations - Google Patents

Abstract

949,202. Overhead conveyer systems. FISHER & LUDLOW Ltd. Oct. 11, 1960 [July 11, 1959; Jan. 14, 1960], Nos. 23884/59 and 1425/60. Heading B7L. In a conveyer installation in which load carriers 12 are propelled along a track 10 by dogs 16, 17 depending from a chain 13 running on an overhead track 11 and in which the driving connections between the dogs 16, 17 and the carrier 12 can be discontinued and the carrier 12 arrested at a location or a plurality of spaced apart locations by a stop element 32, displaceable between carrier release and holding positions and operated by a control 29 from position in advance of the carrier 12, each stop element 32 is provided with a locking member 42 displaceable between a free position and a locking position in which it locks the stop element 32 in the carrier holding position and the locking member 42 is provided with a follower portion 47 which, when the locking member is in the locking position, can be temporarily engaged by an abutment 18 associated with the driving dog 16 to displace the locking member 42 to its free position to allow the stop element 32 to move to the carrier release position if permitted by the associated control 29. The apparatus operates as follows. The various parts, Fig. 3 (not shown), are initially in the inoperative position when a carrier 12 is advanced into engagement with the control element 29 and the drive to such carrier is disengaged so that the carrier is arrested at this position. The engagement and subsequent arrest of the carrier 12 displaces the control element 29 into the operative position, Fig. 2, to cause, through an arm 26, a sleeve 20 to rotate in a clockwise direction to bring an associated carrier drive disengagement element 19 and the stop element 32 into the operative position shown in full outline in Fig. 2. During the movement of the elements 19, 32 to the operative position, a nose portion 45, attached to the stop element 32, rides under a downwardly inclined limb of the locking member 42 which is lifted and then falls under gravity into the locking position, Fig. 1, in which position an upturned end 44 of the limb engages behind the nose 45 to hold the elements 19, 32 in their operative position. When a second carrier 12 is advanced by a dog 16 up to the operatively disposed elements 19, 32, Fig. 1, an abutment 18 engages the upper side of the carrier drive disengaging element 19 so as to slide the dog 16 out of engagement with the carrier drive abutment 15 and the carrier is now arrested by the engagement of the abutment 15 with a limb 36 of a stop member 34, Fig. 2, mounted in the stop element 32. The parts remain in this operative position as long as the first carrier 12 remains in engagement with the element 29 and any abutment 18 of a succeeding drive dog 16, not in engagement with a carrier, advancing to the locking member 42 will engage the underside of the follower portion 47 to temporarily lift the locking member 42 but the elements 19, 32 will remain in their operative position. If the carrier 12, in engagement with the control element 29, is advanced clear of the element 29 the element 29 and the elements 19, 32 are free to return to their inoperative position, shown dotted in Fig. 2, and this is effected when an advancing dog abutment 18 engages the follower portion 47 to lift the locking member 42 clear of the nose 45 and the stop element 32 will now be swung, by a helical spring 37, out of engagement with the abutment 15 and the elements 29, 19, 32 will be returned to their inoperative position and the now released carrier 12 will be driven by the driving dog 16 engaging the carrier abutment 15. The locking member 42 is pivotally mounted on plate 38 which may be modified, Figs. 6 and 7 (not shown), to allow the assembly to be secured to the side of tracks which are curved in a horizontal plane. Specifications 819,343, 875,082, 875,083, 949,204, 949,205, 949,206 and 949,207 are referred to.