JP2003341996A - Marker device for forklift - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a marker device for a forklift capable of preventing disappearance of a mark indicating an inserting position, and enabling efficient cargo loading work to be conducted even in a place with less light. <P>SOLUTION: A semiconductor laser 37 as a light source is supported by a lift bracket 31, and the semiconductor laser 37 moves up and down with the lift bracket 31 and a fork 33. An optical system is assembled to send laser beams in the form of a fan from the semiconductor laser 37, so that laser beam flux is radiated diagonally from above by the optical system toward the inserting position for the fork 33 to a pallet inserting port. A linear mark 39 is displayed on an upper surface of the fork 33. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a forklift marker device for displaying a mark indicating a fork insertion position with respect to a pallet insertion port.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, as shown in FIG. 4, when loading and unloading, for example, a roll-shaped load 1 palletized in front and rear two rows by a forklift 3, when loading the front and rear two rows of load 1 at a time There is. In such a case, by inserting the forks 5 into the pallets 7a and 7b as deep as possible, the forks 5 are inserted into the front and rear two rows of the pallets 7a and 7b, and the front and rear two rows of the luggage 1 Can be picked up at once.

On the other hand, there may be a case where only the one row of luggage 1 in front is unloaded, and in this case, the pallet 7 in front of the fork 5 is taken.
It is necessary to adjust the insertion amount with respect to a to an optimum amount, and conventionally, as shown in FIG. 4, it is possible to display a mark 9 indicating the insertion position at the time of unloading one row on the fork 5 with paint. Has been done.

[0004]

However, since the conventional mark 9 is formed by applying the coating material, the coating material is peeled off and the mark 9 disappears during repeated loading, so that the optimum fork 5 is obtained. Since the fork 5 cannot be inserted too deeply and the fork 5 is inserted too deeply, only the one row of luggage 1 in the foreground should be unloaded. .

In order to eliminate such inconvenience, it is considered that a V-shaped groove is formed at a position where the mark 9 should be displayed and the mark 9 made of paint is displayed in the groove. However, there is a problem that it takes time and labor to form a groove.

Further, with the mark 9 made of paint, the driver of the forklift truck 3 may find it difficult to visually recognize the mark 9 especially when carrying out cargo handling work in a dark warehouse or in a place with little light such as at night. There was a risk that it would not be possible to carry out the work well.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a marker device for a forklift which prevents the mark indicating the insertion position from disappearing and enables an efficient unloading work even in a place with little light.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is a forklift including a lift bracket that is lifted and lowered along a mast that is erected on a vehicle body, and a light beam to the lift bracket. Is provided to irradiate the upper surface of the fork with a light beam to indicate the insertion position of the fork with respect to the pallet.

According to this structure, the irradiation means provided on the lift bracket irradiates the upper surface of the fork with a light beam to display the insertion position of the fork. Is prevented from disappearing, and even when working in a place where there is little light, the mark can be visually recognized sufficiently by light, and efficient unloading work can be performed.

Further, according to the present invention, in a forklift having a fork and a lift bracket which moves up and down along a mast which is erected on a vehicle body, an irradiation means for irradiating the lift bracket with a light beam is provided, and the irradiation means It is characterized in that the side surface of the fork is irradiated with a light beam to indicate the insertion position of the fork with respect to the pallet.

According to this structure, the irradiation means provided on the lift bracket irradiates the side surface of the fork with a light beam and displays the insertion position of the fork. Is prevented from disappearing, and even when working in a place where there is little light, the mark can be visually recognized sufficiently by light, and efficient unloading work can be performed.

Further, the invention is characterized in that the irradiation means irradiates the fork with a light beam spreading in a fan shape. According to such a configuration, since the insertion position is displayed on the fork by the linear light, the driver can easily grasp to what extent the fork should be inserted into the pallet insertion port.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the irradiation means is attached so that the irradiation angle of the luminous flux with respect to the fork can be changed. With such a configuration, since the insertion position can be changed according to the size of the pallet, it is possible to easily deal with various loads.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention applied to a counterbalance type forklift will be described with reference to FIGS. However, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a counterbalance type forklift, FIG. 2 is a side view during work, and FIG. 3 is a partial side view.

The counterbalanced forklift according to this embodiment is constructed as shown in FIG. 1, for example. That is, the seat 15 provided in the driver's seat 13 of the vehicle body 11
A battery is mounted and housed under the battery, and when a key switch for starting the forklift is turned on, electric power is supplied from the battery to a traveling motor and a hydraulic motor (not shown).

When the accelerator pedal 17 is depressed, the traveling motor is driven based on the output command value from the vehicle control means such as a microcomputer, and the forward or backward direction set by operating the directional lever 19. As the vehicle body 11 travels, the steering wheel 21 controls the steering of the rear wheels 23, which are steered wheels, and the braking force is applied to the front wheels 27, which are the driving wheels, by depressing the brake pedal 25. There is.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, a mast 29 is attached to the front portion of the vehicle body 11 so as to extend and contract.
A pair of L-shaped forks 33 are attached to the shaft 9 via a lift bracket 31. Then, the hydraulic motor is driven based on the control command value corresponding to the operation of the hydraulic lever 35 such as the lift lever or the tilt lever provided in the driver's seat 13, and the lift cylinder operates to operate the mast 29 when the lift lever is operated. It expands and contracts, which allows fork 3
When the tilt lever is operated, the tilt cylinder operates and the fork 33 tilts.

The lift bracket 31 corresponds to a support member in the present invention. The lift bracket 31 supports a semiconductor laser 37 as an irradiation means, and the semiconductor laser 37 moves up and down together with the lift bracket 31 and the fork 33. As shown in FIG. 1, from this semiconductor laser 37, an optical system is incorporated to spread the laser light in a fan shape, and by this optical system, it is obliquely upward toward the insertion position of the fork 33 with respect to the pallet insertion port. A laser beam (dashed-dotted line in FIG. 1) is emitted from the light source, and a linear mark 39 is displayed on the upper surface of the fork 33.

At this time, for supporting the semiconductor laser 37, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, a mounting member 41 having a fixing portion capable of adjusting the depression angle for fixing the body of the semiconductor laser 37 is fixed to, for example, the upper left end of the lift bracket 31. Then, the case 43 of the semiconductor laser 37 may be fixed to the mounting member 41. However, the angle at which the mounting member 41 is fixed is adjusted so that the mark 39 indicates the optimum insertion position of the fork 33 with respect to the pallet insertion port, or the mounting member 4 is attached.
It is desirable to previously adjust the angle of fixing the semiconductor laser 37 with respect to 1. Incidentally, reference numeral 45 in FIG. 3 denotes a laser beam emission port, and as described above, a plurality of lenses and the like are housed in the emission port portion of the case 43, and the laser beam is fanned out and emitted. There is.

By doing so, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, when loading and unloading, for example, roll-shaped loads 49a and 49b loaded on the front and rear two rows of pallets 47a and 47b, respectively, the front row of loads is loaded. Even when only 49a is to be unloaded, it is sufficient to insert the fork 33 into the pallet insertion port with the mark 39 displayed by the linear light on the upper surface of the fork 33 as a mark.
When 3 is inserted and the fork 33 is lifted up,
Only the one row of luggage 49a on the front side can be unloaded.

Therefore, according to the above-described embodiment, the semiconductor laser 37 is supported by the lift bracket 31 so as to be vertically movable in association with the fork 33, and spreads like a fan from the semiconductor laser 37 to the insertion position of the fork 33. A light beam is emitted and a mark 39 is displayed on the upper surface of the fork 33. As a result, unlike the conventional paint mark, the mark 39 indicating the insertion position does not disappear, and even when working in a dark warehouse or in a place with little light such as outdoor work at night, the display by light is sufficient. The mark 39 can be visually recognized, and an efficient unloading work can be performed.

In the above embodiment, the semiconductor laser 37 serving as the irradiation means is fixed so that the irradiation angle cannot be changed, but the mounting means capable of changing the depression angle is fixed to the lift bracket 31. However, the semiconductor laser 37 may be attached to the attachment means so that the irradiation angle of the light flux can be changed. In this case, the depression angle of the attachment means may be manually changed, or may be changed by an external operation using an actuator such as a motor.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the semiconductor laser 37 irradiates the upper surface of the fork 33 with laser light to display the mark 39 has been described. However, the side surface of the fork 33 is irradiated with laser light to display the mark 39. May be displayed.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the irradiation means is explained as the semiconductor laser 37, but the irradiation means is not limited to this, and any means can be used as long as it can display the insertion position on the fork 33, preferably. Any light source that can irradiate a light beam that spreads in a fan shape may be used.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the counterbalance type forklift has been described, but the present invention is also applied to other types of forklifts including the reach type forklift other than the counterbalance type forklift. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied, and in this case, the same effect as that of the above-described embodiment can be obtained.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications other than those described above can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0027]

As described above, according to the invention described in claim 1, by the irradiation means provided in the lift bracket,
Since the light flux is projected onto the top of the fork and the insertion position of the fork is displayed, it is possible to prevent the mark indicating the insertion position from disappearing like the mark made with conventional paint, even when working in a place with little light, The mark displayed by the light emitted from the light irradiating means can be visually recognized sufficiently, and the cargo can be efficiently collected.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the irradiation means provided on the lift bracket irradiates the luminous flux on the side surface of the fork to display the insertion position of the fork. It is possible to prevent the mark indicating the insertion position from disappearing, and even when working in a place with little light, the mark displayed by the light of the light irradiation means makes it possible to visually recognize the mark sufficiently for efficient unloading work. It will be possible to do.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the insertion position is displayed on the fork by the linear light, the driver can easily determine how far the fork should be inserted into the pallet insertion port. It will be possible to grasp.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 4, since the insertion position can be changed according to the size of the pallet,
It becomes possible to easily deal with the loading of various loads.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a counterbalanced forklift according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the embodiment of the present invention during work.

FIG. 3 is a partial side view of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view from the bottom side of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

31 lift bracket 33 forks 37 Semiconductor laser (irradiation means) 47a and 47b pallets 49a, 49b luggage

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A forklift including a fork and a lift bracket that moves up and down along a mast that is erected on a vehicle body. An irradiation means for irradiating the lift bracket with a light beam is provided, and the irradiation means is provided on the upper surface of the fork. A forklift marker device, characterized in that a forklift marker is illuminated by illuminating a light beam to indicate a position where the fork is inserted into the pallet. 2. A forklift including a fork and a lift bracket that moves up and down along a mast that is erected on a vehicle body. An irradiation means for irradiating the lift bracket with a light beam is provided, and the irradiation means is provided on a side surface of the fork. A forklift marker device, characterized in that a forklift marker is illuminated by illuminating a light beam to indicate a position where the fork is inserted into the pallet. 3. The marker device for a forklift according to claim 1, wherein the irradiation unit irradiates the fork with a light beam that spreads in a fan shape. 4. The marker device for a forklift according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the irradiation means is attached so that an irradiation angle of a light beam with respect to the fork can be changed.