JP3223834U - dolly - Google Patents

Abstract

A novel and alternative dolly structure is provided. A dolly (100) features a frame (110) and at least one swivel caster (120) attached to the frame (110), wherein at least one wheel groove (116) is at least partially superimposed on the dolly swivel caster. It is bounded by a frame 110 that receives the wheel. The dolly has an arcuate wheel support 114 that is configured to at least partially delimit the wheel groove 116 and to engage and support the rolling surface of the wheel of the superimposed dolly swivel caster. Have. [Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to logistics equipment. In particular, the present invention relates to dolly.

  A wide variety of devices are known for use in transporting parcels. Typically, one of them or a stack is loaded onto a wheeled platform and carried to a store or warehouse. These pedestals with wheels are called dolly. Conventional dollies feature a rectangular chassis welded together from a tube having a rectangular profile. The fixed caster is fixed to one end of the dolly by bolts or rivet joints. Each caster is typically secured using four bolts. The fixed casters are such that the wheels of the casters are permanently aligned on one side of the dolly. At the opposite end of the dolly, a swivel caster is provided using similar bolts or rivet joints. The articulated structure allows the wheel to rotate about an axis orthogonal to the wheel's axis of rotation, i.e., a vertical axis.

  The top surface of the dolly has a wheel chamber or groove for receiving the superimposed dolly wheels. The wheel of a fixed caster is received in a groove formed so that the wheel fits snugly, thereby minimizing play between the dolly. The wheel groove is used to provide lateral support for the wheel so that the wheel is locked in place, thus preventing the caster joint from moving during transport of the dolly stack.

  A new and alternative dolly structure is proposed herein. The dolly features a frame and at least one swivel caster attached to the frame. The at least one wheel groove is at least partially bounded by a frame that receives the wheels of the superimposed dolly swivel casters. The dolly has an arcuate wheel support that is configured to at least partially demarcate the wheel groove and to engage and support the rolling surface of the wheel of the superimposed dolly swivel caster.

  The invention is defined by the features of the independent claims. Some specific embodiments are defined in the dependent claims.

  Great advantages are gained using the new proposal. The wheel support provides the advantage of supporting stacked dolly swivel caster wheels regardless of wheel orientation. Thus, such a dolly stack can be quickly and reliably ensured that there is no need to manually align the wheels to stack.

  In the following, specific embodiments of the novel proposal will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a dolly according to at least some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the four dolly stack of FIG. FIG. 3a shows a top elevational view of the dolly of FIG. 1 carrying a wheel of a stacked dolly swivel caster (which was omitted from FIG. 3a for illustration) with the wheel facing the first longitudinal direction. Show. FIG. 3b shows a top elevational view of the dolly of FIG. 3a with superimposed wheels in a tilted direction with respect to the first longitudinal direction. FIG. 3c shows a top elevational view of the dolly of FIG. 3a with the superimposed wheels in the second longitudinal direction.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the dolly 100 has a substantially quadrilateral frame 110. The rectangular shape has two transverse frame members 112 extending parallel to each other at a distance and two longitudinal frame members 112 extending parallel to each other at a distance from each other. The frame member 111 is formed. Frame members 111, 112, which can have a rectangular cross section, are welded together to form a rectangular chassis.

  Two swivel casters 120 are attached to one end of the frame 110 (ie, the front end) and below the frame 110. Both of the two swivel casters include a wheel 121 rotatably attached to the fork 122, and the fork 122 is rotatably attached to the frame 110 via a wheel plate 113. The rotation axis of the wheel 121 is on the horizontal line, and the rotation axis of the fork 122 is on the vertical line. In other words, the rotation axis of the wheel 121 is orthogonal to that of the fork 122. The wheel plate 133 is held on the frame 110 by reinforcing bars 118 that cross the space delimited by the frame 110. The design shown in FIG. 1 includes two longitudinal reinforcement bars 118 that support the inner ends of each wheel plate 113 and three transverse reinforcement bars 119, two of which have longitudinal reinforcement bars 118. A transverse reinforcing bar 119 is shown that extends across, one of which extends across the longitudinal frame member 112.

  Two fixed casters 130 are provided at the opposite end of the frame 110 with respect to the swivel caster 120 and below the frame 110. According to this embodiment, the wheels of the fixed casters are permanently aligned with one side (rear side) of the dolly, which is the longitudinal side.

  The top side of the dolly 110 has two wheel grooves 116 that receive each wheel 121 of the swivel caster 120 of the stacked dolly 100 and two wheel grooves 117 that receive each wheel of the fixed caster 130 of the stacked dolly 100. Have. Thus, the wheel grooves 116, 117 are aligned with the casters 120, 130 on the opposite side (ie bottom) of the frame 110. The wheel groove 117 that receives the wheel of the fixed caster 130 is defined by the top surface of the fork of the fixed caster 130, the rear of the frame 110 of the dolly 100, and by the rearmost transverse reinforcing bar 119. The rearmost transverse reinforcing bar 119 also serves as the attachment point for the rear end of the longitudinal reinforcing bar 118.

  The bottom of the wheel groove 116 that receives the wheel 121 of the swivel caster 120 is formed by the wheel plate 113. One side of the wheel groove 116 is formed by the frame 110, in particular by the longitudinal frame member 112. On the other hand, the wheel groove 116 is defined by the wheel support 114. The wheel support 114 can be a strip of metal, plastic, composite material, or other suitable material formed to form part of the wheel groove 116. In the illustrated example, the wheel support 114 has an arch shape. The wheel support 114 extends from a front point on the inner surface of the longitudinal frame member 112 of the frame 110 to a rear point. The central area of the arch contacts the longitudinal reinforcement bar 118. The bottom portion of the wheel support portion 114 is supported by the wheel plate 113. The wheel support 114 can be welded to the wheel plate 113, the frame 110, and / or the reinforcement bar 118. Thus, the wheel support 114 extends above the wheel plate 113 in a space defined by the transverse frame members and the longitudinal frame members 111, 112.

  When stacked, the rolling surface of the wheel 121 of the stacked dolly 100 contacts the wheel plate 113 at the bottom of the wheel and contacts the wheel support 114 at a higher peripheral point of the rolling surface. The wheel groove 116 also includes a second contact point in contact with the rolling surface of the wheel that is opposite to the higher contact point between the wheel support 114 and the rolling surface of the wheel with respect to the bottom contact point. be able to. According to an embodiment not shown, the second contact point is formed by a groove on the wheel plate formed to match the shape of the rolling surface of the wheel. According to the illustrated embodiment, the second contact point is formed by the bolt head 115 of the bolt that connects the fork 122 of the swivel wheel 120 to the frame 100. The bolt head 115 is formed to match the shape of the rolling surface of the wheel. In particular, the bolt head 115 can comprise an inclined or arched side that contacts the rolling surface of the wheel, including an inclined shape, a concave shape, a convex shape, or other suitable shape. The bolt head 115 supports the wheel contact surface above the contact point between the wheel plate 113 and the wheel. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the bolt head 115 is closer to the frame 110 than the wheel support 114.

  The proposed structure allows such a dolly 100 to be easily stacked. FIG. 2 shows a stack of four identical dollies 100 with suffixes A-D indicating the stacking order. FIGS. 3a-3c show how the wheel support 114 allows it to be in several different directions with respect to the stacked wheel 121B. Not only can the wheel 121B of the superimposed dolly 100B (see FIG. 2) be longitudinal (see FIGS. 3a and 3c), but the wheel 121B is also oriented at an angled intermediate angular position with respect to the rotation axis of the caster To obtain (see FIG. 3b). Thus, the arched wheel support 114 facilitates free angular orientation of the casters.

100 Dolly 110 Frame 111 Transverse member 112 Longitudinal member 113 Wheel plate 114 Wheel support 115 Bolt head 116 (for swivel caster) wheel groove 117 (for fixed caster) wheel groove 118 Longitudinal reinforcement bar 119 Transverse reinforcement bar 120 Swivel caster 121 Wheel 122 Fork 130 Fixed caster

Claims (9)

A frame (110);
At least one swivel caster (120) attached to the frame (110);
At least partially delimited by the frame (110) and comprising at least one wheel groove (116) configured to receive the wheel (121B) of a swivel caster of an overlaid dolly (100B). Dolly (100)
At least partially demarcating the wheel groove (116) and configured to engage and support the rolling surface of the wheel (121B) of the swivel caster of the stacked dolly (100B) Characterized by an arcuate wheel support (114), dolly. Dolly according to claim 1, wherein the frame (110) is
Two longitudinal frame members (112) extending parallel to each other at a distance;
Two transverse frame members (111) forming a quadrilateral shape for the frame (110), extending parallel to each other at a distance and connecting the two longitudinal frame members (112);
A wheel plate (113) forming the bottom of the wheel groove (116),
A dolly, wherein the wheel support (114) extends above the wheel plate (113) in a space defined by the transverse frame members and the longitudinal frame members (111, 112).   The arcuate wheel support (114) is coupled to the longitudinal frame member or the transverse frame member (112, 111) from one of the longitudinal frame member or the transverse frame member (112, 111). The dolly of claim 2, wherein the dolly extends to one of the following. A dolly according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the arcuate wheel support (114) is a strip welded to the frame (110) at both ends. The wheel plate (113) is configured to contact the bottom point of the rolling surface of the wheel;
The wheel plate (113) includes a second contact point that contacts the rolling surface of the wheel, the second contact point being associated with the wheel support (114) and the wheel with respect to the bottom contact point. The dolly according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the dolly is on the side opposite to the contact point between the rolling surfaces.   The dolly according to claim 5, wherein the second contact point is formed by a groove on the wheel plate (113), the groove being formed to match the shape of the rolling surface of the wheel. .   The second contact point is formed by a bolt head (115) that connects the fork (122) of the swivel wheel (120) to the frame (100), the bolt head (115) being The dolly according to claim 5, wherein the dolly is formed to match the shape of the rolling surface of the wheel.   The dolly according to claim 7, wherein the bolt head (115) comprises an inclined or arcuate side that contacts the rolling surface of the wheel.   The dolly according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the bolt head (115) is closer to the frame (110) than the wheel support (114).