JP3971676B2 - Twin wheel casters - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improvement in a twin-wheel caster having wheel braking and a turning lock.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-58203 has been proposed as a two-wheel caster that performs wheel braking and turning lock by operating an operation lever.
In this twin-wheel caster, a twin-wheel is rotatably supported via an axle, and a caster body is provided on the front side in the advancing direction so that the shaft is rotatably mounted. A wheel lock member for braking the wheel is elastically supported in the recess, and both side protrusions face engagement grooves formed on the inner periphery of each wheel. The operating lever has a front cam surface engaged with the wheel lock member and is pivotally supported by the caster body so as to project the operating portion so as to be able to swing rearward. A horizontal hole formed on the lower side of the axle. Inside, a shaft lock member for performing a rotation lock was inserted, and a tip portion was elastically supported by a rotation stop collar provided at the lower end of the shaft. Then, both end portions of the double stopper lever are respectively engaged with the wheel lock member and the shaft lock member, and are pivotally supported on the caster body so that the wheel and the shaft can be moved by operating the operation lever. It was supposed to lock at the same time.
However, in the above configuration, it is necessary to incorporate a wheel lock member, a double stopper lever, and a shaft lock member in the caster body, and the structure is complicated, requiring time and effort for assembly, and having a large number of parts. was there.
Moreover, since the double stopper lever is only latched by the both ends of the wheel lock member and the shaft lock member, the shaft lock member does not operate when either one is removed. There were also drawbacks.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The present invention was devised in order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and its main problem is that the configuration can be further simplified, the reliability is improved, and the braking force and turning lock force of the wheel are improved. The present invention provides a twin-wheel caster capable of performing the above. Another object of the present invention is to provide a twin-wheel caster in which an operation lever is prevented from rotating with a light force.
[0004]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, in the invention of claim 1,
In the two-wheel caster that pivotally supports the left and right wheels and has a yoke portion in which the shaft is pivotably attached, and is configured to simultaneously perform wheel braking and turning lock by operating the operation lever.
A revolving slidable lock plate urged in the engaging direction is slidably slidably engaged with the engaging portion for the shaft provided in the lower portion of the shaft, and is urged in the wheel braking direction. An actuating member having a wheel braking piece that can be fitted and removed on a wheel engagement receiving portion formed on the inner periphery of each wheel on one side and a link piece that is hooked on the turning lock plate on the other side. Is pivotally attached to the yoke portion at a midway position of the operating member, and the link piece is hooked to the turning lock plate so that the wheel braking piece is displaced to the wheel braking position. The technical means of engaging the lock plate with the hook engaging portion is taken.
In the invention of claim 2,
The technical means is provided that the pivot position of the actuating member is arranged on the same line as the restraining direction of the wheel when the protrusion of the wheel braking piece is engaged with the wheel engagement receiving portion.
[0005]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the twin-wheel caster of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the twin-wheel caster includes a yoke portion 1, a pair of left and right twin wheels 3 rotatably supported on the yoke portion 1 via an axle 2, and a traveling direction of the yoke portion 1. And a flange 5 that is rotatably fitted in a mounting hole 4 formed on the front side.
[0006]
A screw portion 5a is engraved on the upper portion of the shaft 5 so that it can be screwed to an attached body side (not shown).
In this invention, not only the said structure but the structure which fixes a plate-shaped mounting base to the upper end of the collar shaft 5, and fixes this mounting base to a to-be-attached body by screwing etc. may be sufficient. In addition, each wheel 3 has a known configuration in which concave wheel engagement receiving parts 6 are radially arranged.
In other words, a large number of recesses are formed at equal intervals in the circumferential direction around the axle 2 on the inner peripheral surface of the wheel 3 to constitute the wheel engagement receiving portion 6.
[0007]
On the other hand, a swivel stop plate 15 serving as a hook shaft engaging portion is fixed to the lower end of the shaft 5 so as to move integrally with the shaft 5.
The swivel stop plate 15 is formed in a substantially gear shape in which a large number of longitudinal grooves 15 a are formed at equal intervals in the circumferential direction around the flange shaft 5 along the outer periphery.
[0008]
Next, the yoke portion 1 is formed with a hollow portion 8 for accommodating a braking or locking mechanism on the rear side in the traveling direction, and communicates with an opening in the rear upper portion into which the base portion of the operation lever 20 is fitted.
That is, the hollow member 8 accommodates an operating member 10 urged by a coil spring 9 and is pivotally attached to the outer wall portion 1 a of the yoke portion 1.
The actuating member 10 has a configuration in which a wheel braking piece 11 is provided on one side, a bracket 13 is provided at a midway position, and a link piece 14 is integrally formed on the other side.
[0009]
The wheel braking piece 11 is provided with both side protrusions 12, 12 protruding outward from the lateral width of the yoke part 1, and these protrusions 12, 12 are connected to the wheel engagement receiving parts 6 of the wheels 3, 3 on both sides. To face.
Further, a latching projection 11 a for locking the coil spring 9 is provided on the lower surface of the wheel braking piece 11.
[0010]
On the other hand, the yoke portion 1 is provided with a latching projection 11b projecting toward the hollow portion 38 so as to face the latching projection 11a of the wheel braking piece 11, and a compressed coil spring 9 is interposed therebetween. It is installed.
As a result, the wheel braking piece 11 is biased in the braking direction (outside in the radial direction of the wheel).
Moreover, the link piece 14 is arrange | positioned below through the bracket 13, and the front-end | tip is latched by the turning lock board 30 mentioned later.
[0011]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an operating lever 20 is pivotally supported on the yoke portion 1 so as to be swingable up and down via a shaft P <b> 2.
The bottom surface of the operation lever 20 bends in accordance with the tilt angle of the operation lever 20, and is set at a low position to release the wheel braking piece 11 in the braking release direction, and pushed up in the braking direction at the high position. A braking cam surface 22 is provided, which can be engaged with the outer surface of the wheel braking piece 11.
[0012]
Further, the operation portion 23 is exposed on the rear side in the moving direction of the yoke portion 1 at the upper portion of the operation lever 20.
The operation unit 23 is a pressing surface, and “OFF” is displayed on the inner side and “ON” is displayed on the outer side. A “stop” sheet is affixed to the front surface 24 of the operation lever 20.
[0013]
If this operation lever 20 is set to the ON position pivoted downward (see FIGS. 1 and 5), the braking cam surface 22 comes into contact with the outer surface of the wheel braking piece 11, and therefore the wheel braking piece 11 is coiled. Energized by the spring 9, both side protrusions 12, 12 engage with the wheel engagement receiving parts 6 of the both side wheels 3, 3 to brake the wheels 3, 3.
In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the pivoting position P1 of the actuating member 10 is defined as the restraining direction of the wheel 3 when the projection 12 of the wheel braking piece 11 is engaged with the wheel engagement receiving portion 6. It arrange | positions on the same line L1, and it is comprised so that the rotational braking force by the wheel braking piece 11 may be raised.
[0014]
2 and FIG. 6 pivoted upward, the release cam surface 21 pushes down the outer surface of the wheel braking piece 11 against the coil spring 9, and both side protrusions 12, 12 are used for the wheel. It is made to detach | leave from the engagement receiving part 6, and is hold | maintained in the state which cancels | releases braking of a wheel.
[0015]
Next, on the lower side of the hollow portion 8 of the yoke portion 1, a substantially gear-shaped turning stop plate 15 having an unevenness formed on the outer periphery at the lower end of the shaft 5 is fixed horizontally below the axle 2. A horizontally elongated hole 16 extending horizontally and communicating with the hollow portion 8 is formed toward the rotation stop plate 15.
[0016]
The hole 16 has an engagement protrusion 31 that engages with and disengages from the rotation stop plate 15 at the tip, and a plate-shaped rotation lock plate 30 urged in the engagement direction is slidably inserted. Yes.
In the case of the illustrated example, the yoke portion 1 has a protruding wall portion 18 that protrudes from the bottom wall surface 19 and supports the turning lock plate 30 on the upper surface, and a gap is provided on the front side of the protruding wall portion 18. A rear end portion of a coil spring 17 described later is supported on the front surface.
On the other hand, the turning lock plate 30 integrally has a constraining wall portion 30a that slides along the bottom wall surface 19 of the yoke portion 1 and that approaches or separates from the protruding wall portion 18 on the lower surface in front thereof. ing.
On the bottom wall surface 19 of the yoke portion 1, a lateral coil spring 17 compressed between the protruding wall portion 18 and the restraining wall portion 30a is interposed to urge the turning lock plate 30 in the locking direction. ing.
[0017]
The turning lock plate 30 is provided with a locking hole 32 on the tip side (near the right side in FIG. 1).
The bent lower end portion of the link piece 14 of the operating member 10 is locked in the locking hole 32 so that the turning lock plate 30 can be moved forward and backward by tilting displacement of the link piece 14. It has become.
[0018]
With the above configuration, when the operation lever 20 is depressed, the wheel braking piece 11 of the actuating member 10 is urged radially outward as the braking cam surface 22 retracts radially outward of the wheel 3. The both side protrusions 12 are engaged with the wheel engagement receiving portions 6 of the wheels 3.
Accordingly, the link piece 14 is tilted and displaced in the braking direction, and the turning lock plate 30 slides forward in the traveling direction toward the lower end of the shaft 5 while being urged by the coil spring 17, and the tip portion 31. Engages with the longitudinal groove 15 a of the rotation stop plate 15.
As a result, the braking of the wheel 3 and the turning lock about the saddle shaft 5 are performed simultaneously.
[0019]
Further, when the operation lever 20 is operated in the reverse upward direction and pushed up, the release cam surface 21 pushes the wheel braking piece 11 of the operating member 10 inward in the radial direction against the urging force. Is released from the wheel engagement receiving portion 6 of the wheel 3 and the braking of the wheel 3 is released.
[0020]
At the same time, the tilting of the link piece 14 of the actuating member 10 causes the turning lock plate 30 to return to the rear side in the traveling direction against the urging force, the engagement with the turning stop plate 15 is released, and the yoke about the flange shaft 5 is released. The part 1 can turn freely.
For this reason, the operation of the operation lever 20 enables the braking of the wheel 3 or the release thereof and the turning lock or the release thereof simultaneously and reliably.
In addition, it goes without saying that various design changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
[0021]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, since the wheel braking piece is provided on the operating member and the link piece that is engaged with the turning lock plate is provided, the number of components can be reduced and the configuration can be simplified.
Further, the rotational braking force can be improved by arranging the pivot position of the actuating member on the same line as the restraining direction of the wheel when the projection of the wheel braking piece is engaged with the wheel engagement receiving portion. .
Further, since the configuration is simple, it is suitable for industrial mass production, and wheel braking and turning lock can be reliably and highly reliably performed by one-touch operation, which is extremely beneficial.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a partial sectional view showing a locked state in a preferred embodiment of a twin-wheel caster.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an unlocked state of the twin-wheel caster.
FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view as seen from the front of FIG. 1;
4 is a plan view of FIG. 1. FIG.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a pivot position of an operating member and omitting other configurations.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a positional relationship between an operation member and an operation lever at the time of braking, and omitting other configurations.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a positional relationship between an operation member and an operation lever at the time of braking release, and omitting other configurations.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Yoke part 2 Axle 3 Wheel 5 竪 axle 6 Wheel engagement receiving part 9 Coil spring 10 Actuating member 11 Wheel brake piece 12 Projection part 13 Bracket 14 Link piece 15 Turning stop plate 20 Operation lever 30 Turning lock plate

Claims (2)

In the two-wheel caster that pivotally supports the left and right wheels and has a yoke portion in which the shaft is pivotably attached, and is configured to simultaneously perform wheel braking and turning lock by operating the operation lever.
A swivel lock plate that slides detachably on a hook shaft engaging portion provided at a lower portion of the hook shaft and is urged in an engaging direction is provided.
One side has a wheel braking piece that is urged in the wheel braking direction and the both side protrusions can be fitted to and disengaged from the wheel engagement receiving part formed on the inner periphery of each wheel, and the other is hooked on the turning lock plate. An actuating member having a stopped link piece is pivotally attached to the yoke part at a midway position of the actuating member;
When the link piece is hooked so as to be interlocked with the turning lock plate, and the wheel braking piece is displaced to the braking position of the wheel, the turning lock plate is engaged with the shaft engaging portion by the displacement of the link piece. A twin-wheel caster characterized by The pivot position of the actuating member is disposed on the same line as the restraining direction of the wheel when the protrusion of the wheel braking piece is engaged with the wheel engagement receiving portion. Twin wheel caster.

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