JPH10239138A - Level gauge of oil tank - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely and easily refill an oil tank with oil to a prescribed level in a short time at the time of refilling the tank with the oil by automatically detecting the level of the oil with a simple means when the level reaches a prescribed height. SOLUTION: The level gauge 7 is provided with a oil feeding cap 9, which can close the oil feeding port 12 of an oil tank 1, a bar-like body 8, which is attached to the cap 9 in a hanging-down state and carries scale divisions 10a, 10b, and 10c indicating different oil levels, and a float 11, which is attached to a prescribed position of the bar-like body 8. Oil is fed through an opening H, which is formed when the cap 9 is shifted on the port 9. Since the whole body of the level gauge 7 comes up due to the buoyancy of the float 11, which is attached to the bar-like body 8 so that the float 11 may be soaked in the oil when the oil level L reaches a prescribed height, it can be detected that are oil level L reaches the prescribed height and the oil feeding can be stopped.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a level gauge provided in a tank which needs to store a predetermined amount of liquid oil, such as a hydraulic oil tank for a hydraulic actuator in an industrial vehicle such as a forklift. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An industrial vehicle such as a forklift is provided with a hydraulic oil tank for storing hydraulic oil to be supplied to a hydraulic cylinder or the like in a hydraulic operating device for cargo handling work. It is sometimes necessary to check whether or not hydraulic oil is contained, and if it is insufficient, it is necessary to replenish the hydraulic oil to a predetermined level. FIGS. 6A to 6C show the structure of a conventional hydraulic oil tank and a level gauge for replenishing the hydraulic oil and checking the level at that time, and the procedures for inspection, replenishment, and confirmation using the tank. An oil supply port 2 is provided at the upper part of a hydraulic oil tank (generally, an oil tank containing liquid oil) 1 containing hydraulic oil. A lubrication cap 3 made of rubber, for example, having a circular cross section, which is a stopper, is fitted tightly while maintaining a liquid-tight state. A level gauge 4 made of an iron rod extends from the center of the oil supply cap 3 into the hydraulic oil tank 1, and a scale 5 (5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, etc.) is required at a position corresponding to a predetermined oil level. The number is engraved.

In this case, the lowest scale 5a indicates the minimum level of the hydraulic oil A to be held in the hydraulic oil tank 1, and the hydraulic oil A in the tank 1 decreases as shown in FIG. If the oil level L is below the scale 5a and the hydraulic oil is attached to the portion of the level gauge 4 below the scale 5a at the time of inspection, or if the hydraulic oil is not attached to the tip of the level gauge 4, FIG. 6 (b) as shown in FIG.
The hydraulic oil is additionally supplied from the oil supply port 2 to a target level among the scales 5b, 5c and 5d.

However, since the hydraulic oil tank 1 is made of metal, it is not transparent, and it is visually confirmed from the outside how much the oil level L in the hydraulic oil tank 1 has increased due to the additional supply of hydraulic oil. Since there is no means, the oil supply is stopped occasionally, the oil supply cap 3 is completely pushed into the oil supply port 2, and the length W of the tip of the level gauge 4 attached to the oil supply cap 3 to which the hydraulic oil is attached is checked. Until the length W of the oil-wetted portion reaches one of the target graduations 5, the operation of refueling and level measurement is repeated as many times as necessary. If this operation is not performed in small increments, the hydraulic oil may be excessively added and the level L may rise excessively. When the oil is excessively supplied, it is not easy to extract a part of the hydraulic oil from the hydraulic oil tank 1. At the time of refueling, the level gauge 4 is pulled out while examining the length W of the wet portion while supplying the hydraulic oil little by little even if it is troublesome, and it is wiped off. It is necessary to measure and confirm the oil level L, which gradually increases, carefully and by trial and error by repeating the procedure of completely pushing the oil level L.

[0005]

As described above, when a predetermined amount of oil is additionally supplied into the oil tank, in an oil tank equipped with a conventional level gauge, the steps of refueling and troublesome level measurement are performed in small steps. Therefore, such conventional refueling work requires a lot of time and labor, and therefore requires a longer working time than expected. The present invention addresses the aforementioned problems in the prior art and improves the oil tank level gauge so that it does not merely look at the length of the oil-wetted part, As before, when the oil level of the oil being added reaches the desired level in the oil tank, this allows the operator to immediately detect the condition. An object of the present invention is to provide a level gauge for an oil tank having a novel configuration, which eliminates the need to repeatedly perform refueling and level measurement in small steps by trial and error.

[0006]

According to the present invention, as a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, there is provided an oil supply cap capable of closing an oil supply port provided in an oil tank, and a fuel supply cap which is attached so as to hang down from the oil supply cap. An oil tank level gauge includes a rod having a scale indicating an oil level and a float attached to a predetermined position of the rod.

According to the present invention, the position of the float attached to the rod can be adjusted so as to be movable by the adjustable fixing means with respect to the rod. Further, it is desirable that the rod-shaped body hanging down from the refueling cap into the oil tank is mounted at a position eccentric to the center of the refueling cap. As a more specific embodiment of the present invention, the shape of the cross section of the oil supply port of the oil tank and the oil supply cap matching the oil supply port can be oval.

[0008]

According to the oil tank level gauge of the present invention,
It is attached so as to hang down from the oil supply cap that closes the oil supply port provided in the oil tank, and a float is attached to a predetermined position of a rod-shaped body having a scale indicating the oil level, so that the oil supply cap is removed from the oil supply port. At the same time, by leaving the rod-shaped body with the float in the filler port and placing the filler cap on the filler port to one side, additional oil is supplied from the opening of the resulting gap, the oil level rises and the float is immersed. At this time, the buoyancy acting on the float raises the entire level gauge including the float, that is, the rod-shaped body and the refueling cap, from the refueling port. Refueling up to the level can be completed. Therefore, the oil can be surely replenished with much less time and labor than the conventional oiling method in which the oiling is performed little by little while checking the wetness of the level gauge by trial and error.

More specifically, the height of the target oil level can be freely selected by attaching the float to the rod so as to adjust its movement. In addition, by mounting the rod-shaped body hanging from the fuel filler cap at a position eccentric with respect to the center of the fuel filler cap, a large opening for refueling is formed as a gap when the fuel filler cap is displaced above the fuel filler port. Therefore, it becomes easy to insert the spout of the lubricator into the opening. More specifically, the shape of the cross section of the oil supply port of the oil tank and the oil supply cap that matches the shape is oval, so that a relatively large opening for oil supply can be provided even if the size of the oil supply port of the oil tank is reduced. Can be formed.

[0010]

1 to 4 show an embodiment of a level gauge of an oil tank according to the present invention. Also in these figures, 1 is a hydraulic oil tank, 6 is a lubricator, A is hydraulic oil,
L indicates the oil level. The level gauge 7 exemplified as the illustrated embodiment includes a rod-shaped body 8 made of a lightweight material such as a synthetic resin or aluminum, and a rubber fuel cap 9 to which the rod-shaped body 8 is eccentrically attached. In addition, by forming the rod-shaped body 8 into a hollow pipe shape, a relatively heavy metal having high strength can be used as a material. In this case, the tip of the pipe-shaped rod 8 may be open, but by closing the tip, a part of its own weight of the rod 8 is supported by utilizing the buoyancy of the tip of the rod 8. You can also. The refueling cap 9 may have a circular cross section like the refueling cap 3 in the above-mentioned conventional example. However, as a more preferable shape, as is apparent from the plan view of FIG. The right and left circular arc portions have different cross-sectional shapes with different radii of curvature, and the rod-shaped body 8 is planted near the center of the large-diameter circular arc portion and hangs down. The oil supply cap 9 is slightly tapered when viewed from the side, and its surface is stepwise corrugated to prevent oil leakage.

The rod 8 has a scale 10 (10a, 10a).
b, 10c) are engraved. The scale 10a indicates the minimum level of the hydraulic oil A to be held in the hydraulic oil tank 1, and the scales 10b and 10c indicate the low-level lubrication target and the high-level lubrication target, respectively. In this example, the reason why there are a plurality of refueling targets is that, for example, when the service lift (lift) of a forklift is relatively low, it is sufficient to refuel the scale 10b which is the target of low-level refueling, but the service lift is relatively high. This is because it is sometimes necessary to refuel the scale 10c, which is the target for high-level refueling. However, in some cases, the scales 10b and 10c may indicate a lower limit and an upper limit of a single refueling target level. In the case of the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 4, a low-level scale 10 b is selected as a target scale, and the position of a float 11 described later is determined accordingly.

According to the features of the present invention, the level gauge 7
A float (float) 11 is attached to the rod-shaped body 8 so that the position can be adjusted. The float 11 is made of a synthetic resin foam material that is not attacked by the hydraulic oil A or an arbitrary shape made of a hollow shell made of a hard synthetic resin. It has buoyancy enough to allow the entire level gauge 7 including the rod-shaped body 8 to float up. As a method of fixing the float 11 at a predetermined position on the rod 8 so as to be movable and adjustable, various adjustable fixing means known per se can be used as described later. Needless to say, when the target refueling level is only one, the float 11 may be semi-permanently fixed to a predetermined position of the rod 8 by a method such as bonding. In such a case, if two scales 10b and 10c are provided, they can indicate the lower limit and the upper limit of the single refueling target level as described above.

The feature of the illustrated embodiment lies in the egg-shaped cross-sectional shape of the oil supply cap 9, so that the oil filler port 12 in the illustrated embodiment differs from the egg-shaped one in the plan view as shown in FIG. Become. Level gauge 7 as described above
The rod-shaped body 8 is eccentrically implanted in the center of an arc portion having a large radius of curvature in FIG. When the filler cap 9 is displaced from the filler port 12 so that the rod-shaped body 8 comes to an arc portion where the radius of curvature of the filler port 12 is small in a state where the filler port 12 is removed from the filler port 12, the curvature of the filler port 12 is increased. A large opening H is formed in an arc portion having a large radius. Therefore, it is possible to easily supply additional working oil from the opening H by using a normal oil supply device 6 having a thin spout.

The level gauge 7 of the oil tank in the illustrated embodiment
Is constructed in this manner, the operating oil A in the tank 1 decreases during use of the forklift or the like, and the oil level L becomes less than the scale 10a of the rod 8 of the level gauge 7 shown in FIG. Sometimes hydraulic oil is on scale 1
When the oil is attached to the portion below 0a or the hydraulic oil is not attached to the tip of the rod-shaped body 8, additional oil needs to be supplied.
The fuel cap 9 is hung on the fuel filler port 12 so that the rod 8 comes to a position deviated from the fuel filler port 12 as shown in FIG. In this state, if the rod-shaped body 8 is inclined without vertically hanging down, a small weight is attached to the left side of the float 11 in FIG.

As described above, the rod-shaped body 8 is
When the refueling cap 9 is placed with a bias, the rod-shaped body 8 is eccentric with respect to the refueling cap 9 from the beginning, so that a sufficiently large opening H is formed in a part of the refueling port 12. As shown in FIG. 1, the opening H
The hydraulic oil can be easily additionally supplied into the hydraulic oil tank 1 from the tank. When refueling, do not completely remove the refueling cap 9 and the level gauge 7 from the hydraulic oil tank 1, place the refueling cap 9 on the refueling port 12 with a bias, and leave the rod-shaped body 8 and the like in the hydraulic oil tank 1. As a result, there is no need to worry about the location of the fuel supply cap 9 or the level gauge 7, which is normally removed completely to get in the way during refueling.

The greatest advantage of the present invention is that the oil level L which rises during refueling is frequently confirmed by the length W of the wet portion of the level gauge as in the conventional example shown in FIG. This is unnecessary, and when the oil level L reaches the target height, at least a part of the float 11 is simultaneously immersed in the hydraulic oil A, and the buoyancy enough to lift the level gauge 7 and the oil supply cap 9 is increased. Since the position of the float 11 is previously determined on the rod 8 so as to occur,
When hydraulic oil is rapidly replenished from the opening H without having to be very careful, as soon as the oil level L reaches the target height, as shown in FIG.
Floating from the edge of 2. Therefore, at that time, the lubricator 6
When the refueling is stopped and the refueling cap 9 is pushed into the refueling port 12, the rod 8 of the level gauge 7 as shown in FIG.
Is in a predetermined position, the oil level L automatically matches the target scale 10b.

As described above, there is no need to insert and remove the level gauge 7 together with the refueling cap 9 to and from the refueling port 12 many times.
Automatic refueling of the refueling cap 9 can be achieved simply by refueling the gap created by displacing the refueling cap 9 over the refueling port 12 using a tapered spout such as the refueling device 6. Since the completion of refueling can be accurately known from the lift, the time required for refueling can be extremely shortened, and refueling can be quickly and reliably performed to a predetermined target level without fear of failure.

If the rod-shaped body 8 is inclined before the refueling cap 9 rises, there is a concern that the timing of refueling completion may be erroneously recognized, so that it acts on the float 11 as shown by a broken line in FIG. The rod 8 may be mounted eccentrically with respect to the float 11 so that the center F of buoyancy is directly below the overall center of gravity G of the level gauge 7 composed of the fuel filler cap 9 and the rod 8. However, since the time when the rod 8 starts to incline is also the time when the refueling is completed, instead of checking the rising of the refueling cap 9, it is also possible to detect the completion of refueling by checking the inclination of the rod 8. .

Needless to say, when the oil level L in the hydraulic oil tank 1 is checked in a use state after the refueling is completed, the rod-shaped body 8 is removably moved together with the lubricating cap 9 as in the case of the conventional level gauge 4. It may be withdrawn from the tank 1 and measured and confirmed whether the upper end of the portion wetted by the hydraulic oil on the rod 8 has reached a predetermined scale 10, and the floating 11 may hinder the measurement at this time. There is nothing.

In the illustrated embodiment, since the large opening H for refueling is formed even if the area of the refueling port 12 is relatively small, the refueling cap 9 and the refueling port 12 are formed.
Although the cross-sectional shape in the cross section of the shape is an oval, in consideration of the sealing property of the refueling cap 9 and the problem of the mounting direction, etc.,
The filler cap 9 and filler port 12 may have a simple circular cross section. When the refueling cap 9 has a circular cross section,
Conventionally, a screw may be formed on the outer periphery, and may be fixed by screwing into a female screw formed on the inner surface of the oil filler port 12. Even in such a case, the diameters of the refueling cap 9 and the refueling port 12 are sufficiently large,
If the rod-shaped body 8 is implanted with as much eccentricity as possible with respect to the fuel filler cap 9, when the fuel filler cap 9 is shifted with respect to the fuel filler port 12, the fuel is supplied into the fuel filler port 12 by the fuel filler 6. An opening having a size necessary for the above is formed.
Further, it goes without saying that the cross-sectional shapes of the refueling cap 9 and the refueling port 12 can be elliptical, various polygons, or any other shape, if necessary, in addition to the above-mentioned egg shape and circular shape. .

When refueling up to the high-level scale 10c of the level gauge 7 by changing the service lift of a forklift or the like, the float 11 is moved upward to a predetermined position on the rod 8 and fixed. Although its position is clear from the above description, when the oil level reaches a newly set target height in the hydraulic oil tank 1, the oil supply cap 9 is placed on the oil supply port 12 in a rod-like shape. At least a part of the float 11 attached to the body 8 is immersed in the hydraulic oil, whereby the level gauge 7 including the oiling cap 9 is provided.
This is a position where buoyancy just enough to lift is generated.
In order to arbitrarily change the target height of the oil level in this way, a plurality of marks for fixing the float 11 on the rod 8 are provided, or the float 11 is easily moved on the rod 8. It is preferable to provide a means that can adjust the position and that can securely fix the float 11 at the adjusted position.

FIG. 5 shows two embodiments of the means for adjusting the position of the float 11 in this way and for securely fixing it in the adjusted position. FIG. 5 (a) shows a first embodiment by screwing, in which a male screw 8a is formed at the lower end of a rod-shaped body 8, and a floating member 11 is provided.
The female screw is formed in the hole. Therefore, the float 11 is screwed into the male screw 8a of the rod-shaped body 8, and is adjusted by rotating it to an arbitrary height. When the position of the float 11 is determined, the lock nut 13 is tightened from above or below the float 11 and securely fixed at that position. According to the first embodiment, there is an advantage that the position of the float 11 can be precisely adjusted and the position can be surely secured.

FIG. 5B is a partially enlarged view of FIG.
(C) shows a second embodiment of the adjustable fixing means of the float 11. In the second embodiment, notches 8b are formed in advance at a plurality of predetermined positions of the rod-shaped body 8. Therefore, when the float 11 slidingly frictionally engaged with the rod 8 is slid by applying a relatively strong force, the float 11 slides at a position corresponding to the notch 8b formed on the rod 8. Since the floating 11 is stopped at that position, the positioning of the floating 11 is completed simply and automatically. According to the second embodiment, the position of the float 11 can be adjusted very easily,
In practice, the position can be fixed with sufficient strength.

[0024]

According to the oil tank level gauge of the present invention, it is possible to automatically detect that the oil level has reached a predetermined height when oil is supplied into the oil tank, with a simple structure. So you can be sure in a very short time,
In addition, the oil can be easily replenished to a predetermined level.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional front view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional front view showing one operation state of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional front view showing another operation state of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 5A and 5B show a specific example of a part of the embodiment of FIG. 1, in which FIG. 5A is a front view in which a part of the first example is sectioned, and FIG. FIG. 2C is a front view showing a part of the embodiment in cross section, and FIG. 2C is an enlarged view of a part of FIG.

6 (a) and 6 (b) are longitudinal front views, and FIG. 6 (c) is a front view showing a part of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Hydraulic oil tank 4 ... Level gauge (conventional example) 6 ... Lubricator 7 ... Level gauge (Embodiment of this invention) 8 ... Bar-shaped body 8a ... Male screw 8b ... Notch 9 ... Oil supply cap 10 ... Scale 11 ... Floating 12 … Oil filler of oil tank 13… Lock nut

Claims (4)

[Claims] An oil supply cap capable of closing an oil supply port provided in an oil tank, a rod-like body attached to the oil supply tank so as to hang down from the oil supply cap to the oil tank and having a scale indicating an oil level, and the rod-like body And a float mounted at a predetermined position of the oil tank. 2. A level gauge for an oil tank according to claim 1, wherein said float is mounted so as to be movable relative to said rod. 3. The level gauge for an oil tank according to claim 1, wherein the rod-shaped body is mounted eccentrically with respect to a center of the oil supply cap. 4. The level of an oil tank according to claim 1, wherein the shape of the cross section of each of the oil supply port of the oil tank and the oil supply cap corresponding thereto is oval. gauge.