US1298852A - Portable package-elevator. - Google Patents

Description

T. J. ALEXANDER.

PORTABLE PACKAGE ELEVATOR.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 3.191s.

1,298,52 Patented Apr. 1,1919:

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

4 & INVENTQR NEY T. J. ALEXANDER.

' PORTABLE PACKAGE ELEVATOR.

ARRLICATIQN..FILD1UNE 3.1918.

I 1,298,852., Patented Apr. 1,1919.

'2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

INVENTOR 7/70/7705 J find/249w TORNEY- STATS ATEN PORTABLE PACKAGE-ELEVATOR,

Application filed June 3,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS J. ALEXAN- DER, a citizen of the United States, and resident of the city of Seattle, county of King, and State of Washington, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Portable Package-Elevators, of which the following is a specification.

y invention relates to package or freight elevators and consists of a construction whereby the device may be moved, as desired, from place to place and'so constructed as to conveniently hoist and lower ackages and freight in warehouses, the o ject being to provide a suitable movable device which is adapted for the rapid and convenient handling of what is known as package freight, this term including sacks, boxes, bales, and other containers.

The features of novelty of my invention and on which I desire patent will be hereinafter described and then particularly pointed out in the claims,

In the drawings I have shown my invention embodied in the form of construction which is now preferred by me. This con struction is, however, not to be understood as limiting my invention to this particular construction, but only as illustrative of the principles involved herein.

Figure 1 is a top or plan view of the device as a whole.

Figs. 2 and 3 are side elevations of the device taken from positions 90 removed from each other. i

Fig. 4' is a top or plan view on a larger scale of the power plant or operating mechanism.

Fig. 5 is a side elevation on a larger scale, showing the manner of mounting the steer- .ing wheel and the means employed for raisin and lowering the same.

ig. 6 shows a hand brake which upon the drums.

In the handling of cargo in warehouses by the plan which is most generally followed where this is done by hand, it is necessary, where the freightis stacked at any consid erable height, to have relays of men at different elevations to elevate and pile the freight. This is expensive on account of the labor cost and in addition, it is ineilicient, as a portion of these men are working only a small part of the time; By my present invention I have provided means whereby the men who do the trucking, together Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 1, 1919. 1918. Serial No. 237,861.

with their loads, may be elevated to the proper height and in position to enable them to pile the goods without other help. I

The principle of operation of my invention is to provide a hoisting platform or cage which may be lowered to the warehouse floor, upon which the trucks which are commonly employed for transporting the freight may be run, and with this, provide means fo'r'hois'ting such platform or to whatever elevation is desired, the trucker then dumping or transferring the load to the pile, whereupon the empty truck is lowered. In taking down a pile of this sort the operation is opposite, the truck being empty while going up and loaded in raised position and then lowered with its load, the load being then removed to wherever the freight is to go. A tower construction is employed. This is herein shown consisting of four angle bars 1 which are placed at the corners of a rectangle, these being joined at the top by suitable beams, as the channel bars 10, which connect the beams upon, two opposite sides and a similar central beam or beams, 11,

which connect, the beams 10, and also furnish the support for the hoisting sheaves. The lower ends of the posts 1 are suitably connected and braced through the means of a low floor-like structure 13. This latter is preferably kept thin in order to reduce as much as possible the elevation. which must be overcome by the truck in order to get upon the hoistlng platform.

The hoisting platform 2 is made to fit within the angles of the angle iron 1 which form the vertical posts of the tower. It is guided and held in place by said posts or in any other suitableand convenient manner.

The hoisting platform 2 is connected with the top of the tower. This cable 22 is then conducted down, passing over a pulley 25 to.

a drum 3. This druin' may be actuated by any suitable mechanism. I have indicated an electric motor 35 which is connected by suitable reducing gears 36, 37 and 38, to the shaft 39, upon which the drums are mounted. The two drums 3 and 30 may, under some circumstances, be made integral, or connectedin such a way as to move together.

A counterweight cable 23 is also connected with the hoisting cage and passes over other like pulleys or' sheaves 24, carried at the top of the tower,'and thence down to a counterweight 26, which is located at one side of the tower, and may be of any suitable or convenient type of construction. It is the purpose of this counterweight to provide enough hoisting effort acting upon the cage to somewhat more than lift the cage withoutits load. It is, therefore, necessary to provide some positive means'for lowering the cage when there is no load thereon. This is done by providing a third cable 31, which extends over the drum 30, over the guide pulleys, located as previously described, across the upper end of the to el and thence down tothe counter-weight 26. The cable 31 leads upon its drum oppositely from the cable 22, whereby one runs out as the other is wound in. In this manner the drum in reversing hoists the counterweight, thus neutralizing the lifting effect of the counterweight upon the hoisting cage and thus permitting the hoisting cage to drop. By this expedient the work may be accomplished by the use of a motor of a smaller power than if the counterweight were not employed.

At one side of the tower structureis a frame 14 upon which is mounted the power plant or operatin mechanism, this includin as part thereof, the two drums 3 and 30 and the electric motor 35, by which these are operated. Where it is not feasible to conveniently obtain the current necessary to operate the electric motor, it is obvious that any kind of a motor, as for instance, may be employed. I may also use/storage batteries.

Upon this frame 14 v are mounted two wheels 4 by which the structure is supported and particularly when it is being transported from place to place. At the opposite side of the tower structure a bracket or frame 15 is placed, beneath which is placed a single wheel 41, which is used for carrying this side of the apparatus while being moved, and which is mounted to be turned about a vertical axis so that it may act as a steering wheel. While the device is being used at anyparticular spot I may prefer to have the hoisting frame directly supported from the floor without relying upon the transferring of this weight through the wheels carrying the device. In this case I may mount the wheels so that they may be raised and low ered after themanner which has beenillustrated in Fig. 5.

The wheel 45 is therein shown as journaled between the two arms of a yoke 42, which yoke hasa central axis 43 which is threaded and which passes through the hub of a worm gear 44, this servin lower the wheel wit relation to the frame.

The turning of this worm wheel, that is, the

a gasolene engine,

as a nut to raise and form 2 shall be such that the platform actuation of the nut through which the oke is raised and. lowered, may be secure b means of a worm carried by the shafi. upon which the wheel 45 is secured. This worm is shown inFig. 1 at 46.

The yoke 42, in which the wheel 41 is journaled, is shown as provided with arms 47 extending in opposite directions therefrom and extending from each of these arms, is a cable 48, wheels or rollers 49 through the space occupied by the bracing structure 13, which connects the bottoms of the posts 1. These cables are led over suitable guide sheaves to a small drum carried b the lower end of a shaft 5, which is wheel 50, through operator may turn the wheel 41 to guide the apparatus, as it is moved from place to place.

The drums 3 and- 30 are provided with a provided with a turning brake mechanism whereby the drums may be It is contemplated in this device that themotor by which the hoisting is secured shall be a reversible motor. With an eletric motor this is very simple. vWith a gasolene motor it may be desirable to provide a reversing gear. I have, however, not illustrated the same as it is well understood how this may be done.

In use, this. elevating device would be placed alongside of a point where the package freight is tobe piled. The lower portion of the ground by the truckers and the elevator would have nothing to do with this. How ever, after the first or lower layers have been put in place, the elevator'device would be run close alongside the base of the pile thus started. The truckers would then run their loaded trucks upon the platform 2, which at the time would be in its lowermost 0si-' tion, and would then be hoisted up to a evel which had been placed direct from the which extends under guide band type or any which pile would be made from the the action of which the get 'a good view of thetrucks. The loads carried by the trucks' would then be transferred to increase the height of the pile as thus formed.

As the form would have to be-hoisted to a higher level. It is contemplated that the height of the tower and the ability to hoist the platmay pile was raised the elevator platwith the top of the base portion of the pile v be raised to such a level that the men can transfer the freight from this top position to the very top of the pile beingformed. WVhen section has thus been built to the height desired, the elevator is moved to the next ad-,

' not necessary to-have relay gangs of men to raise the freight from the floor to the uppermost parts of the pile.

When a pile of freight is to be taken down for transfer orreloading, the operation is performed in a reverse order. The emptied trucks are taken to a position alongside of the pile at their highest position.

The packages are then taken from the pile and placed upon the trucks. l Vhen the trucks are loaded they are lowered to the floor and taken away and empty trucks replace them. In this manner it is evident that a considerable number of laborers may be dispensed with, wherever the freight is piled to any considerable height. Under the plan of using hand labor for raising this freight to the top layers of the pile, it is sometimes v sibly two or four,

neecssary to employ a gang of as many as twenty men, just for this purpose. In some cases all of these twenty men excepting posmay be dispensed wlth. The shaft 57 may be connected with the axle of the carrying wheels 4: through a drive ehain 58, or by any other suitable means and this connection controlled through a friction and its operating lever 56, whereby the device .may be self-propelled to thereby put it in position for work. I The device may be equipped with storage batteries, as at 6, so that it may be moved about in the warehouse when disconnected from the wires. W hat I claim as my invention is: 1. A portable package elevator comprising a frame having u wardly extending guide posts and a platform guided in vertical movement by said posts, supporting wheels and a hoisting plant at one side of said frame, a single steering and supporting wheel at the opposite side of the frame,

steering cables extending from said wheel beneath the frame to the hoisting plant at the opposite side of the frame, and means for raising and lowering said wheel. to permit resting the frame on the fioor.

2. A portable package hoisting device comprising a frame having hoisting mechanism thereon, supporting wheels by which the device may be moved about, one side having a single such wheel, a yoke in which said wheel is mounted, said yoke having a vertical pivot shank and laterally extending steering arms, steering lines connecting with said arms and extending to the opposite side of the frame, and means at this opposite side for controlling said lines.

3. A portable hoisting device comprising a frame having vertical guide posts and a hoist operating mechanism, a hoisting platform guided by said posts, two sheave wheels supported centrally of and at the tops of said posts, a platform hoisting rope passing over one of said sheave wheels and to the platform, a counterweight, a counterweight line extending over the other of said sheave wheels and connecting the counterweight with the hoisting platform, and a third line extending from the counterweight to the hoist operating mechanism.

4.. A portable package hoisting device comprising a frame having vertical guide postsand supporting wheels, a hoisting platform between said posts, a beam horizontally supported at the upper ends of said posts, two sheaves carried by said beam centrally over the platform, two sheaves at each end of said beam, line controlling and operating means, a counterweight, a line running from said line operating means over one of the sheaves at one end of the said elevated beam and over one of the centrally placed sheaves to thehoisting platform, a second line extending from the said controlling means over apulley at each end of the said beam and connecting with the counterweight, and a third line extending from the counterweight over other pulleys on said beam to the hoisting platform.

Signed at Seattle, Washington, this 9th day of May 1918.

THOMAS J. ALEXANDER.

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