US1732487A

US1732487A - Combined collapsible bin and elevator

Info

Publication number: US1732487A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1929-10-22
Anticipated expiration: 1946-10-22

Description

Oct. 22, 1929.

o. SEEFELD 1,732,487

COMBINED COLLAPSIBLE BIN AND ELEVATOR Filed Aug. 21, 1925 Q U/CTU U a 37 5 Shuts-Sheet 1 0270 jzjald V Oct. 22, 1929. o. SEEFELD COMBINED COLLAPSIBLE BIN AND ELEVATOR Filed Aug. 21, 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet Ill lllllnlllll I. lllllul Oct. 22, 1929. OQSEEFELD COIBIN'ED COLLAPSIBLE BIN AND ELEVATOR Filed Aug. 21, 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet Patented Oct. 22, 1929 UNITED STATES OTTO SEEFELD, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN COMBINED COLLAPSIBLE BIN AND ELEVATOR Application filed August 21, 1925.

This invention relates to apparatus for the convenient handling of loose materials such as sand, gravel and the like, in large quantities.

Such apparatus ordinarily includes large elevated bins of seventy-five tons capacity, and more, which serve as reservoirs for receiving and storing the materials and from which the materials may be discharged, in batches,

as demanded, into mixers, trucks, or other means of conveyance. Portable cranes and various forms of elevators, including collapsible elevators, have heretofore been used for raising and delivering the materials into 1 the bins.

The increasing demand for portable apparatus of this kind has resulted in mounting the bins on Wheels, or otherwise fashioning them to facilitate movement from ob to job.

Attempts have also been made to provide a portable unit including a combined bin and elevator, but such attempts have not proven entirely successful due largely to the time and labor required to reduce the unit to transportable form and to reerect the unit on the job. One object of the present invention is the provision of a combined bin and elevator so constructed and arranged as to permit the same to be easily folded into a compact unit of readily transportable form and just as easily set up in operative position on the job.

Other objects and advantages will appear from the following description of two illustrative embodiments of the present invention.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a side elevation of a combined bin and elevator constructed in accordance with the present invention, and showing the same folded for transportation.

Fig. 2 is a side view showing the same set upin position ready for use.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the same.

Fig. i is a fragmentary vertical sectional view illustrating the means for mounting the front vertical wall of thebin.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view illustrating the means for mounting 50. the side vertical walls.

Serial No. 51,572.

Fig. 6 is a horizontal sectional View through one corner of the bin.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary side elevation of a combined bin and elevator of slightly modified form.

Fig. 8 is a front elevation of one end of the elevator frame shown in Figure 7.

In Figures 2, 3, 7 and 8 the conveyor chain and buckets have been omitted for the sake of clearness.

The combined bin and elevator shown in Figures 1 to 6 includes a supporting structure having four corner posts 10 of angle iron, connected at their upper ends by horizontal bars 11 of angle iron and intermediate their ends by horizontal channel sections 12. The structure is rigidly braced by diagonal bars 18 connecting the bars 11 and channel sections 12, and diagonal bars 14 connecting the channel sect-ions with the posts 10. The posts 10 are preferably provided with extension pieces 10 of similar form, removably bolted thereto. This structure provides a passage beneath the bin into which a truck or other conveyance may be admitted to receive materials discharged from the bin. T he posts are also preferably connected in pairs by removable base bars 15 disposed at opposite sides of the structure paralleling the truck passage.

The bin shown comprises the usual tapered bottom portion of well known form, having four convergent walls 16 riveted along their upper edges to the inner faces of the bars 11 and sloping downwardly to a pair of chutes 17 of standard construction in the base of the bin. The upper portion of the bin is formed by four substantially vertical walls mounted on the bars 11. These walls include a front wall 18, connected by hinges 19 to the front bar 11, so as to swing downwardly into the bin and rear and side walls 20, connected by hinges 21 to the other bars 11, so as to swing outwardly and downwardly against the sides of the supporting structure.

Any appropriate means may be provided for releasably retaining the

vertical walls

18 and 20 in the upright position shown in Figures 2 and 3 and as indicated in full lines in Figures 4 and 5. In the bin shown however this is accomplished by riveting pieces 22 of angle iron to the inner faces of the side walls 20 adjacent the opposite ends thereof in such position as to bear against the front and rear walls when the walls assume their normal upright position. The front and end walls are then bolted to the pieces 22, as indicated in Figure 6. After removing the bolts 28 the side and rear walls may be swung outwardly into inactive position against the supporting structure, as indicated in dotted lines in Figure 5 and the front wall swung inwardly into the dotted line position of Figure 4. By collapsing the bin in the manner just described the overall height is so reduced as to render it easily transportable without danger of interference with overhead obstacles such as bridges, tunnels, wires and the like. Since collapsible bins of this general type are old and Well known in the art, further or more detailed description thereof is deemed unnecessary.

The present invention provides for an assembly with the bin of an elevator, appropriate for loading the bin, so mounted as to permit the same to be easily adjusted into position over the collapsed bin to form there with a. compact readily transportable unit,

and to be just as easily adjusted into uprigl'it Working position beside the bin.

The elevator shown is of a well known type. It comprises a rigid frame including a pair of spaced parallel bars 24 rigidly connected by cross pieces 25 and diagonal braces 26. The usual endless chain 27, carrying buckets 28, is trained over a drive sprocket 29, on a shaft 30, at the top end of the frame and beneath the usual pulley 31, on a shaft 32 at the lower end of the frame. The top end of the frame carries a chute 83 fixed ceives the discharge fro; 2. delivers the same into and through a ing chute into the bin. The chute 34 is carried by

brackets

35 and 36 ren'iovably and hingedly mounted upon a removable ver' 'aal pivot rod 37 which is engaged in brackets 38 and 39 permanently fixed to the elevator frame. The lower end of the elevator frame is preferably provided with an appropriate hopper or shoe 40 for receiving and directing the material to the elevator.

The elevator shown in Figures 1, 2, and 8 is mounted intermediate its ends upon hori- Zontal shaft 41 extending through the side bars 24 of the elevator frame and journaled in a bracket 42 permanently fixed to the front of the supporting structure. The elevator is driven in this instance from a gasoline engine 43 mounted upon an appropriate bracket 44 carried by the supporting structure below the bin. An endless ch ain 45 connects the engine with a sprocket 46 fixed to one end of shaft 41, and an appropriate chain and sprocket driving connection 47 is provided between the other end of shaft 41 and the shaft The elevator may'thus be swung upon the horizontal shaft 41 without in any manner interfering with the drive and without requiring an adjustment thereof.

Figures 2 and 3 illustrate the positions of the parts when set up for use. Any appropriate means, such as bars 48 fixed to the elevator frame and removably connected with the supporting structure may be employed to releasably retain the elevator in the upright position shown. To prepare for transportation tne top vertical walls of the bin are released by removing the bolts 23, the front wall 18 is swung into the bin and the end and side walls swung outwardly and downwardly against the sides of the supporting structure hereinabove described. The swinging chute 34 is then removed by withdrawingthe vertical pivot rod 37, the bars 48 are disconnected from the supporting structure, andthe elevator swung about the shaft 41 into a horizontal position over the bin as shown in Figure 1. A compact unit of a shape conv-e isn't for transporting is thus provided. By reversing this process the bin and elevator maybe ust as easily set up ready for use. 7

The bin and elevator shown is particularly well adapted for transportation by truck. l i ith the elevator adjusted into the elevated horizontal position shown so as to clear the truck passage, it is a very simple matter to drive a truck through the supporting structure beneath the bin, and by removing the ext nsion pieces 10 at the lower ends of the corner posts 10, the entire structure may be lowered onto the truck with the elevator ex tending lengthwise thereof, as indicated in Figure 1, and carried thereby to any point desired.

The combined bin and elevator shown in Figures '2' and 8 is similar in many respects to that shown in Figures 1 to 6. The construction and method of mountingthe bin is substantially the same. And the elevator frame, including the longitudinalbars 21, is likewise mounted intermediate its ends upon a shaft 41 so as to swing, from an upright working position into a horizontal position over the collapsed bin. In this instance however the elevator is driven from an electric motor 43 one of the bars 24 adjacent the upper end thereof. The motor is shown geared to a counter shaft 49 which in turn is connected through a sprocket chain 50 with the shaft 30 and drive sprocket 29.

Various changes may be made in either embodiment of the invention hereinabove speciiicially described without departing from or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim 1. A collapsible material handling unit comprising an elevated bin having walls movable to collapse the bin, a support for said bin providing a' truck passage therecarried upon a bracket 44 fixed to under, an elevator for loading said bin, and means for mounting said elevator on said support said means being adjustable to permit said elevator to be moved as a unit from an upright working position beside said bin to a substantially horizontal position over said bin lengthwise of and above said passage.

2. A collapsible material handling unit comprising an elevated bin having walls movable to collapse the bin, a support for said bin providing a truck passage thereunder, an elevator for loading said bin, and pivotal means for mounting said elevator on said support to swing as .a unit between an upright position besides said bin and a substantially horizontal position over said bin lengthwise of and above said passage.

3. A collapsible material handling unit comprising a collapsible bin, a support therefor providing a truck passage into which a truck may be admitted beneath said bin, an elevator for loading said bin normally interrupting said passage, said elevator including a rigid frame, and an endless conveyor carried by said frame, and means for mount ing said elevator on said support including a pivotal connection between said support and frame permitting said elevator to be swung as a unit to clear said passage.

4. A collapsible material handling unit comprising a supporting structure providing a truck passage, an elevator adjustably mounted on said structure within a plane lengthwise of said passage, a bin on said structure for receiving material from said elevator and for discharging into a truck therebeneath, said bin being collapsible to permit said elevator to be folded as a unit into position thereover and clear of said passage.

5. A collapsible material handling unit comprising a collapsible bin, a support there for providing a truck passage thereunder, and a normally upright elevator on said sup port adjustably mounted to fold over said bin above and lengthwise of said passage when said bin is collapsed to form therewith a compact readily transportable unit.

In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my name this 19th day of August, 1925.

OTTO SEEFELD.