US1994399A - Device for the transportation of goods - Google Patents

Description

March 12, 1935. a. A. E. MOREAU ,9

DEVICE FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF eoon's Filed July 27, 1933 3 Sheets-Sheet -1 March 12, 1935. s. A. E. MOREAU 1,994,399

DEVICE FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF GOODS Filed July 27, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 March 12, 1935. Q G. A. E. MOREAU 1,994,399

DEVICE FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF GOODS Filed July 27, 1933 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 [22 1 622 far G'asianAadre Elie flared? xx fyf' m L Afforzzgyw Patented Mar. 12, 1935 v UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE, 1,994,393 I y DEVICE FOR THE TRANSPORTATION F GOODS Y Gaston Andre Elie Moreau, Boulogne-sur-Scine,

France Application ,July 2'1, 1933, Serial no. 682,509

. l In Belgium August 5, 1932 7 Claims. (01. 214-1) receive the goods and. provided with means permitting of easily transferring them from one vehicle to another. 7 i i The object of my invention is to provide devices of that kind that are better adapted to meet the requirements of actual practice, especially concerning the facility of transshipment, and the fixation of the container to the vehicle for transportation. V

.To this effect, according to my invention, in order to transship the containers from one vehicle to another one, for instance from a railway truck to a lorry or inversely, instead of making use of rails permanently fixed to 'saidvehicles, I provide on each of said containers, several detachable rail elements such that, during the transportation: the container may rest on at least two of them, the. other elements being secured on certain faces of the container, and that, when the container is to be transshipped from one vehicle to another, these other ele-' ments may be brought into line with the first mentioned ones so as to permit of moving the container from one vehicle to the other.-along the rails thus assembled.

Other features of my invention will appear from the following detailed construction. it

Preferred embodiments of my invention'will be hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings given merely by way of example, and in which: w

Figs. 1 and 2 are elevational views at right angles to each other showing a container according to my invention provided-with means for permitting its easy transshipment from one vehicle to another; Fig. 3 is an elevational view, partly in section, of a coupling device carried by the rail elements that serve to the transshipment, according to my invention; 7 a Fig. 4 is a partial view, partly in section, of another embodiment of this coupling device;. Figs. 5 and 6 show in elevational andiplan view respectively, a device for securing the rail elements tothe container according to my invention; Figs. 7 to 11 are diagrammatic elevational views showing the whole. of a-railway truck, a motor lorry and a container according to my invention, in five difierent relativepositions sucllorries. were provided with rails fixed thereto in lorry in a well determined position with respect cessively occupied by the frame withrespect to the two vehicles during the transshipment.

According to my invention, the container is 'made i'n'the usual manner of a box, which may or not be capable of being taken to pieces, of a 5 substantial parallelepipedic shape, for instance substantially cubic, and providedwith means for facilitating its transshipment as will be hereinafter described.

. Up to this time, saidmeans were of two kinds: 10

Either one made use of improved hauling apparatus of a very expensive kind, and with which accordingly railway stations of small importance could .not be equipped, or the railway cars and.

15 a stationary manner so that the containers could be moved along. said rails for transshipping them. J, i

The latter, solution is not better than the first because, on the one hand .it requires a special equipment of the railway cars and of the lorries which involves difi'iculties of exploitation and is very expensive, and on the other hand it makes it necessary, .for the. transshipment, to place the 25 to the railway car, so that the respective rails maybe brought in exact register, which constitutes a difficult and long operation.

According to my invention, and in order to avoid these many drawbacks, I combine with each container a certain number of detachable rail elements; These "rail elements are so arranged that, on the one hand, while the container is being transported on a vehicle, either a railway car or a lorry, said container may rest onat least two of isaid'rail elements, while at least some of, the other elements can be secured to certain faces of the container. On the other hand, when the container is being transferred from one] vehicle to the other, these other elemnts are, brought in line with the first ones so as .to permit of transferring the container onto the second vehicle along the rail track thus constituted. r

Preferably these elements are so arranged that they can be connected together by detachable coupling means so that it is possible to assemble them as wellin their positionsv for transportation, as in their positionsfor transshipment.

To this effect, said rail elements may for instance be made in the following manner:

. Three pairs of rail elements of the kind above referred toare provided, as follows:

On the one hand there are provided two pairs of rails aka of equal length, said length being 55 so chosen that one or the other of these two pairs can support container 1) during transportation on one of the vehicles, said container then resting on said pair of rails through two series of rollers being carried along sectional irons d rigidly fixed to the bottom of said container; the two rails that support thecontainer are disposed either at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the car, when the container is carried by the railway car, orparallelly to ..the

longitudinal axis of the lorry and substantially at equal distance from saidaxis whenithecontainer has been transshipped to a lorry.

On the other hand a third ,pair of rails e, both of a length either equa'htothat 'o'f' rails a a or different therefrom, for instance smaller than it is shown in the drawings g iven by way applied against said-flangesand :of a relatively great width, so as to distribute their-Iweight over aagreater surface on thez-fioonofuthe can or of the lorry, and also to.improve-stability.

As for the means for: assembling togetherzsaid rails, they are made in, such xmannercthatnone of-the above mentioned pairs :can be assembled indifierently to any of thestwovotheripairs. .I accordingly make riusewof .u'ointedandi removable coupling means, each. rail beingqlrovidedflto' this effect for instance with a male coupling element ,f and afemale .icouplingielement ,fzx'a't iboth of its endsrrespectively. e

Said jointed and idetachable .?coupling .means can be made in any suitablexmanrisr, for'fli-nstance :by, utilizing. a footter gladapted to doeiinserted-in holes providediinssaid male-.tari'dfifemale coupling elements a (Fig. 3 cotter is :kept in position: byrsuitableIIQekmgmeanssuch :as-a

key pivoted for i'inst'ance about again i -within a corresponding. cavity-' i provided: inasaid c'otter. With this arrangement cotter g oan be removed only when .key iL-is .bn'ought-into -a olireotion .parallel to the axis oofdsaid cotter g.

Of course. It'idOiIlOtlWiSh tOJbe limited t'o this embodimen'tuof thewcoupling meansg arid l have shown in: Fig. 4 another 'embodiment bfsuitable coupling means. Accordingl to thisembodiment, cotter :g is :permanently fixed 'to the u female coupling element 7?,Ian'd 'it iis provided wvith flat faces so. that itrisupossibleato introduce-said cotter into the correspondingi hole of the imale coupling element, by1causing said flat iace's to pass between correspondingflat i suriaces' h 'of coupling element f .The corresponding r'ails are then pivoted with respectntoieachs other so as to bring them into their respective positi'ons of utilization. I a

With the 'arrang'e'ment shown in F i'g. g it suffices, in order to introduce -cotter g into hole h to dispose the-rails to be assembled in such manner that their a xes m'ake w-ith: ea'oh -other' an angle of 45. I

Advantageou'sly, rails -e= will be gi-ven a-heig'ht smaller i than that of 4 rails d ,:a in: order that, when the rails are:assembled 'for tmnsshipment (Figs. t8-to 10) and the horizontal-surfacesof the railway car and of :the lorry aredispo'sed at difierent levels, rails e could not, if they are somewhat slightly inclined for this reason, butt against the edges of the floor of the railway car or of the lorry.

With the'device that has just been described,

there are provided on four lateral faces of the container or at least on two lateral parallel faces thereof} fixation means for locking the .container with respect to' the pair of rails, for instance a such that the container is perfectly secured to the vehicle bywhich it is transported. The fixation means above referred to comprise for instance"a .plate is rigidly connected to the container, two threaded rods Z, a cross member m --andtwo-levers-n provided with screw threaded *holeswa-dapted'to engage-on said rods Z..(Figs; 5 :and fi). .f' I

I To. facilitate transportation and in; :order 1 to still improve the fixation'ofcontainer. b with re: I

speot-to 'la'lls'fl on which its rests, rails a will advantageously be fastened to the corresponding .la'teral face of the-container by means of fixation devices such as those just'above described, the ends of :said rails-e being-connected torails :a .by cotters.;y. :-i h a JI'hese fixation zmeans will then be somade that they can cooperate as .we'llwwvithzrailswa 'or .azjasuwith rails e, which= are of-tshortenclength. Of coursezI idOTlOt-WiSh :fixationcmeans. a I

'In the:;precedingdescription, it has beenassumedwthatithei-rollers c throughwhichthe-con- :tainer slides .on 2 the rails, are ztcarried by iisaid container. .But' it "is obvious that. these :ro'll'ers r'canz'be .su'pported byithergroups ofizrails .a ,:a3, e.

In this.icase,atransshipment willi'be1 zierformedflcyv 'causingssectional. irons integral iwithzithe'z bottom ofrthe container :or rigidly fixed ithereto to .slide over 'saidrollers, when said-x'group'iof rails 'have ."been-:assembled. YI'hese "rollers may also be reaplaced byrcylinders. 1. I a iwhenrrollers are utilized theyican be either of the grooved type or of f therailway car vvheel type. 1.

According Lto another :'.embodiment of :my. invention,'r=relating-I:-to the casein which. rollersare used-,r'said.rollers may' be 'disposed no't underx the container but olaterally -'.thereto,-- in which case those of the rails a a 6 thatrareiintendedzto' be fixed on theslateral faces of the container, would be secureds notpon-the faces, at right angles ;to the direction: in: which transshipment. isv effected,- but onthe facesparallel tothisdirection. According to my invention, I- obtain a .device which works in the followingmanner: Supposing first for I instanoe'that the container is on a railway car, .it rests on a pair ,of rails. a I

dispo'se'dat right angles to the "longitudinal: axis of thecar. In the position of transportationlthis pair'o'f" rails "0. is'assembledby'means of cotters to belimited to these When it is'desired'to V a lorry, the latter is p can then be detached-arid placed on'the floor "of the lorry. The levers n that-fix rails e are then unscrewed and thecorresp'onding cross members m are swung aside; If the lorry'i's located opposite rails e, the latter are 'the'rr'flappewback against the floor ofthelorry (Fig. '7) ,'the latter being supposed to be at-asuitable distance from the railwaycar. If the lorry is located'onthe opposite side, cotters g are removed and rails e, are transferred to the opposite side, being assembledtothe ends of rails a that were previously-"connected with railsa j 1 Rails a are then fixed in line with rails'eby means of cotters gjwhichiarejnow available.

Rails e thus form abridge"across'the space between the railway car and the lorry f Container 1) is ,then caused torun successively along rails a railse and rails a? Container b is now located on'thelorryfon the floor of whichit rests through] rails a As rails e and a are now free, they can be fixed on to the container in the manner above described, rails 11 occupying the place previously occupied by rails a If necessary, the whole of railsa}, a e can be strengthened byeross 'piecesduring transshipment. It will readily be understood that such a device makes it possible to do away with all the drawbacks above pointed out, since it makes it possible to utilize railway cars and lorries that have no special equipment, and it does not necessitate a very great accurateness of the respective positions of the railway car and of the lorry during the transshipment.

Of course this device can be combined with a mechanism of any suitable kind for actuating rollers during transshipment.

My device can also be utilized for transferring a container from one railway car to another railway car, the twocars being then disposed either in line with each other, or parallel to each other (the rails a that support the container being in each case disposed in a suitable direction with respect to the axis of the car). In a likewise manner, the device could be used for transshipping the container from a railway car to a lorry by bringing such lorry in parallel position with respect to the car. It might also be used for unloading containers from a railway car or from a lorry, to the ground.

While I have described what I deem to be practical and efficient embodiments of my invention, it should be well understood that I do not wish to be limited thereto as there might be changes made in the arrangement, disposition and form of the parts without departing from the principle of my invention as comprehended within the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A device for the transportation of goods and their transshipment from one vehicle to another, which comprises in combination, a container adapted to receive said goods, a plurality of rail elements associated with said container in such manner that there is always at least one pair of them that supports said con-' tainer, means for removably and interchangeably securing the other rail elements to the container, and coupling means for assembling said rail elements in line with one another, whereby the container can be caused to move along the trackway thus constituted from the pair of rail elements on which it rested to another pair of rail elements placed on the vehicle to which it is -to be trans'shipped.

2-. A device forthe transportation of goods and their transshipment from one vehicle to another, which-comprises in combination, a

containeradapted to receive said goods, a plueither connecting with the rail elements that support thecontainer the other rail elements when they are fixed to the container orassembling all the rail elements at the end of one another, whereby the container can be caused to slide along the trackway thus constituted from the pair of rail elements on which it rested to another pair of rail elements placed on the vehicle to which the container is to be transshipped.

-'-3. A device for the transportation of goods and their transshipment from one vehicle to another, which comprises in combinationi, a

container adapted to receive said goods, a plurality'of rail elements associated with said container in such manner that there is always at least one pair of them that slidably supports said container, a plurality of rollers carried by the under face of said container and adapted to run along said rail elements, means for removably and interchangeably securing the other rail elements to the container, and coupling means for assembling said rail elements in line with one another so that the container can be caused to slide along the trackway thus constituted from the pair of rail elements on which it rested to another pair of rail elements placed on the vehicle to which it is to be transshipped.

4. A device for the transportation of goods and their transshipment from one vehicle to another, which comprises] in combination, a container adapted to receive said goods, a plurality of rail elements associated with said container in such manner that there is always at least one pair of them that supports said container, a plurality of rollers interposed between the under face of said container and the last mentioned rail elements, means for removably and interchangeably securing the other rail elements to the container, and removable coupling means for either connecting with the rail elements that support the container the other rail elements when they are fixed to the container or assembling all the rail elements at the end of one another, whereby the container can be caused to slide along the trackway thus constituted from the pair of rail elements on which it rested to another pair of rail elements placed on the vehicle to which the container is to be transshipped.

5. A device for the transportation of goods and their transshipment from one vehicle to another, which comprises in combination, a container adapted to receive said goods, two interchangeable pairs of rails of equal length one of which always supports the container, a plurality of rollers interposed between said container and the last mentioned pair of rails, means for removably fixing the other pair of rails to one face of the container, a third pair of rails,'means for removably fixing the last mentioned pair of rails to one face of the container, and coupling -means for r-assembl-ing Hthe three pairs of rails in line, -Whereby -the container-i can be caused to, slide along the trackway-ithuswconstituted from the pair of rails end-Which -'it:res-ted--to anotherpair of railsuplacedion-the vehicle to .which the container-is to betranssmpped 6. A device for the transportation of goods and their transshipment from one vehiclewto another, which comprises in combination,-.azcon tainer 'adaptedto receive said-goods, twointerchangeable ;pairs'of railsdof equallengthone a of which always supports said container,ia-plurality -:of:ro11ers carriedby the-under-iaceeof said.- container andinterposed between fsaid -container and the last mentioned pair --of rails, "means for removablyqfixing the other ,pair-of rails to one'face-ofthe container,. aithird pair .of rails, *means for tremovably -fixing :the, -1ast mentioned pair of rails .-to one'face of the-con- ;tainer, andremovable coupling: meansrforeither connecting with the rails that support the container the two other pairs of rails iwhenathey are fixed to the container or assembling '-all the 'rail elements-at the end :Qf vone another, whereby :the, containercan be K caused -tows1ide along the trackway; thus constituted from the .pair of rails on which it restedto another-pair meaacae :ofi-rai-ls placed'ron the=vehic1e"to' xivhich'ithe com f tainerrismto gbe transshipped. H

V -.'I. -'A device for ,the;.-t1:ansportation f goods .and \their transshipment z-from one ,vehiole to another, -rcomprises ,afn oombin ation, a container adapted to receiye said goods, twoflin- ,terchangeabIe-paim' vof railstot equal .-1ength-. one of which always supports said container, .3, plunality oflrollers ear-fied bynthe undermfacei of saidtcontainer and interpced between said con- 5 tainer andythe 1ast .mentioned ;pair of rr'a ils, .means rfor tremovably :Zthe other .pair- 'pf rails to one 'face 6f the container, a thind mair .of railsvofashorter: length, means ior 'remoyably fixing xJtl'ietlast lmenmonea pairiinr trails to an- ,other ;'face ,of Qthe {,ctizitaintgr, and removable coupling/means zfor ieither .connecting with tithe

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