US3360141A

US3360141A - Container lifting means and method

Info

Publication number: US3360141A
Application number: US519590A
Authority: US
Inventors: John J Martin
Original assignee: Pullman Inc
Current assignee: Pullman Inc; Trailmobile Inc
Priority date: 1966-01-10
Filing date: 1966-01-10
Publication date: 1967-12-26
Anticipated expiration: 1984-12-26

Description

Dec. 26, 1967 J. J. MARTIN CONTAINER LIFTING MEANS AND METHOD Filed Jan. 10. 1966 Y 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR JOHN J. MART/N ATTY Dec. 26, 1967 J. J. MARTIN I CONTAINER LIFTING MEANS AND METHOD Filed Jan. 10. 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 v INVENTOR JOHN J. MARTIN ATT'Y.

Dec. 26, 1967 J. J. MARTIN 3,360,141

CONTAINER LIFTING MEANS AND METHOD Filed Jan. 10, 1966 s sheets-sheet 5 INVENTOR JOHNJMART/N ATT'Y United States Patent 3,360,141 CONTAINER LIFTING MEANS AND METHOD John J. Martin, Weatherly, Pa., assignor to Pullman Incorporated, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Filed Jan. 10, 1966, Ser. No. 519,590 14 Claims. (Cl. 214-38) This invention relates to material handling means and in particular relates to a container lift and storage structure and system and method therefor.

Containerization is becoming increasingly important and along with it the means for handling and transfer-ring goods or lading between the various types of transportation such as over the road, railroad, airway, and marine transportation. Containers of standardized dimensions, generally 8 feet by 8 feet by 20 feet, for carrying the lading must be stored sometimes en route between these various modes of transportation. Various types of equipment have beene proposed for accomplishing this but have suffered from the disadvantages of not being compact, or being integrated with the containers themselves, or not being adaptable to different size containers.

It is an advantage of the present invention to provide material handling means or container storage device which permits ready removal of the container from a vehicle such as a truck-trailer and to store the container in a suitable location awaiting transfer to another mode of transportation.

It is a general object of the present invention to provide a container lift and storage arrangement which allows removal of the container from a vehicle and storage of the container thereon.

It is another object of the invention to provide a container lift and storage arrangement that is provided with stable supports and an actuating mechanism to separate the supports for separating the container from .a vehicle and support the container in a suitable storage area. Such an arrangement need only have .a set of supports for each container and one operating mechanism and can be used for various size containers.

Another object of the subject invention is to provide for a novel system and method of transferring the container from a vehicle such as a truck-trailer to a storage area through the implementation of the container lift and storage assembly.

These and other objects and advantages will become more apparent from reference to the following description, claims and appended drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the novel invention;

FIGS. 2 through 7 are illustrative of the various procedural steps employing the novel invention for storing of the material handling means.

With reference now to the drawings :and in particular to FIG. 1, there is shown the novel material handling means which employs a container lift and storage arrangement or assembly 1 supporting a container 2 (shown in phantom line). The container lift and storage assembly comprises a plurality of four container supports or stands 3, 4, 5 and 6 disposed at the corners of the container 2. The stands 3 and 4 form the front support for the container 2. Each stand 3 or 4 is identical to the other except that it is, in container lifting position, the mirror image of the other and, therefore, .a description of one will describe corresponding components on the other. Therefore, like reference characters are used to describe each stand.

Now with reference to FIG. 1 it will be seen that the stand 3 is in the shape of a tripod having three

legs

3a, 3b, and 30 that are spread apart at the base and converge into an integral non-pivotal apex portion 8, a spacer 9 being provided at the apex portion for separating legs 3a and 3b in fixed base relation, and a horizontal H-beam 10 being attached to legs 3b and 30 to form an A-frame structure.

3,360,141 Patented Dec. 26, 1967 The lower extremities of each of the legs 3 and 4 are pivota-lly supported on a U-shaped trunnion or foot 11 by pivot means 12, each base or pedestal 11 adjusting for uneven ground and having a fiat base portion 13 and a pair of

uprights

14 and 15. The leg 30 intermediate its ends is provided with a triangulated shaped ing or stop 16 provided with an upper surface 17 for engaging the under side of the container 2 as will be later explained. Each apex portion 8 is provided With a retractable L-shaped pin 18 for engagement into the opening of a corner bracket 19 of the container 2. The container corner bracket or fitting is of the standard American Standards Association (A.S.A.) corner fitting construction, which is provided with an aperture 20 for receiving the pin 18, as shown in phantom in FIG. 1. The leg 3b, intermediate its ends, but closer to the base 11, is provided with a stud 21 for receiving the ram and extension assembly 22 to be later described, with this pin or stud extending toward the leg 3a.

The legs or

stands

5 and 6 provide a rear support structure for the container 2, and to accomplish this end are integrated with one another by transverse crisscross tie beam structure 24 having diagonal struts 25 and 26 extending to portions of a

respective stand

5 or 6 to add reinforcement to the container lift and storage assembly. Each

rear stand

5 or 6 is identical to the other except that one is a mirror image of the other and therefore like reference characters are used to describe each stand. With reference now to stand 5 or 6 it is seen that it is provided with a pair of downwardly diverging

legs

27 and 28 tied together intermediate their ends at their lower parts thereof by a longitudinally extending I-beam 29 to define an A-shaped support structure. It will be noted that the supporting beam 29 lies in the same horizontal plane generally as the connection of the criss-cross beam 26, both

members

29 and 26 being integrated to the leg 28 approximate the lower end thereof. Each

leg

27 and 28 at its lower end thereof is pivotally connected to a trunnion member or clevis pedestal 30 identical in construction to the trunnion member or foot 11. The pedestal 30 is provided with a base 31a and

uprights

31 and 32. The member 30 is held to the bottom of the

leg

27 or 28 by pivot pin 33. The

legs

27 and 28 converge at their upper end or apex portion 35 from which projects inwardly a pin 36 for insertion into the aperture 20 of the corner bracket 19 of the container 2. A top or head portion 37 on the apex portion 35 is provided with an outwardly extending stud or pin 38 for attachment to the ram and extension structure 22, to be later explained. Below the apex 35 there is provided a gusset plate 39 tying together and reinforcing the

legs

27 and 28.

Hydraulic means or ram and extension structure 22 comprises a hydraulic ram or jack means 40 including a piston rod 41 and cylinder 42, the rod 41 being extended in and out of the cylinder 42 in the conventional manner by the supply of hydraulic fluid under pressure through

lines

43 and 44, the cylinder being provided with trunnion or clevis means 45 pivotally connecting with link or arm 46, the outer end of the arm 46 being removably placed for pivotal movement upon the pin 38; while the other end 50 of the ram piston rod 41 is provided with aperture means for pivotally coupling to the pin 21. When the unit 22 is mounted on the

pins

21 and 38 and hydraulic fluid pressure is supplied or taken from the hydraulic means 22, the

arms

46 and 41 operate the coutainer lift and storage arrangement 1 supporting the container 2 through its corner bracket by the following described manner.

With reference now in particular to FIGS. 2 through 7 it is seen that in FIG. 2 the container 2 is mounted on the container lift and storage structure 1 at its corner brackets through the use of the

pins

18, 18 of the forward stands 3 and 4 and the

pins

36, 36 of: the rear stands 5 and 6 by inserting these pins into the openings in the corner brackets 19. This is done while the container is mounted on the vehicle chassis 50a carried by the wheel assembly 51 and the retractable supporting conventional ground engaging gear 52, the chassis having tracks (one of which is seen in FIG. 4) 54 disposed between the botton container support 55, the bottom portion or rail means 55 of the container being removably coupled to the chassis 54 in a conventional manner. In order to perform the operation of removing the container from the chassis 50, the chassis is detached from the container by removal of detachable pins such as shown in co-pending US. patent application Ser. No. 452,563 filed on May 3, 1965, now Patent No. 3,294,420. In the next operation, as seen in FIG. 3, the unit 22 is mounted on

pins

21 and 38 of

stands

4 and 6 of the container lift and storage unit 1. The next operation is shown in FIG. 4 where hydraulic fluid is supplied to the ram unit 4-2 and the ram unit 40 contracts with the ram arm 41 moving inwardly in the cylinder 40 causing each rear leg 28 of each

rear stand

5 and 6 to swing clockwise about their pivots 33 and the rear leg 3:: of each forward stand 3 and 4 to pivot about forward pivots 12 and 12b and swing in a counter clockwise direction, permitting the full vertical extent of each leg 27 and each leg 3b to be in a vertical position for raising the container 2 above the chassis 50. Further upward movement of the container is prevented by abutment of the overtravel stop 16 on each leg 30 with the bottom 55 of each container. When this occurs, the lifting step is completed. As seen in FIG. 5 the next step is to remove the chassis, which may be accomplished by a tractor or the like. In the next step the container is lowered down on the stands, as shown by FIG. 6, by extending the hydraulic unit to allow the arm 41 to extend outwardly and swing the rearward legs of the forward and rearward stand units until they touch the ground by pivoting of the forward and rear assemblies about the

pivots

33 and 12 of the respective assemblies. In the final step, as shown by FIG. 7, the ram and extension structure 22 is removed and the container is supported on the stilts or

stand units

3, 4, 5, and 6.

In order to remove the container from these stands or stilts and place the container chassis 50 the above procedure is reversed.

The supports or stands 3, 4, 5, and 6 are stable in themselves and they do not depend upon the container in any way for this stability. The actuating mechanism or ram and extension unit 22 is separate from these supports and when it is desired to store several containers at one time, it is necessary to have only a set of stilts or stands for each container and one operating mechanism 22. The same supports or stands and operating mechanism can be used for all length containers. The only provisions required on the containers are the openings at the bottom corner brackets which may be the same openings that are used in the standard A.S.A. recommended bottom corner fittings.

It should be appreciated that the use of such terms as forward and rearward or fore and aft and the like should not be construed as a limitation upon the breadth of the appended claims.

The foregoing description and drawings are given merely to explain and illustrate the invention, and the invention is not to be limited thereto, except insofar as the appended claims are so limited, since those skilled in the art who have the disclosure before them will be able to make modifications and variations therein without departing from the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A container lift and storage assembly comprising a first pair of separable stands for supporting one end of a container, a second pair of stands for supporting the other end of a container, each first stand being in the shape of a tripod, said tripod being defined by two divergingly longitudinally inner and outer spaced legs to define a generally inverted V-shaped structure and a third outer leg laterally spaced outwardly of the structure, each tripod leg having a free end portion and feet means pivotally connected to each of said leg end portion for allowing pivoting of the two legs about their feet, each of the legs merging into an apex portion having pin means for engaging the corners of the container, an overtravel stop being mounted on said inner leg for engagement with the under side of the container, said second pair of stands having lateral brace means inter-connecting one stand with the other stand to define a unified structure, each rear stand being in the form of a generally inverted V- shaped frame and having a pair of downwardly extending inner and outer inter-connected supports that merge upwardly to define an apex support portion, feet pivotally connecting the free end of the inner support, each apex support portion having pin means for engaging the corners of the container, means for coupling the first and second stands together comprising an extendible and contractable unit having free ends, said outer leg of the said first stand having a couple means approximate its lower end and said apex support portion having a couple means cooperative with said first named couple means in receiving the free ends of said extendible and contractable unit whereby upon contraction of said extendible and contractable unit the inner supports of the second pair of stands and said outer legs of said first pair of stands are allowed to pivot about their respective feet attendant to increasing the vertical extent thereof for raising the container.

2. A container lift and storage assembly comprising a pair of fore and aft container supports longitudinally spaced from one another for supporting the container at its corners, the fore support comprising a pair of separate tripod structures, each tripod structure comprising a forward A-frame having a pair of downwardly diverging forward and rearward stand elements and a horizontal brace integrally inter-connecting each stand element, a foot pivotally mounted to each stand element at its lower end, said rearward stand element having an overtravel stop for engagement with the underside of the container, said tripod structure comprising a laterally outwardly extending third stand element connecting with said A-frame at the top thereof to define a tripod apex portion and having a pivotally attached foot, retractable container engaging pin means supported in said apex portion, said aft support comprising a pair of laterally spaced A-frames and a horizontal brace inter-connecting said A-frames, each A-frame having a forward and a rear leg, each leg being provided with a pivotal foot, each of said legs diverging upward into a common apex portion carrying a retractable pin means for engagement with the corner of the container, and means for tilting each fore and aft support about its forward pivotal feet and comprising a hydraulic ram unit having a rearwardly extending arm and a forwardly extending arm, one of said arms being contracted and expanded relative to the other and coupling means provided on the end of each of said arms and on the apex portion of a rear leg and on the lower portion of the forward stand element of an A-frame of the fore support to provide for pivotal movement of each A- frame and the laterally outwardly extending forward third stand element about their respective forward feet to increase the vertical extent of the forward elements and legs of said A-frames attendant to elevating of a container, the elevating of said container being limited by the overtravel stop engaging with the bottom of the container.

3. A container lift and storage assembly for supporting the corners of a container and comprising a forward support structure and a rearward support structure, each support structure including a generally angulated structure having fore and aft legs and pedestal means on each of the legs pivotally mounted to each of the legs, and extendible and contractable means mountable between the forward and rearward structures, said rearward angulated structure having an upper portion couplable to one end of the extendible and contractable means and said fore leg of the forward support structure having a lower base portion for coupling to said extendible and contractable means lying at a plane below the upper portion of the rear angulated structure whereby said extendible and contractable means when coupled between each support structure in contraction causes pivoting of the legs of the forward and rearward angulated structures on the pedestal means of the fore legs of said angulated structures, and means on each support structure for coupling the same to respective corners of a container.

4. A container and lift assembly comprising forward and rearward pivotally mounted container supports, said forward support comprising fore and aft members that diverge downwardly from one another and a foot portion on each diverging member, the forward diverging member at its lower end being provided with a forward fastening means, said rearward support comprising a pair of fore and aft downwardly diverging members and a foot portion on each diverging member of the rearward support, each diverging member of the rear support converging into an apex portion provided with a rear fastening means, and each support means having means for coupling same to the corner areas of the container, and extension and contraction means having one end attached to the rear fastening means and having the other end attached to the forward fastening means, said extension and contracting means being contractable attendant to rotating the rearward members of each forward and rearward support about the foot portion of the forward members attendant to increasing the vertical extent of each of the fore members for raising the container.

5. The invention according to claim 4 and each support being provided with a lateral stabilizing member connecting with the fore and aft diverging members of the support.

6. The invention according to claim 4 and each means for coupling comprising a retractable pm means being located at the apex portion of each stand for insertion into the opening of a corner area.

7. The invention according to claim 4 and each forward support comprising a tripod structure defined by the diverging fore and aft members and a laterally diverging stability member having a foot portion for pivotal movement thereat.

8. The invention according to claim 4 and each forward and rearward support comprising an A-frame as defined by the diverging members.

9. The invention according to claim 4 and said aft diverging member of said forward support being provided with an overtravel element for contacting the container in limiting vertical movement of the container.

10. A material handling apparatus for removing a container from a chassis comprising forward and rearward stands having a pivotally supported base means for each stand, each stand having a forward and rearward diverging leg and a forward pivot pin on the forward leg, the rearward stand having an apex portion and rearward pivot pin generally at its apex portion, and extendible and contractable means couplable to the forward and rearward pivot pins for swinging the rearward legs in an arc upwardly attendant to increasing the vertical length of the forward legs for raising a container from its chassis.

11. The combination of four corner brackets and forward and rearward container lift and storage supports and means for pivoting said supports for raising said corner brackets comprising a forward stand means having a pair of legs in the form of an inverted V, the lower part of each leg having a pedestal means pivotally connected thereto, and the upper part of each leg converging with the other to define an apex portion, a pivot pin located in the lower part of the fore leg of the forward support and a pivot pin located in the upper apex portion of the rearward support, and said means for pivoting including arm means which may be increased in length or foreshortened, said arms being coupled to the respective pivot pins for swinging the rearward legs upwardly in order to increase the vertical length of the forward legs.

12. A container lift and storage assembly comprising a container having four corner brackets provided with apertures and a forward stand means and a rearward stand means, each stand means defined by a pair of downwardly diverging fore and aft legs, a foot for each leg and each leg being pivotally mounted on a respective foot and converging upwardly with the other to define an apex portion, pin means for each apex portion, pivot pin means on the apex portion of the rearward stand means and the lower portion of the fore leg of the forward stand means, the pin means of the apex portions being c0operative with the corner bracket apertures for support of the container, and an extendible and contractable element having its ends coupled to said pivot pin means for swinging the forward and rearward stand means about their respective foot attendant to increasing the vertical length of the fore leg for raising the container when being coupled to each of the stand means at its apex por- U011.

13. In a container handling system, the combination of a container having four bottom corner brackets, a forward stand means connected to the forward corner brackets and a rearward stand means connected to the rearward corner brackets, each of said stand means being defined by a pair of downwardly diverging forward and rearward legs in the form generally of an inverted V, a pedestal for each leg, the lower part of each leg being pivotally mounted on a respective pedestal and the upper portion of each leg converging to form an apex portion, the apex portion of the rearward stand means having a pivot pin and the forward leg of said forward stand means having its lower end having a pivot pin, and variable extendible means coupled to said pivot pins for pivoting the forward legs about their pedestals for increasing the vertical length of the forward legs of each of the stands and elevating the containers.

14. The method for lifting a container off its chassis and storing the container on supports comprising the steps of (1) disconnecting the container from the chassis and attaching the forward part of the container at its corner brackets to a forward support of a pair of inter-connected diverging forward and rear leg members and attaching the rear of the container corner brackets to a rear support of a pair of inter-connected diverging legs, (2) attaching an extensible and contractable unit to the upper part of the rear support and to the lower part of the forward leg of the forward support, (3) contracting the unit to allow pivoting of the forward legs of the forward and rear supports to pivot about a pedestal arrangement pivotally attached to the forward legs for increasing the vertical length of the forward legs of the forward and rearward supports resulting in elevating of the container above the previously disconnected chassis, (4) moving the chassis away from the container, (5) extending the unit for swinging the legs of the supports so that the forward and rearward supports are in their original position, and (6) removing the unit.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,983,394 5/1961 McKee 2l4-38 3,202,304 8/1965 Lannen 2l4-38 3,251,494- 5/1966 Pulliam 214-515 X ROBERT G. SHERIDAN, Primary Examiner.

Claims

1. A CONTAINER LIFT AND STORAGE ASSEMBLY COMPRISING A FIRST PAIR OF SEPARABLE STRANDS FOR SUPPORTING ONE END OF A CONTAINER, A SECOND PARI OF STANDS FOR SUPPORTING THE OTHER END OF A CONTAINER, EACH FIRST STRAND BEING IN THE SHAPE OF A TRIPOD, SAID TRIPOD BEING DEFINED BY TWO DIVERGINGLY LONGITUDINALLY INNER AND OUTER SPACED LEGS TO DEFINE A GENERALLY INVERTED V-SHAPED STRUCTURE AND A THIRD OUTER LEG LATERALLY SPACED OUTWARDLY OF THE STRUCTURE, EACH TRIPOD LEG HAVING A FREE END PORTION AND FEET MEANS PIVOTALLY CONNECTED TO EACH OF SAID LEG END PORTION FOR ALLOWING PIVOTING OF THE TWO LEGS ABOUT THEIR FEET, EACH OF THE LEGS MERGING INTO AN APEX PORTION HAVING PIN MEANS FOR ENGAGING THE CORNERS OF THE CONTAINER, AND OVERTRAVEL STOP BEING MOUNTED ON SAID INNER LEG FOR ENGAGEMENT WITH THE UNDER SIDE OF THE CONTAINER, SAID SECOND PAIR OF STANDS HAVING LATERAL BRACE MEANS INTER-CONNECTING ONE STRAND WITH THE OTHER STAND TO DEFINE A UNIFIED STRUCTURE, EACH REAR STAND BEING IN THE FORM OF A G ENERALLY INVERTED VSHAPED FRAME AND HAVING A PAIR OF DOWNWARDLY EXTENDING INNER AND OUTER INTER-CONNECTED SUPPORTS THAT MERGE UPWARDLY TO DEFINE AN APEX SUPPORT PORTION, FEET PIVOTALLY CONNECTING THE FREE END OF THE INNER SUPPORT, EACH APEX SUPPORT PORTION HAVING PIN MEANS FOR ENGAGING THE CORNERS OF THE CONTAINER, MEANS FOR COUPLING THE FIRST AND SECOND STANDS TOGETHER COMPRISING AN EXTENDIBLE AND CONTRACTABLE UNIT HAVING FREE ENDS, SAID OUTER LEG OF THE SAID FIRST STAND HAVING A COUPLE MEANS APPROXIMATE ITS LOWER END AND SAID APEX SUPPORT PORTION HAVING A COUPLED MEANS COOPERATIVE WITH SAID FIRST NAMED COUPLE MEANS IN RECEIVING THE FREE ENDS OF SAID EXTENDIBLE AND CONTRACTABLE UNIT WHEREBY UPON CONTRACTION OF SAID EXTENDIBLE AND CONTRACTABLE UNIT THE INNER SUPPORTS OF THE SECOND PAIR ORF STANDS AND SAID OUTER LEGS OF SAID FIRST PAIR OF STANDS ARE ALLOWED TO PIVOT BUT THEIR RESPECTIVE FEET ATTENDANT TO INCREASING THE VERTICAL EXTENT THEREOF FOR RAISING THE CONTAINER.