WO2007128032A1

WO2007128032A1 - Attachment for fork lift trucks

Info

Publication number: WO2007128032A1
Application number: PCT/AU2007/000546
Authority: WO
Inventors: Peter Walker Edwards
Original assignee: Peter Walker Edwards
Priority date: 2006-05-02
Filing date: 2007-04-26
Publication date: 2007-11-15

Abstract

An attachment for mounting on a fork lift truck, the attachment including; an upright frame connected directly or indirectly to the carriage of a fork lift truck; optionally with an adapter plate between the carriage and the upright frame; a goods engaging means connected to and extending forwardly from said upright frame; a push plate connected to said upright frame above said goods engaging means, and a gripping means such as a slip sheet clamp connected at the base of the push plate to grip a slip sheet and pull the sheet and goods contained thereon onto said goods engaging means; characterised where said goods engaging means includes; two outside platens and at least one inside platen located between the two outside platens.

Description

ATTACHMENT FOR FORK LIFT TRUCKS

TECHNICAL FIELD.

The invention relates to an attachment for fork lift trucks capable of handling a variety of pallet designs and having the push-pull type device for handling goods disposed on a sheet between the goods and the pallet.

BACKGROUND ART

The following descriptions are provided to assist the reader to understand the relevance of the invention. However the background art is not intended and do not of themselves provide any admission by the applicant that they are published as may be required for an assessment of novelty or obviousness or are common general knowledge according to the laws of and in any particular country in the world.

Many goods are transported on pallets and goods on pallets are often moved with fork lift trucks. While there has been some effort to standardise the size and design of pallets around the world, pallets still vary in size and design around the world. .A typical pallet consists of a top platform for carrying goods, bottom entry boards, and bearer beams in between the top platform and the bottom entry boards to provide a gap for fork lift tynes to lift the pallet. A pallet may have three bearer beams, one on each side of the pallet and one in the middle. Where the goods on the pallet is particularly heavy, a pallet may have four bearer beams with a beam on each pallet side and two beams in between spaced apart to distribute the load forces between the beams and allow a gap for fork lift tynes to slide between the top platform and the bottom entry boards. A previous problem with the use of pallets is that the pallets as well as the goods are often left with the purchaser of the goods. Thus the pallet owner would have to arrange a later time to collect the pallet after the goods had been removed from the pallet, assuming the pallet had not been lost or destroyed by the purchaser in the interim. It was thus advantageous if the pallet owner could retain the pallet while delivering goods to the purchaser. To overcome this problem forklift devices having a push plate arrangement with a sheet arrangement for transferring the goods were designed so the goods could be offloaded from the pallet and transported by a forklift without the need for the pallet.

These push plate designs with the sheet arrangements are commercially available and well known in the art and examples are disclosed in more detail in the following patents; US5692874, US5033939, US4890973 and US4828450.

Normal fork lift tynes are not suitable with these push pull designs with gripping sheet arrangements. This is because goods of lesser dimension than the distance between the fork tynes may not be supported by the sheet alone causing the goods to fall off the fork lift tynes. As such, instead of tynes these types of fork lifts are equipped with two platens to carry the goods. The use of platens is disclosed in the above patents.

Two platens are used on the forklift to transfer the goods from the pallet onto the platens.

A particular disadvantage of the prior platen arrangement is where the pallet has four or more bearer beams, that is, two or more internal bearer beams, and the platens have to negotiate the bearer beams and where the unit size of the goods is sufficiently small but heavy, that it may collapse through the gap between the platens.

Thus an object of this invention is to provide an attachment for forklifts that at least partially alleviates the disadvantages of the prior platen arrangements. SUMMARY OF INVENTION

In one form of this invention although this need not be the only or indeed the broadest of this there is provided an attachment for mounting on a fork lift truck, the attachment including; an upright frame connected directly or indirectly to the carriage of a fork lift truck; optionally with an adapter plate between the carriage and the upright frame; a goods engaging means connected to and extending forwardly from said upright frame; a push plate connected to said upright frame above said goods engaging means, and a gripping means such as a slip sheet clamp connected at the base of the push plate to grip a slip sheet and pull the sheet and goods contained thereon onto said goods engaging means; characterised where said goods engaging means includes; two outside platens and at least one inside platen located between the two outside platens.

Preferably the goods engaging means includes two outside platens and two inside platens located between the two outside platens.

Preferably the platens are slide able in a sideways relationship relative to the upright frame, such that the gap between the platens can be varied depending upon the position of the bearer beams on a particular type of pallet.

Preferably the outside platens are of greater width than the inside platens.

The optional adapter plate is used to ensure that the upright frame is correctly positioned in relation to the carriage so the platens are able to be lowered to ground level and/or raised sufficiently high above the ground. The adapter may be required with large heavy duty fork lifts used in rough terrain with high ground clearances.

However in a preferred embodiment the upright frame is designed to be connected directly onto the forklift carriage without the use of an adapter plate, as the use of the adapter plate further extends the upright frame in a forward direction which thus decreases the potential load that the forldift may carry.

The inventor has found that having two outside platens and two inside platens of lesser width than the outside platens allows the forklift to be able to cope with a large number of pallet designs. For example where the invention includes two outside platens and two inside platens in between the two outside platens, having the outside platens of a width of about 380mm and the inside platens of a width of 85mm and the outside platen and one inside platen adjacent each other or having a small gap up to about 20mm, and with a gap of about 80mm between the two inside platens, allows the forklift to pick up pallets having three bearer beams where the pallets can be of a width from 1160mm to 1200mm. Then if the forklift needs to lift a pallet having four bearer beams, the inside platens can be moved sideways so there are two gaps of about 80mm between each outside platen and the adjacent inside platen. Having a small gap as described above allows heavy goods of a small unit size to be moved via the gripping sheet off the pallet onto the forklift with a reduced risk that the goods will collapse through the gaps between the platens.

In a further embodiment of the invention the platens may be configured such that the width of the platen is variable. A platen where the width can be varied will further increase the number of types of pallets and loads that can be used with the current invention. In the embodiment a platen will have a break along its length, allowing the platen to be separated. Preferably the break along the length of the platen is of a non straight nature, and may be of a sinusoidal, zigzag, or similar pattern, with the two sides of the adjoining break complementing the other. By having the break of a non straight nature, the platens may be spread further with a lesser risk that the load may slip through the gap created by separating the platens, compared with a straight break. Preferably the break is of a sinusoidal shape and the edges of the break are smoothed, rounded, chamfered, or similar to reduce the likelihood of the slip sheet catching on any sharp edges. The invention is particularly suited for goods such as paving stones, tiles, bricks, and bagged ingredients such as cement and lime commonly used at building sites, but it is to be understood that the invention is not restricted to any particular type of goods on a pallet.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

For a better understanding of the invention, further description will now be given, with reference to drawings in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a perspective drawing showing the platens of the current invention set up for a pallet having 3 bearer beams.

Figure 2 illustrates a perspective drawing showing the platens of the current invention set up for a pallet having 4 bearer beams.

Figure 3 illustrates a platen that may be separated to increase its overall width.

Referring to the figures, the attachment as illustrated is attached to an adapter plate connected to the carriage of a fork lift truck or directly onto the carriage of a forklift truck. Where the pallet is a 3 bearer beam pallet, the outside platens (1) and the inside platens (2) are positioned as shown in figure 1. Where the pallet is a 4 bearer beam pallet, the outside platens (1) and the inside platens (2) are positioned as shown in figure 2. Once the platens have been positioned so they can negotiate the internal bearer beams of the pallet the platens are slid under the pallet platform to lift and move the pallets.

When the forklift is required to unload the goods on a pallet the forklift is placed such that the ends of the platens abut the pallet and the push plate (3) is extended forward to the end of the platens so that the push plate is adjacent the goods on the pallet and the slip sheet clamp (4) is able to clamp the slip sheet located between the goods and the pallet. When the slip sheet is secured to the slip sheet clamp (4) the push plate can then be retracted towards the upright frame pulling the slip sheet and the goods off the pallet onto the forklift platens.

With the goods no longer on the pallet at the point of delivery, the pallet owner is able to retrieve the pallets at the time of delivery, leading to economic, environment and energy savings.

In figure 3 the break along the length of the platen is of a sinusoidal design (5). In practice the platen may be separated up to 100mm apart. The preferred amplitude and wavelength of the sine wave will depend upon the dimensions of the load in contact with the platens, and the distance which the platens need to be separated so that the platens may support the load. The optimum wavelength and amplitude can be determined empirically depending upon the dimensions of the load components and the distance that the platen may need to be separated to fully support the load. Where a sinusoidal curve design is used it is preferred that the wave amplitude is minimised and the wavelength maximized, to reduce the risk of the slip sheets catching on the crests of the curve when the slip sheet and load is pulled on to the platens.

Example 1

The attachment of the current invention substantially as shown in the figures was made having an upright frame with a class 2 BOLZONI push plate with gripping sheet arrangement. The upright frame was connected to a rough terrain forklift so an adapter plate was made to correctly position the upright frame in relation to the forklift carriage. Two outside platens of width 381mm , and two inside platens between the two outside platens of width 85mm were constructed specifically for the invention using Tl steel.

An arrangement where the two inside platens were spaced apart with a gap of 80mm and a gap between the inside platens and outside platens of 17mm allowed a pallet to be lifted, of width 1165mm, having three bearer beams of width 50mm each. An arrangement where the two inside platens were spaced apart with a gap of 80mm and a gap between the inside platens and outside platens of 35mm allowed a pallet to be lifted, of width 1200mm, having three bearer beams of width 50mm each.

An arrangement where the two inside platens were adjacent each other and a gap between the inside platens and outside platens of 74.5mm allowed a pallet to be lifted, of width 1200mm, having four bearer beams of width 50mm each with a gap between the side beam and a central beam of 400mm and the gap between the two central beams of 200mm.

The example illustrates the versatility of the invention with being able to cope with pallets of various widths and having different numbers of bearer beams while providing gaps between the tynes and platens which are sufficiently large to allow the pallet bearer beams to pass in between, yet also sufficiently small such that when the goods are transferred from the pallet onto the forklift, that there is a reduced risk that the goods will collapse through the gaps between the platens and tynes.

Throughout this specification the purpose of the description has been to illustrate the invention and not to limit this.

Claims

1. An attachment for mounting on a fork lift truck, the attachment including; an upright frame connected directly or indirectly to the carriage of a fork lift truck; optionally with an adapter plate between the carriage and the upright frame; a goods engaging means connected to and extending forwardly from said upright frame; a push plate connected to said upright frame above said goods engaging means, and a gripping means such as a slip sheet clamp connected at the base of the push plate to grip a slip sheet and pull the sheet and goods contained thereon onto said goods engaging means; characterised where said goods engaging means includes; two outside platens and at least one inside platen located between the two outside platens.

2. The attachment of claim 1 where the goods engaging means includes two outside platens and two inside platens located between the two outside platens.

3. The attachment of claim 1 where the platens are slide able in a sideways relationship relative to the upright frame, such that the gap between the platens can be varied depending upon the position of the bearer beams on a particular type of pallet.

4. The attachment of claim 1 where the outside platens are of greater width than the inside platens.

5. The attachment of claim 1 where the width of the platen may be varied.

6. The attachment of claim 1 where the upright frame is connected directly onto the forkϋft carriage without the use of an adapter plate.