GB1388801A - Conveying systems - Google Patents

Abstract

1388801 Switch for conveyer system; track apparatus FMC CORP 9 Jan 1973 [27 Jan 1972] 1062/73 Headings B7L and B7N A conveying system comprises a truck 22 with a tow pin 42 driven along a slot 24 in a floor 26 by a drive chain 39, a pivotal switch plate 36 at a junction between a straight-on slot 24b and a branch slot 28 for directing the truck to a selected route, and a flexible leaf spring 45 mounted on the switch plate and extending across the branch slot 28 which is engageable by the tow pin to urge the switch plate to the branch-slot-closed position after passage of the truck through the switch. The switch plate is pivoted to the branch-slot-open position by the engagement of a code probe 37 on the truck with a notched generally hemispherical reader head 34 which is thereby pivoted to pull a cable 38. Traction on the cable lifts a catch arm 56 by means of a block 54 with a cam surface 60 and thereby allows the block to pivot the switch plate 36 by means of an H- shaped member 52 welded thereto. On disengagement of the code probe 37 from the reader head 34 a compression spring 88 returns the reader head and the block 54 to their original positions and subsequent engagement of the tow pin 42 with the leaf spring 45 pivots the switch plate to its branch-slot-closed position, in which it is latched by engagement of the catch arm 56 over the member 52. The leaf spring alone may be engageable by the tow pin or pivoting of the switch plate may be initiated by a cam surface 44 on the plate whereupon the leaf spring takes over the pivoting function.