GB872401A - Conveyor system - Google Patents

Abstract

872,401. Conveyer systems. FREEMAN (ENGINEERS) Ltd., A., and FREEMAN, A. June 5, 1959 [March 31, 1958], No. 10238/58. Class 104 (2). A conveyer system comprises a trackway along which a plurality of carriages are. driven by means of a chain or the like disposed beside the trackway and having, at intervals along its length, apertured or recessed dogs engageable with a catch member on each of the carriages, means being provided to uncouple a carriage by disengagement of the catch and the dog. The relative disposition of trackway, carriage and chain is preferably as shown in Fig. 2, the trackway comprising tracking 10 in which run castor-type support wheels 8 of the carriages surmounted by horizontal guide wheels 9 engaged with the vertical walls of the tracking and the chain 13 running beneath the carriages and between the wheels. The catch member of each carriage comprises a pivoted arm 19 (Fig. 1), spring-urged downwardly and having a laterally extending catch bar 23 at its free end. The dogs 15 on the chain are formed by chain links whose side members extend above the body of the chain and are slotted to accommodate one of the catch bars 23. Engagement of the dogs with the catch bars is automatically achieved when the chain is driven, the bars riding up a ramped edge of the dog into the slot; disengagement may occur in one of three ways, viz. (a) at required points in the track by deflecting the run of the chain downwardly; (b) when the carriage is switched to a branch track, by the side ways withdrawal of the catch bar; or (c) when the carriage meets a stationary obstacle (which may be another carriage), by the provision of means to raise the pivoted arm 19. As shown, this means comprises a rod 28 projecting through the bumper bar 29 of the carriage so that impact with the obstacle moves it rearwardly to tilt bell-crank lever 24 whose bifurcated end engages a pin on the arm 19 to raise the catch bar. Fig. 4 (not shown), depicts the track arrangement at a junction with a branch trackway into which the carriages are guided by the engagement of one of the guide wheels 9 with a pivoted deflector. Normally this deflector is freely-rotatable about its pivot and is pushed aside by the wheel but when the carriage is to be switched into the branch track a solenoid is energized to lock the deflector in the appropriate position. Specification 723,421 is referred to.