Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Live roll
Patent
1985-03-20
1987-10-06
Spar, Robert J.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Live roll
B65G 1302
Patent
active
046976949
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a roller drive unit, for the drive of articles movable on a conveyor track, with at least one drive roller which is rotationally drivable by a motor through at least one gear arrangement transmitting the driving torque, is rotatably borne by its drive shaft in a guide equipment, by means of which it is pivotable with respect to a base on a circularly arcuate movement path, and which is movable by means of a control equipment on the circularly arcuate movement path between a lower rest setting and an upper drive setting, in which it stands in engagement with the underside of the article to be driven, wherein the control equipment comprises a clutch device constructed for the transmission of a limited torque between the gear arrangement and the guide equipment and the limit value of the torque is greater than the driving torque required for the raising of the drive roller into the operative setting and wherein the gear arrangement comprises a first gear wheel which is driven by the motor and drives in opposite sense a second gear wheel mounted secure against rotation at the drive shaft of the drive roller.
Roller drive units of that kind are for example used for the drive of freight receptacles, such as freight containers or pallets, movable on roller conveyor tracks. A preferred field of application is freight loading systems in air freight traffic, in which the containers in the loading space of an aircraft are transported on roller or ball conveyor tracks to the provided anchoring places in the loading space.
A roller drive unit of that kind is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,698,539 and in the DE-PS No. 1 956 946. This known unit displays a base frame to be fastened at the floor of the freight space and a bearing frame, which at one end is pivotably borne on the base frame and which carries a motor in the proximity of the pivot axis and, at a spacing from the pivot axis, a rotatable drive roller, however borne to be locally fixed with respect to the bearing frame, as well as a cam control arrangement, which is connected with the free end of the bearing frame and by means of which the bearing frame is pivotable with respect to the base frame out of the rest setting into the operative setting. The drive shaft of the motor is coupled through a gear train with the input of a planetary gear, the one output of which is coupled by way of a gear arrangement with the drive shaft of the drive roller, whilst the other output of the planetary gear drives the cam control unit.
In the rest state, the bearing frame rests on the base frame so that the drive roller stands lowered at a spacing from the bottom of a freight receptacle guided forward thereover on a roller conveyor track. In order to set the freight receptacle into motion on the roller track, the motor, which drives the input of the planetary gear, is first switched on. At this instant, the drive roller is retained against rotation with a predetermined braking torque by means of a slipping clutch so that the driving torque of the motor acts through the other output of the planetary gear onto the cam control unit which thereby by its cams, which bear against the base frame, pivots the bearing frame upwardly into the operative setting until the drive roller gets into engagement with the underside of the bottom of the freight receptacle. Because of the weight of the freight receptacle, the movement of the cam control unit is blocked thereby and the drive roller is pressed to an increasing degree against the receptacle bottom. Thereby, however also the planetary gear output, which drives the cam control unit, is blocked so that the planetary gear output, which drives the drive roller, exerts a torque to an ever greater degree on the drive roller until the limit value of the braking torque of the slipping clutch is overcome and the drive roller, pressed firmly against the receptacle bottom, starts to rotate so that this is moved forwad in a direction dependent on the rotational direction of the drive motor.
In this known roller drive
REFERENCES:
patent: 3034637 (1962-05-01), Manna
patent: 3280414 (1966-10-01), Layne
patent: 3698539 (1972-10-01), Schwarzbeck
patent: 3737022 (1973-06-01), DeNeefe et al.
Dayoan D. Glenn
Electro-Pneumatic-International GmbH
Spar Robert J.
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