Railway rolling stock – Suspended
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-01
2001-04-17
Morano, S. Joseph (Department: 3617)
Railway rolling stock
Suspended
C105S150000, C105S152000, C105S154000, C105S155000, C105S199200, C104S089000, C104S093000, C701S124000, C198S680000, C280S755000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06216602
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a balance control mechanism for restraining the lateral swinging of a carrier body of an overhead traveling carrier upon travel of the latter on a curved portion of an overhead rail.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a factory or the like, an overhead traveling carrier is used to transport an article from one place to another by moving it on wheels along an overhead rail. When it travels along a curved portion of the rail, the carrier is liable to be swung laterally due to a carrier body thereof or an article loaded on the body, leaned by exerted centrifugal force.
For preventing such lateral swinging of a carrier body, an arrangement is proposed in Japanese Utility Model Post-Exam Publication No. HEI 8-8938. The proposed arrangement comprises auxiliary overhead rails provided on both sides of a curved portion of an overhead rail, and auxiliary traveling rolls disposed on the right and left sides of an overhead traveling carrier for being held against the auxiliary overhead rails to thereby prevent the lateral swinging of the carrier body.
In the proposed arrangement, however, a centrifugal force exerted to the carrier body upon passage of the latter over a curved portion of the overhead rail is killed by the auxiliary overhead rails via the auxiliary traveling rolls. Thus, when the overhead rail has a small radius of curvature, large centrifugal force is exerted to the carrier body, thereby requiring the carrier body and auxiliary overhead rails to have increased rigidity.
For increasing the rigidity of the carrier body and auxiliary overhead rails, they need to be increased in weight and size, thereby increasing the cost of production. Otherwise, the overhead traveling carrier must be operated to travel along the curved rail portion at a low speed, thereby making the cycle of article transport prolonged.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been attained in a course of research to overcome the foregoing conventional problems. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an improved balance control mechanism for an overhead traveling carrier, which, without using auxiliary overhead rails and traveling rolls as provided in the conventional arrangement, enables travel of the overhead traveling carrier along a curved portion of an overhead rail at a high speed without causing lateral swinging of the carrier.
According to the present invention, there is provided a balance control mechanism for an overhead traveling carrier having a carrier body suspended from an overhead rail by means of a traveling wheel and being capable of traveling along the overhead rail, which balance control mechanism comprises: a movable section disposed on the carrier body at a position below the fulcrum of the traveling wheel on the overhead rail such that the movable section can be moved laterally with respect to the carrier body to thereby displace the center of gravity of the movable section laterally of the carrier body; gravity center moving means for moving the center of gravity of the movable section with respect to the carrier body; and balance control means for calculating a balancing position at which the center of gravity of the movable section is to be placed so that the moment of a centrifugal force turning around the fulcrum with an axis lying in a direction of travel of the carrier and applied to the carrier in its entirety upon travel of the carrier over a curved portion of the rail is counterbalanced by the moment of gravity, and then controlling the gravity center moving means to cause the center of gravity of the movable section to be moved to the balancing position.
With this arrangement, since the centrifugal force moment which causes the lateral swinging of the carrier body upon travel of the carrier along the curved rail portion is counterbalanced by the gravity moment produced by shifting the center of gravity of the movable section, it becomes possible for the overhead traveling carrier to travel over the rail at a high speed.
In a preferred form, the balance control means calculates the balancing position by using data representing a radius of curvature of said rail, which data is read, by means of data reading means disposed on the carrier, from a data strip attached to the rail. Since the auxiliary overhead rails for bearing the centrifugal force applied to the carrier body on the curved rail portion, as required in the conventional arrangement, are no longer required, it becomes possible to significantly reduce the cost of production of overhead traveling carriers.
Desirably, the gravity center moving means comprises a toothed drive pulley disposed within the carrier body at a lower part thereof, a toothed driven pulley disposed within the carrier body at a lower part thereof oppositely from the toothed drive pulley, a toothed belt trained around the toothed drive pulley and the toothed driven pulley, and a stepping motor disposed within the carrier body for driving the toothed drive pulley.
The above and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3106171 (1963-10-01), Julien
patent: 4475462 (1984-10-01), Tsumaki et al.
patent: 5197390 (1993-03-01), Richardson
patent: 5921185 (1999-07-01), Hoyon et al.
patent: 1236533 (1960-06-01), None
patent: 1409271 (1975-10-01), None
Fukuzaki Daisuke
Nakano Yoshikazu
Dann Dorfman Herrell and Skillman
Jules Frantz F.
Morano S. Joseph
Skillman Henry H.
Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
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