Material or article handling – Self-loading or unloading vehicles – Having elevating load body
Patent
1996-11-25
1998-09-08
Bucci, David A.
Material or article handling
Self-loading or unloading vehicles
Having elevating load body
296203, 296210, B60P 3055
Patent
active
058036989
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a bodied vehicle of the type more closely defined in the preamble of claim 1.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For the loading and unloading of lorries, fork-lift trucks or similar lifting devices must often be used to lift the cargo from the ground onto the often relatively high loading area and also down again, insofar as the raising and lowering is not performed manually. This process is very time-consuming and thus expensive, since the fork-lift truck is always able in each case to accept only part of the cargo in a loading operation and therefore has repeatedly to receive goods, lift them onto the lorry and deposit them there.
A further drawback of this process for loading and unloading a lorry is that a fork-lift truck must in the first place be present to allow the freight to be loaded and unloaded. For this reason, a collapsible fork-lift truck is carried in a large number of lorries so that there is no need for a fork-lift truck to be present at the destination. However, the maximum payload and the maximum usable loading space of the lorry are reduced by carrying a fork-lift truck of this type, so that the economic effectiveness of the lorry suffers under this solution.
Although it is possible to attach the fork-lift truck to the outside of the rear wall of the lorry, this must then be secured by very expensive and complex mechanisms against falling onto the road.
A vehicle of the generic type is known from DE 41 14 044 A1. The said publication describes a lorry having a device for the transport of crates, piece goods, merchandise or various materials in the stacked state. The device is formed by a supporting frame fastened to the chassis and by a movable structure, which forms compartments which are open and disposed on both sides of the vehicle and is vertically adjustable between a setting lowered to the earth for loading/unloading the material and a raised setting for vehicle road travel.
Moreover, the known vehicle is provided with a fixed roof under which the open compartments are provided.
DE-U-94 08 263 discloses a commercial vehicle, especially a drinks vehicle having a low loading platform. In this vehicle, at least parts of the loading platform are suspended, such that they can be lowered down to the ground, from a centre frame supported on the axles. Moreover, the side walls of the vehicle and the roof of the body are suspended rigidly from the centre frame by transverse members disposed at the ends of the lowerable loading platform sections.
A drawback with the vehicles known from the prior art is however that their stability, especially in the event of twisting motions about the centre longitudinal axis of the vehicle, is relatively poor, since the front and rear axles of the respective vehicle are joined essentially only by a middle member and by the universal joint shaft for the rear axle drive, so that virtually the whole of the acting forces have to be absorbed by these structural parts, especially by the middle member and centre frame respectively.
A further drawback of the known vehicles is that they are difficult to load and unload, especially on ramps, so that loading and unloading on ramps can only be done with these vehicles by using suitable external lifting devices such as, for example, fork-lift trucks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a bodied vehicle which exhibits improved stability relative to the prior art and which can be easily and rapidly loaded and unloaded.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by the fact that the roof has roof stays for absorbing at least part of the forces acting upon the vehicle and that the loading boxes can be raised from the setting in normal running to the height of the ramp, a free space being left between the loading boxes and the roof during normal running of the vehicle.
The provision of roof stays which absorb at least part of the forces acting upon the vehicle means that the vehicle according to the invention is substantially
REFERENCES:
patent: 1523636 (1925-01-01), Dunn
patent: 3180503 (1965-04-01), Shaw
patent: 3537745 (1970-11-01), Herring, Jr.
patent: 3666130 (1972-05-01), Ellerd
patent: 5096216 (1992-03-01), McCalla
patent: 5145307 (1992-09-01), Smethwick et al.
Helget Rudolf
Hoenersch Klaus
Hurler Walter
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