Freight accommodation on freight carrier – Load bearer accommodation – Retainer
Patent
1997-02-21
1998-06-16
Gordon, Stephen T.
Freight accommodation on freight carrier
Load bearer accommodation
Retainer
410 70, 410 77, B60P 708
Patent
active
057659770
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a clamping device for clamping a securing fitting on a container to an anchor point on an underlying load-supporting platform (or other support), said clamping device being adapted to be mounted at said anchor point and having a clamping head which is receivable within said fitting and which can be pivoted between clamping and release positions relative to said securing fitting.
In this specification, reference is made to a "clamping device" and a "clamping head", which are used to hold-down a container (via respective securing fitting) to anchor points at which the clamping device is mounted. In practice, the clamping head may move relatively freely between clamping and release positions, relative to the securing fittings which receive them, and indeed often there will be a small vertical clearance gap between the underside of each head and an adjacent surface of the fitting which allows a small amount of relative vertical movement, so that the securing fitting is not necessarily rigidly clamped solid to the clamping head, but it will be held-down by the head and restrained against relative separation. The term "clamping device" and "clamping head" are intended to be interpreted to include these possibilities.
Manually operated clamping devices have been used for many years to clamp a container to a load supporting platform provided on e.g. trailer or railway wagons, and are usually manually operated in order to pivot the clamping head between the clamping and the release positions.
Evidently, the head must be adjusted from the clamping position to the release position before a container can be bodily removed from its platform. Also, when a further container is to be loaded on the platform, each clamping device must be in its release position while the container is lowered into position, and then the clamping device is manually adjusted to the clamping position.
The driver often carries out these manual operations, which require him to de-mount from the driver's cab each time. This is time-consuming, and the very important (from a safety point of view) matter of manually adjusting the clamping devices to the clamping position (before the driver returns to the public highway) is dependent entirely upon the attention given to the task by the driver.
When the driver is in a hurry, or otherwise distracted, it can happen that at least some of the clamping devices are not properly manually readjusted to the clamping positions, and this error may not come to light until the load is moving at high speed on the public highway. The fact that improper clamping has taken place will not normally be immediately apparent, since under normal conditions the large mass of the container and its load causes it to be seated reasonably securely on the clamping devices, and it is only when a large upward jolt is applied to the trailer e.g. by mounting a curb at speed, or in a trailer-turnover situation in an accident, that improper clamping of the container to the platform results in the container becoming separated from its platform with potentially disastrous impact on surrounding vehicles, buildings or people.
With a view to reducing the risk of improper clamping going unnoticed, it has been proposed to provide automated or automatically acting clamping devices, which are self-locking when a container is lowered onto the engaging heads of the clamping devices. The heads therefore may comprise so-called "twistlock" type heads carried at the upper ends of spring biased rotary spindles, the spring biasing normally applying torque to each spindle to bias each head towards the clamping position.
However, each corner or other securing fitting on the container (when the container is lowered into position) engages the respective head and applies a rotation to the head against its spring biasing, as the container is lowered, so that the head rotates to an unclamping or release position. The head is held in the release position until the corner fitting becomes fully lowered into engagement with a usual horizo
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patent: 4352613 (1982-10-01), Bertolini
patent: 4626155 (1986-12-01), Hlinsky et al.
patent: 4697967 (1987-10-01), Schulz et al.
patent: 4782561 (1988-11-01), Hayama
patent: 5183375 (1993-02-01), Fenton et al.
patent: 5356249 (1994-10-01), Hove
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