Bridges – Gangway – ramp – or dock leveler – Attached
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-25
2001-04-10
Lillis, Eileen D. (Department: 3673)
Bridges
Gangway, ramp, or dock leveler
Attached
C014S069500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06212724
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a type of aircraft passenger boarding bridge which, besides being suitable for large and medium size airplanes, is particularly suitable as a boarding bridge for narrow body aircraft fitted with their own stairs.
2. Description of Related Arts
The boarding bridge in present day use that are employed for passengers embarking and disembarking from an airplane are made of five parts including a rotunda, telescopic tunnel, bubble section, cab, and elevating columns with wheel carriage. Their structure is large and cumbersome, and in particular the structure of the floor and canopy of the cab is not suitable for small aircraft such as the SAAB340, ATR72 and F100 which have their own stairs. Because of the small size of these aircraft, when connecting with the boarding bridges that are commonly only suited for large and medium sized planes there will usually be a gap between the boarding bridge and the airplane that has to be crossed by a manually positioned gangplank for the passengers to get on or off the airplane. This is neither convenient nor safe. At the same time, since the cab and the airplane are not close fitting, this dose not meet the requirements of fire hazard prevention. Because of their size the large boarding bridges also have the disadvantage of being clumsy and expensive to transport around.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to overcome the many disadvantages of the above mentioned boarding bridges, and to provide a light weight passenger boarding bridge that does not require a bubble section and is suited for use not only with ordinary large and medium sized aircraft but is especially suited for small aircraft that carry their own stairs like the SAAB340, ATR72 and F100 type airplanes. Moreover, it is light and ingenious in structure, safe, and convenient and cheap to transport.
The embodiment of the present invention is as follows.
The present invention for the passenger boarding bridge for narrow body aircraft consists of a rotunda, a telescopic tunnel, a cab and elevating columns with wheel carriage. The telescopic tunnel consists of an inner telescoping tunnel and an outer tunnel. The inner telescoping tunnel can extend into and out of the outer tunnel. One end of the telescoping tunnel connects to the rotunda, and its special characteristic is that its other end connects to the cab. This cab is characterized by its special structure: on the right hand half of the cab floor lengthwise there are two openings which divide the floor into two parts, floor P and floor Q, and connected to the floor at each opening there is an up-folding hinged floor board. On the back side of floor P there are gas springs that are used to flip up the hinged boards and also a cylinder that can move an extension board forward and backward at the front end of floor P. On the right hand side of floor Q and at the bottom of the inner side of the right hand floor opening there are electrical locks for locking the hinged floor boards when they are in the horizontal position. On the back side of floor Q there is also a cylinder for pushing sideways the bumper at the front end of floor Q.
The first piece of the frame of the canopy on the cab has two short plates, the bottom part of which is split but connected with a hinge. The front part of the frame is covered with foam rubber. The top of the canopy frame has attached a gas spring to open up the frame and allow it to assume a multisided shape. A steel cable and pulley assembly used to close up the canopy is fixed on the two sides of the cab. The actuator that drives the opening and closing of the canopy is fixed at the top of the cab.
At the right of the cab above the hinged floor board there is a small handrail fixed to the canopy frame for the convenience of passengers when they enter or exit the airplane. Above the small handrail a control panel is mounted on a shaft on the canopy frame so it can rotate around the shaft. Wire glass is installed on the left and right sides of the cab.
The cab is connected to a rotating frame through a roller system on its base and nylon sliding pads on the upper part of its rear sides. A cylinder mounted on the base beam drives the cab so that it can move sideways in the transverse direction on the rotating frame.
The rotating frame is connected to the telescopic tunnel by means of two large pin shafts on the left frame of the tunnel and two sliding pads at the top and bottom of the right hand side. Driven by a cylinder at its base the rotating frame can rotate around the pin shaft 80° to the left and 15° to the right. The fan-shaped roof on top of the rotating frame and the fan-shaped floor platform at the bottom are both made of rolled channel steel; during rotation the channel steel slides along the sliding pads.
For tight sealing and safety there are pleated screens between the rotating frame and cab bridge head as well as on both sides of the bridge head. The folding screen walls between the rotating frame and telescopic tunnel are made of glass panels.
The telescopic tunnel consists of tunnels A, B and C. Tunnel A is the extension section and is connected to the rotunda at one end and fixed at the other end to Tunnel B with bolts. Tunnel C which connects with the cab can slide along its length inside tunnel B along sliding pads which are mounted at the four corners of the tunnel. A motor mounted at the bottom of the tunnel drives Tunnel C so it can be extended or retracted when pulled by a chain installed also at the bottom.
All four sides of the telescopic tunnel are of truss structure 1. The two sides are fitted with laminated glass. On the bottom part of the truss structure of the tunnel is an N-shaped duct for housing the electric cables and oil pipes between Tunnel B and C. At the cab end of the central Tunnel B there is a braking device so that in case the chain breaks and Tunnel C starts to slide forward it will be stopped inside Tunnel B. A ramp is installed between Tunnel C and the cab. At one side of the interconnection between Tunnel B and A there is a baggage door, below which is a service staircase and a baggage conveyor belt alongside the staircase for transporting baggage. A case for holding electrical components is mounted opposite the baggage door.
At the top of the column supporting the rotunda there is a large swivel bearing. Below this bearing a supporting frame is welded to the column to support a fixed frame. The shape of the fixed frame is similar to that of the air terminal boarding gate, to which it connects. The large swivel bearing directly supports the horizontal rotating frame which is integrated with its base plate. The roof and base plates of the rotating frame are positioned horizontally on the top and bottom of the tunnel connection structure. A roller blinds structure is installed on the two sides of the fixed frame. The top of the tunnel is connected to the roof plate of the rotating frame, while its bottom has a pin shaft hole, through which the pin shaft connects the rotunda with Tunnel A. Between tunnel A and the rotunda there is a cover for sealing and protection against wind, rain and snow.
Elevating columns with wheel carriage: The wheel carriage assembly includes a driving wheel bogie and slave wheel bogie which support the entire elevating columns with wheel carriage and are fitted with the driving wheel and slave wheel, respectively. The oil tank connects the two wheels. The driving wheel is driven by a motor which is mounted on the bogie. The angle between the planes of the driving wheel and slave wheel is 174° so that the wheels can rotate around the center of the rotunda along a circular curve (the radius of which varies as the length of the bridges). Within a 180° arc of rotation the system can rock sideways. An electric motor, oil pump, valve station, electricity box and oil pipes are installed on the oil tank. Rising vertically from the two bogies are the elevating columns each of which includes an inner column and an outer col
Chan Raymond Y.
David & Raymond
Hartmann Gary S.
Lillis Eileen D.
LandOfFree
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