Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Enclosed compartment
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-07
2001-06-12
Dayoan, D Glenn (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Enclosed compartment
C296S065050, C296S065090, C296S065160, C414S507000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244645
ABSTRACT:
This application claims the priority of German Patent Document 199 04 714.6, filed Feb. 5, 1999, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a passenger-carrying or estate-type motor car with a luggage or load space which has a rearward loading aperture and a load-space floor with a load surface which can be displaced by motor in a longitudinal direction of the car, on which load surface luggage or loads can be placed, said load surface being formed by a first endless belt which extends over a width of the load space and rests in a sliding manner on an upper side of a first rigid supporting member, of the same width, and, at one end of the first supporting member, is passed around a first drive shaft which engages in the first endless belt.
In the case of a passenger-carrying or estate-type motor car (station wagons) of the type stated at the outset (German Patent Document DE 197 09 114 A1), the endless belt is guided over a front roller driven by electric motor and over a rear roller. Both rollers are rotatably mounted in a frame. The frame is formed by a solid plate which has respective recesses in the region of the front and rear rollers. The endless belt, which is about 2 mm thick and is composed of rubber, slides directly on the upper side of the plate and is thus supported by the latter, and it runs free underneath the plate, a tensioning roller held on the lower side of the plate keeping the endless belt taut.
In the case of a multi-purpose agricultural vehicle (German Patent Document DD 69 269) with a loading platform, the latter has a self-supporting, flat hollow body which is reinforced by ribs inserted between the upper and lower sides and has bearing locations which are formed at its front and rear ends and are intended for a drive shaft and a direction-change shaft, and also has recesses for chain wheels seated on the shafts and engaging in scraper chains. The two scraper chains, which extend parallel to one another, are connected to one another by transversely aligned scraper bars.
In a known commercial vehicle (German Patent Document DE 34 13 528 A1), a plurality of parallel conveyor belts are driven in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle in the load-space floor by means of chains, a vertical dividing wall moving with the drive chains and conveyor belts. This allows the load to be placed on the conveyor belts at the rearward loading aperture and then to be pushed forwards progressively with the dividing wall. When unloading, the conveyor belts are driven in the opposite direction, with the result that the dividing wall moves progressively in the direction of the loading aperture and the load can be removed from the conveyor belts at the loading aperture. Overall, this facilitates the loading and unloading of the commercial vehicle, which can be performed by means of a fork-lift truck for example. The conveyor belts slide on side frames and inner frames. One end of the conveyor belts is connected to the lower side of the dividing wall, while the other end is connected to a drive chain, and overall the conveyor belt is therefore an endless belt. Engaging in the drive chain are chain wheels of a transmission shaft which is driven by electric motor, with the result that, depending on the direction of rotation of the drive motor, the conveyor belts and the dividing wall are displaced in the direction of the loading aperture (unloading) or away from the latter (loading).
In the case of a likewise known truck (European Patent Document EP 0 173 936 B1), the upper side of the load-space floor including the load surface comprises self-supporting light-alloy extruded sections which, to allow them to be connected in a tension-resistant manner at their longitudinal sides to positively inter-engaging jointed coupling components and, overall, form the load surface with their closely adjacent top surfaces extending in the manner of strips transversely to the conveying direction. In the lower side of the load-surface floor are tension means, e.g. two wire cables, which connect the extruded sections to one another in a tension-resistant manner, giving rise overall to a structure similar to a conveyor belt.
An object on which the invention is based is, in a motor car of the type stated at the outset, to reduce the overall height of the load-space floor with its longitudinally displaceable load surface to an extremely small figure suitable for use in passenger-carrying motor cars or estate-type motor cars and, at the same time, to ensure adequate load-bearing capacity.
According to the invention, the object is achieved by providing an arrangement of the above described general type, wherein the first endless belt is passed around a sliding-contact arc of semicircular cross section formed on an opposite end of the first supporting member and rests in a sliding manner on a lower side of the first supporting member, and wherein an outside diameter of the drive shaft corresponds to a thickness of the first supporting member.
The motor car according to the invention has the advantage that, due to the fact that the endless belt forming the load surface is supported directly and in a sliding manner over its entire width on the upper and lower sides of the supporting member and due to the fact that the endless belt is passed round the rounded end of the supporting member, the supporting member can be configured so as to have a very small overall height, and, in combination with the thickness of the endless belt, this allows a very small overall height of the load-space floor, which can be kept below 30 mm, while the supporting member nevertheless has a high rigidity and load-bearing capacity. Here, the design of the belt drive as a drive shaft which engages directly on the endless belt and has a diameter which does not exceed the thickness of the supporting member creates the conditions for such low-level construction of the load-space floor. The load-space floor with the integrated drive shaft mounted on the supporting member forms a fully preassemblable constructional unit which can be installed quickly and easily in the motor car and furthermore has such a small overall height that it can even be accommodated on the rear side of the backrests of rear seats which can be folded over forwards to enlarge the load space. Overall, the constructional unit can be manufactured and preassembled at low cost.
Advantageous embodiments of the motor car according to the invention, with expedient refinements and developments of the invention, will become apparent from the following description and the claims.
According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, in the case of a passenger-carrying or estate-type motor car with a rear or back seat having at least one backrest which can be folded over forwards to enlarge the load space and the rear side of which is designed as a load surface and, when folded over, is flush with the load-surface floor, there is accommodated, on the rear side of the at least one backrest, an endless belt of similar configuration which extends over the width of the backrest and is driven in the same way. This has the advantage that, when the load space is enlarged by folding over the backrest, the additional load space created can likewise be loaded conveniently from the loading aperture exposed by the tailgate. In the case of a back seat with a backrest which extends over the width of the car, the endless belt likewise extends over the entire width of the car. In the case of a back seat with a symmetrically or asymmetrically split backrest, each backrest is provided with an independent endless belt having a separate belt drive.
According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the endless belt is overlapped with transverse clearance at both longitudinal ends of the supporting member by a longitudinal rail of U-shaped cross section. By means of these overlapping longitudinal rails, the conveyor belt is guided laterally in the conveying direction and the conveyor belt is prevented from sliding off the s
Baumert Heinz
Greiner Ferdinand
Wamhoff Josef
Coletta Lori L.
Daimler-Chrysler AG
Dayoan D Glenn
Evenson, McKeown, Edwards & Lenahan P.L.L.C.
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