Self-scooping bucket conveyor

Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor having means specialized for collecting a load from... – Having buckets specialized to gather load batches

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Details

1988612, 4141411, B65G 1736

Patent

active

056514476

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a self-scooping L-shaped bucket conveyor, in particular a boat unloader, having an endless tension element on which buckets are secured and a bucket-conveyor foot which has a generally vertical section and a generally horizontal section, and at least one horizontal cylinder for tensioning and/or balancing the tension element and at least one vertical cylinder for supporting the bucket-conveyor foot.
A vertical conveyor of the known type which is in particular used as a ship unloader is described in EP 0,236,845. This vertical conveyor has an upper rotatable part pivotable about an upright axis and on whose lower end is a swing-out part. Both drums of the bucket conveyor are supported by guides for pivoting outward and are so guided on the lower end via a deflector roller that it can work in the so-called deep. In order to achieve maximum conveying capacity the swing-out part is connected on its lower end to a pivoted swing-out projecting foot part that is connected with the lower part such that it is held or moved into a horizontal position in every swung-out position. The swing-out part is formed by two links together forming a parallelogrammatic linkage to whose upper part is engaged a hydraulic cylinder. To tighten the tension element there is for example a separate tensioning device comprised also of hydraulic cylinders which can be actuated by a controller. According to the height of the bucket conveyor and the position of the horizontal outrigger part the tension-element, tension is measured and set by means of a feedback control circuit. This creates delays that are dangerous in that they can result in damage to the bucket conveyor.
German 4,100,852 describes a ship unloader with a vertically extending section that is on an outrigger and that carries on its lower end a generally horizontally extending section. The chains of the bucket conveyor are guided in the vertical and horizontal sections over deflectors. To lift the horizontal section relative to the vertical section lifting devices are provided in the vertical section so that the changes of the chain length can be compensated for by equalizing devices in the horizontal section. To this end one uses specific sensors in the form of position detectors, pressure sensors, strain gauges, etc. that work with or without feedback to control the corresponding hydraulic cylinder, for example for tightening the chains.
Even this system has the disadvantage that unavoidable delays takes place between when a new condition is detected and the reaction (adjustment of the chain tension). In addition the necessary control is very expensive and hard to effect.
When unloading a ship there are vertical and tipping movements relative to the bucket-conveyor foot that require an immediate adjustment of the position of the bucket-conveyor foot in the bulk material. At the same time it is necessary to maintain the digging force of the bucket conveyor and the tension in the tension element as constant as possible so as to obtain maximum conveyor efficiency.
It is an object of the invention to improve on a vertical conveyor so that the movement of the bucket-conveyor foot can be coordinated without great technical complexity to the ship movements without exceeding the desired tension and digging force.
This object is attained by the bucket conveyor which is characterized according to the invention in that the vertical and horizontal cylinders are connected together via a hydraulic line such that, absent active control intervention, extension of a vertical hydraulic-cylinder part due to a dropping of the bucket-conveyor foot causes a corresponding retraction of the horizontal hydraulic-cylinder part and oppositely a retraction of the vertical hydraulic-cylinder part due to a raising of the bucket-conveyor foot causes a corresponding extension of the horizontal-cylinder part. In this way the invention has the advantage that there is passive control without active position and/or pressure sensors and corresponding actuation of an adjustment element

REFERENCES:
patent: 4830177 (1989-05-01), Baba et al.
patent: 4860884 (1989-08-01), Kostrewa
patent: 4890719 (1990-01-01), Yagi et al.
patent: 4917234 (1990-04-01), Seymour
patent: 4988250 (1991-01-01), Yamanaka
patent: 5409343 (1995-04-01), Fredrich

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