Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor system for moving a specific load as a separate unit – System includes an oscillating or reciprocating load...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-24
2001-04-03
Olszewski, Robert P. (Department: 3652)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor system for moving a specific load as a separate unit
System includes an oscillating or reciprocating load...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06209709
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention pertains to a dunnage infeed station that is designed to receive generally planar dunnage objects, such as tier sheets and tier sheet picture frames, from a forklift and to deposit a stack of the dunnage objects onto a conveyor which transports the stack out from the infeed station.
More particularly, the present invention pertains to a dunnage infeed station comprised of a roller conveyor and an elevating mechanism positioned below rollers of the conveyor. The elevating mechanism is selectively operated to raise parallel upright plates between adjacent rollers of the conveyor where a stack of dunnage objects can be deposited onto the plates from a forklift. The plates are then lowered by the elevating mechanism, thereby placing the stack of objects onto the roller conveyor which transports the stack of objects out from the infeed station.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
In present known methods of transporting articles on a pallet, layers of the articles arranged on a pallet are commonly separated by a tier sheet. The tier sheet is usually a square or rectangular piece of cardboard. It is first placed onto the pallet before the first layer of articles is arranged on the pallet so that the tier sheet can provide a smooth planar surface for this first layer of articles. A second tier sheet is then positioned on top of the first layer of articles to again provide a smooth surface for the next layer of articles to be arranged on the pallet. Subsequent layers of articles arranged on the pallet are each separated by a tier sheet in this manner. A picture frame, or a relatively thin frame constructed of wood (or other materials) and having the peripheral dimensions of the tier sheet, is then placed on the topmost tier sheet in the stack on the pallet. The picture frame reinforces the topmost tier sheet on the stack and provides a more rigid support for receiving banding wrapped around the pallet and the picture frame to secure the stack of articles on the pallet, and/or shrink wrap wrapped around the pallet, picture frame and the stack of articles therebetween to further secure the stack of articles on the pallet.
Both tier sheets and picture frames are intended to be reusable in stacking layers of articles on pallets. Therefore, where articles are being loaded onto or unloaded from pallets, it has been seen to be time efficient to arrange stacks of tier sheets and stacks of picture frames and transporting those stacks of tier sheets and stacks of picture frames to where they are needed. Very often, the stacking of tier sheets and picture frames is done manually. The stacks are then moved by a forklift to a conveyor where the forklift is employed to place the stack of objects onto the conveyor.
However, it is very difficult to transfer a stack of objects from the forks of a forklift onto a conveyor. For example, if the objects were being transferred from the forklift onto a roller conveyor, the rollers of the conveyor would need to be spaced far enough apart so that the forks could be lowered between pairs of adjacent rollers to the extent that the top surfaces of the pairs of adjacent rollers would project upwardly above the forks to enable setting the stack of objects onto the rollers. With the stack of objects then supported on the rollers, the forks could be withdrawn. However, this would still require that the forks be withdrawn by reversing the forklift in a straight line from the conveyor in order to slide the forks out from between the pairs of rollers and beneath the stack of objects. In some situations, there is insufficient floor space to allow a forklift to be reversed in a straight line from the side of a roller conveyor.
In addition, it is difficult to pick up a stack of objects resting on a conveyor such as a roller conveyor. With the stack of objects resting directly on the top surfaces of the conveyor rollers, it is difficult to insert the tips of the forks between the stack of objects and the top surfaces of the rollers. Again, it would require a roller conveyor specifically designed with rollers of enlarged diameters that are spaced sufficiently far apart to enable the forks of the forklift to be inserted between pairs of adjacent rollers and beneath the stack of objects supported on the rollers. Also, spacing the rollers farther apart could cause tier sheets to sag into the gap of adjacent rollers. In addition, because the pair of forks would need to be inserted between the pairs of adjacent rollers in order to position the forks beneath the stack of objects supported by the rollers, the forklift could only approach the stack by moving forward in a straight line toward the side of the roller conveyor. Again, in some applications there may not be sufficient floor space available to position the forklift in this manner.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a dunnage infeed station that enables a forklift transporting a stack of dunnage objects to quickly position the objects on a conveyor for further transport of the stack of objects by the conveyor. What is meant herein by a stack of dunnage objects in primarily a stack of tier sheets or a stack of picture frames. However, the dunnage infeed station may be employed in receiving a stack of other similar types of dunnage objects, for example some forms of pallets. In addition, although the station is described as being an infeed station for receiving a stack of dunnage objects, the station could also be employed as an outloading station for a stack of dunnage objects that are to be removed from a conveyor by a forklift. The description of the station is not intended to limit it for use with any particular dunnage object or to limit the use as an infeeding station or outloading station of the objects.
The station is basically comprised of a support table supporting a conveyor section of the station at a slightly elevated horizontal position, a lifting mechanism positioned below the table and a pair of positioning walls that project upwardly from two sides of the table. In the preferred embodiment, the table is a side loading table meaning that a forklift transporting a stack of objects will approach the table laterally from one side of the table and the conveyor section of the station will transport the stack of objects out of the station longitudinally along the length of the conveyor. The station could be employed with loading of the station from other directions with minor modifications.
The supporting table supports the conveyor that in the preferred embodiment is a roller conveyor. The table supports a plurality of elongated rollers that are arranged side by side with center axes of the rollers extending laterally and parallel to each other. The plurality of rollers are arranged relative to each other with the top surfaces of the rollers defining a horizontal plane at the top of the conveyor. A plurality of sprockets are connected to the plurality of rollers at one side of the supporting table. A chain drive interconnects the sprockets and rotates all of the rollers of the plurality in one direction to transport a stack of objects out of the infeed station and along the length of the conveyor.
A sidewall projects upwardly from the support table at a longitudinal end of the conveyor path. A back wall also projects upwardly from the support table adjacent a lateral side of the conveyor and adjacent the sidewall. Preferably, the back wall and sidewall are positioned at a right angle to each other and are positioned sufficiently close to the horizontal plane defined by the top of the conveyor to come into contact with the stack of objects being loading by a forklift into the infeed station to move the stack of objects on the forklift forks and orient the stack with opposite lateral edges of the stack of dunnage objects generally aligned with the longitudinal direction of the conveyor transport path.
The elevating mechanism is generally comprised of a plurality of air bladders, a horizontal base supported on the air bladders and a plurality of uprig
Howell & Haferkamp LC
Jaketic Bryan
Olszewski Robert P.
Ouellette Machinery Systems, Inc.
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