Patent Application
20180134487
Not applicable
Not applicable
The present invention relates generally to container handling equipment, including systems for accessing, grabbing, lifting and tipping a wide range of sizes and shapes of collection containers into charging hoppers or compartments of side loading collection vehicles, or other receptacles, and thereafter returning empty containers to their pickup locations. More particularly, the present invention relates to an automated container handling system including a pivoting arm and a base carriage arrangement that carries a mechanized container grabbing device. The arm is capable of lateral extension, and also capable of full lift and dump operation. A linearly-operating lift system is provided that enables the basic carriage and container grabbing device operates along a stationary belt attached to the arm to lift and lower containers held by the grabbing device.
Various vehicles dedicated to the collection of refuse or recyclables have included mechanized container handling devices that allow an operator to cause the device to access, lift, empty and return containers of interest without the need for any direct interaction by the operator so that the operator may remain in the vehicle. Such a holding or grabbing device is generally connected to an arm or extendable boom which is connected, in turn, to a base mounted on the vehicle. The arm or boom and grabbing device are operated in concert to access and engage a container of interest, lift and dump the container into a receiving hopper and return the empty container to the original location. Grabbing devices are also known which have opposed arms or fingers that converge around the girth of containers. Such devices generally have themselves been attached to extendable arm members configured to pivot in a generally vertical plane to lift and invert a captured container and return it empty to an upright position.
Systems also have been devised in which converging/diverging gripper arms are mounted on a carriage to reciprocate along a lift assembly using a chain drive.
Mechanisms of known container handling devices generally have a large number of moving parts and articulated joints which are exposed to the extreme clogging and corrosive conditions of refuse collection, and, as such, tend to require frequent maintenance. It would thus be advantageous to provide a simplified mechanism to enable a base carriage and carried container grabbing device to automatically operate along a lift and dump arm that reduces mechanism complexity and maintenance requirements.
By means of the present invention, there is provided a simplified lift and lowering system that includes a base carriage that operates along a stationary belt attached to a pivoting arm. The arm has a lower end that is capable of lateral extensions and the upper end that returns to the same position when the arm is retracted. The arm has a curved upper portion and is mounted to discharge or dump containers into the charging hopper section of a side-loading refuse vehicle. The stationary belt is carried in a recessed central area of the arm and is anchored at the upper end of the curved section of the arm and attached to a spring-loaded belt tensioner at the lower end of the arms. The underside of the belt has a tread designed to ride over a drive pulley or sprocket without slipping.
The base carriage arrangement includes a hydraulic motor designed to operate a drive pulley or sprocket that moves the carriage arrangement along using the underside of the belt. The belt is held against the drive pulley by a pair of flanking idler pulleys. The drive pulley or sprocket operates along the belt to raise and lower the carriage arrangement along the pivoting arm. The curved upper section of the arm returns to the same position in relation to the corresponding charging or receiving hopper when the arm is fully retracted to lift and dump a container in the same place in relation to the hopper.
A container grabber is attached to the base carriage arrangement and may be operated by a hydraulic actuating system to capture and release containers to be emptied and is preferably one comprising opposed spaced fingers that are mounted to spaced mounting shafts that rotate to open and close the fingers.
In the drawings:
The following detailed description is intended to be exemplary of a preferred apparatus and method of utilizing the concepts of the present invention and is not intended to exhaustive or limiting in any manner with respect to similar devices and methods and other variations which might occur to those skilled in the art. The following description further utilizes an illustrative example which is believed sufficient to convey an adequate understanding of the broader concepts to those skilled in the art, and exhaustive examples are believed unnecessary.
The automated container handling system 12 is best depicted in
As best seen in
A base carriage arrangement is shown generally at 90 and is best seen in
The drive system is best shown in
The base carriage arrangement 90 rides along the arm 30 on sets of flanged rollers. Upper or top side roller sets are shown at 104 and 106. Rollers 104 and 106 are on common shafts 108 and 110 with idler pulleys 102 and 104, respectively. Pairs of flanged lower rollers or guide wheels, one of each pair being shown at 110 and 112 in
A container grabber 140 is attached to the base carriage and includes spaced, opposed finger elements, one may have split members as at 142 and 144 and the other a single element as at 146. The opposed finger elements are attached to rotating members as at 148 and 150 (
In operation, the refuse truck stops with the container handling system alongside of a container of interest to be emptied. The arm is then advanced laterally with the grabber fully open until the grabber is close to the container. The grabber is then operated to capture the container and thereafter the arm is retracted to an upright position and the base carriage is raised and the container emptied into the loading hopper.
This invention has been described herein in considerable detail in order to comply with the patent statutes and to provide those skilled in the art with the information needed to apply the novel principles and to construct and use embodiments of the example as required. However, it is to be understood that the invention can be carried out by specifically different devices and that various modifications can be accomplished without departing from the scope of the invention itself.
