This invention relates to particulate material hauling, and more particularly to a self-contained garbage loading and unloading system capable of removable installation in a truck container.
Conventional garbage trucks incorporate the structural components by which garbage is received in the garbage truck container and compacted to minimum bulk and finally discharged from the container at a garbage disposal site. The many structural components are required to be installed in each truck, so the cost of components and labor is high and is maximized by the time required for manufacture and installation.
In its basic concept, the present invention provides a self-contained particulate product loading and unloading system that enables the conversion of an empty truck container to a complete, fully operative particulate product handling truck simply by installing the self-contained system of this invention in the empty truck container. The self-contained system of this invention is producible by high speed factory assembly, at minimum cost, and requires minimum skill and physical effort in manually placing the integrated system in the truck container and securing it in operative position.
The primary objective of this invention is to provide a self-contained particulate material loading and unloading system capable of removable installation in the empty container of a conventional truck.
Another objective of this invention is the provision of a self-contained loading and unloading system produced economically by factory assembly and capable of manual installation in an empty container of a truck, with speed and facility.
A further objective of this invention is to provide a self-contained particulate material loading and unloading system that includes means for shielding the structure of the system from particulate material fed into the empty container of a truck and for assisting the unloading of particulate material from the container.
Still another objective of this invention is the provision of a self-contained particulate material loading and unloading system capable of ready installation in a closed top truck container of substantial length for handling large amounts of particulate material from several smaller containers for transport to a disposed site.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will appear from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of a preferred embodiment.
Referring first to
It is to be understood that other types of trucks also may be used, the only requirement being a discharge door 24 and a garbage inlet 26 in the container 8. In some garbage trucks the garbage is fed into the truck container through the rear door 24.
The embodiment illustrated in
The drive cylinders are coupled to a source of hydraulic fluid pressure, through selector valves, by any of a variety of selected control systems, examples of which are described in my earlier issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,534,875; 4,144,963; 4,691,819; 4,856,645; 4,966,275; 5,263,573; and 6,513,648. These patents are made part of this application by reference.
The hydraulic fluid pressure drive cylinders 46, 48, 50 and their control system 58 are located in the front end portion of the garbage truck container 18, adjacent front wall 22, and are shielded from incoming garbage at the infeed side opening 26, by a combination garbage shield and garbage pusher 60 which extends the full width of floor 20 and is secured by anchors 62 to the horizontal bottom portions to the slat 38 of each group of slats. The sloping section 64 shields against incoming garbage encroaching upon the drive mechanism, and the vertical leading pusher section 66 serves to pack and push garbage toward the rear door 24 as the floor slats are moved in that direction, as explained hereinafter.
The vertical trailing section 68 serves to engage and abut the front wall 22 when the conveyor slats are fully retracted, to close the front area of the slats and drive mechanism from incoming garbage. It is slat 38 of each slat group that is operated by control system 58 to be moved in the outfeed direction toward the rear door 24 while slats 34 and 36 are moved sequentially in the retracting and advancing directions and then in the advancing direction with slats 38. Advancing movement of all three slats provides maximum pushing power for movement of garbage toward and through the opening of the rear door 24.
Operation of the system described hereinbefore is as follows:
In the loading operation, garbage is picked up at the various sites of garbage cans 28, where each can is grasped by the hydraulic lifter 30 and lifted upward and inward through the side opening 26 as it is upended to deposit its content of garbage into the dump truck container 18, onto the sloping section 64 of the combination shield and pusher 60. The reciprocating conveyor slats 34, 36, 38 are driven by control system 58 to move slats 34 and 36 sequentially and then all three slats of the groups of slats simultaneously toward the rear door 24, moving the garbage on the conveyor slats with them.
When the conveyor slats reach the end of the outfeeding stroke of all three hydraulic cylinders 46, 48, 50 the control system 58 operates to stop the movement of slats 38 and to initiate rearward, retracting movement of one of the slats 34 of each group of slats, at a higher rate of speed, to its fully retracted position, and then initiates retraction of the other group of slats 36, also at the higher rate of speed, to their fully retracted position. Finally, slats 38 of all groups of slats are retracted, to complete full retraction of all slats.
This sequence of operation of the three groups of slats effectively returns all slats to their newly advanced starting positions. By retracting only one slat of each group at a time, the load of garbage does not move rearward because the load rests upon two of the three slats of each group that are not moving at all. Thus, the cycle of operation of the slats is completed and the next cycle of operation is initiated by movement of all three slats of each group in the direction in which the garbage is moved toward the rear door 24. Continued operation of the three slats of each group results in moving garbage continuously toward the rear door until the container 18 has been filled with compacted garbage, as suggested by the broken lines in
In the unloading operation, the conveyor slats 34, 36, 38 are moved in the direction of the rear door 24 simultaneously to move the garbage in the off-loading direction. Each time the slat 38 of each group of slats is moved in the off-loading direction, the shield and pusher member 60 is moved with it, whereby the vertical section 66 effects moving the garbage toward the rear door 24. Continued operation of the system effects movement of the garbage from the accumulated condition illustrated in broken lines in
The embodiment illustrated in
When the shield and pusher 60 is in fully retracted position, with trailing section 64′ abutting front wall 22, the sloping sections 64 and 72 are in alignment and horizontal section 76 is disposed parallel to and above the horizontal extension 64′ of sloping section 64 (
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications of the systems described hereinbefore may be made without departing from the spirit of this invention and the scope of the appended claims. For example, the systems may be used to move a variety of types of particulate material from any starting location to any final position.