Patent Application
20080314281
The present invention relates generally to dolly systems typically used in manufacturing plants and other industrial work environments where heavy loads must be transferred from one location to another. More specifically, the present invention includes a track system installed onto the floor of a facility, generally in a grid configuration, and a set of dollies that can be used to bear heavy loads that may be pushed along the tracks.
Traditionally, in manufacturing plants and other industrial work environments, in order to transfer heavy loads from one location to another, workers have used either large dollies or forklifts. One problem associated with forklifts is that they are expensive pieces of equipment, and can pose substantial safety hazards to workers in a work environment. Traditional dollies are also used for such work, but typically they can bear only limited weight, and are cumbersome for workers to maneuver in industrial work environments. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system for transferring heavy loads within a facility that is inexpensive to manufacture and install, and which overcomes some of the shortcomings of prior transfer systems.
The multi-directional dolly transfer system consists of two main components: the track and the dollies. The track is a low-profile metal grid laid out and secured to the floor of a plant or building, in any desired configuration. It includes rail sections of C-channel or flat bar, which run parallel to each other, and may be laid out in a grid formation. The rail sections include channel guides, for guiding the dollies along the track in a certain direction.
The dollies comprise, in a preferred embodiment heavy duty metal frames capable of supporting several thousand pounds of items. The frames are generally rectangular or square shaped, and have crossbar supports. At each corner of each dolly, a leg extends downwardly and includes at the foot a ball transfer unit, which is a ball housed in a sleeve with ball bearings positioned therein to facilitate the rolling of the ball. The ball transfer units provide instant directional change, allowing the dollies to be pushed in any direction without having to orient the wheel in a certain direction. The dollies are placed onto the rail sections, so that the balls are situated within the channel guides of the tracks. Multiple dollies are placed onto the tracks in this manner, and may be pushed (loaded or unloaded) to any point on the track grid.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved system for transporting heavy materials.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a dolly and track system where the tracks have a low profile with a horizontal flat center for receiving the ball-bearing style wheels of the dollies for transferring heavy loads from one location to another.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system for transporting heavy materials that is inexpensive to manufacture and install, and which does not require any motorized assistance for workers to move the heavily laden dollies.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system for transporting heavy materials wherein the tracks may be repositioned with minimal effort.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent by consideration of the following description of a specific embodiment thereof.
In the accompanying drawings:
As shown in
When utilizing the L-shaped channel guides, each channel guide 14 is positioned so that the vertical portion of the rail section is disposed along an outer longitudinal edge of the rail section. This configuration may be used to ensure that the dollies remain on the tracks, because the flat bar lip on the horizontal portion of the channel guide hinders the ball from coming off of the track, and the vertical lip along the outside longitudinal edges provides an additional measure for keeping the dollies on the tracks, as shown in
In an alternate embodiment, the tracks may include a radius 20 extending in a downward incline from the top of the channel guides to the floor, which serves as an incline on the longitudinal sides of each rail section, as shown in
Alternatively, when using the flat-bar rail channels, the track system is designed to be low profile, having a height from the floor in the range of ½ inch to ¾ inch. In a preferred embodiment, the flat bar rail channels are ¾ inch by ¼ inch strips disposed along the upper longitudinal edges of the flat bar horizontal track portion 16. This arrangement may be preferable in industrial plants where there is a lot of foot traffic around the tracks, or where forklifts or other types of dollies are used and must be maneuvered over the tracks.
In a preferred embodiment, the channel guides are formed from metal, which may be steel, aluminum, or any other suitable material, in either an L-shaped configuration (
The dollies 50, in a preferred embodiment, are heavy duty metal frames 52 capable of supporting items weighing up to several thousand pounds. The frames 52 are generally rectangular or square shaped, and have crossbar supports 54, although other suitable shapes may be used. At each corner of each dolly, a leg 56 extends downwardly and includes at the foot a ball transfer unit 58, which comprises a ball 60 housed in a sleeve 62 with ball bearings (not shown) positioned therein to facilitate the rolling of the ball, as shown in
The dollies 50 are placed onto the rail sections 12, so that the balls 60 within the ball transfer units 58 are situated within the channel guides of the rail sections. The balls 60 are in contact with the flat bar portion 16 of the rail section when the dollies are positioned on the tracks. Multiple dollies may be placed onto the rail sections in this manner, and may be pushed (loaded or unloaded) to any point on the grid. Such a configuration is useful in unloading heavy items such as rolls of textiles or palates of heavy material from a manufacturing assembly line and moving such items to an appropriate inventory or storage facility, until they are loaded onto trucks for distribution to remote locations or customers, for instance.
Although the present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain preferred versions thereof, other versions are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the preferred versions contained herein. All features disclosed in this specification may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.
