Patent Grant
11878898
This application claims priority to The Netherlands Patent Application No. 2026822 filed Nov. 4, 2020, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a vehicle elevator for lifting a vehicle. Such elevators are often used in workshops for vehicle maintenance, inspection and/or repair.
In practice, vehicle elevators are provided with at least one carrier having a length suitable for carrying a load thereon. Such load can be a vehicle such as a car, bus, or truck. The vehicles can be positioned onto the carrier of the vehicle elevator after which the vehicles can be lifted for repair, inspection, maintenance et cetera. This lifting and subsequent lowering of the carrier is achieved with a lifting mechanism that is positioned under the carrier.
EP 2038201 A1 discloses a vehicle elevator with a carrier and a lifting mechanism. This vehicle elevator uses a half-scissor construction having a pull rod and drive cylinder. The extensible drive cylinder is fixedly mounted on a rotation shaft and pull rods are bearing mounted on the rotation shaft, or alternatively, the pull rods are arranged fixedly on the rotation shaft and the extensible drive element is mounted rotatable on the rotation shaft.
Vehicle elevators are often confronted with excessive loads from heavy and/or large vehicles, for example. This provides a bending movement around a longitudinal axis of the vehicle elevator, such that the vehicle elevator tends to bend or rotate inwards. This results in undesired wear of the vehicle elevator that may reduce the lifespan of the vehicle elevator. To prevent this, vehicle elevators are often over-dimensioned. This requires additional material and increases costs, for example.
The present invention has for its purpose to obviate or at least reduce one or more of the aforementioned problems.
Provided for this purpose is a vehicle elevator according to the present invention wherein the elevator comprising:
The vehicle elevator comprises a carrier having two carrier parts. These two carrier parts may extend substantially parallel relative to each other. The two carrier parts can be physically separated or can be connected with an intermediate beam, jacking beam, rod, platform et cetera.
The lifting mechanism preferably comprises a half-scissor configuration having a Y-shape or inverted Y-shape. It will be understood that the lifting mechanism in some embodiments may relate to another mechanism, such as a (full) scissor mechanism or any other suitable mechanism. Also, other configurations can be envisaged in accordance with the present invention.
The lifting mechanism further comprises a lifting cylinder. Preferably, the lifting cylinder is a hydraulic cylinder. It will be understood that also other cylinder types, such as electric and pneumatic cylinders, can be envisaged in accordance with the present invention.
Preferably, each carrier part is provided with at least one lifting mechanism, and in a presently preferred embodiment at or near each end of these carrier parts there is provided a (separate) lifting mechanism. Preferably, the lifting mechanisms that are provided at or near both ends are provided with separate lifting cylinders.
In a presently preferred embodiment two carrier parts are extending parallel to each other with in total four lifting mechanisms and four hydraulic cylinders. This enables an effective and efficient lifting of vehicles, including heavy vehicles such as busses and trucks. In this embodiment the lifting cylinders in the respective lifting drives interact to enable a synchronous lifting or lowering of the carrier and carrier parts.
According to the invention the at least one lifting cylinder is mounted at a mounting distance relative to the respective longitudinal central axis of the respective carrier part that extends in the longitudinal direction. By providing the at least one lifting cylinder, in particular its central axis, at a mounting distance from the longitudinal central axis a bending or torsion movement of the carrier part towards the other carrier part is largely prevented or at least significantly reduced. Such bending or torsion movement is a result of the load of a vehicle being distributed over preferably two carrier parts that each carry a side of the vehicle. Preferably, the lifting cylinder is mounted at a mounting distance towards the other carrier part in an embodiment of a vehicle elevator having two carrier parts extending parallel to each other.
As a further advantage, providing the mounting distance may also reduce the need for over-dimensioning the relevant parts of the vehicle elevator. Therefore, this provides a safe, robust and cost-effective vehicle elevator.
Mounting the lifting cylinder at a mounting distance from the respective longitudinal central axis of the respective carrier part can be considered as an asymmetrical mounting of the lifting cylinder relative to the respective carrier part.
In a presently preferred embodiment of the invention the mounting distance is at least 2.5 cm, more preferably at least 5 cm, and is most preferably at least 7.5 cm. Such minimal mounting distance provides a guaranteed level of stability and robustness to the vehicle elevator.
In addition, or as an alternative thereto, the mounting distance preferably lies in the range of 2.5 to 25 cm, more preferably in the range of 2.5 to 15 cm, and lies most preferably in a range of 2.5 to 10 cm. This further improves the robustness of the vehicle elevator, and more particularly guarantees a certain counter measure against any undesired bending or rotational movement of the vehicle part in response to a (heavy) vehicle, for example. This provides additional safety to the vehicle elevator.
In a presently preferred embodiment of the invention the vehicle elevator further comprises a floor connector having a floor shaft, a rotatable rod that extends between the floor connector and the carrier, wherein the rotatable rod comprises a tubular profile that extends over at least a part of the length of the rotatable rod.
The floor connector connects the lifting mechanism to the workshop floor. Providing the rotatable rod with a tubular profile gives additional strength and stability to the lifting mechanism and to the vehicle elevator as a whole. Such tubular profile may have any suitable shape, including circular, oval, rectangular and/or any other shape or combination thereof.
Preferably, the tubular profile extends from the floor connector to the lower end of the lifting cylinder. More preferably, the tubular profile is configured as a cable tray. This enables providing the cables, including hoses, to and/or from the lifting cylinder in the tubular profile, thereby contributing to a clean and safe vehicle elevator.
Preferably, the tubular profile is provided as a unitary profile with the rotatable rod of the lifting mechanism. In a presently preferred embodiment, there are provided two rods that extend parallel to each other with the lifting cylinder being mounted between the two rods. Due to the asymmetric mounting of the lifting cylinder the lifting cylinder is positioned closer to one rod. Preferably, the tubular profile is positioned at or close to the rod that is positioned at the larger distance from the lifting cylinder. This guarantees sufficient space for the tubular profile. Also, the tubular profile contributes to the strength of this rod that under certain circumstances is confronted with higher loads as compared to the other rod.
In a further preferred embodiment of the invention the vehicle elevator further comprises a connection rod extending between a first end connected to the rotatable rod at a connection shaft and a second end connected to the carrier part at a piston shaft, and having a length that is larger than the distance between the connection shaft and the floor shaft.
Providing the connection rod with an extended length positions the piston shaft outside, i.e. beyond, the floor shaft. This enables a more compact construction for the lifting mechanism. More specifically the width of the lifting mechanism can be reduced even further. Also, this provides additional space for the tubular profile that provides additional strength and may act as a cable tray. This further improves the cost efficiency of the lifting mechanism and the vehicle elevator that is provided therewith.
In a further preferred embodiment of the invention the vehicle elevator further comprises a toothing configured for securing the elevator, and a side plate configured for at least partly covering the toothing.
Providing a securing element such as a toothing improves the safety when working with a vehicle elevator. Providing a cover plate or side plate that at least partly covers this toothing further improves the safety when working with the vehicle elevator. In addition, such cover plate or side plate contributes to the stability of the vehicle elevator.
The invention further also relates to a method for lifting of vehicle, with the method comprising the steps of:
The method provides similar effects and advantages as described in relation to the vehicle elevator.
Optionally, two adjacent carrier parts are permanently or temporarily connected. Such connection between two adjacent carrier parts can be achieved with a so-called jacking beam that can be used when necessary.
Further advantages, features and details of the inventions are elucidated on the basis of preferred embodiments thereof, wherein reference is made to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Vehicle elevator 2 (
Lifting mechanism 12 is capable of lifting and/or lowering carrier parts 8,10. Lifting mechanism 12 is controlled with control unit 13. It will be understood that it is also possible to control lifting mechanism 12 with an alternative controller, such as a tablet, computer, mobile phone et cetera.
Carrier part 8 (
In the illustrated embodiment hydraulic cylinder 24 is connected to shaft 26. Shaft 26 is connected to rods 20, 22 and preferably extends between rods 20, 22. Piston 28 of cylinder 24 is at its outer end rotatably connected to piston shaft 30 that is directly or indirectly connected to carrier part 8. In the illustrated embodiment cylinder 24 is mounted in frame 32. Connection rods 34 preferably extend between connection shaft 36 and piston shaft 30.
Tube 38 extends between shaft 26 and shaft 18. In this illustrated embodiment tube 38 is configured for guiding cables and/or hoses to and/or from cylinder 24. In the illustrated embodiment plate 40 is provided between two two rods 20, 22.
Also, in the illustrated embodiment lifting mechanism 12 is embodied as half-scissor mechanism, and more particularly a Y-configuration. It will be understood that similar configurations can also be envisaged in accordance to the present invention, including an inverted Y-configuration and a full scissor or X-configuration.
Cylinder 24 (
In the illustrated embodiment lifting mechanism 12 (
In a preferred embodiment of the invention connection rods 34 (
For lifting vehicle 6 the vehicle is moved on carrier parts 8, 10. After vehicle 6 is correctly positioned an authorized operator may control lifting mechanisms 12 with control unit 13 and lift vehicle 6 from workshop floor 4. After inspection, maintenance, repair or other operation vehicle 6 can be lowered by lowering lifting mechanism 12, preferably using control unit 13. As soon as vehicle elevator 2 has returned to the ground vehicle 6 can be moved away from vehicle elevator 2. Vehicle elevator 2 is then ready for accepting a new lifting operation.
The present invention is by no means limited to the above described preferred embodiments thereof. The rights sought are defined by the following claims within the scope of which many modifications can be envisioned.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026822 | Nov 2020 | NL | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5450928 | Isogai | Sep 1995 | A |
| 20090205907 | Berends | Aug 2009 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 201442827 | Apr 2010 | CN |
| 102014113301 | Mar 2016 | DE |
| 2964377 | Mar 2012 | FR |
| 2765183 | Jan 2022 | RU |
| 2007148960 | Dec 2007 | WO |
| WO-2010104239 | Sep 2010 | WO |
| 2013062215 | May 2013 | WO |
| Entry |
|---|
| Machine Translation of RU 2765183. |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20220135383 A1 | May 2022 | US |
