Loading and unloading station and method for load carrier of vehicle bodies, vehicles and the like

• US 20040052621A1
• Filed: 05/16/2003
• Published: 03/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dr. Ing. H.C.F. Porsche Ag, ILS Industrie Logistic Swiss AG
• Original Assignee: Dr. Ing. H.C.F. Porsche Ag, UTC Uebach Technologie Consulting GmbH
• Inventors: Wittenmayer, Guenther, Krause, Claus-Peter, Beerhalter, Christoph, Wolf, Guenther, Boettcher, Lothar, Kramer, Walter, Hopf, Ernst, Uebach, Eckard
• Granted Patent: US 7,153,078 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 414/331.13
• CPC Class Codes: B61D 47/005 Loading or unloading devices combined with road vehicles carrying wagons, e.g. ramps, turntables, lifting means wagons for carrying road vehicles in general: B61D3/18
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/80 Turntables carrying articles or materials to be transferred, e.g. combined with ploughs or scrapers
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 63/022 for articles

Abstract

Through a loading and unloading station for load carriers of vehicle bodies, vehicles or the like, it is possible to unload vehicle bodies from a railway car in a continuous cycle and supply them to a production facility, wherein in one cycle simultaneously the load carriers receiving the vehicle bodies are returned to an empty railway car.

Claims

1. Loading and unloading station for load carriers of vehicle bodies, vehicles or the like, which can be transported in a railway car and supplied from there in several successive workstations to a production facility,

wherein load units containing vehicle bodies can be conveyed from the railway car to a production facility after passing through a plurality of workstations;

and

wherein the vehicle bodies can be unloaded and subsequently the empty load units or load carriers are returned in a cycle to the railway car via further workstations.

2. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 1, wherein a load unit with two vehicle bodies, which are aligned in a longitudinal direction of the railway car on load carriers, can be unloaded in a transverse direction (arrow direction Y) by means of a loading and unloading device of a loading cart that can be displaced parallel to the railway car in a direction of the arrows X and transported on a rotary table that is arranged parallel to the loading cart and is displaceable crosswise to it in the direction of the arrow (Z),

wherein from said rotary table the longitudinally aligned load unit can be fed to a transport device, which is arranged crosswise thereto, and by means of a destacking device the load unit can be separated into load carriers that are arranged behind one another, and

wherein the vehicle body can be removed with a device and placed onto a rack and then fed to the production facility by means of a removal device.

3. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 2, wherein the load unit is arranged with the two load carriers on top of each other in the railway car and unloading of the load unit occurs in a first workstation with the loading cart by means of the loading and unloading device with the help of an integrated lifting and transport device,

wherein the load unit can be fed via chain conveyors of the loading cart in a second workstation to the displaceable rotary table with another chain conveyor from where in a third workstation the load unit is forwarded with the chain conveyors to another chain conveyor, which is offset by an angle β

of 90°

, of the subsequent device, and

wherein the load unit is separated into individual load carriers that are arranged in one plane in a fourth workstation through the portal lifting device designed as the destacking device and then in a fifth workstation the vehicle bodies, respectively, are lifted off the load carrier, in the cycle in a sixth workstation are then combined on top of each other in a stacking device to form a four-unit stack, which is fed in a seventh workstation to a stationary pivoting rotary table and in an eighth workstation is placed onto the positioned loading cart by the pivoted rotary table by means of chain conveyors and from there is moved into an empty railway car in a ninth workstation.

4. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 3, wherein the loading cart can be displaced on tracks parallel to the railway car and that on one hand in the first workstation—

in accordance with a first transfer position—

for the load unit and on the other hand in the workstation—

in accordance with another transfer position—

it is possible to move a four-unit stack from a stationary, pivoting rotary table in a cycle back into the first workstation corresponding to the ninth workstation for storing the four-unit stack in an empty railway car.

5. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 1, wherein the loading cart in the device contains two spaced lifting forks, between which the chain conveyors for the load unit or for the bottom load carrier of the unit are arranged, and in that in the first workstation the lifting forks of the device reach into seats on the front of the carriers from beneath to transport and lift the load unit.

6. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 2, wherein the loading cart in the device contains two spaced lifting forks, between which the chain conveyors for the load unit or for the bottom load carrier of the unit are arranged, and in that in the first workstation the lifting forks of the device reach into seats on the front of the carriers from beneath to transport and lift the load unit.

7. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 3, wherein the loading cart in the device contains two spaced lifting forks, between which the chain conveyors for the load unit or for the bottom load carrier of the unit are arranged, and in that in the first workstation the lifting forks of the device reach into seats on the front of the carriers from beneath to transport and lift the load unit.

8. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 4, wherein the loading cart in the device contains two spaced lifting forks, between which the chain conveyors for the load unit or for the bottom load carrier of the unit are arranged, and in that in the first workstation the lifting forks of the device reach into seats on the front of the carriers from beneath to transport and lift the load unit.

9. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 2, wherein, in the first working position the load unit can be placed onto the chain conveyors of the loading cart and can be moved on the displaceable rotary table, which is arranged parallel and aligned with the loading cart, in the second workstation onto the subsequent chain conveyors of the rotary table.

10. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 9, wherein the displaceable rotary table can be rotated at a right angle to the longitudinal axis of the loading cart in the direction of the arrow and the load unit can be rotated by a rotary rack of the rotary table by an angle α

of 90°

such that the vehicle bodies placed on top point with their vehicle front opposite the moving direction of the rotary table.

11. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 5, wherein, in the first working position the load unit can be placed onto the chain conveyors of the loading cart and can be moved on the displaceable rotary table, which is arranged parallel and aligned with the loading cart, in the second workstation onto the subsequent chain conveyors of the rotary table.

12. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 10, wherein the displaceable rotary table can be rotated at a right angle to the longitudinal axis of the loading cart in the direction of the arrow and the load unit can be rotated by a rotary rack of the rotary table by an angle α

of 90°

such that the vehicle bodies placed on top point with their vehicle front opposite the moving direction of the rotary table.

13. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 3, wherein the rotary table in the eighth workstation, which corresponds to a transfer position, can be supplied to a transport section on chain conveyors that connects to the load unit at a right angle β

, and

wherein the load unit can be displaced autonomously by the rotary table on said section.

14. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 3, wherein the load unit can be supplied by means of the chain conveyors of the rotary table from the eighth workstation to a destacking device with telescoping as well as lifting and lowering forks, and

wherein said device separates the load unit in the fourth workstation into individual load carriers such that initially the uppermost load carrier can be lifted and the exposed load carrier underneath can be transported and that subsequently the upper load carrier can be lowered and the vehicle body can be placed onto a receiving rack.

15. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 3, wherein an empty load carrier with its upright stanchions can be fed via a transport section, which runs parallel to the loading cart, to a stacking device in the sixth workstation,

wherein before said sixth workstation, the stanchions can be retracted individually in a device and the stacking device stacks four load carriers into a four-unit stack with a lifting device in such a manner that the respective load carrier on the bottom can be lifted and the remaining load carriers can successively move beneath.

16. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 15, wherein the four-unit stack can be supplied via chain conveyors in the seventh workstation to the stationary and pivoting rotary table with integrated chain conveyors, via which the four-unit stack can be rotated in the direction of the arrow into a position that is parallel to the loading cart.

17. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 16, wherein the rotary table is brought about a vertical axis of rotation from the sixth workstation used to receive the four-unit stack to the eighth workstation rotated by an angle γ

of 90°

used for forwarding to the loading cart, and

wherein the rotary table is guided over wheels on the floor.

18. Loading and unloading station pursuant to claim 17, wherein the four-unit stack in the eighth workstation can be lifted by the loading and unloading device of the loading cart and in the ninth workstation can be placed by chain conveyors into the railway car from which the load units have been removed.

19. A loading and unloading station for load carriers of vehicle bodies, which are transported on a railway car and supplied to successive workstations of a production facility, comprising:

conveying means for conveying vehicle bodies on load carriers from a railway car to a production facility to pass through a plurality of production workstations,

wherein the conveying means includes means for unloading the vehicle bodies from the load carriers and means for returning empty load carriers in a cycle to the railway car through a plurality of further work stations disposed downstream of the production workstations.

20. A loading and unloading station for load carriers of vehicle bodies, which are transported on a railway car and supplied to successive workstations of a production facility, comprising:

means for unloading vehicle bodies on load carriers from a railway car in a continuous cycle and for supplying said vehicle bodies to a production facility on respective load carriers, and

wherein in one cycle the load carriers receiving the vehicle bodies are returned to an empty railway car after traversing plural workstations of the production facility.

21. A method of conveying vehicle bodies using a loading and unloading station for load carriers of vehicle bodies, which are transported on a railway car and supplied to successive workstations of a production facility, said method comprising:

conveying vehicle bodies on load carriers from a railway car to a production facility to pass through a plurality of production workstations, and

returning the load carrier in one cycle to an empty railway car after traversing plural workstations of the production facility.