Conveying Apparatus

• US 20160009497A1
• Filed: 09/25/2015
• Published: 01/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Daifuku Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Daifuku Company Limited
• Inventors: Nakamura, Jiro, Matsuoka, Toshihiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,463,932 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B61B 10/04 with vehicles rolling trackless on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: B61B 13/125 the propulsion device being a rotating shaft or the like
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 17/12 comprising a series of individual load-carriers fixed, or normally fixed, relative to traction element
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 35/06 comprising a load-carrier moving along a path, e.g. a closed path, and adapted to be engaged by any one of a series of traction elements spaced along the path effecting drive at two or more points spaced along the length of an endless conveyor B65G23/32
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 49/045 the circuit being fixed

Abstract

A conveying apparatus has a conveying traveling body traveling below a floor board and supporting a carriage main body by column portions penetrating a slit provided in the floor board. The conveying traveling body is composed of a plurality of trolleys. A load bar couples the trolleys, and a strip cover plate covers the load bar below the slit. The strip cover plate has a length longer than the conveying traveling body and has one end portion in the traveling direction provided with a movable plate portion higher than the other end portion. The movable plate is pivotally supported so as to be swingable upward from a horizontal posture.

Claims

1. A conveying apparatus comprising:

a carriage main body capable of traveling on a floor board, the carriage main body being supported by a conveying traveling body traveling below the floor board, via at least a front and a rear column portion vertically penetrating a slit formed in the floor board;

the conveying traveling body being composed of a plurality of trolleys in a traveling direction;

a load bar coupling the trolleys;

a strip cover plate for covering the load bar below the slit is arranged over the load bar, the strip cover plate having a length longer than that of the conveying traveling body, and has one end portion in the traveling direction of the strip cover plate provided with a movable plate portion being higher than the other end portion in the traveling direction of the strip cover plate, the movable plate portion being pivotally supported so as to be swingable upward from a horizontal posture, and the movable plate portion is overlapped on the one end portion of the strip cover plate when front and rear conveying traveling bodies come close to each other.

2. The conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the strip cover plate is composed of three strip cover plate units in the traveling direction divided in positions of the front and the rear column portion, and the load bar is composed of a central load bar unit, a front and a rear intermediate load bar unit coupled to a front and a rear end of the central load bar unit via horizontal swing joint portions and vertical swing joint portions, and front- and rear-end load bar units coupled to free ends of the front and the rear intermediate load bar unit via horizontal swing joint portions only, and the trolleys are composed of a front and a rear load trolley supporting coupling points between the central load bar unit and the front and the rear intermediate load bar unit, and front- and rear-end guide trolleys integrated with the front- and rear-end load bar units, and the strip cover plate units at both front and rear ends of the strip cover plate units are supported on the front and the rear intermediate load bar unit.

3. The conveying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the strip cover plate unit in the center of the three strip cover plate units in the traveling direction is supported by the carriage main body on the floor board via a support member vertically penetrating the slit.

4. The conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the one end portion of the strip cover plate has an upper surface laid with a longitudinal rod member parallel to the traveling direction.

5. The conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the movable plate portion of the strip cover plate has a distal end whose underside is attached with a transverse rod member in parallel with a left-right width direction of the movable plate portion.