MOBILE UNIT FOR MEASURING RUNNING PATHS FOR HANDLING DEVICE, SYSTEM AND PROCESS FOR MEASURING THROUGH SUCH MOBILE UNIT

• US 20170205227A1
• Filed: 07/07/2015
• Published: 07/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerrato Srl, Hexagon Metrology S.p.A. (Hexagon AB), Politecnico De Torino
• Original Assignee: Cerrato Srl, Hexagon Metrology S.p.A. (Hexagon AB), Politecnico De Torino
• Inventors: Soma, Aurelio, Bosso, Nicola, De Pasquale, Giorgio, Cerrato, Dario, Cerrato, Michele, Cassani, Cesare, Verdi, Michele
• Granted Patent: US 10,234,279 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B66C 15/00 Safety gear for rope, cable, or chain winding mechanisms B66D1/54
• CPC Class Codes: B66C 7/08 Constructional features of runway rails or rail mountings of general application E01B
• CPC Class Codes: B66C 9/16 with means for maintaining alignment between wheels and track
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/26 for measuring angles or tapers; for testing the alignment of axes
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 7/04 involving a vehicle which moves along the profile to be traced

Abstract

A mobile unit (5) is described for measuring running paths for handling systems, in particular bridge cranes, sliding on a route (2), comprising at least one first measuring device (62) which constitutes a space reference of the mobile unit (5) with respect to at least one fixed measuring unit (3) comprising second measuring device (61), the first measuring device (62) being connected to the mobile unit (5) by interposing at least one handling device adapted to synchronize measuring operations between the first measuring device (62) and the second measuring device (61) of the fixed measuring unit (3). A system for measuring (1) running paths for handling systems through such mobile unit (5) and a process for measuring through such system (1) are further described.

Claims

1. A mobile unit for measuring running paths for handling systems, in particular bridge cranes, sliding on a route, comprising at least one first measuring device which constitutes a space reference of the mobile unit with respect to at least one fixed measuring unit comprising a second measuring device, the first measuring device being connected to the mobile unit (5) by interposing at least one handling device adapted to synchronize measuring operations between the first measuring device and the second measuring device of the fixed measuring unit, wherein the handling device comprises at least one motorized rotatable platform to allow the first measuring device to rotate as function of a sliding speed of the mobile unit along the route in order to make constantly visible the first measuring device for the second measuring device of the fixed measuring unit (3) and for synchronizing said measuring operations between the first measuring device and the second measuring device.

2. The mobile unit of claim 1, wherein the second measuring device is composed of at least one laser ray source and the first measuring device is composed of at least one reflecting device adapted to be illuminated by the laser ray.

3. The mobile unit of claim 1, wherein the motorized rotatable platform is adapted to align the reflecting device of the mobile unit with respect to the laser ray source of the fixed measuring unit during a sliding of the mobile unit along the route.

4. The mobile unit of claim 1, further comprising a third measuring device of at least one angular deviation of the space reference with respect to a field of force in which the mobile unit is immersed, and a fourth measuring device of a variation of at least one lateral size of the route.

5. The mobile unit of claim 4, wherein the third measuring device comprises at least one bi-axial gravitational inclinometer.

6. The mobile unit of claim 4, wherein the fourth measuring device comprises at least one inductive displacement transducer and at least one lever pivoted with respect to the mobile unit adapted to transmit to the inductive displacement transducer a variation of the lateral profile of a rail of the route through at least one feeler and an elastic contrasting element adapted to detect a corresponding movement of the lever.

7. The mobile unit of claim 6, further comprising at least one electric motor adapted to move at least one wheel through a mechanical transmission, the electric motor being remotely controlled through a wireless signal.

8. A system for measuring running paths for handling systems, in particular bridge cranes, sliding on a route, the system comprising at least one fixed measuring unit, at least one control and data processing unit and at least one mobile unit according to claim 1 sliding on the route and cooperating with the fixed measuring unit and the control and data processing unit.

9. A process for measuring running paths for handling systems, in particular bridge cranes, sliding on a route, adapted to certify the state of compliance of the running paths in terms of levelling, parallelism, winding and co-planarity through a mobile unit and a system according to claim 8, the process comprising the following steps:

positioning the mobile unit on the rail of a first running path;

positioning the laser ray source on the fixed measuring unit;

orienting the reflecting device towards the laser ray source through the motorized rotatable platform;

possibly, acquiring an initial position of the mobile unit through a cooperation of fixed reflecting devices of the mobile unit with the laser ray source;

handling the mobile unit through the wireless signal from the control and data processing unit;

synchronizing the measuring operations and acquiring measuring values related to the measuring device through a rotation of the reflecting device through the motorized rotatable platform;

saving the acquired measures on the control and data processing unit;

repeating the previous steps for a rail of a second running path;

processing the collected data and 2D- and 3D-reconstructing the route;

automatically performing correcting actions and putting the running paths in tolerance in terms of parallelism, levelling, winding and co-planarity.