TILTING SIDE-SHIFTING CARRIAGE FOR A LIFT TRUCK

• US 20190241417A1
• Filed: 02/02/2018
• Published: 08/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cascade Corporation
• Original Assignee: Cascade Corporation
• Inventors: Prentice, Glenn Steven, McCall, Thomas Joshua
• Granted Patent: US 10,640,349 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 9/07 Floor-to-roof stacking devices, e.g. "stacker cranes", "retrievers"
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 9/146 Side shift, i.e. both forks move together sideways relative to fork support
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 9/16 inclinable relative to mast
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 9/22 Hydraulic devices or systems

Abstract

A carriage for a lift truck arranged to provide for both lateral shifting and tilting of attachments such as forklift forks, in which an outer frame of the carriage is supported by a side-shifter cylinder-and-piston assembly incorporated in an inner frame, and in which the outer frame can be tilted with respect to the inner frame, about a laterally-extending central axis of the side-shifter cylinder-and-piston assembly.

Claims

1. A carriage for a lift truck, comprising:

(a) an inner frame adapted to be mounted on a lift truck mast for vertical movement along the mast;

(b) an outer frame supported by the inner frame;

(c) a side-shifter mechanism arranged to move the outer frame laterally with respect to the inner frame;

(d) a tilt mechanism arranged to tilt the outer frame with respect to the inner frame, about a laterally-extending tilt axis;

(e) wherein the inner frame includes a transverse structural member that defines a side-shifter hydraulic cylinder having a central axis extending transversely with respect to the carriage;

(f) wherein there is a side-shifter piston rod fitted in the side-shifter hydraulic cylinder and movable transversely with respect to the carriage in the side-shifter hydraulic cylinder, and wherein an outer end of the side-shifter piston rod is securely interconnected with a side member of the outer frame;

(g) wherein the outer frame is attached to the inner frame and supported with respect to the inner frame by the presence of the side-shifter piston rod within the side-shifter hydraulic cylinder;

(h) wherein the outer frame can be moved laterally with respect to the inner frame by movement of the side-shifter piston rod longitudinally within the side-shifter hydraulic cylinder;

(i) wherein the central axis of the side-shifter hydraulic cylinder is the tilt axis; and

(j) wherein the tilting movement of the outer frame with respect to the inner frame, results in rotation of the side-shifter piston rod within the side-shifter hydraulic cylinder.

2. The carriage for a lift truck of claim 1 wherein the side-shifter hydraulic cylinder is located between a transversely-extending upper attachment mounting member and a transversely-extending bottom attachment mounting member of the outer frame.

3. The lift truck carriage of claim 1 wherein the transverse structural member that defines a side-shifter hydraulic cylinder defines a pair of coaxially arranged side-shifter cylinders and wherein there is a respective piston rod disposed in each of the side-shifter cylinders and fixedly interconnected with a respective one of a pair of opposite side members of the outer frame.

4. The lift truck carriage of claim 3 including a hydraulic fluid manifold communicating with the side-shifter cylinders, the side-shifter cylinders being located on opposite sides of the hydraulic fluid manifold and the hydraulic fluid manifold being located centrally between respective opposite side members of the inner frame, and the side-shifter cylinders and the manifold being interconnected as an integral rigid structural member of the inner frame.

5. The lift truck carriage of claim 4 wherein the side-shifter piston rods are movable simultaneously within the respective side-shifter cylinders, with one piston rod moving toward the hydraulic fluid manifold and the other piston rod moving away from the hydraulic fluid manifold, as the side-shifter moves the outer frame laterally with respect to the inner frame.

6. The lift truck carriage of claim 3 wherein the side-shifter piston rods are movable simultaneously within the respective side-shifter cylinders, in the same lateral direction with respect to the rear frame.

7. The lift truck carriage of claim 1 including a carriage tilt cylinder-and-piston assembly mounted on the inner frame and including a piston rod movable with respect to the inner frame and arranged to push a member of the outer frame and thereby to cause the outer frame to tilt with respect to the inner frame, about the central axis of the side-shifter hydraulic cylinder.