Inspection car for bridge construction of a high level road

• US 4,690,247 A
• Filed: 03/11/1985
• Issued: 09/01/1987
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/1985
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nippon Light Metal Company Limited (Nippon Light Metal Holdings Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Nippon Light Metal Company Limited (Nippon Light Metal Holdings Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Yoshida, Katunori
• Primary Examiner(s): Machado, Reinaldo P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHIN SHUE, ALVIN C
• Application Number:
  US06/710,235
• Time in Patent Office: 904 Days
• Field of Search: 182/63, 182/2, 182/18, 182/19, 182/62.5, 182/141, 182/148, 182/12, 187/9 E, 212/149, 212/153
• US Class Current: 182/2.6
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 11/046 of the telescoping type
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 17/006 for working platforms
• CPC Class Codes: E01D 19/106 Movable inspection or maintenance platforms, e.g. travelling scaffolding or vehicles specially designed to provide access to the undersides of bridges lifting devices for movable platforms on vehicles in general B66F11/04

Abstract

The inspection car is intended to inspect the lower side of the bridge construction of a high level road from above the high level road as well as from the ground and it comprises a swingable and extensible boom vertically swingably pivoted on a rotatable pedestal rotatably mounted on the chassis of the car about the vertical rotational axis of the pedestal, a reciprocal boom pivotally mounted on the tip of the swingable and extensible boom through a saddle, and an extensible inspection passageway pivotally connected to one end of the reciprocal boom, the passageway being swingable between a position parallel to the reciprocal boom and a position at right angle thereto while it is allowed to be rotated about the longitudinal axis of the reciprocal boom, a plurality of hydraulic cylinder means for the movement of the respective components listed above, and a control device for detecting the amount of movement of each component and controlling the movement thereof on the basis of the detected amount of movement of each component for the required operation of the inspection car. The control device has a function to judge the permission/inhibition of the movements of the respective components under predetermined conditions of the corelationship of the movements of the respective components.

Claims

1. An inspection car for inspecting bridge construction of a high level road comprising a rotatable pedestal rotatably mounted on a chassis about a vertical axis, a vertically swingable and extensible boom with its proximal end pivotally mounted on said rotatable pedestal, a reciprocal boom longitudinally slidably and reciprocally fitted in a saddle pivotally mounted on the distal end of said swingable boom, and an inspection passageway with its proximal end pivotally mounted on one end of said reciprocal boom so as to be swung in the vertical longitudinal center plane of said passageway as well as to be rotated about the longitudinal axis of said reciprocal boom, a pair of stretching hydraulic cylinder means arranged along either side of said swingable boom with one of the ends thereof being pivotally supported on a distal boom member of said swingable boom, and folding hydraulic cylinder means having one of the ends pivotally connected to said saddle, the other of the ends of said stretching hydraulic cylinder means or piston rods therof being pivotally connected to said folding hydraulic cylinder means, the portion at which said stretching hydraulic cylinder means or said piston rods thereof are pivotally connected to said folding hydraulic cylinder means being relatively swingably connected through connecting links to the portion at which said hydraulic cylinder means being pivotally connected between the forward ends of the respective piston rods or the stretching hydraulic cylinder means, a control device comprising a detecting station for detecting and ascertaining at least the rotational angle of said swingable boom about the rotational axis of said rotatable pedestal, the vertical swinging angle of said swingable boom, the angle formed between the longitudinal axis of said reciprocal boom and said swingable boom, and the rotational angle of said passageway about said reciprocal boom, and a discriminating station adapted to receive the detected signals from said detecting station so as to judge the permission/inhibition of movements of the respective components of the inspection car on the basis of a predetermined correlationship between the movements of the respective components for effecting such movements upon permission.

2. Inspection car according to claim 1, wherein said swingable boom comprises a plurality of boom members telescopically and slidably fitted with each other so as to be extended in a plurality of steps.

3. Inspection car according to claim 1, wherein said control device comprises means for carrying out the computing operation on the basis of the vertical swinging angle of said swingable boom and the swinging angle of said reciprocal boom given by the swinging movement of said saddle so as to permit said reciprocal boom to be maintained in the vertical position in coupled relationship to the movement of said swingable boom.

4. Inspection car according to claim 1, wherein said control device comprises means for carrying out the computing operation on the basis of the rotational angle of said swingable boom about the rotational axis of said rotatable pedestal and the rotational angle of said passageway about the longitudinal axis of said reciprocal boom so as to maintain said passageway in parallel to the longitudinal direction of said chassis in coupled relationship to the rotational movement of said swingable boom about the rotational axis of said rotatable pedestal.

5. Inspection car according to claim 1, wherein said inspection passageway comprises a plurality of passageway sections telescopically and slidably engaged with each other thereby permitting said passageway to be extended by sliding said sections in the outward direction from each other.

6. Inspection car according to claim 1, wherein said inspection passageway is provided with a carriage movable in the longitudinal direction of said passageway and an inspection pedestal mounted on said carriage, said inspection pedestal being capable of being elevated and descended with respect to said carriage when said carriage is provided with a first fixedly secured upright post and a second upright post slidably supported on said first post along the longitudinal direction of said first post and wherein said second post is driven by a hydraulic cylinder means and said inspection pedestal is slidably mounted on said second post with said pedestal having a bottom portion connected to one end of each of a pair of wires and the other end of each of said pair of wires is connected to the top of said first post and said wires are stretched around a pair of idler pulleys rotatably supported on the top of said second post with the length of each wire being set so that said inspection pedal is located adjacent to said carriage when said second post is in its descended position and thereby the pedestal is elevated quickly by raising said second post by the operation of said hydraulic cylinder.