Aerial conveyor with pendular arms driven along a closed loop circuit

An air conveyor for the conveyance of sleds for sequentially transporting objects such as car bodies in the car industry, comprising traction means (60) associated with motive means controlling their movement in translation on themselves to drive along a closed loop circuit, pendle arms (3) for suspending sleds to transport them along a forward portion of said circuit along a conveyor line going from a loading station where they are individually picked up on an upstream conveyor on the ground upstream, each by at least one pendle arm, to an unloading station where they are released therefrom and deposited onto a downstream conveyor on the ground, wherein said arms (4) are connected to said traction means, in fixed positions regularly distributed along the latter, by articulated assembly devices allowing them, each at a so-called proximal end, to pivot freely in the vertical plane of the circuit, about an articulation pin perpendicular to said plane, and wherein means are provided for guiding a free distal end of each arm, at a distance from its so-called proximal end, on at least a portion of its path during its tilting about said articulation pin between a position in which it is oriented freely hanging vertically at the exit of the unloading station, and a position in which, after having executed a complete rotation in space by rotation relative to the path of the traction means about its articulation pin on the latter, it is again oriented freely hanging vertically on its arrival at the loading station, and supporting members to receive said arms in an intermediate position in which they are tilted along said circuit, in a return portion of said closed loop circuit bringing said arms empty backward from the unloading station to the loading station.

An installation comprising two symmetrical conveyors operating in synchronism for the transport of car bodies resting on sleds which are suspended individually on traction means of each conveyor, each by four independent pendle arms, respectively two per conveyor, wherein said traction means consist of cables which are also carriers for the loads suspended thereon by said arms, and wherein said cables are kept tensioned and made to describe by translation on themselves a closed loop circuit situated in a vertical plane and comprising a foward portion of said circuit following a foward conveyor line from a loading station where the sleds with their bodies are individually picked up on an upstream conveyor on the ground to an unloading station where they are released therefrom and deposited on a downstream conveyor on the ground, and a portion for returning the arms circulating empty from the unloading station back to the loading station running above said forward portion, said arms are mounted articulated in fixed positions distributed along said cables by respective assembly devices allowing them, each at a so-called proximal end, to pivot freely in the vertical plane of the circuit, about an articulation pin perpendicular to said plane, so that, on the return portion of the circuit, the pendle arms circulating empty are tilted down, by their own weight, along the cable to which they are assembled, to each rest on an associated support member secured to the latter, each support member is disposed on said cable so as to guide a pivoting of the corresponding arm through a quarter turn at the exit of the unloading station, while pushing it in progressive inclination forward, from a position in which it is freely hanging vertically along the forward portion of the circuit, when the cable describes a return curve conducting it to said return portion of the circuit, and at the loading station, a fixed ramp is provided for retaining the distal end of each arm which guides its tilting, while retaining the arm inclined rearward, when it passes around a return curve which conducts the corresponding cable from the return portion of the circuit to the forward portion, each arm thus passing progressively from its tilted orientation along the circuit in its return portion to a position in which it is again freely hanging vertically at the loading station.