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US 4,750,429 AGranted
Transportation systems
AssigneeFlyda-Mordaunt Limited
InventorsTerence C. Mordaunt, Francis C. Perrott
Life of this patent
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AssigneeFlyda-Mordaunt Limited
InventorsTerence C. Mordaunt, Francis C. Perrott
Estimating the term…
A transportation system, particularly for handling containers for transport by rail vehicles, lorries or ships, includes an elevated guideway comprising a plurality of spaced parallel longitudinal tracks connected by tranverse tracks which are movable along the longitudinal tracks. Vehicles travel along the tracks and are equipped with hoists for lifting containers beneath the guideway into the vehicles. Each vehicle is equipped with lower wheels which run on rails on the longitudinal tracks and upper wheels which run on high level guides on the transverse tracks. When it is wished to transfer the vehicle from one track to another at a junction this may be effected by stopping the vehicle at the junction engaging the appropriate wheels with the guides or rails, as the case may be, on the other track and then continuing movement along that other track. By suitable location of the transverse tracks and movement of the vehicle, containers can be picked up or deposited at any position within the total area covered by the guideway. There may be mounted at one side of the guideway a movable gantry on to which vehicles may be transferred from the guideway for transporting containers into and out of ships.
A transportation system comprising a guideway and a number of vehicles movable along the guideway, which guideway comprises a plurality of spaced substantially parallel longitudinal track portions, and extending between each pair of adjacent longitudinal track portions is at least one transverse track portion, providing junctions where the longitudinal track portions and transverse track portion intersect, each longitudinal track portion having associated therewith a co-extending trackway the ends of the transverse track portion being supported by wheels running along said trackway so that the transverse track portion is bodily movable along the longitudinal track portions so that the locations of said junctions may be changed, the track portions being engageable by follower means on each vehicle and the follower means being selectively engageable with either of the track portions at a junction whereby the vehicle may be caused to transfer from one track portion to another at the junction, if required, by stopping the vehicle at the junction, engaging the follower means with said other track portion and then resuming the movement along said other track portion and at an angle to the previous direction of movement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.