US 4,764,074 AGranted

Pallet loading apparatus

OwnerJoseph Postigoinventor

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Abstract

An apparatus for placing a load of stacked articles on a pallet. This apparatus comprises a conveyor having a series of spaced rollers and a bridge structure spanning the conveyor. Two load lifting structures hang vertically from the bridge structure, one on each side of the roller conveyor, and are displaceable toward and away from one another over the conveyor. Each lifting structure has a lifting frame formed of a vertical ram wall, a tine carrier at the lower end of the ram wall, and an operating base supporting the tine carrier during its displacement. The pallets are fed from a pallet unstacker delivering one pallet at a time on a pallet conveyor extending at a right angle from the roller conveyor. The pallets are fed onto the roller conveyor when the ram walls and tines of the load lifting frames are lifted above the roller conveyor a distance sufficient to allow insertion of the pallet. The load between the lifting frames is then lowered onto the pallet. The tines are removed from beneath the load while the ram walls are still against the load and the ram walls are finally moved away laterally from the load.

Claims12

Dependent claims

An apparatus for placing a load of stacked articles onto a pallet, comprising:

(a) a roller conveyor having a series of rotary parallel rollers, spaced from one another, for moving said load in a first direction extending transversely of said rollers;
(b) an elevator bridge comprising a pair of runway beams spaced from one another along said first direction and extending across said conveyor above the ends thereof;
(c) two like cooperating load-lifting structures depending from said runway beams, each lifting structure comprising:
two vertical guides spaced from one another along said first direction and means mounting the upper ends of said guides on said runway beams for movement of said guides across said conveyor;
a load lifting frame comprising:
vertical ram wall between said vertical guides and means mounting said ram wall on said vertical guides for movement along said guides;
power means for displacing said ram wall along said vertical guides;
a tine carrier comprising a plurality of horizontal load-gripping tines spaced horizontally from one another for insertion in spaces between said spaced rollers of said conveyor;
an operating base, solid with and at the lower end of said ram wall, and means mounting said tine carriers on said operating base for movement of said carrier and tines transversely of said roller conveyor;
power means on said operating base and on said tine carrier for displacing said tine carrier for moving said tines in said spaces between said conveyor rollers and for retracting said tines from said spaces;
(d) power means for displacing said load lifting structures across said roller conveyor to move said ram walls toward and away from one another, and
(e) pallet feed means, provided laterally of and on one side of said conveyor, for moving a pallet on said conveyor when said lifting frames and tines thereof are in raised position above said conveyor.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.