US 5,305,890 AGranted

Circulatory storage apparatus

AssigneeMarushin Company Limited

InventorKoichi Ishikawa

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Abstract

An upper endless rail has a downwardly opened guide channel, and a lower endless rail has an upwardly opened guide channel. A plurality of circulatory frames are mounted for movement along and between the upper and lower endless rails. Each circulatory frame has a plurality of casters mounted at a lower side portion thereof and positioned in the guide channel of the lower endless rail and further has a plurality of upper guide rollers mounted at an upper side portion thereof for contacting with and rolling on a side face or faces of and in the guide channel of the upper endless rail. Each caster includes a support roller for rolling on an inner bottom face of the guide channel of the lower endless rail and a lower guide roller for contacting with and rolling on an inner side face or faces of the guide channel. Each circulatory frame is moved with the load thereof supported by the support rollers of the casters from below while rocking motion of a lower portion of the circulatory frame is prevented by the lower guide rollers. The weight of the circulatory frames does not act upon the upper endless rail at all.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A circulatory storage apparatus, comprising:

a pair of upper and lower endless rails, said upper endless rail having a downwardly opened guide channel formed along the overall length therein while said lower endless rail has an upwardly opened guide channel formed along the overall length therein;
a plurality of rectangular circulatory frames mounted for circulatory movement along said upper and lower endless rails and each having a pair of parallel upper and lower side portions and a pair of parallel left and right side portions;
a plurality of casters mounted on said lower side portion of each of said circulatory frames and positioned in said guide channel of said lower endless rail, each of said casters including a support roller for rolling on an inner bottom face of said guide channel of said lower endless rail and a lower guide roller or rollers for contacting with and rolling on an inner side face or faces of said guide channel of said lower endless rail;
a plurality of upper guide rollers mounted on said upper side portion of each of said circulatory frames for contacting with and rolling on an inner side face or faces of said guide channel of said upper endless rail;
and
a pair of upper and lower series of links for interconnecting said circulatory frames.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.