US 5,685,687 A · Loading and unloading assist apparatus for a vehicle

Abstract

A truck is fitted with an unloading conveyor for carrying packages of material, e.g. roofing shingles, from a transfer station on the truck bed, preferably at its rear. This conveyor can swing in an arc about its mounting adjacent the transfer station, and its azimuth can be adjusted to reach a wide variety of delivery sites. The truck bed can carry multiple rows of stacked packages such as pallettized loads of roofing shingles, and is fitted with a bed conveyor system to move an entire row of loads to the transfer station. Upper flights of the bed conveyor move toward a lift platform designed to receive a few of the palletized loads as these are carried to the transfer station. An operator removes the packages from the loads and places them onto the discharge conveyor. As the loads are emptied, the lift platform can rise so the operator only shifts the packages onto the discharge conveyor with minimal lifting. When the load(s) on the lift platform are depleted, the next palletized load(s) can be moved by the bed conveyor system onto the previously lowered lift platform. A control console at the transfer station allows a single operator to control the angular and azimuth position of the discharge conveyor, the motion of the lift platform, and functioning of the bed conveyor while the operator performs the transfer of loads.

Claims9

Dependent claims

In a truck for transporting palletized loads of stacked packages and delivering the packages in serial fashion to a chosen station remote from the truck, said truck having a bed and a generally rectangular bed floor thereon including a load bearing surface onto which loads of packages can be placed in one or more rows along said bed floor, said bed floor having one end providing a transfer station at which the packages may be removed from the loads and placed on a delivery device;

the improvement comprising
an unloading and delivery apparatus including a delivery conveyor supported at said one end of said bed platform and arranged to extend outward of said bed platform over a range of elevations and directions with respect to said transfer station,
said delivery conveyor having a receiving end adjacent said transfer station and a delivery end,
means for driving said delivery conveyor to receive the packages in serial fashion at said transfer station and to move the packages to said delivery end,
a lift located on said bed floor at said transfer station,
said lift including a lift platform movable from a lower position generally coplanar with said bed floor to raised positions above said bed floor,
lift mechanism on said bed supporting said lift platform for movement between its lower and raised positions,
a bed conveyor supported in said bed floor and extending lengthwise thereof to said lift platform, and
drive mechanism for said bed conveyor to carry the palletized loads along said bed platform and onto said lift platform.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Loading and unloading assist apparatus for a vehicle

Life of this patent

Loading and unloading assist apparatus for a vehicle

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims9