Vehicle restraint
AssigneeRite-Hite Holding Corporation
InventorsNorbert Hahn, Brian Bender
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Vehicle restraint including a support mounted adjacent a loading structure. A carriage is supported from the support and has a generally horizontal portion extending over the roadway, the horizontal portion being operatively engageable with the vehicle bar over a vertical range. A vertically elongate barrier is supported from the carriage and is disposed remotely from the upright loading structure, the barrier being mounted for generally vertical movement with respect to the carriage between an inoperative vehicle-released position wherein the barrier is disclosed below the horizontal portion, and an inoperative vehicle restraining position, wherein the barrier extends vertically a fixed distance above the horizontal portion to define a vehicle bar capture distance along the horizontal portion.
Claims5
A method of detecting when a vehicle having a vehicle bar has been secured to a loading dock with a vehicle restraint having a carriage and a barrier, the vehicle restraint being coupled to the loading dock, the method comprising the steps of:
- moving the vehicle toward the loading dock;
- moving a switch in at least a vertical direction to an operative switch position in response to contact between the vehicle and the carriage to indicate that the vehicle bar of the vehicle is adjacent to a top surface of the carriage;
- moving the barrier of the vehicle restraint into an operative, vehicle restraining, position wherein at least a portion of the barrier extends above the top surface of the carriage and in front of the vehicle bar to secure the vehicle to the loading dock;
- and
- operatively engaging the switch with the barrier to change an electrical state of the switch when the switch is in the operative switch position and the barrier of the vehicle restraint is in the operative, vehicle restraining, position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.