GB1488694A - Storage system having wheeled storage racks or the like - Google Patents

Abstract

1488694 Cabinets; storage systems KONGO CO Ltd 8 Oct 1974 43524/74 Headings A4B and A4T [Also in Divisions B7 and F2] A storage system comprises storage racks, &c. mounted on pairs of driving wheels 10, Fig. 1, and movable along a pair of ground rails 12, each rack having a manually operated drive transmission including a hand wheel 14, Fig. 3, a driving sprocket 16 fast with the hand wheel shaft and coupled through an endless drive member, e.g. a chain, belt or rope 20, to a driven sprocket 18 fast with an axle 10' having a pair of said wheels 10, and a locking device capable of positively locking each rack against movement along the rails by engagement thereof with the transmission or with one of the rails. The locking device may comprise a toothed wheel 24b, Fig. 7, integral and coaxial with the driving sprocket 16 and an H-shaped detent member (28) that can be manually rotated by a knob 36 to bring a rod 28a thereof into and out of engagement the toothed wheel 24b, the detent member being biased by an over-centre tension spring 34. In a modification, Figs. 4, 5 (not shown), the detent member (26) is slidable. The rack may include a safety locking device actuated on contact with a person. In one form, when a buffer plate 86, Fig. 11, hits the person, it pivots against the bias of a spring 74 and causes an engaging member 96 to be lowered into engagement with the toothed wheel 24c to lock the drive transmission. Engaging member 96 is carried by a slidable rod 92 suspended by a chain, &c. 90 from a pivoted lever 80 pivoted to a lever 82 engaging with a crank 72 on a pivoted shaft 70 carrying the plate 86. In a modification, Figs. 14, 15 (not shown), pivoting of plate 86 causes an engaging member (116) to be moved horizontally into engagement with a hole (122) in one of the driving wheels (120). In a further modification, Fig. 16 pivoting of a buffer plate 158, against the bias of a spring 160, lowers an engaging member 154 into engagement with a hole 156 in one of the rails 134. Member 154 is suspended by a chain 168 from a bell-crank 150 engaged by a crank 166 on a pivoted shaft 142 carrying the plate 158. The rack may further include a safety device which maintains a passage between the rack and an adjacent rack, the device comprising a supporting member 42, Fig. 9, hinged at one end to the rack and having an impact receiving member 44 at the other end, and a brace 48 hinged at one end to member 42 and having its other end extended through a slot in the rack and carrying an engaging member 50.