Side-shift limiter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9309099-B2
Application number	US-201414309933-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2014
Priority date	Jun 20, 2014
Publication date	Apr 12, 2016
Grant date	Apr 12, 2016

Abstract

A side shift limiting attachment for a material handing vehicle alerts the vehicles operator and restricts side shifting, lifting, tilting and/or rotation of the attachment when the side shift displacement is approaching or has reached a limit for a lift height.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle, the system comprising:
(a) a lateral position sensor arranged to output a lateral position datum quantifying a distance between a material handling vehicle lateral datum and a load face lateral datum;
(b) a height sensor arranged to output a height datum quantifying a height of a vertical load face datum relative to a surface supporting said material handling vehicle; and
(c) a controller arranged to receive said lateral position datum and said height datum and to output a side shift control signal when said lateral position datum corresponds to a side shift limit for said height datum.

2. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 1 further comprising a tilt sensor arranged to output a tilt datum quantifying an angle of said load face, said controller arranged to receive said tilt datum and output said side shift control signal when said lateral position datum corresponds to a side shift limit for said height datum and said tilt datum.

3. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 1 further comprising a side shift indicator responsive to said side shift control signal to announce that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said side shift limit.

4. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 3 wherein announcement that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said side shift limit comprises an optical signal.

5. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 3 wherein announcement that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said side shift limit comprises an audible signal.

6. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 3 further comprising a side shift indicator responsive to a second side shift control signal output by said controller to announce that said load face lateral datum is proximate said side shift limit.

7. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 6 wherein announcement that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said side shift limit comprises a first optical signal and said announcement that said load face lateral datum is proximate said side shift limit comprises a second optical signal.

8. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 6 wherein announcement that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said side shift limit comprises a first audible signal and said announcement that said load face lateral datum is proximate said side shift limit comprises a second audible signal.

9. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 1 further comprising a side shift control responsive to said side shift control signal to restrict a speed of lateral movement of said load face when said lateral position datum corresponds to said side shift limit.

10. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 1 wherein said side shift control responsive to said side shift control signal blocks lateral movement of said load face when said lateral position datum corresponds to said side shift limit.

11. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 9 further comprising a side shift indicator responsive to said side shift control signal to announce that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said side shift limit.

12. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 11 wherein announcement that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said side shift limit comprises an optical signal.

13. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 11 wherein announcement that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said side shift limit comprises an audible signal.

14. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 11 further comprising a side shift indicator responsive to a second side shift control signal output by said controller to announce that said load face lateral datum is proximate said side shift limit.

15. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 14 wherein announcement that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said side shift limit comprises a first optical signal and said announcement that said load face lateral datum is proximate said side shift limit comprises a second optical signal.

16. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 14 wherein announcement that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said side shift limit comprises a first audible signal and said announcement that said load face lateral datum is proximate said side shift limit comprises a second audible signal.

17. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 9 wherein said side shift control permits lateral movement of said load face to decrease a distance between said material handling vehicle lateral datum and said load face lateral datum when said lateral position datum corresponds to said side shift limit.

18. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 9 further comprising a rotator control responsive to said side shift control signal to interrupt rotation of said load face when said lateral position datum corresponds to said side shift limit.

19. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 1 further comprising a lifting control responsive to said side shift control signal to prevent increasing said height datum when said lateral position datum corresponds to said side shift limit.

20. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 2 further comprising a tilting control responsive to said side shift control signal to prevent an increase in said tilt datum when said lateral position datum corresponds to said side shift limit.

21. A load handling attachment for a material handling vehicle, said load handling attachment comprising;
(a) a load face defined by a load engaging member and movable laterally and vertically relative to said material handling vehicle;
(b) a lateral position sensor arranged to output a lateral position datum quantifying a distance to a lateral load face datum;
(c) a height sensor arranged to output a height datum quantifying a distance between a load face height datum and a surface supporting said material handing vehicle; and
(d) a controller arranged to receive said lateral position datum and said height datum and operable according to a stored instruction to output a side shift control signal when said lateral position datum exceeds a side shift limit for said height datum.

22. The load handling attachment of claim 21 further comprising a side shift control device to limit a speed of lateral displacement of said lateral load face datum in response to said side shift control signal.

23. The load handling at

Assignees

• Cascade Corp

Inventors

• Dal Dosso Andrea
• Mckernan Pat S
• Jordan D Clark
• Nagle Gregory A
• Petronek David W

Classifications

• B66F9/24 Primary

  Electrical devices or systems · CPC title

• B66F9/146

  Side shift, i.e. both forks move together sideways relative to fork support · CPC title

• B66F17/003

  for fork-lift trucks · CPC title

• B66F9/0755

  Position control; Position detectors · CPC title

• B66F9/125

  rotatable about a longitudinal axis · CPC title