Side-shift limiter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-RE49025-E
Application number	US-201815950978-A
Country	US
Kind code	E1
Filing date	Apr 11, 2018
Priority date	Jun 20, 2014
Publication date	Apr 12, 2022
Grant date	Apr 12, 2022

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 and associated with a material handling vehicle, the system comprising:
(a) a lateral position sensor arranged to output a lateral position datum quantifying representative of a distance between a material handling vehicle lateral datum longitudinal centerline and a load face lateral datum;
(b) a height sensor arranged to output a height datum quantifying representative of a height of a vertical the 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 first side shift control signal when said lateral position datum corresponds to a first side shift limit for at said height datum and output a second side shift control signal when said lateral position datum corresponds to a second side shift limit at said height datum, the first side shift limit having a magnitude greater than that of the second side shift limit relative to the longitudinal centerline, and each of the first and second side shift control signals restricting the lateral motion of the load face.

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 at least one of said first side shift control signal and said second side shift control signal to announce that said load face lateral datum corresponds to the respectively associated 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 the side shift indicator 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 the side shift indicator 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 second 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 at least one of said first side shift limit and said second 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 said side shift indicator comprises a first optical signal and said announcement that said load face lateral datum is proximate said side shift limit second side shift indictor 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 said side shift indicator comprises a first audible signal and said announcement that said load face lateral datum is proximate said side shift limit second side shift indicator 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 where said first side shift control signal to restrict restricts a speed of lateral movement of said load face when said lateral position datum corresponds to said first side shift limit.

10. The system for limiting a lateral position of a load face for a material handling vehicle of claim 1 9wherein said side shift control responsive to said second 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 first side shift control signal to announce that said load face lateral datum corresponds to said first 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 said side shift indicator 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 said side shift indicator 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 second side shift indicator responsive to a the second side shift control signal output by said controller to announce that said load face lateral datum is proximate said second 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 said side shift indicator comprises a first optical signal and said announcement that said load face lateral datum is proximate said side shift limit second side shift indicator 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 said side shift indicator comprises a first audible signal and said announcement that said load face lateral datum is proximate said side shift limit second side shift indicator 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 permitting lateral movement of said load face to decrease a distance between said material handling vehicle lateral datum longitudinal centerline and said load face lateral datum when said lateral position datum corresponds to at least one of said first side shift limit and said second 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 at least one of said first side shift limit and said second 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

Assignees

• Cascade Corp

Inventors

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

Classifications

• B66F9/183 Primary

  Coplanar side clamps · CPC title

• B66F9/125

  rotatable about a longitudinal axis · CPC title

• 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

• B66F9/0755

  Position control; Position detectors · CPC title