A NOVEL ELEVATING PLATFORM TRUCK.
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RANSOM ES, Sims and Jefferies, Ltd., have recently made great-improvements in their elevating platform truck, and this is one -of the neatest and strongest types which we have yet seen. It is designed to carry or elevate 2 tons, but has actually lifted 3 tons in 5 sees.
As is usual in this type of truck, in which a very low loading platform is desirable, the drive isIthrough the front wheels and the accumulators are carried in a container mounted on the raised frame at the front. The battery is a Chloride I.M.V. 4, having a voltage of 40 and an ampere-hour capacity of 129.
The controller gives three speeds forward and reverse, and the final drive is by double helical gearing. The wheels are of small diameter, the tyres being 16 ins. by 4 ins, at the front and 10 ins. by 4 ins. at the rear ; the total weight of
7 the machine is 1 ton 1 cwt.
The elevating gear is simple, efficient and " foolproof." It censists of a screwed sleeve, somewhat resembling an hydraulic ram, which is fastened to a stout cross-member on the lifting platform. Inside this sleeve is a long screw with a four-start thread. This screw is rotated through the medium of bevel and worm gearing by a powerful electric motor.
The main feature of the device is that the whole of the casing is filled with lubricating oil, which is effectually pre
vented from escaping, a leather gland being provided at the upper end of the sleeve barrel. The oil also prevents the ,damaging of the gear by the ingress of dirt and grit.
The elevating control is very simple, and the platform can be maintained for aair period at any point between the highest and lowest positions. The lifting is effected by steel plates bolted to the lifting frame and each cut with an inclined face at one side, this face being in contact with a roller mounted on the main frame of the truck. Thus, as the lifting platform is forced to the rear ay the screwed sleeve, the rollers engage with the steel plates fitted on the frame of the lifting platferm and cause the platform to rise. Our illustrations show the platform in its raised position, and
in one a portion of the steel plating is removed in order to show the lifting gear, the motor of which can be seen to the right of the elevating sleeve.
Trucks of this type have proved most efficient in dealing with the transport for short distances of all kinds of goods, particularly in works, railway stations, etc., and if goods are carried in suitable containers provided with short legs, a truck with a lifting platform may be run underneath the container, the platform lifted and the goods carried to whatever destination is desired and there deposited by again -dropping the platform.
These and the other types of Orwell trucks can be manipulated with the greatest of ease, even in restricted areas, and, there is little doubt that the use of such vehicles will certainly increase in up-to-date factories and other places where the rapid handling of goods is essential.