Bricks Loaded and Unloaded Automatically
Page 43
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Use of Ingenious Body with Pneumatic " Floor " Enables 4,200 Bricks to be Lifted or Dropped in a Quarter of an Hour A, N automatic loading b.o d y developed in America enables 4,200 bricks to be picked up or unloaded in 15 mins. What is more, the bricks are left at the building site in a neat stack exactly as picked up at the brick works or builder's yard.
The Alwine Brick Manufacturing Co., of New Oxford, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., recently received a contract to supply and deliver 1,500,000 bricks. The contract was completed in 375 loads, with an overall handling time for each load of 30 mins. A saving in 1,500. hrs, in vehicle availability and .1,500 hrs. in manual labour was achieved.
Fork trucks bring the bricks in 4,200unit stacks from the kilns to the maker's yards,
The special body on the transport vehicle is of the end-tipping type, raised and lowered by two hydraulic cylinders, each having a capacity of 10 tons. The hydraulic pump supplying the pressure is driven in the normal manner from the power take-off of the gearbox of the vehicle.
• To pick up a consignment of bricks, or any other similar load, the vehicle is hacked squarely up to the stack, a header bar running across the rear end of the body is removed and two inbuilt jacks are lowered. With the body fully encompassing the stack, the header bar is replaced and air under pressure is
admitted to a bag resting on the floor of the vehicle.
The inflation pressure is about 45 lb. per sq in and this serves • to keep the lowest layer of bricks in position while the load is raised. When the body with its load reaches the normal travelling position on the chassis, the' jacks. are raised and swung Up under the chassis, and the vehicle driven 'off.
Unloading is simply a reversal of the loading operation. One of the objets of fitting the jacks at the rear is to. prevent the front of the vehicle rising as the load gets over the point of balance.
Not only does the body tip, but it is thrust rearwards as it has to assume a vertical 'position in order to pick up the load squarely. All operations are carried out from the driver's cab, excepting, of course, the lowering and raising of the rear jacks.
It has been found in practice that it is not liecessare for the load to be
on dead-level ground, or on a hard surface, as the efficiency of the ingenious air-bag device is such as to hold the bottom layer under conditions which may not be ideal.
The design is so straightforward that similar types of body can be fitted to any chassis of :suitable load capacity and having`a d'ififerrilon 'of not less than 6 ft. and not mote than 7 ft. from the back of the cabto the centre of the rear axle.
It was estimated that the total cash saving effected in the case of the contract mentioned was 16.875 dollars, whilst the fact that the bricks are riot manhandled at any stage means that they are not in any way damaged, as is so frequently the case with manual loading and unloading.