Inspection by Inversion
Page 47
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ANEW device to facilitate repair and servicing work on motor vehicles, by inverting them so as to give greater accessibility for underchassis jobs, is being manufactured at Brighouse, Yorkshire. The invention, called the Auto-Inverta, takes the form of a cylindrical framework built of steel, which, with the vehicle secured inside the frame, is rotated to the required position by electric power, and then firmly held there while work on the vehicle is being carried out. The design of the machines now being manufactured provides for the inversion of vehicles having a wheelbase up to 12 ft. and a height up to 6 ft., but it is the intention also to make investors which will take larger vehicles.
Patents are being taken out in Britain and abroad, a demonstration model has been completed, and it is anticipated that the first of the machines will be ready in about three months' time. The price will be £295. ex works.
The Auto-Inverta has an oblong base on wheels, this forming a chassis on which is mounted laterally the cylindrical framework for holding the vehicle. This, framework is composed of three steel hoops connected by horizontal members, with other horizontal and vertical members to provide wheel tracks, vehicle supports, grabs and roof-supporting cushions. The vehicle is so balanced in the frame that only a small-power electric motor is required to rotate the framework; for this first model, the motor is of h.p. Power is applied by frictional drive through reduction gearing to each of the three hoops in the framework.
Safety Features Owing to the exceptionally low gear employed, the machine cannot rotate unless the power is on, and an additional safeguard is an automatic locking pin which can be pre-set to lock and cut the power off at a predetermined angle. Track widths are variable, having a three-stage setting, and when inversion is taken to 180 degrees—the vehicle thus being turned upside down—the tracks may be released from their hold and partially or completely withdrawn so as to allow of the removal of vehicle wheels, springs or axles. The ramp provided for the driving of vehicles on to the: machines can be dispensed with by sinking the invertor in a bed 20 ins. deep.
The maker claims that a vehicle can be put into the machine and inverted to an agie of 90 degrees in about 8 mins, Before that is done, the oil sump and the petrol tank should be drained—for which purpose funnels and drums are provided—and the batteries removed. That is not necessary if the inversion is not more than 45 degrees—an angle recommended as giving sufficient underchassis accessibility for easy performance of grease-gun lubrication and general servicing. In a test, a vehicle with a fractured chassis was repaired on the invertor by welding, and made ready for the road in an hour, inclusive of the time taken in draining and refilling the oil sump and petrol tank.