Abstract: A ladder rack adapted to be attached to a utility vehicles comprises front and rear four-bar linkages where each of the four-bar linkages comprises a base having a post projecting vertically therefrom, a ladder support member comprising a first straight bar or linkage member having a ladder support arm extending perpendicularly therefrom. A second linkage pivotally connects between the post and a first end portion of the first linkage member. Then, a dog-leg linkage having a first end pivotally attached to the first linkage member proximate its mid-point with the second end of the dog-leg linkage coupled to an elongated connecting rod that extends horizontally between the bases of the front and rear four-bar linkages. The connecting rod is journaled for rotation and when turned by a crank or motor transports ladders suspended on the ladder support arm from a position atop the vehicle to a position alongside the vehicle and vice versa.

Abstract: A table lifting and transporting mechanism with ground contact wheels, a table support portion and a mechanism for transferring the majority of the weight of the table to the wheels so that the table is supported generally at its center of gravity. The mechanism is adapted to engage the underside of the table and includes a winch for lowering its wheels into contact with the ground after positioning. The winch allows for the table to be raised after the wheels have contacted the ground, thus transferring the weight of the table from the table legs to the wheels.

Abstract: A dragline bucket transporter for use in moving a dragline bucket with a hauling vehicle comprises a wheeled trailer having a U-shaped frame with tire-supported free ends, the free ends forming an open end. The frame is moved by a hauling vehicle to surround the sidewalls of a dragline bucket. Once the bucket is surrounded, a cross member of the frame engages and lifts a front end portion of the bucket by action of a hitching assembly attached to the hauling vehicle. With the front end of the bucket elevated, lifting assemblies located at the free ends of the frame lift up a rear portion of the bucket so that it is off the ground. The hauling vehicle can then transport the bucket to a desired location, the bucket then removed from the transporter for use with a dragline.

Abstract: A lead frame supplying method and apparatus used with, for instance, a wire bonding machine, including a sensor which detects a presence or absence of a lead frame in a frame storing section of a lead frame magazine. The sensor is installed at the level of a frame conveying path or above the level of the frame conveying path of a frame feeder that feeds lead frames to, for instance, the bonding machine and is located so that the lead frame magazine is positioned between the sensor and the frame feeder. In addition, a control unit positions a frame storing section that contains a lead frame at the level of the frame conveying path of the frame feeder when the sensor detects the absence of a lead frame in one frame storing section.

Abstract: Machine for handling objects such as raw materials, semifinished products, finished parts, and in particular metal sheets or the like, comprising: a portal comprising two uprights and a transverse beam and mounted on a movable carriage with drive means, a crossmember that can move up and down the said uprights and is connected to the latter as well as to lifting means; and two tracks, mounted at right angles to the said crossmember, in which two prongs with drive means can travel back and forth; the said means of lifting the said movable crossmember comprise two screws arranged parallel to each of the said uprights, each screw being engaged in a nut arranged at one end of and with its axis perpendicular to the said crossmember, and each screw being provided with drive means, and also a pallet that is especially suitable for use in the said machine.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a cart for shopping in stores, loadable full and effortlessly into a car trunk. The cart includes a basket and a rolling support. The rolling support is placed in the car trunk when disconnected from rolling legs and basket supporting arms. The basket is movable with respect to the support and rotated by rods which form two deformable parallelograms. An electric or crank control transmits the synchronous motion to two reduction units located on either side of the basket. Thus, the basket is effortlessly laid into or extracted from the car trunk, passing the threshold.

Abstract: A cartridge transferring robot for use in a library apparatus which is capable of certainly transferring a plurality of types of cartridges (media) to meet various needs from the users. In the present invention, for this purpose, in case where a plurality of types of cartridges are handled within the library apparatus, a picker section includes a type identifying mechanism to identify the type of the cartridge held in the picker section in a state of being gripped by a hand mechanism. Further, this invention is for transferring cartridges among a storage unit, a cartridge entry/exit station and a drive unit within a library apparatus storing a large number of cartridges such as magnetic tape cartridges and optical disk cartridges.

Abstract: A portable, low-profile tipper, for dumping the contents from a trailer containing dumpable material, includes a towable, elongated frame having a back end with a deck pivotally attached thereto. The deck has a backstop for positioning the trailer during dumping. Actuators raise and lower the deck to effect dumping. The tipper includes a chute for guiding the dumpable material from the bottom of the trailer past the back end of the frame. Pivotally mounted to the deck rear end beneath the location of the rear end of a trailer supported on the deck is a gate which contains on the deck any materials spilled from the trailer during dumping until it is desired to remove the material from the deck, whereupon the gate can be opened when the tipping platform is elevated and the spilled material permitted to discharge onto a supplementary chute that guides the material away from the tipper frame.

Abstract: A spring support bracket for supporting a sheet metal trough intermittently on leaf springs provides an L-shaped bracket for a welding connection to a side wall and bottom wall of the sheet metal trough and a spring block extending outwardly from the vertical member of the L-shaped bracket and tilted to the vertical rearwardly of the trough. The spring block includes an aperture for receiving a fastener for connecting a leaf spring thereto so that the trough may be supported by a plurality of leaf springs arranged intermittently along the length of the trough and on opposite lateral sides of the troughs.

Abstract: A slidable load lift apparatus is selectively completely retractable into the bed of a standard pickup truck. The load lift apparatus includes a base frame member attached to the pickup truck bed, the base frame member supporting a substantially planar roller platform member slidably engaged with the base frame member. The base frame member includes a pair of elongate rail members extending in parallel along a first longitudinal axis and adapted to engage a set of roller wheels provided on the bottom of the roller platform member. A substantially planar lift platform member is operatively connected to the roller platform member through a set of parallelogram linkages which permit the lift platform to be moved between a raised position coplanar with the roller platform member and a lowered position out of the plane of the roller member for convenient loading of the lift platform at ground level.

Abstract: The present invention features a new type of spring-loaded axle. The spring-loaded axle of this invention has a single element. The single component of this invention has a specially-designed spring that acts both as a detent and an axle, all in one. The spring includes an elongated, flexible, coiled, spring portion that has a compressible, coiled midsection that is flanked by a generally non-compressible, coiled section on either side of the compressible, coiled midsection. At the distal end of each of the non-compressible, coiled sections is located a flexible, generally non-compressible, curvilinear, coiled end section. Each of the conically-shaped, coiled end sections acts like a detent; further, because of their conical shape, they can automatically adjust to the bores of the supporting frame. The elongated, coiled spring portion acts like an axle.

Abstract: The present invention is a forklift attachment device which automatically secures to the tongs of a forklift when the tongs are raised. The present invention functions to prevent a forklift load from becoming dislodged prematurely. The operative portion of the present invention is a pair of elastomer locking brakes which are positioned along the tongs of the forklift. The forks are inserted into the device. As the load is moved upwardly, levers attached to the locking brakes fall downwardly causing the locking brakes to move into operative engagement with the forks. When the load is returned to a position on the floor, the levers are returned to the starting position causing the locking brakes to release the attachment from the forks.

Abstract: An apparatus for conveying items to a selected receiving station comprises a round carousel rotatable about a center thereof to align a portion thereof with a selected azimuth, a platform disposed in the carousel, the platform being movable rotatably with the carousel and movable vertically in the carousel to a selected height, and a sled disposed on the platform and movable on the platform sidewise through a path concentric with the carousel to align the sled with a second selected azimuth, the sled being configured to receive thereon at least one of the items. The item is movable circularly by the carousel, vertically by the platform, and circularly by the sled, whereby to be conveyed to and from the receiving station disposed at the selected height and at the second azimuth.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are shown for indexing magazines and molded leadframes within the magazines comprising a lateral drive portion coupled to and located below the magazines for selectively moving a selected one of the magazines laterally at a first speed and for simultaneously moving the rest of the magazines laterally at a second speed, and a vertical drive portion having a portion for insertion into the selected one of the magazines when the magazines have ceased moving laterally for selectively moving the molded leadframes vertically within the selected one of the magazines. A plurality of magazine retaining members are also included each having a portion inserted into a portion of the lateral drive portion, and each having a cavity wherein a base portion of a corresponding one of the magazines rests.

Abstract: A hay distributor is provided that distributes large rectangular hay bales or flakes of hay, operating on a conveyor principle wherein the bales are slowly advanced from the bed of the vehicle to its edge as the vehicle is driven, whereupon by mechanical action the bale is cleaved to flake. A base plate is provided, forming a pivoting point of retrofit attachment of the main frame of the invention to the vehicle bed. The base plate, provides a mounting means for conversion of invention between side or rear-end distribution of hay from the bed of the vehicle. Next, an operating main frame comprises a) rails, having a initial end and a terminal end, along which a hay bale is advanced, and b) incline-adjustable ramps disposed in the path of the rails at their terminal ends, over which the bale advances on its approach to the edge of the bed of the vehicle, which ramps cause natural cleavage of the bale into individual flakes by creating a line of stress.

Abstract: A conveyor belt tensioning mechanism for use with a conveyor having a frame, a conveyor member in the form of a belt, and a pair of rollers, includes a pair of tensioning members mounted to opposite sides of the conveyor frame, with one of the rollers being mounted to the tensioning members. The tensioning members are slidable between extended and retracted positions by means of a pair of fasteners extending through a slot formed in each tensioning member and interengaged with the frame via a locking sleeve. The fasteners extend through a locking plate, such that tightening the fasteners frictionally engages the tensioning member between the frame and the locking plate. The belt is tensioned by loosening the locking fasteners and engaging a tensioning tool with the frame adjacent each tensioning member. The tensioning tools are pivoted into engagement with the tensioning members, and include a cam surface which forces the tensioning members outwardly to an extended position for tensioning the belt.

Abstract: A wheel dolly for moving truck tires and drums to and from a wheel on a truck has an elongated frame for disposition on a base surface oriented in substantial axial alignment with the wheel of a vehicle. The frame has a pair of elongated and parallel spaced cylindrical members formed of sections which have telescoping adjacent ends. End braces extend across and are secured to the opposite ends of the cylindrical members. A carrier is slidably seated on the cylindrical members for movement therealong, and it has a planar central portion and angular portions depending therefrom outwardly of the frame to provide ramp surfaces. The carrier also has rollers supported on the lower surface of the central portion which are configured to seat on the cylindrical members.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for carrying wafers through a multi-step process for producing a semiconductor, without using a cassette, where the apparatus senses whether a wafer is mis-loaded. The apparatus includes a plurality of optical sensors positioned above the wafers for sensing whether a wafer is mis-loaded by transmitting light past circumferential edges of the wafers.

Abstract: Driverless motor vehicles are conveyed to unoccupied parking spaces in a building by a transport system comprising at least two trackless transport elements and, for each motor vehicle, four detachable wheel support elements on the parking space and the two transport elements, on which wheel support elements the vehicle remains during parking in the parking space.

Abstract: A rail-movable car (1) for removing and pulling out long rails (3), stored on a transport car (2), includes a car frame (6), supported on an undercarriage (5) guided on rails, and a rail-removing device (4) for gripping and shifting a long rail (3) in the longitudinal direction of the car. The rail-removing device (4) includes a crawler (7), wherein the crawler is furnished with a first drive (11) and is deflectable around two deflection rollers (9), disposed at a distance from each other and exhibiting a rotation axis (10), contact plates (15) disposed in series in the removal direction for engaging and resting at the long rail, and a counter support (8) adjustable by means of a second drive (23) relative to the crawler, and wherein the counter support (8) is adapted to roll off on the long rail (3).