Abstract: A support surface or deck (12), and in particular the upper-most support platform (20), of a traveler or cart (10) securely transports television monitors, audio-visual recording or playback equipment, projectors, or other heavy or bulky articles (14). The support surface includes an adjustable safety strap (20) secured to slidable and lockable anchoring devices (24) in a guide channel (26) recessed in a groove (28) in the support surface. The top surface (34) of the guide channel is flush with the deck. A pair of safety strap anchoring devices (24) enter and slide along the length of the guide channel. Each anchoring device is attached to an opposing end (22) of the safety strap which is looped over to secure or harness the article being transported. Each anchor has a set screw (44) for immobilizing the anchor at any desired position within the guide channel and an eyelet (38) with stem (40) for cinching one end of the safety strap thereto with a single bar slide (54).

Abstract: The present invention relates to a new and improved trailer for unloading large cylindrical bales of hay. The trailer has a simple rectangular frame that holds hay bale carriers in place by a dual latch/keeper assembly mechanism. The dual latch/keeper assembly allows the cradle to tilt in either lateral direction to dump the hay bales on either side of the trailer. As a safety factor for the operator, the release for the latch/keeper assembly is on the opposite side from the side upon which the carrier dumps. The present invention may include a pedestal which holds a hay bale cradle over the wheels. The pedestal is removably mounted so that both the pedestal and the pedestal cradle can be removed thereby allowing the trailer to carry goods other than hay, such as irrigation pipe. The raised pedestal also allows for fenders over the wheels of the trailer. Fenders and lights are provided to ensure that the trailer is street worthy.

Abstract: Inner pickers (6) are provided for respective stages of racks (4) of storage areas (2, 3) to be movable on rails (7). Operations of the inner pickers (6) are independently controlled in the respective rack stages by optical communication through optical communication units (9).

Abstract: A prestressed concrete railroad tie having a tie body made up of two end members for supporting rail attachment parts and a central section extending between and interconnecting the end members and having a transverse cross-section smaller than the transverse section of the end members. Tendons are located in the tie body and extend in opposite directions from a common vertical or horizontal plane in the central section into the end members. At tie ends of the end members the tendons are anchored and are uniformly distributed across the transverse cross-section of the end members. With the tendons centered in the central member, a narrow central member is afforded. The tendons fan outwardly from the common plane in the central section into the end members providing wider or larger end members. This prestressed concrete tie arrangement affords only low changing bending moments in the central section or a positive course of bending moments across the length of the tie.

Abstract: A method of palletizing and depalletizing stacks of products in continuous, layer-by-layer succession, the products being substantially flat and thin, such as folded sheets of paper, in which a fully automatic mode of operation is achieved by depositing the stacks of a stack layer on an intercarrier in order to load a pallet. Transport elements, which are associated with a loading and unloading station, may be positioned beneath the stacks and caused to move through or into the intercarrier in order to effect the deposition on and lifting from an intercarrier of stacks which partly defines a stack layer, the stack layers and the associated intercarriers being stacked on a pallet, as a unit, and being destaked from the pallet in like manner.

Abstract: An earth-working machine includes a mobile chassis, a turntable rotatably mounted on the mobile chassis, a carriage rotatably mounted on the turntable in eccentric relation thereto, an earth-working mechanism mounted on the carriage, a source of a fluid pressure, a pair of first and second fluid motors for rotating the turntable and the carriage, respectively, and a fluid rate synchronizer composed of a pair of third and fourth fluid motors interconnected by a common output shaft for discharging amounts of fluid under pressure at a predetermined ratio, the source being operatively coupled to the third and fourth fluid motors, the first and second fluid motors being operatively coupled to the third and fourth fluid motors, respectively, whereby the turntable and the carriage will be angularly moved about their own axes at a constant angular displacement ratio.

Abstract: A loader mounting arrangement includes a pair of mounting frames secured to the opposite sides of the tractor frame for receiving the lower ends of the loader mast posts. Each bracket includes a transversely extending pin for receiving a C-shaped forwardly opening front portion of the mast post. The rear of the mounting frame opens upwardly to guide the aft portion of the mast post end as the mast post is rocked downwardly about the axis of the rod. Projecting pin-receiving bushings in the aft portion of the mast post end are received within mating upwardly opening pockets in the mounting frame. The bushings are positively forced into the pockets by operating the boom lift cylinders with the loader attachment on the ground to assure alignment of the mast post end and the bracket. With the bushings forced downwardly into the fully seated position within the pockets, hole in the bracket are aligned with the bushing bores, and a locking pin is easily inserted to secure the mast post to the tractor.

Abstract: A bank having a coin slot and a repository for deposited coins is provided. The bank can detect coins deposited. A coin is returned upon deposit of a predetermined amount of money to return interest such as a nickel in interests for depositing twenty-five cents.

Abstract: An article handling device for attachment to the rear of a pickup truck including a rigid main frame having arms separated by a cross member and all lying in substantially the same plane. The cross member has rigidly attached at approximately 90 degrees thereto a leverage pole to rotate the main frame when it is hingedly supported on a bumper mounting base. A floating spear type axle for retaining an article on the main frame is attached thereto near the outer end of each arm by a flexible movement limiting tether. The floating axle when penetrating and thereby retaining an article such as a round bale allows the bale to shift downwardly and rest on the main frame preventing transit damage especially to loosely packed or soft core bales.

Abstract: A robotic handling system is described that includes a support column aligned along a vertically aligned Z axis with a dual-wand assembly rotatably mounted atop the support column and defining a `reach` or R axis. Drive motor/encoder assemblies are mounted adjacent the support column for raising or lowering the dual-wand assembly along the Z axis and mounted within the support column for slewing the dual-wand assembly to any selected .theta. angle within the range of operation under the control of a stored program processor.

Abstract: A ramp lifter device is provided which is adapted to elevate the end of a loading ramp from its initial, extended position to the floor height of a trailer. A trailer chassis provides a storage area for the loading ramp between longitudinal frame members. A ramp carrier box is secured between opposing frame members of the trailer chassis. The ramp includes a ramp carriage having extension rods that are slidingly received along the ramp carrier box. The ramp lifter device includes a reinforcement member attached to a bottom cross member towards one end of the ramp, and a handle. Selectively applying a downward force on the handle forces a pivot rod on the ramp lifter device against the ramp carriage extension rods, which pivots the reinforcement member upwardly, and hence elevates the end of the ramp to the level of the trailer floor. The loading ramp can be manually moved forward and lowered so that ramp hooks on the end of the ramp engage corresponding ramp pockets on the end of the trailer body.

Abstract: A railroad flat wheel detector having a housing anchored to one side of a railroad rail enclosing an arrayed plurality of light source-photodetector pairs whose respective optic axes are tangent to the locus of the lower rim edge of passing wheels rolling along the track. The photodetector outputs are operatively connected to trigger a flat wheel alarm when the increased wheel flange rim overlap with the supporting rail, caused by a flat sector of a passing wheel, obscures a portion of the light and thereby briefly reduces the light intensity sensed by one or more of the plurality of photodetectors.

Abstract: A queue of randomly oriented chips is advanced down a track. Each chip in the queue is sequentially and individually elevated into a pneumatic circuit and pressed against a mirrored surface of an upper slide member to which it adheres if the chip was oriented with upwardly disposed solder lands. A jet of compressible fluid insufficient in magnitude to dislodge the chip is injected in a direction toward the queue. If the chip, alternatively, was oriented with the solder lands down, this fluid jet propels the chip about the oval-shaped pneumatic circuit so as to reorient the chip with the lands extending in the desired upward orientation, whereupon the chip is injected into a storage magazine.

Abstract: A method of handling and securing platelike substrates, such as wafers, is described in which a substrate is gripped between supporting elements situated opposite each other in the plane of the substrate to be applied against opposite side edges of the substrate. The gripping forces are applied through resilient means in order to limit the gripping force applied. Apparatus for gripping a substrate in accordance with this method has the supporting element or elements on one side in a fixed position and the other movable towards the substrate to apply the gripping force, the resillient means being disposed between said other element or elements and the driving means for said movement. There is also described an optical sensing system for positioning the supporting element relative to a substrate.

Abstract: A conventional bottom dump truck includes doors which in a closed position are suspended underneath the bottom opening of the hopper of the trailer. The doors are opened outwardly and upwardly by pivotal action about an upper suspension point of each of the doors. The amount of movement of the door is limited by an abutment member mounted upon a vertical flange on the outside surface of the hopper bottom. The abutment member includes an abutment plate extending outwardly from the flange together with a bracket which has a slot slidable along the length of the flange and locatable at different points along the length of the flange by a pin passing through openings in the bracket and one of a plurality of openings in the flange.

Abstract: My invention provides the user with a new and innovative way to display a working model railroad train set traveling around a Christmas tree. My invention enables the user to elevate the train to a varying height to prevent any interference with the placements of gifts at the base of the tree, and also provides the means to place the model train out of the reach of small children and pets. The model train is supported on my invention by a track (FIG. 1) which is attached to supports (FIG. 1) connecting the track to the Christmas tree by an adjustable collar (FIG. 1) and by the use of support legs.

Abstract: A manually operable apparatus is provided for transferring disks with center holes such as semiconductor wafers from one cassette of an ordinary kind to another having a different pitch. The apparatus has an elongated rod on which an array of disk-shaped pieces each capable of supporting a wafer from its center hole is slidably mounted. These pieces are so connected that the separation between each of mutually adjacent pairs can vary but not to exceed a predetermined maximum distance. The piece at one end of the array is affixed to the rod and the one at the other end is attached to a tubular member which can be moved manually in the direction of the rod.

Abstract: Coin-controlled apparatus for locking shopping carts together in nested series at a cart parking station having coin-controlled mechanism mounted on a cart, e.g. on the handle of the cart, which is adapted for receiving and releasably locking therein a latch bar on a tether which is attached to the next cart in the nested series, requiring deposit of a coin to release the latch bar to free the cart for being wheeled away by the user, and holding the coin until the user brings the cart back to a cart parking station, nests it in the end cart at the parking station, and inserts the latch bar which is tethered to said end cart in the mechanism to lock the returned cart to the series and to provide for return of the user's coin.

Abstract: Method for stacking substantially flat products such as meat patties. Rows of patties are conveyed under a metal detector and then to a sigmoidal slide. Patties contaminated with metal trigger the metal detector to send a signal to the slide. Upon receipt of a signal from the metal detector, the slide pivots in a manner to dispose of metal contaminated patties. Uncontaminated patties are conveyed down the slide without flipping over and onto a second lower conveyor having a plurality of vertical blades mounted thereto, between which patties are received in stacks. An optical counter is mounted to count patties conveyed down the slide. The counter is in communication with the second indexed conveyor and signals such conveyor to move forward after a predetermined number of patties have been stacked between two adjacent vertical blades on the indexed conveyor.

Abstract: A system for positively determining that an engineman has actually activated a manual whistle valve to sound a pneumatic warning horn on a railway vehicle having a low pressure and high pressure sensing apparatus for conveying signals to an event recorder for monitoring and recording the pressure of an air supply source and the sounding of the pneumatic warning device.