Patents by Inventor Walter Kuhlmann

Walter Kuhlmann has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5337883
    Abstract: The invention relates to a rail for accommodating and guiding a conveyor for transporting goods hanging on hangers. The conveyor may be a roller chain which travels and is guided in a chain channel in the rail. The tips of the hanger hooks rest on the roller chain. The chain channel is recessed with respect to the top side of the rail, which faces the hanger hook, and a conical groove extends upward from the roller chain and opens upward toward the outside of the rail. These features make it possible to transport the hanger hooks on their tips. The bevel which is formed by the conical groove, as well as the shape of the rail and the relative positions of the chain channel and the side edge of the rail, ensure that the hanger hook always slides in a well-defined position and orientation on the roller chain regardless of how it has been placed on the conveyor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 1993
    Date of Patent: August 16, 1994
    Assignee: Durkopp Adler AG
    Inventor: Walter Kuhlmann
  • Patent number: 5232078
    Abstract: An overhead conveyor for articles to be transported suspended from hangers, the conveyor having at least one delivery point (A) at which the hangers are to be automatically delivered from a conveyor line into a second line. A swingable slide rail is provided at the delivery point, the rail being adapted to be brought from an upper position of rest into a lower inclined operating position by the weight of a clothing hanger present on it. When the slide rail is in its inclined operating position, a clothing hanger resting on it slides down the slide rail toward a receiving rod in the second line. When the slide rail is in its position of rest, hangers which are not to be delivered are able to pass by the slide rail without being obstructed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 1992
    Date of Patent: August 3, 1993
    Assignee: Durkopp Adler Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Walter Kuhlmann, Klaus Niesen
  • Patent number: 5113998
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a hanging device for supporting a hanger on a suspended conveyor, on which articles of clothing may be hung. The hanging device includes a base body; a flap which is pivotally mounted on the base body for pivoting about an axis perpendicular to the direction of transport; the flap having an open position and a closed position; and an arrangement for locating the hook of the clothes hanger on a portion of the base body, resting against the flap, with the flap in its closed position. These and other features of the hanging device provide dependable loading, transport and delivery of the clothes hangers under all circumstances.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 1990
    Date of Patent: May 19, 1992
    Assignee: Durkopp Adler AG
    Inventors: Erwin Grube, Walter Kuhlmann, Ralf Schneuing
  • Patent number: 5082107
    Abstract: A storage conveyor which has a loading point and a removal point and in which a removal device is arranged preceding (upstream from) the removal point. The removal device includes a separately driven removal belt which is arranged between the two major courses of the horizontally circulating conveyor chain. The removal belt is guided so that it passes from below the conveyor chain to above it. The hanger hooks which rest with their top region on the conveyor chain are engaged at their tip by the removal belt, lifted off the conveyor chain and transferred to a slide rail at the removal point which they engage at their top region, and along which they then slide under the action of gravity. The removal belt can be moved faster than the conveyor chain, so as to separate the hangers as they are being lifted off the conveyor chain. As a result of these features of the storage conveyor, it is possible to supply and remove the hangers in a straight line so that high throughput is possible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 1990
    Date of Patent: January 21, 1992
    Assignee: Durkopp Adler Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Erwin Grube, Walter Kuhlmann, Friedhelm Elges
  • Patent number: 5078262
    Abstract: A conveyor which can be used both as a storage conveyor for storing goods hanging on hangers, particularly articles of clothing, and as a feed or an oblique conveyor. A traction belt which rotates in a direction of transport grasps the hanger hooks at their tip, whereby the hangers are engaged away from their center-of-gravity line. In this way, both the loading and the delivery points of the conveyor can be developed in an operatively reliable manner. Since the traction belt, structured preferably as a toothed belt, can be supported at any desired place without preventing or impeding its transporting ability, the storage conveyor can be of any desired length. By means of a guide ledge which is formed on the base body of the conveyor and extends parallel to the direction of transport, the hangers transported are prevented from swinging out and thus sliding out of the conveyor. The particular application of the conveyor is determined by selection of the traction belt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 1990
    Date of Patent: January 7, 1992
    Assignee: Durkopp Adler Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Erwin Grube, Walter Kuhlmann, Friedhelm Elges, Ralf Schneuing
  • Patent number: 4598812
    Abstract: A conveyer for hanging garments or the like in which the carriage for the articles to be suspended as rollers riding on an on-edge endless band formed along its upper edge with a continuous bead and suspended from a track in which an endless chain supporting the band is continuously driven. An abutment can be selectively introduced into the path of the carriage to temporarily immobilize it and allow loading of articles onto or unloading of articles from the carriage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 1984
    Date of Patent: July 8, 1986
    Assignee: Durkoppwerke GmbH
    Inventors: Erwin Grube, Walter Kuhlmann