Abstract: An improvement to large container handlers having a transportable platform. A powered positionable support arm is pivotally mounted on one end to the platform for vertical rotation. A L-shaped arm is pivotally mounted from the other end of the support arm to be vertically rotatable. A container gripping device is suspended from the L-shaped arm. In one embodiment, the support arm is mounted to move the L-shaped arm vertically as the support arm is rotated so as to, thereby, raise and lower a container without sidewards movement.

Abstract: A workpiece storing and handling apparatus particularly adapted for loading parts in a multiple spindle chucking machine wherein the spindles and chucks are indexible successively to a transfer station. A rotary part table has a circumaxial series of part receiving rests and is indexed to move the parts to a transfer station in succession. A gripper on a transfer arm engages a part at the transfer station and swings the same in a composite arcuate motion to a ready position in horizontal alignment with a chuck at the machine transfer station. The arm and gripper then move the part linearly in a horizontal plane to the open chuck and return to the ready position for arcuate return movement to the table transfer station. A transfer arm support shaft is swingable through an arc in a vertical plane by a fluid operable cylinder and is simultaneously rotated about its axis by a bevel gear arrangement to provide the required composite arcuate motion of the arm.

Abstract: In a loading crane comprising a crane post on which is pivotally mounted a crane arm or boom, and a main hydraulic piston-and-cylinder unit the lower end of which is pivotally connected to the base of the crane post and the upper end of which is pivotally connected to the inner crane arm end to effect raising and folding movements of said arm, a device, preferably in the form of an auxiliary piston-and-cylinder unit, arranged to displace the upper fulcrum of the main cylinder unit away from the crane post, past an imaginary line extending between the fulcrum pin on which the crane arm pivots relative to said post and the lower fulcrum point of the main cylinder unit.

Abstract: A pick-up apparatus and a container are specially designed to facilitate the lifting of the container and the dumping of its contents. The container includes a frame which has tubular frame members extending between the top and bottom of the container, and a cover is hingedly mounted on the top of the container and can be releasably latched in a closed position by an inertia latch. The pick-up apparatus includes a boom, a pick-up arm mounted on the boom for articulation in a generally horizontal plane, and a pair of clamping arms mounted on the end of the pick-up arm. The clamping arms are slidably mounted on the pick-up arm, and the spacing between the arms can be varied by hydraulic cyinders on the pick-up arm. Each of the clamping arms includes a clamping pad which includes a plurality of flexible, resilient cone-shaped projections which are sized and spaced so that the tubular frame members of the container can be received between the ends of adjacent projections.