IE61355B1 - Roll cage - Google Patents

Abstract

A roll cage 1 comprises a wheeled chassis and a base 12 hingedly mounted on the chassis for movement from a raised storage position to a lowered in-use position. Three side walls 20, 21, 22 extend upwardly from the base and are interconnected to form an open-mesh framework. An access opening 25 to the cage is covered by a door 26, 27 which is movable about a horizontal axis from a raised in-use position to a lowered storage position in which the door is stored within the base. The door is in two sections 26, 27 the upper section 26 being collapsible onto the lower section 27. The base section with the door sections collapsed thereon may be raised to allow resting of the roll cages (Fig 8). A manually operable braking 50, 51, 52, 53 means is described for the rear wheels 9. <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to Roll Cages.

Roll Cages are widely used for the transportation and handling of goods such as parcels and packages generally. They may be used for example for moving goods from one location to another within a warehouse or for moving goods from one warehouse to another by rolling the cage into a container or truck for transportation.

One of the problems with conventional cages is that they are generally provided with doors which, when opened, cause obstruction and difficulty for accessing adjacent roll cages.

The invention is directed towards providing an improved construction of roll cage.

According to the invention there is provided a roll cage comprising a wheeled chassis, a base and side wall means having an access opening covered by a door, the door being movable about a generally horizontal lower axis from an erected position closing the access opening to a position exposing the opening, the door being movable from the collapsed position to a stored position at the base of the cage, the base of the cage being hingedly mounted for movement from a lowered supporting position to a raised storage position, the door, in the storage position being movable with the bass from the lowered supporting position to ths raised storage position.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the door is moveable to the stored position along tracks defined at the base of the cage. The tracks may be provided by a pair of spaced-apart facing channel sections.

In one embodiment of the invention the door comprises at least two door sections, an upper section being foldable preferably about a horisontal axis onto a lower section for collapsing and storage of the door.

In another preferred, embodiment of the invention there are a front wheel set and a rear wheel set, at least one of the wheel sets having braking means, which is preferably manually operated and is also preferably adjustable. - 3 These and other features of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following description thereof given by way of example or with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the roll cage according to the invention, Fig. 2 is a side cross sectional view of the roll cage of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is another side cross sectional view of the roll cage with some parts in different positions, Fig. 4 is a perspective view of portion of the front right hand side of the cage of Fig. 1, Fig. 5 is a partial front cross sectional view. of th® 13 cage.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a portion of the rear of the cage showing the braking mechanism, Fig. 7 is a side view of a detail of the braking mechanism of Fig. 6, and - 4 Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic plan view of a plurality of cages in a storage configuration.

Referring to the drawings there is illustrated a roll cage according to the invention indicated generally hy the reference numeral 1. The roll cage 1 comprises a chassis formed by a pair of side frame members 2,, 3 and a rear frame member 4 interconnecting the side frame members 2, 3, the main frame members 2, 3, 4 carrying brackets 10 on which wheels are mounted. In this case there ar© a pair of front wheels 8 and a pair of rear wheels 9. A main frame support IX is attached to the rear frame member 4 and a base 12 is mounted by hinges 13 to the support 11 for movement about a generally horizontal axis from a lowered supporting position illustrated in full lines in Fig. 2 to a raised storage position illustrated by interrupted lines also in Fig. 2.

The base 12 comprises a pair of side facing channel sections 14, 15 and a rear channel section IS interconnecting the side channel sections 14, 15. A number of cross bars 17 are spaced-apart along and interconnect the side channels sections 14, 15 and support a floor 19 of mesh construction which for ease of illustration is only shown in some of the drawings.

The cage also comprises a side wall means comprising three side walls 20, 21, 22 which are interconnected to form a - 5 framework as illustrated in Fig 1, each of the side walls being formed from tubular bars and open-work mesh.

An access opening 25 to the cage is covered by a door which is moveable about a generally horizontal axis from an erected position illustrated in Figs» 1, 3 and 4 to a collapsed and stored position illustrated in Figs. 2 and 5, In this case the door comprises two door sections 26, 27 ©acb of which are of round bar and mesh construction and which are interconnected by two spaced-apart metal straps 30 to permit folding of the upper door section 26 onto the lower door section 27 as illustrated in Fig. 2. Retaining means for retaining the door sections in the erected, position comprise two upper latch brackets 31 which engage with the upper door section 26 as illustrated ia Fig. 1 and two lower latch. brackets 32 which retain the lower part of the upper door section 26 and extension bars 35 of the lower door section 27.

The lower door section 27 also carries a wire catch 36 to retain the upper door section 25 in the folded position illustrated in Fig. 2.

The lower door section 27 also includes lower extension bars 40 which are mounted in retaining sections 41 at the forward end of each of the channel sections 14, 15. The extension bars 40 define a lower horizontal axis about which th© lower section 27 of the door is hinged to open, the door.

In use, to open the door the upper door section 26 is first lifted upwardly in the direction of the arrow A in Fig. 2 to release the door section 26 from the latch brackets 31. The door section 26 may then be folded downwardly in the direction of the arrow B in Fig. 2 about a horizontal axis defined by the retaining bars 35 and lower latches 32 so that the upper door section 26 is folded down on to the lower door section 27 as illustrated to the right hand side of Fig. 2. In this position th® upper door section 26 is retained against the lower door section 27 by the catch 36. To collapse th® lower door section 27 the section 27 with the door section 26 attached is lifted, upwardly in the direction of the arrow c in Fig. 2 to release the retaining bars 35 from the latches 32 and allow the door sections 26, 27 to be hinged about a lower hinge axis defined by the extension bars 40. Wien the door sections 26, 27 ar© in the lower collapsed position they are then pushed rearwardly along tracks defined by the channel sections 14, 15 of the base into the collapsed storage position illustrated in Figs 2 and 5. In this stored position of the door th® access opening 25 is completely opened and the cage xnay readily be loaded with parcels or packages as desired. If desired, the base 12 with the door sections in place may then be hinged about the hinge 13 to the raised stored position illustrated by interrupted lines in Fig 2. In some cases it may be desirable to have only the upper half of the access open in which case the upper door section is simply folded down onto the lower door section 27.

One of the main advantages of the cage according to the invention is that because the door sections are hingedly moveable about horizontal hinge axes the door sections are not swung to the side which in other known arrangements can cause considerable difficulties in obstructing access to adjacent cages when a plurality of th© cages are arranged side by side or where the cage is adjacent a wall or other obstruction which in some cases prevents side opening doors from being fully opened. Further, because th© door sections can be collapsed and stored in th© base section, th© base section itself with the doors attached may be raised allowing the cages to be readily easily stored in a configuration such as that illustrated in Fig. 8 when the cages are not in use.

For safety, ease of manouverablity and handling som® of the IS wheels and in this case the rear wheels 9 have a manually operated adjustable braking means which is illustrated particularly in Figs. 1, 2, 3,, 6 and 7. The breaking means comprise a pad 50 mounted on a flexible metal arm 51 and a connecting rod 52 which extends upwardly for connection with a handle 53 through a toggle link pivot arrangement 54, the toggle arrangement 54 locking the brake in th© on position and being readily released for movement of the cage from one location to another. The brake is adjustable by turning a turn buckle arrangement 55 on the rod 52. - 8 Many variations on the specific embodiments of the invention described and will be readily apparent and accordingly the invention is not limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described but may be varied in both construction and detail.

Claims (9)

1. GLAI1SS

1. A roll cage comprising a wheeled chassis, a base and side wall means having an access opening covered by a door, the door being movable about a generally 5 horizontal lower axis frora an erected position closing the access opening to a position exposing the opening, the door being movable from the collapsed position to a stored position at the base of the cage, the base of the cage being hingedly mounted for 10 movement from a lowered supporting position to a raised storage position, the door, in the storage position being movable with the base from the lowered supporting position to the raised storage position.

2. A roll cage as claimed in claim 1 wherein the door is 15 moveable to the stored position along tracks defined at the base of the cage,

3. A roll cage as claimed in claim 2 wherein the tracks are provided by a pair of spaced-apart facing channel sections. 20

4. A roll cage as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the door comprises at least two door sections, an upper section being foldable onto a lower section for collapsing and storage of the door. 10 5. A roll cage as claimed in claim 4 wherein the upper section is foldable about a generally horizontal axis .

5. A roll cage as claimed in any preceding claim wherein 5 there are a front wheel set and a rear wheel set, at least one of the wheel sets having braking means.

6. 7. A roll cage as claimed in claim δ wherein the braking means is manually operable.

7. 8. A roll cage as claimed in claim 6 or 7 wherein the 10 braking means is adjustable.

8.

9. A roll cage substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.