U.S. patent application number 09/770329 was filed with the patent office on 2001-12-13 for method of conveying trollies.
Invention is credited to Grimes, William Arnold, Jaeger, Steven Charles.
Application Number | 20010051094 09/770329 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 26877936 |
Filed Date | 2001-12-13 |
United States Patent
Application |
20010051094 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Jaeger, Steven Charles ; et
al. |
December 13, 2001 |
Method of conveying trollies
Abstract
A method for facilitating movement of a plurality of nested
trollies (including a leading trolley and a trailing trolley), the
method comprising the steps of connecting an adjustable
ratchet-type tension mechanism between the leading and trailing
trolleys, and actuating the tension mechanism so as to produce a
preselected tension between the leading and trailing trolleys to
thereby hold the nested trolleys tightly together. In the preferred
embodiment, the preselected tension is sufficient to upwardly the
leading and trailing trolleys off of the ground surface.
Inventors: |
Jaeger, Steven Charles;
(Shorewood, MN) ; Grimes, William Arnold;
(Minnetonka, MN) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Roger W. Jensen
Roger W. Jensen & Associates, Ltd.
8127 Pennsylvania Circle
Minneapolis
MN
55438
US
|
Family ID: |
26877936 |
Appl. No.: |
09/770329 |
Filed: |
January 26, 2001 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
60182262 |
Feb 14, 2000 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
414/800 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B62B 3/1404 20130101;
A47F 10/04 20130101; Y10S 280/04 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
414/800 |
International
Class: |
B65G 001/00 |
Claims
I claim:
1. The method of facilitating the horizontal movement of a
plurality of longitudinally nested trolleys (including a leading
trolley and a trailing trolley) along a ground surface wherein each
of said trolleys comprises a top generally-rectangularly-shaped
cargo compartment defined by an open top, and bottom, left side,
right side, front and back panels and being longitudinally tapered
with said back panel having a preselected transverse extent greater
than a preselected transverse extent of said front panel and said
back panel at the top thereof being pivotally supported for
rotation about a transverse axis so as to permit the front end of
another trolley to nest within said cargo compartment, each of said
trolleys being further characterized by having a supporting
undercarriage which, in turn, is supported for horizontal movement
by forward located caster-type wheels and rearward located
fixed-axis wheels connected thereto, the method comprising the
following steps: a. attaching a rope-type tension mechanism to said
leading trolley of said plurality of longitudinally nested
trolleys, b. connecting a rope between said tension mechanism and
said trailing trolley of said plurality of longitudinally nested
trolleys, and c. actuating said rope-type tension mechanism so as
to produce a preselected tension holding said plurality of
longitudinally nested trolleys tightly together.
2. The method of claim 1, further characterized by said preselected
tension causing at least said leading and trailing trolleys to be
lifted upwardly to reduce the contact of preselected wheels thereof
relative to the ground surface with respect to which said plurality
of longitudinally nested trolleys have horizontal movement.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein said upward lifting of said
leading and trailing trolleys is to a preselected height above said
ground surface so said preselected wheels thereof are spaced from
said ground surface.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein said rope-type tension mechanism
is attached to one of the rear corners of said leading trolley and
to an opposite rear corner of said trailing trolley.
5. The method of facilitating the horizontal movement of a
plurality of longitudinally nested trolleys (including a leading
trolley and a trailing trolley) along a ground surface wherein each
of said trolleys comprises a top generally-rectangularly-shaped
cargo compartment defined by an open top, and bottom, left side,
right side, front and back panels and being longitudinally tapered
with said back panel having a preselected transverse extent greater
than a preselected transverse extent of said front panel and said
back panel at the top thereof being pivotally supported for
rotation about a transverse axis so as to permit the front end of
another trolley to nest within said cargo compartment, each of said
trolleys being further characterized by having a supporting
undercarriage which, in turn, is supported for horizontal movement
by forward located castor-type wheels and rearward located fixed
axis wheels connected thereto, the method comprising the following
steps: a. attaching a rope-type tension mechanism between said
leading and trailing trolleys of said plurality of longitudinally
nested trolleys, and b. actuating said rope-type tension mechanism
so as to produce a preselected tension between said leading and
trailing trolleys to thereby hold said plurality of longitudinally
nested trolleys tightly together.
6. The method of claim 5, further characterized by said preselected
tension causing at least said leading and trailing trolleys to be
lifted upwardly to reduce the contact of preselected wheels thereof
relative to the ground surface with respect to which said plurality
of longitudinally nested trolleys have horizontal movement.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein said upward lifting of said
leading and trailing trolleys is to a preselected height above said
ground surface so said preselected wheels thereof are spaced from
said ground surface.
8. The method of claim 5, wherein said rope-type tension mechanism
is attached to one of the rear corners of said leading trolley and
to an opposite rear corner of said trailing trolley.
9. The method of claim 5, wherein said rope-type tension mechanism
includes tension release means and said method includes an
additional step of actuating said tension release means at a
preselected time to permit eliminating said preselected tension and
disassembly of said plurality of longitudinally nested
trolleys.
10. The method of facilitating the horizontal movement of a
plurality of longitudinally nested trolleys (including a leading
trolley and a trailing trolley) along a ground surface wherein each
of said trolleys comprises a top generally-rectangularly-shaped
cargo compartment defined by an open top, and bottom, left side,
right side, front and back panels and being longitudinally tapered
with said back panel having a preselected transverse extent greater
than a preselected transverse extent of said front panel and said
back panel at the top thereof being pivotally supported for
rotation about a transverse axis so as to permit the front end of
another trolley to nest within said cargo compartment, each of said
trolleys being further characterized by having a supporting
undercarriage which, in turn, is supported for horizontal movement
by forward located castor-type wheels and rearward located fixed
axis wheels connected thereto, the method comprising the following
steps: a. connecting an adjustable ratchet-type tension mechanism
between said leading and trailing trolleys of said plurality of
longitudinally nested trolleys, and b. actuating said adjustable
ratchet-type tension mechanism so as to produce a preselected
tension between said leading and trailing trolleys to thereby hold
said plurality of longitudinally nested trolleys tightly
together.
11. The method of claim 10, further characterized by said
preselected tension causing at least said leading and trailing
trolleys to be lifted upwardly to reduce the contact of preselected
wheels thereof relative to the ground surface with respect to which
said plurality of longitudinally nested trolleys have horizontal
movement.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein said upward lifting of said
leading and trailing trolleys is to a preselected height above said
ground surface so said preselected wheels thereof are spaced from
said ground surface.
13. The method of claim 10, wherein said adjustable-type tension
mechanism is attached to one of the rear corners of said leading
trolley and to an opposite rear corner of said trailing
trolley.
14. The method of claim 10, wherein said adjustable-type tension
mechanism includes tension release means and said method includes
an additional step of actuating said tension release means at a
preselected time to permit eliminating said preselected tension and
disassembly of said plurality of longitudinally nested trolleys.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application stems from Provisional Application Ser. No.
60/182,262, filed Feb. 14, 2000 by the applicants herein, namely
Steven Charles Jaeger and William Arnold Grimes, the benefit of
said earlier filing date being hereby claimed.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention and Description of the Prior
Art
[0003] This invention provides a method of facilitating the
horizontal movement of a plurality of longitudinally nested
trollies (shopping carts) along a ground surface which typically is
horizontal, but sometimes is sloped.
[0004] Shopping carts or trollies are in widespread use by
retailers and other merchants, ranging from the large superstores
to the smaller businesses, so as to provide a convenience for their
customers in transporting their purchased items, both within the
vendor's store, as well as to transport the purchased items across
a parking lot to the purchaser's vehicle. After transferring the
items to the vehicle, the purchaser typically leaves the trolley
either near said vehicle or sometimes in a designated shopping-cart
corral.
[0005] From time to time, personnel employed by the merchant will
round up carts from the parking lot; this process may employ a
plurality of methods that have evolved over recent years. For
purposes of efficiency, it obviously is necessary to try to return
a plurality of carts to the location of origin, and this is
facilitated by the design of the carts, which permits a large
number of carts to be nested together, which is relatively easy.
What is relatively hard is to then have the plurality of
longitudinally nested carts moved in a safe, cost effective, and
controlled fashion back to the point of origin. The usual procedure
is to have a pushing force applied to the trailing trolley, either
by manual effort or by a powered vehicle, such as a small
battery-operated tractor. It is not unusual to have twenty (20) or
more carts or trollies stacked together; this yields a total
longitudinal length of the nested trollies of a substantial
distance. The longer the string of carts, the more difficult it is
to cause any turning or redirecting of the string. One manual (and
expensive) technique is to have a first worker provide the pushing
of the string, and a second worker at the leading trolley, forcing
the leading trolley around its yaw axis so as to turn the entire
string.
[0006] There even are some motorized systems which can be remote
controlled so that the pushing vehicle which is remotely controlled
is pushing on the trailing trolley and the operator, using a
remote-control device, is at the front end of the string (i.e., at
the leading trolley), wherein he or she may not only control the
tractor, but also manually try to change the heading of the leading
trolley so as to try to get the entire string headed correctly for
the point of origin. One of these prior art schemes is shown in
U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,306.
[0007] There are several economic factors which apply to this
issue. First of all, the shopping carts per se are quite expensive.
Any merchant must, for practicality, have only a reasonable number
of carts available to its business, regard also being given to the
size of the storage area, or point of origin, where the merchant's
customers pick up the shopping cart in the first instance. The
shopping carts almost exclusively use rather expensive wheels,
usually fabricated from high-density plastic, which function well
when rolling around their normal rotational axis, but which can be
easily damaged if skidded sideways sometimes on the parking lot
surface. This will, in extreme cases, cause a serious flat sector
on the wheel, which makes the cart customer unfriendly; thus an
expensive repair is necessitated. Labor costs associated with the
actual rounding-up of carts is very significant. This is especially
so when two workers are required to bring a string of carts back to
the point of origin. If tractors without remote control are used,
then two workers frequently are required. If tractors with remote
control are used, then at least one worker will be needed.
[0008] Furthermore, it is not unusual, regard being given to
factors such as snow and rain, as well as reckless employees, to
have property damage, e.g., to carts, customer vehicles, etc., or
personal injuries to employees, customers, or others.
[0009] In brief summary, systems of the type described typically
require a very large investment in the carts or trollies, and incur
a high ongoing labor and insurance expense to cover the above
scenarios.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] In broad terms, the present invention provides a method for
facilitating the horizontal movement of a plurality of
longitudinally nested trollies, including a leading trolley and a
trailing trolley, where the method comprises the steps of:
[0011] i) connecting an adjustable ratchet-type tension mechanism
between the leading and trailing trolleys;
[0012] ii) actuating the tension mechanism so as to produce a
preselected tension between the leading and trailing trolleys to
thereby hold the plurality of nested trolleys tightly together.
[0013] In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the
preselected tension causes at least the leading and trailing
trolleys to be lifted upwardly relative to the ground surface, so
that preselected wheels thereof are actually spaced from the ground
surface. This simple but extremely effective method then permits
the entire string of trolleys to be more easily moved, both along
the longitudinal axis, as well as to be rotated about the yaw axis
or gravity, to change the heading of a string of carts.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] FIG. 1 shows a plurality of longitudinally nested trolleys
or carts, and an adjustable ratchet-type tension mechanism which
comprises in part a rope and hooks, which are connected between the
leading and trailing carts, and with the rope being under tension
so that preselected wheels of the carts at the leading and trailing
ends of the string are actually lifted upwardly, out of contact
with the ground.
[0015] FIG. 2 shows in plan view the plurality or string of carts
shown in FIG. 1.
[0016] FIG. 3 shows an enlarged view of a detail from FIG. 2 of the
connection of the rope/hook to one rear corner of the leading
cart.
[0017] FIG. 4 shows an enlarged view of a detail from FIG. 2
showing the hook/ratchet/rope attached to an opposite rear corner
of the trailing cart.
[0018] FIG. 5 shows how an entire string of carts nested together
and under tension as aforesaid can be rotated about the yaw axis of
the string, the illustration showing an approximate 90-degree
rotation clockwise.
[0019] FIG. 6 shows how the string of nested carts may be moved
along the ground surface by a motorized means.
[0020] FIG. 7 shows the nested carts being moved manually.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0021] FIG. 1 shows a side elevation of a plurality of
longitudinally-nested trollies NT, including a leading trolley LT
and a trailing trolley TT; the figure shows a schematic
representation of the longitudinal axis LA, as well as the yaw axis
YA of the plurality or string of carts or trollies. In FIG. 1, the
transverse axis of the string is perpendicular to the plane of
paper. FIG. 2 shows the top view of the carts shown in FIG. 1;
again, the longitudinal axis LA is depicted and, for this view, the
transverse axis TA is depicted.
[0022] Referring again to FIG. 1, it is intended that all of the
carts depicted would be substantially identical to one another,
comprising an open top 18, a bottom 20, a left side 22, a right
side 24, a front 26, and a rear 28 panel. As seen in FIG. 2, the
overall configuration of the cart is rectangular, although the rear
panel 28 has a greater transverse length than that of the front
panel 26, producing a tapered configuration which is almost
universal in shopping carts so as to permit the nesting together.
The nesting is also facilitated by the back panel 28 being pivoted
at the top, as is shown in FIG. 1, so that it may move (as shown in
FIG. 1) counterclockwise, so as to permit the front end of next
adjacent cart to move into the cart in the well-known nested
fashion. Each cart further has a supporting undercarriage AA which,
in turn, is supported for horizontal movement by forward-located
caster-type wheels 32C and rearward located fixed-axis wheels
32F.
[0023] It should be emphasized that prior art methods of
horizontally moving a plurality of longitudinally-nested trollies
would have all of the wheels of all of the carts in direct
engagement with the ground G. For purposes of explaining the
present invention, it will be noted that the wheels 32C and 32F of
the leading trolley LT, as well as a front wheel 32C' of the next
adjacent trolley, and that all of the wheels of both the trailing
trolley and the trolley adjacent thereto are shown off of the
ground G. This upward lifting of the wheels can be accomplished
easily and inexpensively by the use of an adjustable ratchet-type
tension mechanism connected between the leading and trailing
trolleys, and then increasing the tension to the point, not only to
hold the plurality of longitudinally trolleys tightly together, but
also to, in the preferred embodiment, lift the wheels of the
trailing and leading trollies off of the ground as it depicted in
FIG. 1.
[0024] The adjustable ratchet-type tension means of the preferred
embodiment of the invention comprises a ratchet pulley 40, such as
is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,281 (herein
incorporated by reference) which comprises a housing member 42 (see
FIGS. 1 and 4) having a pair of spaced-apart side members 55 and
55' which support for rotation a sprocket 57 which co-acts with a
spring-loaded ratchet mechanism 59 to permit a rope 46 to co-act
therewith, as will be explained below. The housing 42 has at its
left end thereof, as is shown in FIG. 1, a hook 44 which is adapted
to be connected to one of the rear corners TT' of trailing cart TT,
as is clearly shown in FIG. 4. One end 46' of rope 46 is passed
around the sprocket wheel 57, while the other end of the rope 46"
is connected via a hook 48 to an opposite rear corner T' of the
leading trolley LT.
[0025] Operation
[0026] The present invention provides a method of facilitating the
horizontal movement of a plurality of carts very efficiently. A
single worker would first nest the carts somewhat as shown in FIG.
1, and then apply the hook 44 and 48 as shown, following which the
end 46' of the rope is manually pulled to produce tension between
the housing 42 and the leading cart LT. The worker will soon
achieve a desired tension in the rope 46 so as to, as a minimum,
move all of the nested carts tightly together and, with some upward
lifting force being applied to the leading and trailing trollies LT
and TT respectively. As indicated, the preferred embodiment of the
inventive method is to have sufficient tension in the rope 46 so as
to actually have spacing of preselected wheels from the ground,
such as is shown in FIG. 1; this makes it much easier to push the
nested carts horizontally, i.e., takes less force, and further
permits rather easy rotation of the string of carts about its yaw
axis YA without destructive damage to the wheels as aforesaid. Such
rotation about the yaw axis YA is clearly depicted in FIG. 5,
wherein the worker is applying a reasonable amount of force to the
left, as depicted, thus causing a clockwise rotation of the entire
string of nested carts. It is easy to achieve a 90-degree
rotation.
[0027] FIG. 6 shows how the nested carts with raised wheels can be
moved horizontally by a motorized means. FIG. 7 shows the same
arrangement with the carts being manually moved.
[0028] Once the string of carts has been returned to the desired
drop-off point, or point of origin, the tension mechanism can be
easily removed by tipping the trailing cart up slightly so as to
relieve tension in the rope, and then actuating the release tab 59
of the sprocket mechanism. This will allow enough rope to pull
through the ratchet so as to reduce the tension to zero, following
which the hooks 44 and 48 can be removed from the string. The
method of the present invention is to be clearly distinguished over
prior art methods wherein ropes would be used to move together a
string of nested carts, one end of the rope being connected to the
leading cart, and the other end of the rope being held by the
worker at the other end of the string, i.e., at the trailing cart,
holding the rope in one hand and trying to push the string of carts
with the other hand. This method frequently produces rope burns,
cuts, etc., with attendant physical pain.
[0029] Another aspect of this invention is that the method may be
used to pull a line of shopping carts out of the cart corral or
enclosure. This is done by casting the loose end of the rope with
hook 48, and snagging any portion of the forward or leading
corralled cart, and pulling several carts out in a nested position.
Without the rope and hook, the worker would try to reach over the
back of the carts and pull perhaps two carts backward; anything
more than two is difficult to maneuver within the corral.
[0030] When using a motorized remote controlled shopping cart
pushing system, the present invention can be used for a means for
holding the shopping carts secured together. Thus, the line of
shopping carts are secured together, allowing the entire line of
carts to be stopped by the braking system of the motorized
remote-controlled cart system, that otherwise would be stopped by
the operator applying sufficient force on the front cart to keep
the carts nested together and stopped. Since the operator is
walking in front of the lead cart to steer and stop the line, it
also prevents the carts from separating if the person operating the
machine walks faster than the machine is pushing the line. It will
be understood that the method of the present invention may also be
utilized by a motorized shopping cart pulling system.
[0031] While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been
illustrated, it will be understood that variations may be made by
those skilled in the art without departing from the inventive
concept. Accordingly, the invention is to be limited only by the
scope of the following claims.
* * * * *