Forklift Load Roller Brake with Compact Solenoid Actuator
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing braking devices for load rollers in industrial trucks, such as hydraulic drum brakes and electrically releasable spring-loaded brakes, require significant radial space and lead to increased installation costs and ergonomically unfavorable entry heights due to their large diameter and complex assembly processes.
Innovation Solution
The load roller is rotatably mounted in a bearing fork with a supporting pin fastened on both sides, featuring a solenoid actuator on the trunnion, which reduces the trunnion diameter and allows for a compact design of the electrically releasable spring-loaded brake, enabling installation in rollers with a small outer diameter and simplifying assembly by pre-assembling the brake and load roller on the supporting pin.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If hydraulic drum brakes are used on load rollers, then braking performance is improved, but structural complexity and radial space requirement increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the hydraulic drum brake system with a mechanically actuated shoe brake. Instead of using hydraulic pressure accumulators, control valves, and hydraulic lines, the invention uses a simple mechanical lever mechanism with a brake shoe that is actuated by a cable or rod connected to a hand brake. This substitution eliminates complex hydraulic components while maintaining effective braking capability through direct mechanical force application to the load roller.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and removes the unnecessary hydraulic components (pressure accumulator, control valve, hydraulic lines, pressure sensors) from the braking system. By taking out these complex elements and retaining only the essential braking function through a simplified mechanical shoe brake, the design achieves effective braking performance with significantly reduced structural complexity and radial space requirement.
2Reliability
If hydraulic drum brakes are used on load rollers, then braking performance is improved, but construction cost and installation space increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the unnecessary hydraulic components (pressure accumulator, control valve, hydraulic lines, pressure sensors) from the braking system. By taking out these complex elements and retaining only the essential braking function through a simplified mechanical shoe brake, the design achieves effective braking performance with significantly reduced structural complexity and radial space requirement.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a compact shoe brake design where the brake shoe is a thin, flexible component that can be applied directly to the load roller surface. This thin-film approach to braking eliminates the need for large radial space required by drum brakes, allowing the braking system to fit within the limited radial dimensions of small-diameter load rollers while maintaining effective braking contact.
3Reliability
If spring-loaded brakes with large diameter are used, then braking capacity is improved, but entry height into driver's cab increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the spring-loaded brake mechanism with a manual shoe brake actuated by a cable or rod connected to a hand brake. This mechanical substitution eliminates the need for large-diameter spring mechanisms, allowing the use of small-diameter load rollers that create sufficient clearance for ergonomic operator entry while maintaining adequate braking capacity through direct mechanical force application.
4Adaptability or versatility
If successive assembly of brake and load roller is performed, then assembly flexibility is improved, but assembly costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the brake components and load roller into a single integrated assembly unit. The shoe brake, actuating mechanism, and load roller are pre-assembled together as one component set, which is then installed as a complete unit during vehicle assembly. This merging eliminates the need for separate successive assembly steps, reducing assembly time and costs while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to different load roller configurations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design achieves a radially compact braking system that reduces the installation space requirement, allowing for a low and ergonomically favorable entry height into the driver's cab while maintaining effective braking performance, and reduces assembly complexity and costs.
Implementation Method 1
The spring-loaded brake comprises a solenoid actuator which is arranged on the supporting pin and is non-rotatably fastened
Implementation Method 2
electrically releasable spring-loaded brake
Implementation Method 3
braking device on the load rollers
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a forklift truck (1), in particular a picking forklift truck with a liftable and lowerable driver's platform (5), wherein the forklift truck (1) is supported on a roadway with a steerable drive wheel (9) and at least one non-steered load roller (8), wherein the drive wheel (9) is provided by means of a braking device and the load roller (8) is provided with a braking device designed as an electrically releasable spring-applied brake (15).The object of providing a load roller with a braking device which is improved with regard to the radial installation space requirement is solved according to the invention by the fact that the load roller (8) is rotatably mounted in a bearing fork (10) formed by two laterally spaced side plates (10a, 10b), wherein a support pin (12) is supported on both sides in the bearing plates (10a, 10b) and fixed in a rotationally fixed manner, on which the load roller (8) is rotatably mounted by means of a wheel bearing (11), wherein the spring-applied brake (15) has an electromagnetic actuator (16) which is arranged on the support pin (12) and fixed in a rotationally fixed manner.