Pallet Lifting Device with Retractable Tines for Sensitive Goods
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pallet lifting devices are inadequate for safely lifting and separating sensitive goods, such as paper stacks, from standard pallets without causing injury, as they often require access from the top and are not suitable for sensitive materials.
Innovation Solution
A pallet goods lifting device with a support frame and tine arrangement that can be lifted and adapted to fit into the longitudinal gaps of standard pallets, allowing for safe lifting and placement of goods with a manual, electrical, or hydraulic lifting drive, ensuring the tines can retract without protruding over the pallet top, and are dimensioned to fit snugly within the gaps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If forklift tines are used to lift the pallet, then the pallet can be lifted easily, but the transported goods cannot be separated from the pallet
Solution Approach 1:
The lifting function is segmented into two independent parts: the pallet lifting function (via forklift engagement spaces) and the goods lifting function (via the tine arrangement). This allows the pallet to be lifted using conventional forklifts while the goods can be separately lifted and transferred using the tine arrangement that engages with the longitudinal gaps in the pallet support.
Solution Approach 2:
The tine arrangement acts as an intermediary device between the pallet support and the transported goods. It engages with the longitudinal gaps in the pallet support structure and can lift the goods without requiring direct forklift contact with the goods, enabling safe separation and transfer of sensitive goods while maintaining pallet lifting capability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If top access gripping devices are used to lift goods, then the goods can be lifted from the pallet, but the devices are not suitable for sensitive transported goods like paper stacks
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of gripping the goods from the top surface, the tine arrangement approaches and engages with the goods from below by inserting into the longitudinal gaps in the pallet support. This inverted approach allows the tines to lift the goods by engaging with the gaps rather than pressing on the goods surface, preventing damage to sensitive items like paper stacks.
Solution Approach 2:
The longitudinal gaps in the pallet support structure serve as an intermediary access path. The tine arrangement uses these gaps to reach and lift the goods without direct top-surface contact, eliminating the harmful compression and deformation that would occur with traditional top-access gripping devices on sensitive goods.
3Strength
If tines are made large enough to support goods, then the goods can be lifted, but the tines cannot retract into the longitudinal gaps
Solution Approach 1:
The tine arrangement is designed with dynamic dimensional characteristics - the tines have a width and height that allows them to be inserted into the longitudinal gaps when retracted, but when raised to lifting position, their effective support area is sufficient to bear the goods weight. The tines transition between a compact retracted state for insertion and an extended lifting state for load bearing.
Solution Approach 2:
The solution addresses the dimensional conflict by utilizing the vertical dimension - the tines are inserted horizontally into the longitudinal gaps in a retracted state, then raised vertically to their load-bearing position. This dimensional transition allows the same tine structure to satisfy both the retraction requirement (horizontal dimension) and the support capacity requirement (vertical load bearing).
Data Source
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AI summary
Pallet load lifting device for loading and unloading a transport pallet, such as a standard pallet (3), for example a Euro pallet, with a pallet support structure that forms lateral access clearances (15) for example for a forklift, and a support (17) forming the top of the pallet on which the respective transport or pallet goods are to be placed, and which consists of several longitudinal plates, such as longitudinal boards (21), arranged at a distance from each other forming at least two, preferably four, parallel longitudinal slots (23), wherein the longitudinal slots are open towards the top of the pallet, comprising a support frame, a fork arrangement of at least two, preferably four, forks (51) mounted on the support frame in a way that can be lifted, with a parallel direction of extension for lifting and picking up the transport goods from the transport pallet and/or for placing the transport goods onto the transport pallet,wherein the tine spacing of two tines is adapted to the slit spacing of two longitudinal slits and at least the at least two tines are shaped to fit the at least two longitudinal slits in such a way that they can be inserted in the longitudinal direction of the longitudinal slits.