Pivoting Slab Cart for Coplanar Glass Sheet Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Transporting and positioning heavy objects like sheets of glass poses challenges due to their size and weight, leading to potential cracking and breaking, especially during transfer from delivery trucks to finishing tables, where maintaining an upright position and precise alignment are critical to prevent damage.
Innovation Solution
A pivotable slab cart with one stationary leg and three swiveling wheels, allowing for customized height alignment with the finishing table, equipped with lateral supports and a brake system to stabilize and safely transfer heavy objects, reducing the risk of cracking and breaking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If glass sheets are transported in an upright position on a dolly or trolley, then transport safety is improved, but alignment with the finishing table deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cart base incorporates a pivot mechanism that allows dynamic adjustment between transport mode (upright positioning) and delivery mode (coplanar alignment with finishing table). The base can rotate to pivot the rack, enabling transition from stable transport orientation to precise alignment orientation.
Solution Approach 2:
The transport apparatus is divided into separable functional components: a mobile base with pivot mechanism and a rack for holding glass sheets. This segmentation allows the base to handle mobility and alignment while the rack maintains upright support during transport.
2Adaptability or versatility
If manual handling is used to position glass sheets, then flexibility is improved, but the risk of cracking and breaking increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pivotable cart serves as an intermediary device between the delivery truck and the finishing table. It provides a controlled transition mechanism that eliminates direct manual handling of heavy glass sheets, reducing the risk of damage while maintaining positioning flexibility through its rotation capability.
3Ease of operation
If the dolly bottom is not aligned with the finishing table, then transport mobility is improved, but the risk of glass sheet damage during tipping increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cart base performs multiple functions: it provides mobile transport capability through swiveling casters, maintains upright support during transport, enables precise alignment with the finishing table through pivot rotation, and facilitates safe delivery by positioning the rack bottom coplanar with the table surface.
Data Source
AI summary
A cart is described and claimed. The cart is used for moving an delivering large planar objects to an object receiving table having a substantially flat, horizontal surface. The cart has a base and a rack removably mounted atop the base. The base includes a pivot structure for pivotally fixing the base at a predetermined location, and at least one (preferably three) wheeld base mechanisms arranged to permit the base structure to pivot about that pivot structure into and out of a delivery position in which the rack bottom is located substantially coplanar with and adjacent to the top of the object receiving table.