Pallet-dolly

摘要

A pallet-dolly device convertible between a pallet and a dolly has a deck to which a set of dolly wheels are attached at a fixed height below the deck. A set of movable pallet skids are mechanically interlinked with the deck by a bistable skid displacement mechanism which assumes a first state biasing the pallet skids upwards towards a skid raised position and a second state in which the bistable skid displacement mechanism biases the pallet skids downwards towards a skid lowered position. Also described are embodiments allowing conversion from dolly to pallet by directly pressing downwards on a skid, and provision of a braked-dolly state through downward pressure of the skid against the ground and/or a skid-actuated wheel brake.

主权项

1. A pallet-dolly device convertible between a pallet and a dolly, the device comprising:
a deck having a load supporting surface; a set of dolly wheels, attached at a fixed height below an underside of the deck so as to define a wheel contact plane; a set of movable pallet skids, each pallet skid having a ground contacting surface; and a bi-stable skid displacement mechanism mechanically interlinking the deck and the pallet skids, said bi-stable skid displacement mechanism being configured to assume a first state biasing the pallet skids upwards towards a skid raised position in which the skid ground contacting surface is raised above the wheel contact plane to provide a dolly state of the pallet-dolly device, and said bi-stable skid displacement mechanism being further configured to assume a second state in which said bi-stable skid displacement mechanism biases the pallet skids downwards towards a skid lowered position in which the skid ground contacting surface is lowered below the wheel contact plane to provide a pallet state of the pallet-dolly device, and wherein downward force applied directly to one of the pallet skids is effective to switch said bi-stable skid displacement mechanism from said first state to said second state.