| 摘要 |
A centering and loading apparatus for locating the center of a fill opening of a vehicle and loading bulk material into the vehicle through the opening is provid ed which includes a movable loading spout assembly and a locator assembly which locates t he fill opening of the vehicle and is adapted to move the loading spout assembly for centering o ver the fill opening of the vehicle. The loading spout assembly is supported on a first suppo rt and is adapted to move along the longitudinal and lateral horizontal axes of the first support for aligning the loading spout assembly over the fill opening of the vehicle. The lo cator assembly includes a pair of scanning devices, for example, charge coupled devices, radio frequency sensors, and laser and infrared devices, that detect and scan the fill opening t o locate the center of the opening. The locator assembly and loading spout are controlled by a progr ammable logic controller, which processes the data provided by the scanning devices to calcula te the center of the opening. Once the center of the opening is calculated, the controller moves and centers the loading spout assembly over the opening and starts the loading sequence. A cente ring and loading method includes scanning the vehicle with scanning device, which prefera bly detects reflected light, locating the center of the fill opening from the signals genera ted by the scanning device, and aligning a loading spout with the center coordinates of the opening so that the vehicle can be loaded with the bulk material by the loading spout through the fi ll opening.
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