Manipulator mixed freight handling system

摘要

A mixed freight handling system, particularly for limited access areas such as an end-opening trailer at a dock, includes a telescoping conveyor overlapping a fixed conveyor and translatable into the trailer to receive hand liftable articles. A freight manipulator includes an appropriate and changeable freight manipulator tool mounted on an extendible boom and is translatable adjacent and along the conveyors to the dock edge. The tool is extendible into the trailer for engaging and supporting manually nonliftable freight for transfer to or from a freight conveyor extending alongside the path of the manipulator. The telescoping conveyor includes a base section engaged with a track, an inclinable lift section, and a liftable and laterally swingable head section. The manipulator includes a chassis engaged with a track straddling the fixed and telescoping conveyors and has a tunnel formed therethrough, allowing the passage of articles on the conveyors therebeneath. The extendible boom is attached to the chassis and is supported at an outer end by a wheeled bogie. The telescoping conveyor and manipulator cooperate in such a manner that the manipulator can be extended into the trailer without retraction of the telescoping conveyor.