Haines and Emerson, Inc.

Robert E Sturm

David P Herigstad

Marvin L Case

A mobile vehicle is provided with a cradle that can be tilted or rotated. The cradle can also be raised and lowered. The cradle has leaves which are upwardly and outwardly sloping to handle a large cylindrical paper roll by allowing the roll to roll down and center itself in the cradle.

Mobile vehicle and method for handling paper rolls

A low-profile, automatically guided vehicle is provided with a vertically raisable cradle which can carry a roll either in a bilge position or an upright position. The vehicle is used in a roll-handling system which enables the vehicle to pass beneath the spaced, parallel arms of a storage rack that can be holding a roll either in the upright or bilge position. The vehicle can pass beneath a set of rolls on the storage racks so that passage of the vehicle either for depositing a paper roll or lifting a paper roll from the storage rack can be in a single, common direction. A transfer table is provided which has articulated arms that can be vertically raised. The arms can be moved lengthwise to the direction of the lengthwise axis of the roll in a bilge position, the arms can be raised vertically, or the arms can be carried moved to the lengthwise axis of the roll on the transfer table. A method is disclosed for handling rolls in an advantageous first-in, first-out method wherein a roll at one end of a row of rolls can be accessed by passing a vehicle beneath all other rolls in that row.

Growing community of inventors

Hoquiam, WA, United States of America

Robert E Sturm