The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 15, 1980
Filed:
Jun. 15, 1978
Laurel L Peterson, East Peoria, IL (US);
Alan J Hickman, Peoria, IL (US);
Caterpillar Tractor Co., Peoria, IL (US);
Abstract
A material handling system (10) has a lifting element (12) and first apparatus (14) for moving the lifting element (12). The system (10) is, for example, a work vehicle having mast mounted implements, such as a lift truck (10) with forks (12) or a container handler. Proper alignment of the lifting element (12) relative to material (46) to be loaded and structure (52) adjacent the material (46) is necessary to engage the material (46). The material handling system (10) has a second apparatus (40) for delivering first and second signals in response to first and second surfaces (20,22) of the lifting element (12) being at elevations (42,48) greater and lesser than first and second preselected elevations (44,50), respectively. A third apparatus (57) automatically moves one of the lifting element surfaces (20,22) to the respective one of the preselected elevations (44,50), in response to receiving a respective one of the signals for automatically aligning the lifting element ( 12).