Known arrangements for manipulating a load do not take into account various demands of modern manipulation of goods. In particular, arrangements of prior art do not sufficiently consider how a load is moved with a manipulating apparatus onto a manipulating platform.

Normally, such a load consists of goods or a product manufactured in a production plant and intended to be moved from the production plant by means of intermediate storages and transportations to the next step of using the goods or products contained in the load. Thus, it must be possible to manipulate the load with the manipulating apparatus so that the load is first placed on the manipulating platform, the load stands on the manipulating platform and the load is moved together with the manipulating platform, e. g. into intermediate storages or into means of transportation, such as a railway carriage or an automobile, and it is stored temporarily before the next stage of processing the goods or product contained in the load, when it must usually be removed from the manipulating platform. Thus, in this context, the load refers to a large unit compiled of several units to be manipulated simultaneously, such as rolls of paper. Normally, such a manipulating platform is a so- called pallet, the use of which requires special measures.

It is an aim of the present invention to eliminate the above-presented problems and to present a novel and flexible arrangement in load manipulation and thereby to improve the prior art in the field. For

achieving these aims, the arrangement according to the invention is primarily characterized in that the opening system in the manipulating platform is formed of two parts in such a way that the first part of the opening system is arranged to be open in its upper part, wherein the supporting beams placed in the first part are arranged to direct a vertical transfer effect in the load. The second part of the opening system is equipped in its upper part with a bearing surface connected with the structure of the manipulating platform, wherein the supporting beams placed in the second part of the opening system are arranged to direct a vertical transfer effect both in the manipulating platform and the load standing on its support.

Consequently, the above-presented solution has the advantage that by using the first part of the opening system in the manipulating platform, the load, which is to be placed onto and off the manipulating platform, can be moved onto or off the manipulating platform on the support of the supporting beams. On the other hand, the second part of the open- ing system in the manipulating platform can be used in all the situations in which the load standing on the manipulating platform is manipulated together with the manipulating platform.

According to a particularly advantageous embodiment, the opening system is arranged to alternate so that, seen in a direction transverse to the longitudinal transfer movement of the supporting beams or the like, the openings belonging to the first and second parts of the opening system are next to each other in an alternating manner.

The solution presented above has the advantage that the transfers of the supporting beams from one alternative for manipulating the load to another can be made with a short transfer movement transverse to the longitudinal direction of the supporting beams, wherein the alternation between the uses of the first part and the second part of the opening system is very fast.

The appended other dependent claims present some advantageous examples of applying the arrangement according to the invention.

The invention will be described in more detail in the following descrip- tion, in which Fig. 1 shows a cross-sectional view on a manipulating platform, seen in a direction transverse to its main plane and the longitudinal direction of the opening system, wherein the supporting beams are placed in the first part of the opening system, Fig. 2 shows a corresponding situation, seen in the direction according to Fig. 1, when the supporting beams are placed inside the second part of the opening system, Fig. 3 shows the manipulating platform seen from above, Fig. 4 shows a partial enlarged view IV of Fig. 1, and Fig. 5 shows a partial enlarged view V of Fig. 2.

With reference to the figures, a manipulating apparatus 1, whereby a load K (see Figs. 4 and 5) is manipulated, contains at least two elon- gated supporting beams 2 or the like, placed underneath the load K to be manipulated in a manipulating situation and arranged to be movable in the vertical direction. In the embodiment shown in the figures, the manipulating apparatus comprises a total of ten parallel supporting beams which are arranged to be moved by a joint driving apparatus in the same plane with the longitudinal direction of the supporting beams.

The manipulating platform 5, in turn, comprises an opening system 3,4 which consists of two parts. The first part 3 of the opening system (see Fig. 1) is arranged to be open in its upper part, wherein the supporting beams 2, when placed in the first part 3, are arranged to direct a verti- cal bearing and transfer effect solely on the load K (see Fig. 4). In a corresponding manner, the second part 4 of the opening system is equipped in its upper part with a bearing surface attached to the manipulating platform 5 and arranged to be open in its lower part, wherein the supporting beams 2, when placed in the second part 4 of the opening system, are arranged to direct a vertical bearing and

transfer effect on both the manipulating platform 5 and the load K standing on its support (see Fig. 5).

As can be seen in Figs. 1 to 3, the opening system 3,4 of the manipulating platform 5 is arranged to alternate in a direction transverse to the longitudinal transfer movement (arrow S in Fig. 3) of the supporting beams 2 or the like, wherein openings A belonging to the first 3 and second 4 parts of the opening system 3,4 are next to each other in an alternating manner.

Particularly for maximizing the surface for bearing the load when the supporting platform and the load are manipulated together, at least some of the openings A of the second part 4 in the opening system 3,4 are wider (indicated with reference A'in Fig. 3) than the openings A of the first part 3 in the opening system 3,4, seen in the direction transverse to the longitudinal transfer movement of the supporting beams 2 or the like. Also some of the openings belonging to the second part of the opening system 3,4 are narrower than and preferably as wide as the openings belonging to the first part 3 of the opening system 3,4.

Advantageously, the bearing surfaces adjoining to the second part 4 of the opening system 3,4 make up at least 60 % of the surface area of the manipulating platform 5, seen in a direction transverse to the main plane of the manipulating platform 5, i. e. in the direction of Fig. 3. Pref- <BR> <BR> <BR> erably every other bearing surface, i. e. the wave crest part AH, is made twice as wide as the bearing surface therebetween, i. e. the narrower wave crest form AH. In the location of the narrower wave crest forms AH, the second part 4 in the opening system 3,4 as well as the wave troughs AP of the first part 3 in the opening system 3,4 are dimen- sioned to have a width that corresponds substantially to the width of the supporting beams 2 so that, within a reasonable clearance in the longitudinal direction, the supporting beams 2 can be brought inside said narrower parts in the opening system. The minimum height MK1 of the supporting beams 2 (see Fig. 5) is dimensioned so that the vertical distance MK2 between the upper surfaces 8 of the wave trough parts and the upper surfaces 7b of the wave crest parts AH, as well as the vertical distance MK3 between the ground SA and the lower surfaces

7a of the wave crest parts AH, are greater than said minimum height MK1.

In the embodiment presented in the figures, the manipulating platform 5 is worked of a sheet material by forming and/or connecting, i. e. by welding, into a rectangular waveform, in which the first part 3 of the opening system 3,4 in the manipulating platform 5 consists of horizon- tal wave trough parts of the rectangular waveform, and the second part 4 of the opening system 3,4 consists of horizontal wave crest parts of the rectangular waveform. Thus, each adjacent wave trough and wave crest part is connected by a vertical connective part 6. The above-pre- sented arrangement is best illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5, in which the wave trough part is indicated with the reference AP and the wave crest part with the reference AH.

With particular reference to Figs. 4 and 5, at least some, preferably all of the supporting beams 2, are equipped with means 9,12,14 for changing the vertical dimension of the supporting beam 2 or the like, as well as with rotating supporting means 7, wherein the supporting beams 2 are supported during their transfer to a bearing surface underneath the supporting beams 2. When the supporting beams 2 are placed in- side the first part 3 of the opening system 3,4, the bearing surface is the wave trough AP of the rectangular waveform of the manipulating platform 5, as shown in Fig. 4. In a corresponding manner, when the supporting beams 2 are placed in the second part 4 of the opening system 3,4, the bearing surface underneath the supporting beams 2 is the ground SA for placing the manipulating platform 5, as shown in Fig. 5. Thus, the act of increasing the vertical dimension of the supporting beam 2 will direct a lifting force effect to the lower surface 7a of that wave crest part AH of the rectangular waveform acting as the bearing surface, in which the supporting beam 2 in question is located.

In the presented embodiment, the supporting beams 2 are formed in such a way that their frame part is constituted of a downwards facing first elongated U-beam 9, whose both inner web surfaces are provided with several wheels 11 which are mounted on bearings on bearing shafts 10 fixed to web parts 9a and placed inside the U-form. On the top surface of the downwards facing U-beam, a hose-like pressurized

medium space 12 is fixed in the longitudinal direction of the supporting beam and equipped with a flexible surface structure. The lower part 12a of the outer surface of the pressurized medium space 12 is fixed to the bottom part 13 of the U-beam, and its upper part 12b is fixed to the in- ner surface 18 of the bottom part 15 of another lifter beam 14 extending in the longitudinal direction of the downwards facing U-beam 2 and having substantially the length of the beam 9 and similarly a cross- section of a downwards facing U-form. Thus, by filling the pressurized medium space 12 preferably with a gaseous pressurized medium, a vertical transfer is obtained between the parts 9 and 15, whereby the load K supported by the supporting beams 2 can be brought to the supporting height presented in Fig. 4, at which the lower surface KA of the load is higher than the upper surface 16 of the wave crest parts AH, the wheels 11 being on the top surface 17 of the wave trough part AP in the first part 3 of the opening system 3,4. The web parts 14a, 14b of the second lifter beam 14 are placed outside the web parts 9a, 9b of the first beam 9, when the supporting beam 2 is at its minimum height.