The invention relates to a self-propelled overhead guide device for moving a support, such as a frame or carriage of bobbins of thread or bearing other materials, e.g. for use in the textile or mechanical industry, according to the preamble of the main claim.

To this day, most of movements in the production divisions in an industry (textile, mechanical or other) are still carried out by means of carriages with wheels on the ground manually thrust. Often, the movement of such carriages (or supports) occurs manually in zones with limited spaces, said movement occurring with complex operations requiring expert labor. In addition, that borne by the above carriages is frequently transferred to other means, still with manual intervention.

For some time, self-propelled overhead guide devices have been known. Generally, such devices comprise a self- propelled portion or carriage constrained to and movable along the overhead guide; such carriage is associated with a structure fixed to the carriage and adapted to receive a suitable number of bobbins. All of this is moved horizontally, parallel to the overhead guide rail.

More complex applications, also with vertical movement, are employed in isolated plants interlocked with production means, given the intrinsic danger of the system thus obtained .

EP 194233 describes an apparatus for moving yarn bobbins having a central hole. Such apparatus comprises a bobbin-carrier carriage movable on wheels along a track lying on a surface where a textile machine is situated that produces such bobbins, such as a winding machine; a handling group is also situated for individually receiving the bobbins from such machine and for arranging them on the carriage. Such handling group is moved away from and closer to said machine along an overhead guide for a limited travel, adapted to allow only the drawing of the bobbin and its positioning in one of the two flanked compartments of the aforesaid movable carriage. Such handling group comprises a member for drawing the bobbins, movable along a guide orthogonal to the overhead guide (such member movable on the guide by means of a cylinder-piston system) and subjected to the action of cylinder-piston systems that carry out the movement thereof along such orthogonal guide. The length of such orthogonal guide is relatively considerable, nearly arriving in proximity to the upper part of the carriage.

EP 194233 also describes an overhead carriage movable along an overhead guide (placed above a zone where the carriage with the bobbins is positioned) and orthogonally thereto by means of a cylinder-piston system and slidable bars. Such carriage movable along the guide can arrive above the bobbin-carrier carriage in order to remove such bobbins therefrom and deposit them in a container present on a flank of such bobbin-carrier carriage. The apparatus of EP 194233 always describes the use of a carriage movable on wheels, said bobbin-carrier carriage never being lifted from the surface on which it lies. It is this carriage which is moved in the textile plant in order to bring the bobbins of the processing machine to the abovementioned container .

In addition, the carriage movable along the overhead guide is moved with respect to the latter only a limited distance (above the bobbin-carrier carriage and above the container), through a cylinder-piston system whose length must be predefined and limited to the design thereof. The aforesaid length is therefore predefined as a function of the maximum travel of the carriage in moving away from the guide and as a function of the height of the container in which the bobbins are inserted. Since the lifting and lowering occurs by means of rigid members, orthogonal to the guide, the travel of the movable overhead carriage orthogonal to the guide must be limited to the length of such rigid members. This limits the field of application of the solution described in the above-mentioned European text to plants having a limited distance between the overhead guide and the carriage and to plants where, above the guide, there is still space for arranging the cylinder with respect to which the piston is moved which moves the overhead carriage. On the contrary, the position of the carriage lifted towards the guide would be limited by the length of the cylinder, with the need to in any case provide for a high removal distance of the guide from the ground in order to allow the lifting of the carriage that does not prevent the safe movement of operators below this (as well as the movement of the bobbin-carrier carriage and the presence of the bobbin container) .

It should in any case be noted that each system movable along the overhead guides of EP 194233 executes a movement limited to the function that it must carry out (unloading bobbins and loading them on a movable carriage, and unloading the bobbins from the carriage and inserting them in a container); such systems do not directly bring the bobbins loaded in the carriage to a storage member or zone and hence do not free up the surface on which the textile machine is situated, where however the bobbin-carrier carriage is always movable on wheels.

US 3,765,160 describes a method and an apparatus for removing bobbins complete with thread from mandrels of a textile machine (spindle machine) spaced from each other along the latter. Such apparatus comprises a carriage movable along and on the flank of such machine, which removes the bobbins complete with thread from the mandrels. Such bobbins are transferred to a bobbin conveyor (having a plurality of pins for supporting the bobbins) and supports for empty bobbins are inserted on the aforesaid mandrels. It is also provided to lift the conveyor from the ground in order to move it by means of the carriage along the overhead guide.

In such prior art, the carriage movable on overhead guide is positioned on a flank of the textile machine, at a short distance from the surface on which such machine lies and it does not move away from such position, even while sliding along the overhead guide. In addition, when the bobbin conveyor is lifted from the aforesaid surface, it always remains on the flank of the machine and in the subsequent movement thereof along the guide (brought by the carriage) it never moves very far from the aforesaid surface. Hence, the movement of the carriage, with or without the bobbin conveyor, can always be dangerous for machine workers who move on the surface where the machine lies, a short distance from which the carriage is moved. The latter is never lifted from the surface such to free it and allow the safe movement of the abovementioned workers.

Object of the present invention is to offer a self- propelled device of the abovementioned type that is improved with respect to the analogous known devices.

In particular, the object of the invention is to offer a device that allows a safe movement of the support of the bobbins (or of other elements to be transferred between different zones of a production unit), such support being a separable and independent element of the system for lifting and transport along the overhead guide.

Another object of the invention is to offer a device of the abovementioned type whose movement, even without support of the bobbins, is safe and not dangerous for the operators present in the setting where such device is moved along an overhead guide, since such device is moved at a distance from the surface where such operators are situated such to not interfere with the latter.

A further object is to offer a device of the above- mentioned type that is reliable in use and has limited costs, allowing the transport over great distances of normal carriages which up to now are manually moved on the ground .

A further object is to be able to transfer, overhead, materials (e.g. bobbins of thread) from a production division to a processing division, even in continuous building or on different floors, bringing them back to the floor level for the subsequent manual movement, with maximum flexibility and safety, said transfer occurring at an elevation with respect to the floor such to free up a safe passage on the floor for the operators present in each of the aforesaid divisions.

Another object is to offer a device of the above- mentioned type that is multipurpose and which allows being able to move the aforesaid bobbins along overhead guides placed at different heights with respect to a surface or floor, since the bobbins can be drawn and unloaded on surfaces at different distances from the overhead guide inside a same production plant. In other words, the object of the invention is to offer a device that can move the bobbins, drawing them from one surface and depositing them on another, independent of whether such surfaces are at a same distance from the overhead guide or not. All this without said device having a bulky presence on the overhead guide .

Another object, therefore, is to offer a device which has limited bulk in a manner such that wide space is not required above the overhead guide along which it moves and which can be effectively brought close to such guide without preventing the free movement of people or means below it .

These and other objects that will be clearer to the man skilled in the art are achieved by an overhead guide device of the type described above and according to the enclosed claims .

For an improved comprehension of the present invention, the following drawings are enclosed as a merely non- limiting example, in which:

figure 1 shows a perspective view of a device according to the invention during the movement of a carriage of bobbins ;

figure 2 shows a perspective view from another angle of the device of figure 1, in figure 2 the support being only partly depicted;

figure 3 shows an enlarged perspective view of the device of figure 1; figure 4 shows a partial top perspective view of a device of figure 1 ;

figure 5 shows a side view of the device of figure 1 ; figure 6 shows a perspective view from the side opposite that of the view of figure 3, of the device of figure 1 ;

figure 7 shows a section view along line 7-7 of figure

3;

figure 8 shows an enlarged perspective view of a part of the device of figure 1 ;

figure 9 shows an enlarged perspective view of the detail indicated with A in figure 8, seen from another angle with respect to the latter;

figures 10 and 11 shows perspective views, with some parts omitted for greater clarity, of details of the device of figure 1 ;

figure 12 shows a section along the trace 12-12 of figure 6 ;

figure 13 shows an enlarged view of the detail B of figure 12; and

figure 14 shows an enlarged view of the detail B of figure 12, but in a different work position.

With reference to the above-mentioned figures, an overhead guide device according to the invention comprises a first portion with self-propelled carriage 1 and a second portion 2 constrained to the first, but which can move away therefrom. The self-propelled carriage 1 is movable along an overhead guide 3 (supported, at a distance from an underlying surface, on a wall by normal elements 4) due to an electric motor 5 driving a wheel 6 acting on the guide 3, another idle wheel 7 being supported by the carriage 1 and acting on the aforesaid guide on an upper side 10 of the latter (also the wheel 6 acting on such side) . Other idle wheels 11 act on opposite flanks 12 and 13 of such guide. The set of such wheels, supported by structures 14 associated with the carriage or portion 1 and enclosing the overhead guide 3, allows the movement of such carriage along said guide without the former causing oscillations on the latter.

The self-propelled carriage or portion 1 supports members for moving the second portion 2 which is adapted to be moved with respect to the aforesaid portion 1 in a manner orthogonal thereto, so as to be able to reach a structure 16 supporting bobbins 17 (e.g. of thread for textile use), lying on the surface below the guide 3, be constrained thereto and allow the lifting from such surface and the movement along the aforesaid guide with the movement of the carriage 1. All this while maintaining the structure 16 in barycentric position with respect to the portions 1 and 2 and hence in a stable and centered position with respect thereto. In addition, such movement occurs, at least when the portions 1 and 2 are brought close together, without preventing the safe presence or movement of personnel or machinery, fixed or movable, on such surface.

More particularly, the self-propelled carriage or portion 1 comprises a frame 20 constituted by tubular elements 21 (thus to make it light) . Such frame 20 supports a motor group 22, which rotates an output shaft 23 projecting on both sides of the motor group 22 and which is placed orthogonal to the axis of the latter. On the ends 23A and 23B of such shaft, pulleys 24 and 25 are fit, each having a groove 26 in which a respective belt 27 and 28 is arranged, being wound on or unwound from the corresponding pulley. Such belts reinforced with metal wires, or equivalent windable lifting elements such as ropes or the like, support the second portion 2 at a free end 30 thereof (by means of elements 29 for constraining the latter) . In particular, on each side 23A and 23B, a first pulley 24 cooperates with a first belt 27 connected to the portion 2 in proximity to a first end 31 (e.g. rear) of the latter; the second pulley 25 cooperates with the second belt 28 connected to the second end 32 (e.g. front or frontal) of the portion 2. Such connections of said belts 26 and 27 to the aforesaid portion occur in proximity to a first and second lateral flank 35, 36 thereof.

The use of the belts or equivalent windable lifting elements allows making the carriage 1 - second portion 2 set rather compact, allowing a movement and presence thereof above the above-mentioned surface such to not create any danger for people or machinery present on such surface, well below the guide 3. In addition, such lifting elements occupy a limited space on the carriage 1 and allow different "travels" of the second portion 2 with respect to the underlying surface; therefore, such second portion can reach surfaces of a same production unit or plant at different distances from the guide 3 without requiring movement members (the lifting elements) sized for the greater distance or travel, which would cause a considerable bulk of the carriage 1 on the guide if such members were defined by cylinder and piston systems.

Due to the fact that the pulleys 24, 25 are fit on a same "drive shaft" or controlled shaft 23 of the motor group or motorized group 22, one obtains a unique command of the rotation thereof, which therefore occurs at the same angular speed. In addition, since the belts are connected to the portion 2 with above-indicated modes, the movement of the latter away from the portion 1 (i.e. being lowered with respect to the guide 3) or towards such portion (i.e. being lifted with respect to the surface on which the structure 16 is situated) occurs in a balanced manner and without oscillation.

It should be observed that the pulleys 24 and 25 can be obtained on the shaft 23 by means of three discs close together and defining, two by two, the grooves 26, a disc 38 being common to both pulleys. This simplifies the obtainment thereof.

A sensor member (or simply 'sensor') 40 cooperates with each belt 27, 28, such sensor adapted to verify the correct tension of the belt and the presence (i.e. the integrity of the belt), as well as its correct unwinding at the desired speed set by the motor 22. Such member or sensor 40 comprises a tightening roller 41 borne by an arm 42 in turn brought by a block 43 in which normal means are provided for measuring the pressure of the roller on the belt (e.g. microswitch or load cells); in such a manner, the measurement of the tension is allowed.

Such member 40 is placed in proximity to a transmission

45 (defined by a pulley) of the belt associated with the frame 20.

Close to at least one of the transmissions 45 (see figure 4), a presence and end stop sensor 47 is arranged, adapted to cooperate with the element 29 of the portion 2 present in its vicinity (when such portion is close to the portion 1); such cooperation allows a control unit of the device associated with the self-propelled carriage 1 (e.g. indicated with 100 in figures 4 and 8) to detect the complete lifting of the portion 2 with respect to the carriage 1, i.e. the attainment of its end stop position.

In order to control the downward movement of the portion 2 i.e. its moving away from the carriage 1, a safety member 50 for the movement of such portion 2 is arranged on the shaft 23. Such member comprises a toothed wheel 51 fit on the shaft 23 provided with teeth 52 having a flat free end 53, a first tilted flank 54 and a second flank 55 forming a right angle with such end 53. Adapted to cooperate with such teeth is a movable pin or tooth 56 hinged to a support 57 and subjected to an electromagnet (not shown) and to an adjustable travel limiter 58. In proximity to such movable pin 56, a fixed present sensor 59 is present .

During the normal movement of lowering the portion 2, such pin 56 is lifted. If an overly high descent velocity is detected (or in any case a movement of the portion 2 that occurs in an unexpected manner, not controlled by the unit 100 according to preset parameters such as the descent speed or movement stability) , the electromagnet releases the pin to the toothed wheel 51 so as to lock it due to the intervention of such pin on the second flank 55 of a tooth of the aforesaid wheel.

During the re-ascent of the portion 2, the shaft 23 rotates in a manner such that the pin 56 slides freely along the first flank 54 of each tooth of the toothed wheel 51 (which in substance forms, with the pin 56, a control member with free wheel), allowing the free movement thereof. Also in this case, should the portion 2 suddenly move in the opposite direction, the pin 56 would block the rotation of the wheel by abutting against the second flank 55 of a tooth of such wheel 51.

The (movable) portion 2 has a frame 60, open on the lower part and at least on the side or end 32. At the flanks 35 and 36, it has parts 61 (which can be end portions of the flanks or elements being projected from the latter) bent towards an internal space 62 of the frame 60 delimited by at least the aforesaid flanks. Such parts terminate with flat portions 63 (i.e. parallel to the surface on which the structure 16 lies) that are preferably provided with support bodies 64 with open V-shaped seat adapted to cooperate with pin 65 of the aforesaid structure

16, such bodies laterally projecting outside an upper perimeter frame 68, with generally rectangular or polygonal shape. From such frame, vertical uprights 70 are extended, which are associated with elements 71 bearing the bobbins

17. The uprights terminate in a base frame 72 preferably mounted on wheels 73.

Due to such conformation, when the portion 2 is lowered (by actuating the motor 22) towards the structure 16, such portion is positioned on the flank of the latter with the parts 63 placed below the pins 65. By moving the carriage 1 along the guide 3 (by actuating the motor 5), the structure 16 is made to penetrate into the space 62 of the frame 60 through the open end 32 of the latter, until the pins 65 reach the parts 63 or, if provided, the support bodies 65. Now, by lifting the portion 2 towards the carriage 1, the structure 16 is lifted. Due to the conformation of the frame 60, such structure 16 is perfectly in the barycenter of the portion 2 and of the overlying carriage 1; in such a manner, its lifting results safe, lacking rolling or unbalancing movements. The movement of lifting and lowering of the portion 2 with respect to the portion 1 is controlled by a meter member 80. Preferably, this comprises a laser pointer 81 associated with the carriage 1 which reads, via reflection, the distance of a reflecting plate 82 associated with the portion 2.

Finally, such carriage has coupling members 85 adapted to cooperate with the frame 60 (or better yet with its tubular end elements 60A) placed at the ends 31 and 32 of the portion 2. Such coupling members 85 comprise an L- shaped coupling element 86, hinged at 88 to the frame 20 of the carriage 1; each element comprises a first arm 90 adapted to cooperate with and clasp the frame 60 with one end 90A thereof having an external 93 tilted flank 88, and a second arm 91 subjected to an actuator (e.g. electropneumatic) 92 borne by said frame 20.

Each coupling element 86 is hinged in a manner such that the application of a load thereon increases the locking force thereof, such to ensure the sealing thereof.

When the portion 2 is close to the carriage 1, the end

(with hook) 90A is placed below the frame 60; such end is moved away therefrom (moved by the actuator 92 which acts on the arm 91) for the descent of the aforesaid portion towards the underlying surface. When such portion 2 re- ascends, there is its contact with the external flank 93 and the consequent movement of the element 86 which is extended towards the outside of the carriage 1 (and the portion) , allowing the latter to reach the position close to the portion 1.

Centering pins 96 are also projected from the carriage 1, such pins 96 projecting towards the second portion 2 for the cooperation with the latter and its final safe positioning under such carriage when the pins are brought close together. Such pins indeed cooperate with rollers 97 made of anti-friction material integral with the frame 60.

Finally, the self-propelled carriage 1 bears external lateral wheels 110 adapted to cooperate with guides 112 present in a terminal station 120 of the guide 3.

The carriage 1 is equipped with optical anti-collision systems (not shown) in a manner so as to prevent multiple vehicles on the same overhead guide, arranged in line, from colliding with each other. Due to a control (by a station for controlling the movement of multiple carriages 1 on the overhead guide, not shown) , the slowing down of the arriving self-propelled carriage is commanded when it approaches a predetermined distance from a carriage 1 preceding it; such carriage is then stopped when it approaches and intercepts a further sensor.

In addition, it should be noted that all the sensors and motors present on the above-described device are connected, controlled and/or commanded by the control unit 100 which in such a manner controls the correct functioning of the device 1, and in particular of the portion 2.

Therefore, the invention uses a self-propelled device moved on overhead monorail by equipping it with a descent frame that allows, once a specific height has been reached (not necessarily equal in the entire plant), the operator to insert the carriage o support (or the bobbins or other) therein which is then loaded by the device with a safe coupling .

Once lifted, fastened with safety hooks, the support 16 is then transported overhead, in an automatic manner, into another production area where the reverse descent cycle occurs until the wheels of the support 16 are abutted against the ground. It is then taken off the frame 2, and there is the manual transfer to the subsequent process steps .

The self-propelled device starts again for another mission .

A preferred embodiment of the invention has been described. Other embodiments are also possible in light of the preceding description, which are to be deemed within the scope of the following claims.