The present invention relates to a device for handl¬ ing concrete elements, which are produced in a moulding machine and discharged therefrom arranged on essentially rectangular supporting plates. A prior-art installation for automatic production of concrete elements comprises a machine for forming the elements in moulds and equipment for storing the formed elements and for packaging thereof. Storing is necessary for the curing of the concrete. In the moulding machine, the formed elements are arranged on supporting plates, for instance so-called trays of plywood, which are discharged successively on a chain conveyor. A row of successively discharged trays carrying concrete elements is then raised from the chain conveyor by means of a crane and moved to a storage space, where the concrete elements are stacked with the trays lying therebetween. After the requisite curing, the concrete elements are moved on their trays to, for instance, a palletising machine, where the concrete ele- ments are lifted off from the trays and stacked on pal¬ lets for delivery.

The prior-art installation requires very thick sup¬ porting plates, whose service life will still be rela¬ tively short owing to the tough environment in which they are used. The cost of the supporting plates will thus be relatively great.

A first object of the present invention therefore is to reduce the cost of the supporting plates.

This object is achieved by a handling device as defined in claim 1.

The inventive handling device thus uses a rectangu¬ lar supporting frame for supporting a plurality of the supporting plates arranged successively in at least one row by engaging the supporting plates inside two opposite lateral edges of the supporting plates, for instance by

means of at least two supporting rails included in the supporting frame for each row. By introducing this sup¬ porting frame, the supporting plates thus need not have the same supporting capacity as in the known installa- tion, where the crane seized the plates merely at two opposite lateral edges thereof. The supporting plates in the inventive device will therefore be considerably less expensive.

According to the invention, a fixed stand supports the supporting frame having one side directed trans¬ versely of the row and positioned adjacent to the dis¬ charge point of the moulding machine, and use is further made of a longitudinal conveyor, which is vertically adjustable relative to the supporting frame and extends inside and essentially along the entire extent of the supporting frame in the longitudinal direction of the row, for moving the supporting plates in the longitudinal direction of the row from the discharge point of the moulding machine to the successive positions in at least one row on the supporting frame.

In the storage space of the prior-art installation, the concrete elements are stacked with trays there¬ between, which restricts the production to such concrete elements as can be stacked and besides withstand stack- ing.

A second object of the present invention therefore is to provide a handling device which permits stacking of any formed concrete elements whatever.

This object is achieved by the supporting frame of the invention being provided with spacer means for per¬ mitting stacking of supporting frames without any contact between the concrete elements supported by a supporting frame and the supporting plates of a superjacent sup¬ porting frame. The spacer means can advantageously be detachably mounted on the supporting frame.

In a preferred embodiment of the handling device according to the invention, the longitudinal conveyor is

a chain conveyor having two or three chains for each row of the supporting plates.

The supporting frame is suitably formed with two lateral beams which are parallel with the row, as well as at least two transverse beams arranged therebetween and spaced from each other. The stand can movably support the supporting frame in the longitudinal direction of the transverse beams for instance by means of these trans¬ verse beams, such that the longitudinal conveyor can be used for consecutive filling of several rows of the sup¬ porting plates on a single supporting frame. The support¬ ing can be accomplished by means of a roller conveyor with a plurality of conveyor rollers arranged under each transverse beam. By making the stand considerably wider than a sup¬ porting frame in the longitudinal direction of the trans¬ verse beams, the moulding machine can be most efficiently used since the stand can then support a first supporting frame, on which supporting plates together with formed concrete elements are discharged in one of a plurality of rows, a second supporting frame, which has been filled with supporting plates together with formed concrete ele¬ ments and is ready to be lifted away to a storage space for curing, and a third supporting frame, which is either empty or filled with cured concrete elements and is adapted to be inserted in the place of the first sup¬ porting frame when this has been filled with support¬ ing plates together with formed concrete elements. If the third supporting frame supports supporting plates together with cured concrete elements, the longitudinal conveyor can be used to move these supporting plates together with the cured concrete elements to the feed point of a packaging machine on the side of the support¬ ing frame which is opposite to the side of the supporting frame adjacent to the discharge point of the moulding machine. This moving operation can be carried out before or at the same time as new supporting plates together

with formed concrete elements are discharged from the moulding machine.

An embodiment of the handling device according to the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic plan view of an installation for forming concrete elements, said installation using the inventive device, Fig. 2 is a plan view of a supporting frame which can be included in the inventive device,

Fig. 3 is a view along line III-III in Fig. 1 and shows a part of a stand, a longitudinal conveyor and a supporting frame, which can be included in the inventive device,

Fig. 4 is a view along line IV-IV in Fig. 1 and shows a part of the stand, a transverse conveyor and the supporting frame, which can be included in the inventive device, and Fig. 5 is a detailed view of a spacer means, which can be included in the supporting frame in the inventive device.

The installation shown in Fig. 1 for production of concrete elements comprises a moulding machine 1 of any known type whatever, packaging equipment 2 of any known type whatever, and a handling device 3 according to the invention, which may include a per se known overhead crane 4 for moving concrete elements produced by means of the moulding machine, to a storage space 5, and moving the concrete elements after curing from the storage space 5 to the packaging equipment 2. The moulding machine 1 has a discharge point 6 for the formed concrete products, and the packaging equipment 2 has a feed point 7 for the formed, cured concrete elements. A number of supporting frames 8 are included in the handling device. The supporting frames 8 are used to sup¬ port a plurality of supporting plates 9, which are used

in conventional manner by the moulding machine 1 when producing the concrete elements. Thus, the moulding machine places on each supporting plate 9 one or more concrete elements depending on the size thereof. Each supporting frame 8 consists of two parallel lateral beams 10, which are joined by means of a plura¬ lity of transverse beams 11 extending transversely of the lateral beams. The lateral beams 10 and the transverse beams 11 can be welded together and/or be interconnected by means of screw joints. It is particularly advantageous if the supporting frame 8 is dividable into a plurality of modules, each being as long as the distance between two transverse beams 11. In fact, this facilitates the conveying of the supporting frame 8. Two guiding rails 12 extend in parallel with the lateral beams 10 across all the transverse beams 11 and divide these into three parts of equal length.

In the embodiment of an inventive supporting frame 8 as shown in Fig. 2, this is thus divided into twelve parts 13 of essentially the same size, by the five trans¬ verse beams 11 and the two guiding rails 12 together with the two lateral beams 10. Each part 13 can hold e.g. four supporting plates 9 and comprises to this end two longi¬ tudinal supporting rails 14, which support the supporting plates 9 by engaging the underside thereof inside two opposite lateral edges of the supporting plates 9.

At the discharge point 6 of the moulding machine 1, the supporting frame 8 rests on a fixed stand 15, which consists of a plurality of vertical posts 16, which are arranged under each of the transverse beams 11 on the supporting frame 8 when this is supported by the stand 15. The posts 16 under each transverse beam 11 support more specifically a plurality of conveyor rollers 17, each being rotatably mounted in the upper end of the respective posts 16. The width of the stand 15, i.e. the distance between the outermost posts 16 under each trans¬ verse beam 11, is such that the stand 15 can support

three supporting frames 8 at the same time, as schemati¬ cally shown in Fig. 1.

Thus, the supporting frames 8 are displaceable on the stand 15 in the direction of a double arrow A. The displacement of each supporting frame 8 on the stand 15 can be effected with the aid of suitable driving means for at least some of the rollers 17. Thus, some of the rollers 17 can be driven by one or more electric motors, which in turn are controlled by an electric control sys- tern.

In the stand 15 and extending from the discharge point 6 of the moulding machine 1 to the feed point 7 of the packaging equipment 2, there is arranged a longitudinal conveyor 18. This comprises a chain conveyor having three driving chains 19 which are arranged on a common frame 20 within each part 13 of the supporting frame 8. The frame 20 is supported by four piston-and- cylinder assemblies 21, by means of which the frame 20 and, thus, the chains 19 are vertically adjustable relative to the supporting frame 8 supported by the stand 15.

As illustrated in Fig. 3, the chain conveyor 18 thus is movable between a lower position (indicated by full lines in Fig. 3), in which the conveyor chains 19 are positioned under the guiding rails 14 and the support¬ ing plates 9, and an upper position (indicated by dashed lines in Fig. 3), in which the conveyor chains 19 support the supporting plates 9 freely above the guiding rails 14 as well as the transverse beams 11. An electric motor 22 is connected for driving the conveyor chains 19.

Although the chain conveyor 18 is shown in Fig. 3 to comprise merely one of the parts 13 of the supporting frame, it may of course be formed as a single chain con¬ veyor for the four parts 13 arranged successively in a row between the discharge point 6 of the moulding machine 1 and the feed point 7 of the packaging equipment 2.

For stacking the concrete elements produced in the moulding machine 1 in the storage space 5 for curing without the concrete elements having to support each other, each supporting frame 8 can, according to the invention, be provided with a plurality of spacer ele¬ ments 23 (see Fig. 5). More specifically, each spacer element 23 consists of a cylindrical body with axial pins 24 for mounting of the spacer element 23 in the corre¬ sponding holes which are formed in the upper and lower side of the lateral beams 10 and/or the transverse beams 11. Of course, the spacer elements 23 can also be fixedly arranged on the respective supporting frames 8, but by using the detachable mounting, spacer elements 23 of dif¬ ferent length can be used depending on the height of the concrete elements that are being produced by the moulding machine 1.

The overhead crane 4, which is schematically illu¬ strated in Fig. 1, can have a hook for each end of the transverse beams 11 for reliable engagement with the sup- porting frame 8 and moving the same between the stand 15 and the storage space 5.

In operation, the moulding machine 1 forms concrete elements and places them on a supporting plate 9, which is discharged from the moulding machine 1 at the dis- charge point 6. More specifically, the supporting plate

9 will be moved inwards over a supporting frame 8, a part 13 of which is aligned with the discharge point 6. Now the chain conveyor 18 is in its upper position and is being driven to move the supporting plate 9 discharged from the moulding machine 1 from the discharge point 6 along the supporting frame 8 in the longitudinal direc¬ tion of the guiding rails 12 towards the feed point 7 of the packaging equipment 2 until it reaches the transverse beam 11 adjacent to the feed point 7 or an anteriorly situated supporting plate 9. In this manner, a row of supporting plates 9 is discharged to the supporting frame

8 and thus occupies four successive parts 13 of the sup¬ porting frame 8.

Subsequently, the chain conveyor 18 is lowered under the supporting frame 8, which is moved on the conveyor rollers 17 in the direction of the storage space 5 a dis¬ tance approximately corresponding to the width of the supporting plates 9, i.e. in this case approximately a third of the total width of the supporting frame 8. The chain conveyor 18 can then be raised again and the pre- viously described procedure is repeated, such that one more row of supporting plates 9 with formed concrete ele¬ ments is moved out to the supporting frame 8.

Then the chain conveyor 18 is again lowered to its lower position and the supporting frame is once more ov- ed a third of its width towards the storage space 5, whereupon the last row of supporting plates 9 is dis¬ charged to the supporting frame 8. While discharging this last row of supporting plates 9, the overhead crane 4 can fetch a supporting frame 8 with ready-cured concrete ele- ments from the storage space 5 and place this on the stand 15 in the position B in Fig. 1. When the supporting frame 8 positioned at the discharge point 6 of the mould¬ ing machine is filled with formed concrete elements, this supporting frame can be moved towards the storage space 5 on the conveyor rollers 17 at the same time as the sup¬ porting frame 8 lowered to the position B is advanced between the discharge point 6 and the feed point 7. The overhead crane 4 can now grip the supporting frame filled with concrete products in the position C in Fig. 1 and move this to a suitable position in the storage space 5. As the moulding machine 1 continues to discharge support¬ ing plates 9 with concrete elements to the supporting frame 8 positioned adjacent to the discharge point 6, the chain conveyor 18 can, while receiving the supporting plates 9 with just formed concrete elements, move the supporting plates 9 of the same row on the supporting frame with cured concrete elements in the direction of

the feed point 7 of the packaging equipment 2, such that the supporting frame is simultaneously emptied of pre¬ viously formed and now cured concrete elements.

It will be appreciated that a great number of modi- fications of the above-described embodiment of a handl¬ ing device according to the present invention are feas¬ ible within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.