The present invention relates to materials handling and more specifically to the loading of goods into ISO-contai¬ ners, typically in port, surroundings equipped with special trucks for lifting and moving the containers. At such places 5 it happens rather often that goods should be re-loaded into ISO-containers from various cargo carriers, and it is a pos¬ sibility to bring both the goods and the container to a spe¬ cial loading ramp arrangement, equipped with special systems for facilitating such a loading. However, in many instances

10 it is unpractical or simply impossible to arrange for the loading in that manner, and it happens again and again that goods are brought to a container standing just somewhere in the area, whereafter the goods are brought into the container purely manually or with simple auxiliaries such as sack

15 trucks.

This work goes on under some kind of dispensation from the worker protection rules, only because so far there has not existed any relevant and reasonably prized loading equip¬ ment.

20 It is the purpose of the invention to provide a loading equipment which, under the specified circumstances, will be usable to greatly facilitate the manual loading, at reason¬ able costs.

As mentioned, there already exists a special loading ar-

25 rangement for stationary use, viz. a loading conveyor having a long, telescopically arranged boom that is length adjust¬ able such that it can be introduced into any vehicle body from a rear open end thereof and be gradually retracted as the loading work progresses. A system of such a type would be

30 perfect for the present purpose, but it has not been found realistic, economically, to modify it for regular mobile use.

Mobile loaders of a similar type, though of a much r- lighter construction, are known for the handling of luggage in airports. These self-driving units, however, have a high

35 working frequency, and this fact in connection with their relatively small size makes it realistic to build them as specialised vehicles.

In a seaport with ISO-containers the working frequency will not be similarly high, this also applying to the said container trucks. According to the invention, advantage is taken of this latter fact, inasfar as it has been realised that the container trucks will be perfectly usable for an ad- ditional purpose, viz. as a carrier, stabiliser and power generator for a loading conveyor unit, which may then be relatively cheap. Such conveyor units can be made for easy mounting on and removal from the special heavy-duty trucks, e.g. simply in being ountable on the lifting forks thereof. Also, the trucks have all the power needed for the operation of the conveyors, whether based on electricity or/and hydrau¬ lics, and the heavy trucks are well suited to support even a long boom in a free carried manner. Moreover, the trucks are already designed to operate in the relevant, relatively rough environment.

Once the entire support and powering aspects are taken care of by the trucks, the remaining telescopic conveyor structure will be relatively light, simple and inexpensive. The add-on conveyor will highly increase the working capacity of the truck, and normally the work can be arranged or planned such that there will be time for the truck to operate both for container carrying and container loading purposes. In the following the invention is described in more de- tail with reference to the drawing, in which:-

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a container truck and loader conveyor according to the invention. Fig. 2 is a side view thereof, and Figs. 3 and 4 are side views of the system in operation. In Fig. 1 is shown a known type of container truck 2, with laterally oriented lift forks 4 operable to deposit a load such as a container on a platform section 6. Other truck types are known, wherein the forks are front mounted. Shown in parallel with the truck is a conveyor unit 8 comprising a carrier chassis 10 for a series of superimposed conveyor ele¬ ments arranged so as to be telescopically projectable from one end of the chassis 10, carrying in common a conveyor belt

12 which is preferably extended into respective tiltable front and rear conveyor sections 14 and 16, see also Fig. 2.

As shown in Fig. 2 the unit 8 may be mounted on the plat¬ form 6 of the truck 2. Alternatively, in a manner not illus- trated, the unit 8 may be engaged by and secured to the forks 4 of a truck provided with front mounted forks.

The unit 8 comprises an electric or hydraulic motor for driving the conveyor belt 12 and electrically or preferably hydraulically driven means for projecting and retracting the said telescopic conveyor elements, and it will be appreciated that these driving means will be readily energizable from the electric/hydraulic power system of the truck 2, whereby no external power connections will be needed, such that the com¬ bined unit can operate at any place of a harbour area. Moreo- ver, the conveyor unit, when driven hydraulically, will not need to have any hydraulic power station of its own, so this unit can be produced at a relatively low price, given also the lack of ground supporting means.

In Fig. 3 the truck/conveyor unit 2,8 is shown in an op- erative position in front of an ISO-container 18. it is il¬ lustrated that the said telescopic conveyor elements, desig¬ nated 20, are projected such that the tiltable or downwardly inclined front section 14 is located close to the rear wall of the container, while the corresponding rear section 16 is located next to a ground deposited load of objects 22. It will be readily understood that these objects may be trans¬ ported all the way to the rear of the container 18 by means of the conveyor unit 8, such that an operator 24 at this place will only have to care about the piling of the objects in the container. As the work goes on, the conveyor elements or booms 20 are retracted, such that the entire container will be loadable without any manual transportation of the ob¬ jects into the container.

Obviously, an unloading of a container make take place in a corresponding manner.

Fig. 4 is illustrative of a similar situation, in which only the incoming goods are present in a lorry 26, whereby the rear conveyor flap section 16 is swung up to a position

ergonomically suitable for the loading of objects from the lorry to the conveyor system.

Once the loading is completed the conveyor unit 8 can be released from the truck 2, whereafter the truck can be used for its primary container handling purpose until another loading job becomes actual.