A load-bearing assembly including a clamping-force sensor in a pivoting support assembly that is adjustable to vary a radial spacing between a pivot pin and a clamp pad mounted on the support assembly. A plurality of clamping-force sensors may be included in a plurality of pivoting clamp pad support assemblies to support a clamp pad and may be arranged to sense the magnitude of a clamping force exerted by a particular adjustable pivoting clamp pad support assembly and send signals indicative of the magnitude of the force to a controller. A load sensor may be located between a pivot pin and a bearing block, or strain gauges may be mounted in the pivoting bearing block so as to measure forces carried through the bearing block. Force values sensed and transmitted to the controller may be used to evaluate and adjust the clamp arm assembly to grasp a load with a desired clamping force or distribution of clamping forces.

Items such as loaves of bread are typically held for transport in a plastic crate. Often such crates are stacked on one another in a factory-bakery, a warehouse, a freight vehicle or a retail outlet. It can be problematic move stacked crates as lifting machinery is often not able to adequately hold on to them. If they are not held securely then crates may drop from the stack, which is inconvenient, not to mention a safety hazard. An object of a preferred form of the invention to address this problem by way of a crate lifter 1 comprising a main support mast 3, a carriage 8 engaged with the mast and rollers 6, 7 that enable the lifter to be moved. The carriage has clamps 9 adapted to move laterally with respect to the mast 3 to grip one or more crates 2 so that the crate(s) can be moved by the carriage up and down the mast. The carriage has a keeper 14 arranged such that it is caused to swing in response to the clamps 9 engaging the crate 2, or the lowest crate to be moved if there is more than one, to bring a ledge 14b of the keeper 14 into engagement with that crate to prevent it dropping free from the carriage.

A method for operating a conveying system is provided. An overhead hoist transport (OHT) vehicle is provided, wherein the OHT vehicle includes a gripping member configured to grip and hold a carrier, and a receiver configured to receive a signal. The signal is transmitted to the receiver of the OHT vehicle. The OHT vehicle is moved toward the carrier, and the carrier is gripped by the gripping member of the OHT vehicle. A lifting force is determined based on a weight of a carrier, a number of workpieces in the carrier, or a vertical distance between the OHT vehicle and the carrier, and the lifting force is applied to the carrier.

Hydraulic valve circuitry adapted for automatic weight-responsive control of load-clamping members of a load-lifting system having a free lift mast. The load-lifting system generally includes one or more fluid power actuator for applying a gripping force to a load, at least one elongate, longitudinally-extensible fluid power lifting device having a free lift range of motion and at least one main lift range of motion, and manually operated load-clamping and load-lifting selector valves. The hydraulic valve circuitry provides, independently, weight-responsive control of the load-clamping members when lifting a load, full-time automatic weight-responsive force control of the load-clamping members without concurrent manual actuation of load-clamping or load-lifting selector valves, and equalization of sensed load weight so that the sensed load weight is substantially independent of the longitudinally-extensible position of the lifting device.

A control lever device of an industrial vehicle includes a control lever that is tiltable forward and rearward relative to a vehicle body of the industrial vehicle and that includes a control knob, a switch button that is provided on the control knob and adapted to be pushable while the control lever is operated. The switch button has a movement axis indicating a movable direction of the switch button. The movement axis is inclined forward relative to a direction orthogonal to an extending direction of the control knob so that a pushing direction of the switch button is directed rearward from the direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the control knob.

A load-bearing assembly including a clamping-force sensor in a pivoting support assembly that is adjustable to vary a radial spacing between a pivot pin and a clamp pad mounted on the support assembly. A plurality of clamping-force sensors may be included in a plurality of pivoting clamp pad support assemblies to support a clamp pad and may be arranged to sense the magnitude of a clamping force exerted by a particular adjustable pivoting clamp pad support assembly and send signals indicative of the magnitude of the force to a controller. A load sensor may be located between a pivot pin and a bearing block, or strain gauges may be mounted in the pivoting bearing block so as to measure forces carried through the bearing block. Force values sensed and transmitted to the controller may be used to evaluate and adjust the clamp arm assembly to grasp a load with a desired clamping force or distribution of clamping forces.

A hydraulic control circuit operable to selectively hydraulically link first and second hydraulic actuators and to bypass that hydraulic link.

A fork assembly can include multiple forks configured to surround a load. Multiple attachments can be made on the forks to couple to straps for support a load. The fork assembly can further include multiple fork extensions having end attachments to couple to straps for pulling on the load. Alternatively, the fork assembly can include multiple fork lifters having blades rotatable between a non-lift position and a lift position. The fork extensions can also have blades rotatable between a non-pullable position and a pullable position. The blade rotation can be performed by a remote rotate mechanism by an operator operating the fork assembly. In some embodiments, the fork attachment assembly for a forklift or a forklift vehicle can include roller legs coupled at far ends of the fork beams or the fork extensions. The fork assembly can include roller legs coupled at far ends of the fork beams or the fork extensions. The fork assembly can include a clamping device coupled at a far end of the fork beam or the fork extension.

A gripper assembly for a portable biochar kiln and system is disclosed. An example of a gripper includes an attachment for connecting to a loader, the attachment having a mating surface configured for engagement with the biochar kiln. The example gripper assembly also includes a substantially C-shaped claw having a first arm and a second arm. The example gripper assembly also includes a motor on the attachment. The motor operates to open and close the first and second arms in a pinch-and-release motion to grasp and release the biochar kiln. The motor further operates to rotate the first and second arms to tilt the biochar kiln for dumping operations. The motor further operates to raise and lower the first and second arms to raise and lower the biochar kiln relative to the ground for moving operations.

Slide-bearing assemblies capable of enabling sliding of a load-carrying implement relative to a load-supporting structure, having first and second load-carrying surfaces, respectively, are disclosed. In one embodiment, the slide-bearing assembly includes substantially nonmetallic first and second elongate bearing elements extending in parallel to support the first load-carrying surface of the load-carrying implement slidably upon the load-supporting structure. One of the bearing elements being composed of multiple elongate pieces each shorter in length than a length of the other of the bearing elements. The slide-bearing assembly additionally includes a post that extends from a surface of each of the multiple elongate pieces, which is a surface that is opposed to the second load-carrying surface, each post is sized to fit in a respective recess of the second load-carrying surface. The slide-bearing assembly further includes at least one coating on the first load-carrying surface made of high-performance thermoplastic material(s).