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.

Lifting machinery is often unable to securely hold onto stacked crates and this presents a safety hazard. The invention may be embodied by a crate lifter 1 comprising a 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 that move laterally to grip one or more crates 2 so that they can be moved by the carriage up and down the mast. The carriage has a keeper 14 arranged 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 lift truck clamp assembly with replaceable wear elements. The clamp assembly comprises a clamp plate, a shoe plate, a plurality of wear elements, and one or more grip elements. The shoe plate is harder and more wear resistant than the clamp plate and is detachably coupled to a lower inside surface of the clamp plate. The wear elements are coupled to a bottom edge of the shoe plate and extend below the clamp plate. Through the shoe plate pass a plurality of grip element holes. Each grip element has a plateau and a lip. The lip is on a periphery of the grip element, surrounding the plateau. Each of the grip elements is positioned with the pad plateau protruding through one of the plurality of grip element holes, with the pad lip held between the shoe plate and the inside surface of the clamp plate.

An assistive robot system includes a lifting mechanism, a movable arm assembly, a processing device, and a non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium in communication with the processing device. The processing device transmits a command to the lifting mechanism to cause the lifting mechanism to move the movable arm assembly such that a container is gripped within the movable arm assembly, transmits a first one or more signals to the movable arm assembly to cause the movable arm assembly to extend in a system longitudinal direction such that the movable arm assembly grips the container. The movable arm assembly is positioned at a release location and transmits a second one or more signals to the movable arm assembly to cause the movable arm assembly to extend in a system lateral direction such that the container gripped within the movable arm assembly is released from the movable arm assembly at the release location.

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

A smart clamp load handler configured for controlling movement of its clamp arms and force applied by its clamp arms by changing positions of one or more solenoid operated valves to control hydraulic fluid flow to and from clamp arm actuators, based on pressure measurements from one or more pressure sensors.

A manipulator for transporting a load laterally with respect to a vehicle includes a support frame adapted for mounting on a vehicle. A movable guide is supported by the support frame for lateral translation with respect to the support frame. A carriage which is capable of supporting a load engaging attachment for supporting a load is supported by the guide for translation with respect to the guide in the lengthwise direction of the guide. The carriage can translate with respect to the guide in the lengthwise direction of the guide at the same time that the guide is translating laterally with respect to the support frame.

Lifting device for pallet goods for loading and unloading of a transport pallet such as a standard pallet, for example a euro pallet. The lifting device comprises a support frame, a tine assembly liftable mounted to the support frame of at least two, preferably four, tines having a parallel direction of extension for lifting and receiving the transport goods from the transport pallet and/or for depositing the transport goods onto the transport pallet. A tine spacing of two tines is adapted to a gap spacing of two longitudinal gaps and at least two tines are form-fitted with regard to the at least two longitudinal gaps such that they can access the longitudinal gaps in the longitudinal direction.

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-handling clamp mountable on a lift truck has one or more hydraulic clamping cylinders of the type having two or more sequentially extensible stages capable of applying either load-weight-responsive variable hydraulic load-clamping force or, alternatively, load-size-responsive variable hydraulic load-clamping force, without risking the clamp's dropping of a clamped load. The length of the hydraulic clamping cylinder(s) may in some applications extend generally forwardly from a supporting lift truck, and in other applications extend generally laterally from a supporting lift truck.