BASE PLATE FOR AN AUTONOMOUSLY GUIDED INDUSTRIAL TRUCK

Abstract

The present invention relates to a base plate (10) for an autonomously guided industrial truck with a longitudinal direction (L) and a width direction (B), which is provided to form a base plate arrangement and to downward delimit a vehicle body of the industrial truck in sections, comprising a plate body (12), which is provided to define an outline of the base plate arrangement at least in sections. Here, the base plate (10) according to the invention has an opening (14) which is central in relation to the width direction (B) and is provided for accommodating a drive wheel of the industrial truck, and at least one recess (16a, 16b) which is offset in relation to a longitudinal center axis (L) in the width direction (B) and is provided for accommodating a support wheel arrangement of the industrial truck.

Claims

1. A base plate for an autonomously guided industrial truck having a longitudinal direction and a width direction, the base plate being provided to form a base plate arrangement and to downward delimit a vehicle body of the industrial truck in sections, the base plate comprising: a plate body to define, at least in sections, an outline of the base plate arrangement; an opening central in relation to the width direction and provided for accommodating a drive wheel of the industrial truck; and at least one recess offset in the width direction in relation to a longitudinal center axis, the at least one recess for accommodating a support wheel arrangement of the industrial truck.

2. The base plate of claim 1, wherein the at least one recess comprises two recesses arranged symmetrically in relation to the longitudinal center axis.

3. The base plate of claim 1, wherein the at least one recess defines a part of the outline of the plate body.

4. The base plate of claim 3, wherein the at least one recess defines the outline of the plate body in a front, in relation to the longitudinal direction, corner region and an outer, in relation to the width direction, corner region of the plate body.

5. The base plate of claim 1, further comprising at least one further recess provided to accommodate, in sections, a scanner unit.

6. The base plate of claim 5, wherein the at least one further recess lies completely within the outline of the base plate.

7. The base plate of claim 5, wherein the at least one further recess comprises at least two further recesses arranged symmetrically in relation to the longitudinal center axis.

8. The base plate of claim 1, further comprising, in an area of the base plate that is at a rear in relation to the longitudinal direction and central in relation to the width direction, a contact surface to support a lifting cylinder of the industrial truck.

9. The base plate of claim 1, wherein the base plate has a maximum extension in the width direction of about eight hundred millimeters (800 mm) or less.

10. The base plate of claim 5, wherein one or more of the central opening, at least one of the at least one recess, or at least one of the at least one further recess is substantially circular.

11. Abase plate arrangement for an autonomously guided industrial truck, comprising: a base plate, comprising: a plate body to define, at least in sections, an outline of the base plate arrangement; an opening central in relation to the width direction and provided for accommodating a drive wheel of the industrial truck; and at least one recess offset in the width direction in relation to a longitudinal center axis and provided for accommodating a support wheel arrangement of the industrial truck; and at least one support wheel arrangement accommodated in the at least one recess or in one recess of the at least one recess.

12. The base plate arrangement of claim 11, wherein (A) the at least one support wheel arrangement and the base plate are, on upper sides, substantially flush with one another, or (B) the base plate extends upward beyond the at least one support wheel arrangement.

13. The base plate arrangement of claim 11, further comprising at least one scanner unit arranged such that a scanning plane of the at least one scanner unit lies above the base plate.

14. The base plate arrangement of claim 11, further comprising, in a front region of the base plate arrangement, two load arms for carrying load wheels fixedly attached to the base plate arrangement. in particular are welded thereto, wherein the load arms (22a, 22b) optionally extend on both sides of the contact surface (20) and are arranged, for example, flush therewith.

15. A vehicle body of an autonomously guided industrial truck, comprising: a base plate arrangement, comprising: a base plate, the base plate comprising: a plate body to define, at least in sections, an outline of the base plate arrangement; an opening central in relation to the width direction and provided for accommodating a drive wheel of the industrial truck; and at least one recess offset in the width direction in relation to a longitudinal center axis and provided for accommodating a support wheel arrangement of the industrial truck; and a vehicle frame arranged above the base plate; and an interface for connecting the base plate arrangement and the vehicle frame, the interface placed in such a way that the interface is arranged outside the central opening but in the width direction at a distance from the outline of the base plate.

16. The vehicle body of claim 15, wherein, in relation to the longitudinal center axis, the at least one recess is arranged in the width direction outside the interface.

17. The vehicle body of claim 15, wherein an autonomously guided industrial truck comprises the vehicle body.

18. The vehicle body of claim 15, wherein, in relation to the longitudinal center axis, the at least one further recess is arranged in the width direction outside the interface.

19. The base arrangement of claim 13, wherein the at least one scanner unit is accommodated in sections in the at least one recess or in the one recess of the at least one further recess.

20. The base plate arrangement of claim 14, wherein the load arms extend on both sides of the contact surface and are arranged flush therewith.

21. The base plate arrangement of claim 14, wherein the two load arms are welded to the base plate arrangement.

22. The vehicle body of claim 16, wherein, in relation to the longitudinal center axis, the at least one further recess is arranged in the width direction outside the interface.

Description

[0026] Further features and advantages of the present invention will become even clearer from the following description of embodiments, when viewed together with the accompanying figures. These show in detail:

[0027] FIGS. 1A and 1B, in each case in an isometric view, two variants of base plates according to the invention for autonomously guided industrial trucks;

[0028] FIGS. 2A and 2B, in a schematic representation, a plan view or side view of an industrial truck equipped with such a base plate; and

[0029] FIG. 3, in an isometric rear view, a variant of the industrial truck from FIGS. 2A and 2B.

[0030] FIGS. 1A and 1B now show first of all two variants of base plates according to the invention for autonomously guided industrial trucks, which are denoted by the reference numerals 10 and 10'. It should be pointed out that identical or equivalent elements of the variant in FIG. 1B are each provided with the same reference numerals as the corresponding elements in FIG. 1A but are additionally provided with an apostrophe.

[0031] In this case, the base plates 10 and 10'each have a longitudinal direction or longitudinal center axis L and a width direction B perpendicular thereto, which are oriented in the same way as the corresponding directions usually designated in industrial trucks equipped with such base plates.

[0032] The base plates 10 and 10' are in each case provided to form a base plate arrangement of an industrial truck and to downward delimit a vehicle body of this industrial truck in sections. For this purpose, they each comprise a plate body 12 or 12', which can in particular be produced from a single solid metal part. The base plates 12 and 12' in turn each have a central opening 14 or 14' which is central in relation to the width direction B and is provided to accommodate a steered drive wheel of the industrial truck, which is not yet shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, in such a way that the wheel extends both above and below the plane of the base plates 10 or 10'.

[0033] In addition, the two base plates 10 and 10' have recesses 16a, 16b or 16a', 16b' arranged offset in the width direction B in relation to the longitudinal center axis L, which recesses are arranged in the front outer corner region of the respective base plate 10 or 10' and define a part of the outline of the plate body 12 or 12'.

[0034] It is shown here that both the central opening 14, 14' and the recesses 16a, 16b, 16a' and 16b'are designed to be substantially circular, wherein in the case of the recesses 16a, 16b, 16a' and 16b', only the part thereof forming the outline is designed as a circular section. Finally, it should also be pointed out that the two base plates 10 and 10' each comprise a pair of further recesses 18a, 18b or 18a', 18b', which are likewise placed symmetrically in the width direction B and offset in relation to the longitudinal center axis L. In contrast to the recesses 16a, 16b, 16a', 16b', the further recesses 18a, 18b, 18a', 18b'are provided completely within the outline of the plate body 12 or 12', so that in the width direction B, in each case, material of the plate body 12 or 12' is still present outside the further recesses 18a, 18b, 18a', 18b'and acts as impact protection for the scanner units described further below.

[0035] With regard to the differences between the variants in FIGS. 1A and 1B, it should be pointed out on the one hand that in the variant in FIG. 1B, a contact surface 20 is provided behind the central opening 14'in the central region in the width direction B, which in the assembled state of the industrial truck can serve as a contact surface for a lifting cylinder for actuating a load carriage. Such a contact surface is not provided in the variant in FIG. 1A, so that it can be used, for example, in low-lift industrial trucks.

[0036] On the other hand, it can be seen in the variant in FIG. 1B that in the region of the recesses 16a', 16b', said contact surface is widened in the width direction B, so that the track width of the support wheel arrangements to be fitted at this point is maximized, which will be explained in more detail below with reference to FIGS. 2A, 2B and 3. As a result, the support wheel arrangements can, for example, be seated at least partially outside the remaining vehicle geometry, which can be advantageous, for example, in high-lift vehicles in order to increase their tilt stability, while however the particularly narrow external dimensions of the variant in FIG. 1A can no longer be maintained.

[0037] FIGS. 2A and 2B now show schematically a plan view and a side view of an autonomously guided industrial truck 100, in which a base plate similar to that in FIG. 1A is used and which is accordingly also denoted by the reference numeral 10. However, it should be pointed out here that this base plate 10 is likewise provided with a contact surface 20 in contrast to that in FIG. 1A. This contact surface 20 lies centrally and flush between two load arms 22a and 22b of the industrial truck 100, each carrying a load wheel 24a or 24b in the region of their ends remote from the base plate 10. It can also be seen that in the region of the central opening 14 in the base plate 10, a steered drive wheel 26 of the industrial truck 100 is accommodated, the hub of which extends above the base plate 10 so that the steered drive wheel 26 is partially below and partially above the plane of the base plate 10. Due to the substantially circular configuration of the central opening 14, the drive wheel 26 can also pivot about its vertical axis, which enables its steering capability.

[0038] In addition, two support wheel arrangements 28a and 28b can be seen accommodated in the recesses 16a and 16b, which are likewise substantially circular and are mounted in the recesses 16a and 16b in such a way that, in the front outer corner regions of the base plate arrangement, they themselves with their respective housings form a part of the outline of the base plate arrangement 102 formed in this way. In this case, the support wheel arrangements 28a and 28b are characterized in that their respective support wheels 30a and 30b are also pivotable about a vertical axis in order to make cornering possible, but the arrangements 28a and 28b have an extremely low overall height which essentially corresponds to the thickness of the plate body 12, as can be clearly seen in particular in FIG. 2B.

[0039] The support wheel arrangements 28a and 28b are thus aligned at their upper sides with the corresponding upper side of the plate body 12 and at this point enable the installation of two scanner units 32a and 32b, which are likewise symmetrically opposite each other in relation to the longitudinal center axis, in the further recesses 18a and 18b. As can be seen in FIG. 2B, these scanner units 32a and 32b have a scanning plane E with respective scan areas S1 and S2, which extends horizontally above the base plate 10 and the load arms 22a and 22b. Here, the walls of the plate body 12 protect the sides of the scanner units 32a and 32b against shocks occurring there, but said scanner units are arranged in a suitable position in order to be able to cover the largest possible angular ranges of the scanning plane E, as is to be understood based on the areas S1 and S2 indicated in FIG. 2A. However, in variants of the embodiment shown here, scanner units having a different geometry could also be used, which could make the provision of the further recesses 18a and 18b superfluous.

[0040] Finally, it should be noted that around the central opening 14, an interface 34 is provided for connecting the base plate 10 to the vehicle frame 36 for forming the vehicle body 104, in which the further components of the industrial truck 100 can be accommodated. The specific shape of this interface 34, which is placed in such a way that it is arranged outside the central opening 14 but in the width direction B at a distance from the outline of the base plate 10, and is further designed to be tapered forward, allows the advantageous positioning of the scanner units 32a and 32b already discussed above as well as the also discussed enlarged angle coverage of the scan areas S1 and S2.

[0041] While the aim in the variant shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B was to design the industrial truck 100 particularly narrow in the width direction B, for example with a width of at most 800 mm, while at the same time the scanner units 32a and 32b and the support wheel arrangements 28a and 28b are arranged as far as possible outside in the width direction, the base plate 10' in FIG. 1B with its widening in the region of the recesses 16a' and 16b' has been used in the further variant of an industrial truck 100' shown in an isometric rear view in FIG. 3A so that a slightly modified base plate arrangement 102' and correspondingly a modified vehicle body 104' results.

[0042] Here, the support wheel arrangements 28a and 28b are arranged partially outside the rest of the vehicle geometry and their distance in the width direction B has been maximized. This measure can be taken, for example, in high-lift vehicles in order to increase the tilt stability of these vehicles in applications in which the widening of the corresponding industrial truck 100' at this point is unproblematic. Otherwise, the industrial truck 100' can be designed identically to the industrial truck 100 in FIGS. 2A and 2B with regard to all further components, and a more detailed description is dispensed with here by reference to this figure.