Mounting structure for caster

Abstract

A caster mounting portion has a mounting member housing portion which houses the mounting member, the mounting member has a rotary shaft portion which is pivotally supported in a bearing recessed portion in the mounting member housing portion, an abutment body in which the rotary shaft portion is provided at an eccentric position and which is displaced by rotation to be widened to close the inside of the mounting member housing portion, an upper locking piece which engages with a locking receiving portion of an opposed wall, a lower locking piece which abuts against the bottom face of a latching portion, and a locking stepped portion which is urged by a leading end of an elastic arm, climbing over the aforementioned latching portion, and engages with the latching portion.

Claims

1. A mounting structure for a caster, wherein a mounting bed plate of the caster is inserted into a caster mounting portion which is provided on a bottom face of a weighing table of a carrier from below and said mounting bed plate is detachably fixed to said caster mounting portion which regulates movement in an upward direction and a left-right or front-back direction at a predetermined position by using one mounting member, the caster mounting portion has a first support wall portion with a stepped portion against which one end of the mounting bed plate abuts and which supports the bottom face on the one-end side, a second support wall portion which supports the bottom face on the other-end side of said mounting bed plate, a mounting member housing portion which houses the mounting member adjacently to the second support wall portion, and a latching portion which is formed on said second support wall portion and projects into the mounting member housing portion, said mounting member housing portion is provided with a locking receiving portion on an opposed wall portion which faces the second support wall portion separately from each other and has bearing recessed portions in one pair of left and right sidewalls, and the mounting member is configured by a rotary shaft portion which is rotatable by being pivotally supported in said one pair of bearing recessed portions, an abutment body in which the rotary shaft portion is provided at an eccentric position and which is restrained in the mounting member housing portion by rotation of the rotary shaft portion, an upper locking piece which projects to one side from the rotary shaft portion side and can be latched onto said locking receiving portion by rotation of the rotary shaft portion, a lower locking piece which projects in a direction opposite to that of the upper locking piece in said abutment body and displaces to a position where it abuts against a bottom face of said second support wall portion when said upper locking piece displaces to a position where it engages with the locking receiving portion by rotation of the rotary shaft portion, and a locking stepped portion which is formed on a leading end of an elastic arm which extends from said rotary shaft portion to the lower locking piece side and is locked to a latching portion of the second support wall portion when said lower locking piece abuts against the bottom face of the second support wall portion.

2. The mounting structure for caster according to claim 1, wherein the caster mounting portion has a first support wall with a stepped portion against which one end of the mounting bed plate abuts when horizontally moving the mounting bed plate of the caster in a direction that movement is not regulated and which supports the bottom face on the one-end side thereof, a second support wall portion which supports the bottom face on the other-end side without restraining movement of the other end in horizontal movement of said mounting bed plate, said mounting member housing portion is provided with a locking receiving portion on an opposed wall portion which faces the second support wall portion separately from each other and has bearing recessed portions which are opened downward and are arched upward in one pair of left and right sidewalls, and a locking stepped portion which is formed on a leading end of an elastic arm which extends from said rotary shaft portion to the lower locking piece side, abuts against the latching portion of the second support wall portion from below before said lower locking piece abuts against the second support wall portion, climbs over the latching portion by warping said elastic arm and is locked to said latching portion with the aid of elastic return force at a position where said lower locking piece abuts against the bottom face of the second support wall portion.

3. The mounting structure for caster according to claim 1, wherein a window hole into which a jig is inserted to displace a locking pawl portion which engages with said latching portion in an engagement releasing direction is pierced in an upper part of the mounting member housing portion.

4. The mounting structure for caster according to claim 1, wherein the latching portion is disposed at the center of the bottom face of the second support wall portion, and the mounting member is configured by separately forming one pair of abutment bodies on both of the left and right sides of the rotary shaft portion and installing the lower locking piece on each abutment body in a protruded state, and disposing the elastic arm between the one pair of the abutment bodies of the rotary shaft portion.

5. The mounting structure for caster according to claim 1, wherein the mounting member is configured by the rotary shaft portion having both ends which respectively fit into and are bore in one pair of the left and right bearing recessed portions respectively, the upper locking piece which projects outward at the center of the rotary shaft portion, one pair of block-shaped abutment bodies which project in a direction opposite to that of the upper locking piece and are disposed on both of the left and right sides of said rotary shaft portion separately from each other, the lower locking piece which projects in a direction opposite to that of the upper locking piece under each of one pair of the abutment bodies, the elastic arm which projects downward via a curved portion between the left and right abutment bodies on the rotary shaft portion, and the locking stepped portion which is formed at a position under the elastic arm and above said lower locking piece.

6. The mounting structure for caster according to claim 1, wherein the abutment body has an upper face portion which is set to a length along which it extends from the rotary shaft portion in parallel with an extending direction of the upper locking portion and abuts against an end face of the second support wall portion when said upper locking piece is locked to the locking receiving portion, an abutment face portion which is bent from the leading end of the upper face portion at right angles and is in contact with an end face of the second support wall potion, a guide face portion which extends from said rotary shaft portion in a tangential direction on the side facing the abutment face portion and is inclined, and a bottom face portion which extends from a leading end of the guide face portion to the abutment face portion, facing and in parallel with said upper face portion and is provided with the lower locking piece on an extension of the abutment face portion.

7. The mounting structure for caster according to claim 1, wherein the weighing table is rectangular.

8. The mounting structure for caster according to claim 1, wherein the caster is a swivel caster which has the mounting bed plate thereon.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a pre-mounted side view illustrating essential parts of a mounting structure for caster.

(2) FIG. 2 is a perspective view viewed from the bottom face side thereof.

(3) FIG. 3 is an essential part sectional diagram of a state of obliquely inserting a caster mounting bed plate into a caster mounting portion.

(4) FIG. 4 is an essential part sectional diagram of a state where the mounting bed plate is made horizontal on the caster mounting portion.

(5) FIG. 5 is an essential part sectional diagram of a state of positioning performed by abutting one end of the mounting bed plate against a first support wall portion.

(6) FIG. 6 is an essential part sectional diagram of a state where a mounting member is rotated and fixed in a mounting member housing portion and the other end of the mounting bed plate is restrained.

(7) FIG. 7 is an essential part sectional diagram illustrating a state of detaching the fixed mounting member.

(8) FIG. 8 is a front view of the mounting member.

(9) FIG. 9 is a rear view of the same.

(10) FIG. 10(a) is a sectional diagram along the a-a line in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10(b) is a sectional diagram along the b-b line in the same.

(11) FIG. 11(a) is a perspective view that the mounting member is viewed from the rear-face side and FIG. 11(b) is a perspective view that it is viewed from the front-face side.

(12) FIG. 12 is an essential part bottom view of a weighing table in a caster fixed state.

(13) FIG. 13 is an essential part sectional diagram viewed from the side-face side of the same.

(14) FIG. 14 is a perspective view of a carriage.

MODE FOR CARRYING-OUT THE INVENTION

(15) A mounting base plate of a caster is inserted into a caster mounting potion which is provided on a bottom face of a carrier such as a carriage and so forth from below, one mounting member is inserted into the caster mounting portion which regulates movement in an upward direction and a left-right or front-back direction at a predetermined portion and the mounting member is rotated through a predetermined angle and thereby detachable and easy fixing of the mounting bed plate to the caster mounting portion is realized.

Embodiment 1

(16) In the following, a preferred embodiment of a case where a mounting structure for caster of the present invention is applied to a weighing table (a loading platform) 1 of a carriage 10 will be described with reference to the drawings.

(17) In a case of the present embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 14, the weighing table 1 is rectangular and is made of synthetic resin and through-holes for gripping H1, recessed portions H2 which are provided in upper surface four corners and into which wheels of a caster 30 of the weighing table 1 to be piled up on an upper stage when stacking fit and so forth are appropriately formed in an upper surface thereof.

(18) As illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a reinforcement rib which suspends from the upper surface of the weighing table 1 is installed in a protruded state on a back surface of the above-mentioned weighing table 1 in an appropriate shape such as a latticed shape and so forth and caster mounting portions 2 adapted to fix mounting bed plates 31 of the casters 30 are formed on four corners thereof.

(19) Although in the present embodiment, bottom faces of the aforementioned recessed portions H2 are formed on the caster mounting portions 2, there is no particular limit on the configuration of the upper surface of the weighing table 1 which corresponds to each caster mounting portion 2 in the present invention.

(20) Although, here, as the caster 30, a swivel caster which has the plate-shaped mounting bed plate 31 thereon and that a support yoke 33 which pivotally supports a wheel W is mounted to the mounting bed plate 31 via a bearing portion 32 so as to freely swivel is used, a straight-travel caster that the aforementioned support yoke 33 is fixed to the mounting bed plate 31 may be used.

(21) In addition, the caster 30 may be the single-wheel one or the double-wheel one and may be the one that a plurality of casters are attached to one mounting bed plate 31.

(22) As described before, the caster mounting portion 2 is installed under the bottom face of the recessed portion H2.

(23) The caster mounting portion 2 has a plurality of ribs L1 which regulate upward movement of the mounting bed plate 31 of the caster 30 at a predetermined position which is designated in advance to restrain it in a horizontal posture and a plurality of pairs of left and right ribs L2 which regulate movement in the left-right or front-back direction (in the present embodiment, the left-right direction) of the mounting bed plate 31.

(24) In addition, a first support wall portion 4 which closes the front and has a hook-shaped stepped portion 4a against which one end 31a of the mounting bed plate 31 abuts and which supports the bottom face on the first-end 31a side when the mounting bed plate 31 moves horizontally is formed in a direction (in the present embodiment, the front-back direction) that the mounting bed plate 31 is made movable by the caster mounting portion 2.

(25) On the other hand, a second support wall portion 5 whose upper part is opened (K) so as to support the bottom face on the other end 31b side such that the other end 31b does not abut against it when the other end 31b of the aforementioned mounting bed plate 31 horizontally moves backward is fixedly attached to the caster mounting portion 2 on a place where it faces the first support wall portion 4 at the rear separately therefrom.

(26) A mounting member housing portion 7 whose lower face is opened in order to house a later described mounting member 11 is disposed in the caster mounting portion 2 adjacently to the second support wall portion 5.

(27) In addition, the aforementioned second support wall portion 5 has a latching potion 5a which projects into the mounting member housing portion 7 at its lower end.

(28) In the present embodiment, the latching portion 5a is installed at the center of the bottom face of the second support wall portion 5 in order to make it engage with a later described locking claw portion 18 (see FIG. 2).

(29) The aforementioned mounting member housing portion 7 is provided with a locking receiving portion 8a which is configured by a window hole in an opposed wall 8 which faces the second support wall portion 5 separately therefrom.

(30) In addition, one pair of left and right sidewalls 9 of the mounting member housing portion 7 have bearing recessed potions 9a which are opened downward, extend upward and are arched upward.

(31) Next, as illustrated in FIG. 8 to FIG. 11, the mounting member 11 has a rotary shaft portion 13 which is rotatable by being pivotally supported in the aforementioned one pair of bearing recessed portions 9a at both ends and an abutment body 12 which is detachably restrained in the mounting member housing 7 by rotation with the rotary shaft potion 13 being disposed at a position which is eccentric to one side.

(32) In a case of the present embodiment, the mounting member 11 has an upper locking piece 14 which projects from the rotary shaft portion 13 side in a transverse direction and can be engaged with the aforementioned locking receiving portion 8a by rotation of the rotary shaft portion 13 and a lower locking piece 16 which projects to the opposite side in a state of being in unevenly parallel with the upper locking piece 14 at a position where it faces the upper locking piece 14 via the abutment body 12 which is provided integrally with the rotary shaft portion 13 and abuts against the bottom face of the aforementioned second support wall portion 5 when the aforementioned upper locking piece 14 is engaged with the engaging receiving portion 8a.

(33) In the present embodiment, the abutment body 12 is configured by block-shaped ones which are separately disposed on the left and right sides of the rotary shaft portion 13 in pair.

(34) That is, in a case of an illustrated example, the abutment body 12 has an upper face portion 12a which is set to a length along which it extends from the rotary shaft portion 13 in parallel with an extending direction of the upper locking piece 14 and abuts against an end face of the second support wall portion 5 when the aforementioned upper locking piece 14 is locked to the locking receiving portion 8a, an abutment face portion 12b which bends at right angles from a leading end of the upper face portion 12a and is in contact with the end face of the second support wall portion 5, a guide face portion 12c which extends from the aforementioned rotary shaft portion 13 in an tangential direction on the side facing the abutment face portion 12b and is inclined, and a bottom face portion 12d which extends from a leading end of the guide face portion 12c to the abutment face portion 12b in parallel therewith, facing the aforementioned upper face portion 12a and is provided with the lower locking piece 16 on an extension of the abutment face portion 12b.

(35) Then, an elastic arm 17 which extends from the aforementioned rotary shaft 13 side to the lower locking piece 16 side in an arc-shaped form is provided between the aforementioned one pair of the abutment bodies 12 and a claw-shaped locking stepped portion 18 is installed on a leading end of the elastic arm 17 in a protruded state.

(36) The locking stepped portion 18 is configured by a guide face 18a which is gradually inclined outward and an abutment face portion 18b which is notched from a leading end of the guide face portion 18a toward the inside so as to be L-shaped in section.

(37) In the present embodiment, the elastic arm 17 having the locking claw portion 18 is disposed at the center of the rotary shaft portion 13 in correspondence with the latching portion 5a of the aforementioned second support wall portion 5 and the lower locking pieces 16 of the abutment bodies 12 which are disposed on both of the left and right sides thereof are disposed to freely abut against the bottom face of the second support wall portion 5 on which the aforementioned latching portion 5a is not formed.

(38) Here, the bottom face of the second support wall portion 5 against which the lower locking piece 16 abuts may be dented upward beyond the latching portion 5a.

(39) In addition, since the aforementioned latching portion 5a abuts against the guide face 18a of the locking stepped portion 18 of the elastic arm 17, it is preferable to notch the bottom face of the leading end so as to have an inclined plane which is almost the same as that of the guide face 18a so that the guide face 18a can be slid easily.

(40) Next, a procedure of fixing the mounting bed plate 31 of the caster 30 to the caster mounting portion 2 will be described.

(41) Since a distance between the first support wall portion 4 and the second support wall portion 5 of the caster mounting portion 2 is set such that the both ends 31a and 31b in the front-back direction of the mounting bed plate 31 closely abut against the upper end faces of the first support wall portion 4 and the second support wall portion 5, they are set shorter than the length in the front-back direction of the mounting bed plate 31 respectively by the amounts of their thicknesses.

(42) Then, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the mounting bed plate 31 of the caster 30 is inserted into the part above the caster mounting portion 2 with the other-end 31b side facing obliquely upward.

(43) Thereby, since the aforementioned other end 31b is inserted into the gap K which is opened above the second support wall portion 5 as illustrated in FIG. 3, the aforementioned one end 31a which faces obliquely downward is passed into the first support wall portion 4 and is pushed up onto the caster mounting portion 2 and thereby the mounting bed plate 31 can be brought into an almost horizontal posture as illustrated in FIG. 4.

(44) Then, the mounting bed plate 31 is slid to a position where the aforementioned one end 31a thereof abuts against the first support wall portion 4 with the one end 31a of the mounting bed plate 31 being put on the stepped portion 4a of the first support wall portion 4.

(45) Thereby, since the mounting bed plate is supported horizontally with one end 31a and the other end 31b of the mounting bed plate 31 being installed on the stepped portion 4a of the first support wall part 4 and on an upper face of the second support wall part 5 and is positioned in abutment against the ends of these support wall portions 4 and 5, it does not project outward (see FIG. 5).

(46) It is to be noted that movement of the upper face and the left and right ends of the aforementioned mounting bed plate 31 is restrained by the aforementioned ribs L1 and L2 formed on the caster mounting portion 2.

(47) The mounting member 11 is inserted into the mounting member housing portion 7 from below simultaneously with insertion of the mounting bed plate 31 into the caster mounting portion 2 or after the above-mentioned positioning was performed.

(48) In insertion of the mounting member 11, it is inclined such that the upper locking piece 14 obliquely faces upward, the lower locking piece 16 obliquely faces downward and the guide face portion 12c of the abutment body 12 comes into parallel with the opposed wall 8 and is inserted into the mounting member housing portion 7 in a posture that the breadth-width of the mounting member 11 is reduced (see FIG. 1, FIG. 3 and FIG. 4).

(49) Then, the ends of the rotary shaft portion 13 of the mounting member 11 are inserted upward from opened lower parts of the bearing recessed portions 9a recessed in the left and right sidewalls 9 of the mounting member housing portion 7 and the rotary shaft portion 13 comes into sliding contact with the upper-end arched portions of the bearing recessed portions 9a and bears it to be rotatable.

(50) The mounting member 11 rotates in a clockwise direction in the drawing about the rotary shaft portion 13, and displaces the upper locking piece 14 downward from the top and displaces the lower locking piece 16 and the locking stepped portion 18 of the aforementioned elastic arm 17 upward from the bottom (see FIG. 5).

(51) Since in the present embodiment, a base end of the upper locking piece 14 and a base end of the lower locking piece 16 are almost 180 degrees apart centering on an axis of the rotary shaft portion 13 and the upper locking piece 14 and the lower locking piece 16 extend in parallel with each other, when the upper locking piece 14 is displaced in a direction that it is latched onto the locking receiving portion 8a by clockwise rotation of the mounting member 11, the lower locking piece 16 approaches the bottom face of the second bearing wall portion 5 from below and, simultaneously therewith, the guide face 18a of the locking stepped portion 18 abuts against the lower end of the latching portion 5a of the second support wall portion 5 and warps inward the locking stepped portion 18 while increasing repulsion of the elastic arm 17 so as to make it pass the latching portion 5a.

(52) Further, when the mounting member 11 rotates and the upper locking piece 14 abuts against the upper face of the locking receiving portion 8a, the lower locking piece 16 abuts against the bottom face of the second support portion 5 and, simultaneously therewith, the locking stepped portion 18 climbs over the latching portion 5a, the elastic arm 17 repels in a return direction, the abutment face portion 18b is latched onto the upper face and an elevation surface of a protruded end of the latching portion 5a and the mounting member 11 is fixed in the mounting member housing portion 7 (see FIG. 6).

(53) Thereby, since the other end 31b of the mounting bed plate 31 which is aligned with and installed on the upper face of the second support wall portion 5 abuts against the abutment face portion 12b of the abutment body 12 of the mounting member 11 which is fixed in the mounting member housing portion 7 and the front-back direction movement of the mounting bed plate 31 is restrained, the caster 30 can be fixed to the caster mounting portion 2 of the weighing table 1 via the mounting bed plate 31.

(54) Next, a window hole 40 which passes through the upper wall face of the caster mounting portion 2 is pierced in order to remove the mounting bed plate 31 of the caster 30 from the caster mounting portion 2 of the weighing table 1 by detaching the mounting member 11 which is restrained in the mounting member housing portion 7.

(55) In the present embodiment, since the upper part of the mounting member housing portion 7 configures the bottom face of the recessed portion H2 which houses the caster 30 of the upper-stage carriage when stacking the carriages one on top of the other, the window hole 40 is formed in the bottom face.

(56) The position of the window hole 40 is set to a position located directly above the aforementioned latching portion 5a.

(57) Therefore, when a rod-like jig 41 is inserted through the window hole 40 directly downward as illustrated in FIG. 7, a leading end of the jig 41 abuts against the guide face 18a of the locking stepped portion 18 which is locked to the latching portion 5a.

(58) Thus, since the locking stepped portion 18 can be warped inward via the aforementioned guide face 18a and the abutment face portion 18b can be detached from the latching portion 5a by pushing the jig 41 downward, engagement of the mounting member 11 is released.

(59) The rotary shaft portion 13 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction, the upper locking piece 14 is removed from the engagement receiving portion 8a and the lower locking piece 16 is separated from the bottom face of the second support wall portion 30 by further pushing the jig 41 downward, and thereby the mounting member 11 can be drawn out of the mounting member housing portion 7.

(60) In association therewith, front-back direction restraint of the mounting bed plate 31 is released and thereby the mounting bed plate 31 can be detached from the caster mounting portion 2 in the reverse order to the aforementioned mounting.

(61) Although, in the present embodiment, the recessed portion H2 is formed above the aforementioned latching portion 5a and therefor the window hole 40 is pierced in the bottom face of the recessed portion H2, it is not limited to the above-described configuration as long as it is a through-hole into which the rod-like jig 41 can be inserted.

(62) Front-back arrangement of the caster mounting portion 2 and the mounting member housing portion 7 may be the same as that in the aforementioned embodiment and they may be arranged in reverse order.

(63) FIG. 12 and FIG. 13 are a case where the caster mounting portion 2 is installed behind the weighing table 1 and illustrate an example in which the caster mounting portion 2 is disposed near a trailing-end edge of the weighing table 1 and the mounting member housing portion 7 is disposed close to the center of the weighing table 1.

(64) Also in this case, they may be configured by reversing front/back conforming to the aforementioned embodiment.

(65) In addition, although in the above-described embodiment, a case where the mounting bed plate 31 can be moved in the caster mounting portion only in the front-back direction is exemplified, it may have a configuration that it can be moved only in the left-right direction.

(66) Also, in that case, they may be configured by replacing the front-back one with the left-right one.

(67) With regard to others, in short, it goes without saying that various designs and alterations may be made within a range not deviating from the gist of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS OR SYMBOLS

(68) 1 weighing table

(69) 2 caster mounting portion

(70) 4 first support wall portion 4

(71) 4a stepped portion

(72) 5 second support wall portion 5

(73) 5a latching portion 5a

(74) 7 mounting member housing portion 7

(75) 8 opposed wall 8

(76) 8a locking receiving portion

(77) 9 left and right sidewalls 9

(78) 9a bearing recessed portion 9a

(79) 10 carriage

(80) 11 mounting member 11

(81) 12 abutment body 12

(82) 12a upper face portion 12a

(83) 12b abutment face portion 12b

(84) 12c guide face portion 12c

(85) 12d bottom face portion 12d

(86) 13 rotary shaft portion 13

(87) 14 upper locking piece 14

(88) 16 lower locking piece 16

(89) 17 elastic arm 17

(90) 18 locking stepped portion 18

(91) 18a guide face 18a

(92) 18b abutment face portion 18b

(93) 30 caster

(94) 31 mounting bed plate

(95) 32 bearing portion

(96) 33 support yoke

(97) 40 window hole

(98) 41 jig