The present invention relates to a system associated with a current conductor line for feeding current consuming devices running as vehicles on rails and having particularly movably disposed current collectors which are to be guided along and for engagement with the current collector lines.
Current collector lines generally are known e.g. through the German printed patent application No. 2,453,754. Modern transport equipment require in addition that the vehicle, for example an overhung trolley, receives information from a central station which generally controls the overall system, and/or to provide to the vehicle information relevant about its position, speed and the like. In the most simple case this information to or from the overhung trolley indicates that the trolley has reached a particular position and the information to the trolley is destined to establish to the drive of the trolley that it has reached that position; information to a central station is analogously indicative. One can also say, that a central station or the trolley, or both want to know when a trolley passes a particular point. Therefore information transfer is to be provided for generally whereby it has to be considered that the vehicles do not necessarily run quitely on the rails but sway back and forth to some extent, and particularly during negotiating curves or passing across switches the guidance of the vehicle on the rails is not necessarily very accurate as far as the lateral position concerned. These tolerances in the engagement between vehicle and rail have to be considered but this must not interfere with the transfer of the signals.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds