Safety stop for portable augers and like elevating machinery

Claim 1

In portable crop and materials handling machinery, an inclinable conveyor having a feed end and a discharge end, a track along the underside of the conveyor between said feed and discharge ends having abutments and intervening spaces along the length thereof, a mobile triangular support for said inclinable conveyor having first and second relatively long frames hinged together adjacent their lower ends, the upper end of the first frame being connected to the inclinable conveyor near its feed end and the upper end of the second frame being connected to a carriage movable along said track between the conveyor discharge end and said connected end of the first frame to vary the separation of the upper ends of the two frames and thereby the altitude of the discharge end of the inclinable conveyor, cable means connected between the carriage and the upper end of the first frame, and a winch carried by one frame on which the cable means is wound and unwound against the resisting weight of the inclinable conveyor tending to separate the two frames so as to maintain pulling tension between the two frames and thereby maintain the altitude of the conveyor discharge end, said machinery including normally inactive latent means in combination therewith which upon failure or sudden loss of tension of the cable means between the frames is automatically activated to stop descent of the conveyor discharge end and total collapse of the conveyor, said latent means comprising a latch rotatably connected intermediate its ends to the carriage, the end of the latch toward the conveyor discharge end being movable on said rotatable connection into said intervening spaces between the abutments of the track, means on the latch to the opposite side of its rotatable connection to the carriage against which the pull of the cable means is continuously directed in the normal elevating and lowering of the conveyor to hold said latch end out of said intervening spaces of the track, and spring means on the carriage which bias said latch end in the direction of the track to locate said latch end within an adjacent one of the intervening spaces when the pull of the cable means on the latch is interrupted to engage the next abutment closer to the conveyor discharge end as the conveyor starts to fall whereby to halt further fall and total collapse of the conveyor.