Re: Has anyone tested out the viability of using hooks to lift totes?
 

my team has been toying with the idea, today we made a prototype and it worked pretty well
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=...&v=n7Nhm6VCoJ8

Re: Has anyone tested out the viability of using hooks to lift totes?
 

Conceivably, you could pocket the pulley (or sprocket, if using chain, for that matter) where the hardware that's attaching your hooks would interfere.

That is -- provided that all of your pulleys were an even tooth count -- the link or section of belt with the hook attached will always mate with the same tooth when it arrives at the pulley. So, you could remove that tooth and create clearance for the hardware.

If you were to take the chain or belt off, you'd have to be very carefully when reassembling things to make sure the timing lines up the same way as it did initially.

Re: Has anyone tested out the viability of using hooks to lift totes?
 

Sure... it works great. We plan to use rollers (bearings) rolling along either side of a 1" square tube to do the guiding of the hooks. We prototyped this today and there's no problems that we could see.

We laser cut our hooks from 1/4" baltic birch plywood, using a narrow 7/32" wide hook, and no breakage even when bouncing it in different directions.

Re: Has anyone tested out the viability of using hooks to lift totes?
 

Another option is to use a wide belt. You could then use two narrow pulleys with a spacer between them, teeth aligned of course, or use a wide pulley and cut a groove with a lathe down the center.

You could use double strand chain and drive 1 strand and mount hardware on the other.

Re: Has anyone tested out the viability of using hooks to lift totes?
 

I was thinking one of the VexPro VersaPulleys and something something the slice in the middle, but the keying makes that difficult. You could get a 2mm deep slot on either by taking off the teeth. On the 42 tooth, you can only get 3mm deep if you go down to the keying pins, it's up to 4.5mm deep on the 80 tooth.

Re: Has anyone tested out the viability of using hooks to lift totes?
 

We just got a box of these from McMaster today, when we get them working I'll post a review of how well they worked.

Re: Has anyone tested out the viability of using hooks to lift totes?
 

The chain attachment points work great. Very sturdy and no problem holding the weight of 5 totes.

Re: Has anyone tested out the viability of using hooks to lift totes?
 

If you want to prototype a hook method - there's the rubbermaid fasttrack (and some other equivalent) that the hooks fit inside the lips on the short side: http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/P...nizationSystem

Also, if you don't want to spend the money on the roller chain with tabs, you can stick an 8-32 bolt through the roller chain to transfer motion. You'll want to obviously do a few to reduce the stress on any one bolt: http://www.buildblitz.com/linear-elevator-concept/

Re: Has anyone tested out the viability of using hooks to lift totes?
 

I'd be curious to see a picture of the setup and general geometry you used. Our current stacking design is planned to grab each tote individually, so will not see nearly as much load on each hook, but it's interesting to hear that you can pick up 5 with the lip of just one tote.

What was the other prototype if you don't mind me asking?