Whacky Signs.

[PhilJ W]

The travellators in my local Asda's and Tesco's do not use magnets. The wheels on the trolleys consist of four or five thin discs separated by smaller fixed discs with a slot in the bottom. The slots engage with raised tangs on the travellator and lock the trolley in place. The tangs are part of the travellator tread pattern. 

[pH]

12 hours ago, melmerby said:

Too complicated by far.

 

The local Sainsbugs has a magnetic(?) system that locks the trolley firmly to the travelator from the ground floor car park to the first floor shop and in reverse. You never leave your trolley and it is quite good for the less mobile as they can hang on to the trolley for stability.

 

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Supermarkets I've seen in Australia use a moving ramp - like an escalator, but a smooth belt rather than stairs like you see in the horizontal moving walkways at airports. They have special carts/trolleys that magnetically? / mechanically? lock to the ramp.

 

This seems much more sensible than a separate apparatus for the carts where you have to coordinate your arrival with the cart.

 

Sounds very similar.

 

There’s another supermarket near here with that arrangement. The store with the first arrangement I showed is on a site which doesn’t have the space for the lower gradient (and so, longer length) of a travelator. And both stores have elevators if you want to use those.

[JZ]

Not a sign, but could you imagine grabbing the wrong one just before bed.

[BoD]

1 hour ago, JZ said:

Not a sign, but could you imagine grabbing the wrong one just before bed.

Or even worse … taking both.

[Chris hndrsn]

 

On 12/07/2021 at 18:18, Michael Hodgson said:

What a daft idea.  We have quite a few of round here that you push your trolley onto and stand with it.  Occupies less of the shop's valuable floor space, not as much equipment to break down, no problems of the cart machine is working OK but the escalator isn't. so you have to use a staircase on the other side of the building.

 

Note the gradient of the adjacent elevator and "cartivator" much steeper than a travelator, obviously the site limitations meant they designed something specific, the "captivator".

[pH]

26 minutes ago, BoD said:

Or even worse … taking both.

See member “J.S. Bach”’s signature line.

 

Here, for example:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/156209-the-night-mail/&do=findComment&comment=4509440

 

 

[Tim123]

[melmerby]

On 12/07/2021 at 20:50, PhilJ W said:

The travellators in my local Asda's and Tesco's do not use magnets. The wheels on the trolleys consist of four or five thin discs separated by smaller fixed discs with a slot in the bottom. The slots engage with raised tangs on the travellator and lock the trolley in place. The tangs are part of the travellator tread pattern. 

What do they do for tyres?

[melmerby]

On 14/07/2021 at 10:09, JZ said:

Not a sign, but could you imagine grabbing the wrong one just before bed.

Also available "Bed Linen Cleanser".......

[Jonboy]

7 minutes ago, melmerby said:

What do they do for tyres?

picture here on reddit

 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

What do they do for tyres?

 

1 hour ago, Jonboy said:

picture here on reddit

 

The wheels are of a hard rubber or plastic.

[JZ]

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, Jonboy said:

picture here on reddit

 

A picture is worth a 1000 words.

[Michael Hodgson]

All the ones I've seen are like that. 

I did wonder what all this stuff about magnets was, but maybe some systems are different.

[JZ]

[JZ]

On 09/07/2021 at 13:52, JZ said:

Whacky in the sense that my local council painted these near my house on Thursday, 8th July 2021.

The school closed in at the end of summer term in July 2005.

This morning, the highway department has been along and removed them.

[Hroth]

18 hours ago, Jonboy said:

picture here on reddit

 

 

I think the grooves and ridges are to stop the cart sliding laterally, the locking mechanism is in that oddly shaped hub that approaches the ridges on the conveyor.

 

[Mark Saunders]

34 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

I think the grooves and ridges are to stop the cart sliding laterally, the locking mechanism is in that oddly shaped hub that approaches the ridges on the conveyor.

 

They looked to me as if the flange sits in the groove on the conveyor and the locking mechanism is only a flat piece of casting sat on top that prevents rolling back till the flange is lifted when the conveyor goes flat and the wheel is free to rotate!

[Ramblin Rich]

45 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

I think the grooves and ridges are to stop the cart sliding laterally, the locking mechanism is in that oddly shaped hub that approaches the ridges on the conveyor.

 

 

5 minutes ago, Mark Saunders said:

They looked to me as if the flange sits in the groove on the conveyor and the locking mechanism is only a flat piece of casting sat on top that prevents rolling back till the flange is lifted when the conveyor goes flat and the wheel is free to rotate!

So, next person that goes to IKEA has to upend a trolley to investigate. Might be difficult to explain to security that it's an engineering query....

[pH]

2 hours ago, Ramblin Rich said:

 

So, next person that goes to IKEA has to upend a trolley to investigate. Might be difficult to explain to security that it's an engineering query....

 

I’m  fairly sure I could find a supermarket trolley in a nearby creek to examine.

[JZ]

[PhilJ W]

9 minutes ago, JZ said:

Not a great idea if the fire is close to the alarm.

[pH]

7 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Not a great idea if the fire is close to the alarm.

Yes, I was going to ask what the fatality rate amongst users was.

[PhilJ W]

[JZ]

19 hours ago, pH said:

Yes, I was going to ask what the fatality rate amongst users was.

I would have thought it would also deter genuine alarm calls.