JP2000016518A - Automated storage and retrieval system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent articles in a rack from being polluted by traveling of a carriage by providing a flow straightening member for blocking air from a floor face to the top in a position lower than the lowermost shelf bottom of the rack. SOLUTION: Spaces between respective rear faces of racks 4, 6 and wall faces of an automated storage and retrieval system are set to clean air passages 24. Flow straightening plates 25 are provided in the rear faces of the racks 4, 6 and clean air is fed from the clean air passages 24 to respective shelves via the straightening plates 25. Blowers 26 provided in the bottom of the racks 4, 6 feed the air sucked from the bottom of a traveling space 2 to the clean air passages 24 via a clean filter 28. The blowers 26 and the clean filter 28 are provided in parts except for parts where flanges 22 are projected from the racks 4, 6 to a traveling space 2 and the bottoms of the parts where the flanges 22 are projected to the traveling space 2 is set to ventilating passages 30.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic warehouse for a clean room.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an automatic warehouse for a clean room, a clean fan unit is mounted on a truck of a transfer device so as to suck dust generated by running of the truck and operation of the transfer device. At the bottom of the traveling space of the bogie, as in other parts of the clean room, air is sucked from the floor surface so that contaminated air does not accumulate.

[0003] However, the inventor has found that in spite of such measures, dust is lifted up by the traveling of the truck and enters the rack. That is, the traveling of the truck causes contamination of the articles in the rack, and the contamination increases with the traveling speed of the truck.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to prevent contamination of articles in a rack due to traveling of a truck.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an automatic warehouse in which a truck of a transfer device is caused to travel in a traveling space in front of a rack. A rectifying member for shutting off the air flow is provided. The rectifying member may be provided on the rack side or on the transfer device side.

Preferably, the straightening member is a flange protruding from the height near the bottom of the lowermost shelf of the rack into the traveling space. More preferably, the lower part of the flange is a ventilation passage for releasing air in front of the bogie.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a rectifying member is provided at a height equal to or lower than the bottom of the lowermost shelf of the rack to block airflow upward from the floor surface. Therefore, it is possible to prevent air near the floor in front of the bogie from rising upward when the bogie is run. According to the experience of the inventors, the contamination of the rack due to the movement of the trolley occurs because dust accumulated or stagnating near the floor of the trolley travel space is wound up by the movement of the trolley and flows backward of the trolley. Things. Therefore, if the air near the floor is rectified so as not to rise to the height of the rack, contamination of the articles in the rack can be prevented. For this purpose, the rectifying member may prevent air having a height below the bottom of the lowermost shelf of the rack from rising. According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the articles in the rack from being contaminated by the traveling of the truck, and as a result, for example, the truck can be driven at high speed.

Here, the rectifying member may be provided on the bogie, but is preferably provided on a rack, and protrudes from the height near the bottom of the lowest shelf into the traveling space. In this case, the air near the floor in front of the bogie is wound up by the flange protruding from the rack to the traveling space,
Intrusion into the rack can be prevented. More preferably, the lower part of the flange is used as a ventilation path for ventilation for releasing air near the floor in front of the bogie to the rear. In this way, the airflow from the floor surface, which causes contamination, is sealed by the bottom surface of the flange or the like, and the contamination of the articles in the rack can be more reliably prevented.

[0009]

1 and 2 show an automatic warehouse according to an embodiment. In these figures, reference numeral 2 denotes a traveling space in an automatic warehouse provided in a clean room, and a pair of racks 4 on the left and right sides thereof.
6, and a pair of rails 8,
9 is laid. 10 is an individual shelf of the racks 4 and 6.
The transfer device 12 is caused to travel in the traveling space 2, 13 is a truck, 14 is a control panel behind the truck, 16 is a mast with a slit, and a scala arm 18 is raised and lowered. The mounting plate 20 is provided so that the article 32 can be exchanged with the shelf 10. Instead of the SCARA arm 18, an appropriate transfer member such as a three-stage slide fork may be used. In this case, the mast 16 is fixed to the cart 13;

As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of flanges 22, 22 are provided so as to protrude from the bottom of the lowermost racks of the racks 4, 6 into the traveling space 2. The width of each flange 22 is, for example, about 5 to 18% of the width of the traveling space 2, and its height is set at the lowest of the racks 4 and 6 to prevent air from near the floor from entering the shelves. The height is set to be equal to or lower than the bottom of the shelf 10f. The space between each back surface of the racks 4 and 6 and the wall surface of the automatic warehouse is defined as a clean air passage 24. A rectifying plate 25 is provided on the back of the racks 4 and 6, and clean air is supplied to each shelf 10 from the clean air passage 24 via the rectifying plate 25. Reference numeral 26 denotes a blower provided at the bottom of the racks 4 and 6, via a clean filter 28.
The air sucked from the lower part of the traveling space 2 is supplied to the clean air passage 24. The blower 26 and the clean filter 28 are provided by removing a portion where the flange 22 protrudes from the racks 4 and 6 into the traveling space 2, and a lower portion of the portion where the flange 22 protrudes into the traveling space is defined as an air passage 30.

In the embodiment, the air under the traveling space 2 is sucked by the blower 26 and circulated in the order of the clean filter 28, the clean air passage 24, the shelf 10, and the traveling space 2. Apart from this, a part of the air in the traveling space 2 is sucked from the bottom of the automatic warehouse to the bottom of the clean room and processed. Dust generated from the lifting mechanism of the SCARA arm 18 provided in the mast 16 is processed on the truck side by a clean fan unit provided on the truck 13 and the like.

Further, an area below the flange 22 is used as a ventilation space 30 as an empty space. The front end of each shelf 10 may be located in the same plane, for example, in a vertical plane as the front end of the flange 22, but is preferably retracted from the front end of the flange 22. In either case, rack 4,
Item 6 storage space (right and left of the chain line in FIG. 2) and mast 1
6 so that air in front of the truck can flow backward through this space when the truck is running. The part of this flow is not the article storage space, and the article 32 is not placed.

The operation of the embodiment will be described. In the embodiment, a part of the air at the lower part of the running space 2 flows under the floor of the clean room, and the remaining air is sucked by the blower 26 and circulated through the racks 4 and 6 after being processed by the clean fan unit 28. . Thus, clean air is constantly supplied to each shelf 10. However, the inventor has set the cart 1
It was found that when the vehicle 3 was driven at a high speed, dust adhered to the article 32. Since the number of adhered dust increases with the speed of the carriage 13, it is considered that this is because dust accumulated on the traveling space 2 or accumulated at the lower portion of the traveling space 2 is rolled up by traveling of the carriage.

Therefore, in the embodiment, the flanges 22 and 22 are provided so that air near the floor in front of the bogie does not flow upward and rearward of the bogie during traveling. Therefore, the air in the lower part of the front of the bogie flows backward through the ventilation passage 30 below the flange 22, and a part of the air is sucked and processed by the blower 26.
Therefore, the airflow upward from the floor surface can be blocked. The inventor has found that this can prevent the contamination of the article 32. On the contrary, it can be confirmed that the cause of the contamination is that dust accumulated or floating in the lower part of the traveling space 2 is rolled up by traveling of the bogie.

FIG. 3 shows a modification. In this modification, a flange 34 is provided not on the racks 4 and 6 but on the carriage 13. The mounting height of the flange 34 is, for example, aligned with the upper surface of the carriage 13 and is an apron-shaped flange. Other points are the same as those of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a main part of an automatic warehouse according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the automatic warehouse according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a main part of a modified automatic warehouse.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 running space 4,6 rack 8,9 rail 10 shelf 12 transfer device 13 carriage 14 control panel 16 mast 18 scala arm 20 mounting plate 22 flange 24 clean air passage 25 straightening plate 26 blower 28 clean filter 30 ventilation passage 32 article 34 Flange

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An automatic warehouse in which a carriage of a transfer device is caused to travel in a traveling space in front of a rack, wherein an airflow upward from a floor surface is blocked at a height equal to or lower than a bottom of a lowermost shelf of the rack. Automatic warehouse characterized by providing a rectifying member for the automatic storage. 2. The automatic warehouse according to claim 1, wherein the straightening member is a flange protruding from the height near the bottom of the lowermost shelf of the rack to the traveling space. 3. The automatic warehouse according to claim 2, wherein a lower portion of the flange is a ventilation passage for releasing air in front of the bogie.