JP2002173020A - Article transport apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the rear part of an article transport vehicle from suddenly running out to the outside. SOLUTION: While a front wheel 16 passes at least the half on the inlet side of a curve part 2B in the course of moving the wheel 16 of a rear side driven wheel unit 9 from a point a to a point b, the speed of the wheel 16 of the front driving wheel unit 8 is reduced so that the speed of the wheel 16 is not higher than the rotating speed in running an inlet side linear part 2A.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to an article conveying apparatus.

[0002]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an article transport apparatus having a rail, and an article transport vehicle having at least a front wheel and a rear wheel running along the rail, one of which is a drive wheel and the other is a driven wheel. It is an object of the present invention to prevent the driven wheel side portion of the article transport vehicle from suddenly swinging outward when the article transport vehicle travels on a curved portion.

[0003]

Means for Achieving the Object The present invention employs the following means to achieve the object. The invention according to claim 1 is an article transport apparatus including a rail, and an article transport vehicle including at least a front wheel and a rear wheel traveling along the rail, one of which is a drive wheel, and the other is a driven wheel. When the driving wheel travels on a straight portion and the driven wheel travels on a curved portion, a traveling control means is provided to prevent the driven wheel traveling on the curved portion from accelerating more than when traveling on the straight portion. The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the front wheel is a drive wheel, the rear wheel is a driven wheel, and the traveling control means is configured to: 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle is decelerated. The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the travel control means accelerates the front wheels within a range that prevents the rear wheels from accelerating more than when traveling in a straight section after the rear wheels pass through the half of the entrance side of the curve. The method according to claim 2, which is adapted to be performed.

[0004]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained by the above-described configuration. According to the invention of claim 1, it is possible to prevent the driven wheel side portion of the article transport vehicle from suddenly swinging outward when the article transport vehicle travels on a curved portion. According to the second aspect of the invention, it is possible to prevent the rear portion of the article transport vehicle from suddenly swinging outward. According to the third aspect of the invention, the front driven wheel is accelerated after the rear driven wheel has passed through the half of the entrance side of the curved portion, so that the article transport vehicle is accelerated with good timing. I can do it.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In this description, the front means the right side of FIG. 1, the rear means the left side of the figure, the left means the upper side of FIG. 1, and the right means the lower side of the figure.

[0006] A rail 2 is laid on a floor 1, and this rail 2 is generally endless, and an article transport vehicle 4, which will be described in detail later, runs along the rail 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the rail 2 has at least one curved portion 2B (between b and e in FIG. 1).
And the entrance side straight portion 2A connected to the entrance end of the curved portion 2B
And an outlet side straight portion 2C connected to the outlet end of the curved portion 2B.

The article transport vehicle 4 includes a vehicle body 6, a conveyor 7 provided on the upper surface of the vehicle body 6, the transport direction of which is directed to the left and right, and a front right portion of the vehicle body 6 (portion g in FIG. 1). A known drive wheel unit 8, which is provided so as to be able to turn horizontally,
A well-known driven wheel unit 9 provided at the right rear part (point h in FIG. 1) of the vehicle body 6 and a front and rear part on the left side of the vehicle body 6 (points i and j in FIG. 1). , And a swivel caster 11 that is provided at the lower end of the support leg 10 so as to be horizontally swivelable, and the wheel 12 abuts on the floor surface 1.
And

The drive wheel unit 8 and the driven wheel unit 9 are both rotatable via a bracket 15 provided on the vehicle body 6 so as to be horizontally turnable and a horizontal rotation shaft (not shown). Rail 2 provided
And two side rollers 17 on each of the right and left sides abutting on the side surface of the rail 2 rotatably provided via a support shaft (not shown) perpendicular to the bracket 15.
And

The drive wheel unit 8 has a motor 18 for rotating the wheels 16 provided on the bracket 15, a position detecting sensor 19 (see FIG. 3) provided on the bracket 15, 29 and a known current collecting unit (not shown).
The current collecting unit has a current collector (not shown) that slides on an insulating trolley wire (not shown) provided on the side surface of the rail 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the traveling control means 22 comprises:
The position detection sensor 19, a detected member 23 provided on the floor 1 (point A in FIG. 1) indicating a deceleration position, and the floor 1
A detected member 24 indicating an acceleration position provided at (point C in FIG. 1), and a computer 25 mounted on the article transport vehicle 4
And When the position detection sensor 19 detects the point A, the wheels 16 of the driven wheel unit 9 (hereinafter, simply referred to as rear wheels) are positioned at the point a in FIG. Upon detection, the rear wheel is positioned at point c in FIG.

While the rear wheel moves from the point a to the point b (the position immediately before the rear wheel enters the curved portion 2B), the computer 25 determines that the rear wheel passes through at least a half of the curved portion 2B on the entrance side. The motor 18 is controlled so as to decelerate the wheels 16 (hereinafter referred to as front wheels) of the drive wheel unit 8 so that the rear wheel does not become faster than the rotation speed when the rear wheel is traveling on the inlet-side linear portion 2A. While the rear wheel moves from the point c (a position before the half on the entrance side of the curved portion 2B) to the point d, the speed before the rear wheel becomes low or a speed close to the speed before the speed becomes lower than the speed is not exceeded. The motor 18 is controlled so as to accelerate the front wheels.

[0013]

[Modifications and the like] Modifications and the like are described below. (1) Position detection sensor 19 and detected members 23 and 24
The specific structure of is arbitrary. (2) The structure of the article transport vehicle 4 is arbitrary. (3) The point c is a half of the entrance side of the curved portion 2B,
Any part of the curved portion 2B may be used. (4) At least one turning caster 11 is sufficient.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main part plan view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of traveling control means.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 2 Rail 2A Inlet-side linear portion 2B Curve portion 2C Exit-side linear portion 4 Article carrier 8 Drive wheel unit 9 Follower wheel unit 16 Wheel 19 Position detection sensor 22 Travel control means 23 Detected member 24 Detected member 25 Computer

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle comprising: a rail; and at least a front wheel and a rear wheel traveling along the rail, one of which is a driving wheel;
In an article transport apparatus having an article transport vehicle having the other driven wheel, the driven wheel travels on a straight section and the driven wheel travels on a curved section. An article transport device provided with a traveling control means for preventing further acceleration. 2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the front wheel is a driving wheel, the rear wheel is a driven wheel, and the traveling control means decelerates the front wheel when the front wheel passes through the curved portion and the rear wheel travels on the curved portion. 2. The article conveying device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The running control means according to claim 1, wherein after the rear wheel has passed through the half of the entrance side of the curve portion, the front wheel is accelerated within a range of preventing the rear wheel from accelerating more than when traveling in a straight portion. 3. The article conveying device according to claim 2, wherein: