JP2003054709A - Article storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To store articles on a shelf by centering them. SOLUTION: A guide member 62 is provided on a sorter 10 for branching articles into an article storage device from an inbound line to warehouse them. Centering is performed on the sorter 10 by feeding a belt 64 of the guide member 62 in the direction of conveyance of article 80 to store articles in the shelf of the article storage device by centering them. The guide member 62 can be shifted to the right and left sides at four stages by cylinders 70, 72 at a first step and a second step.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article storage device for storing articles in a shelf by raising and lowering the shelves so as to pass through the conveying surface of the in-shelf conveyor, and particularly to storing articles in the in-shelf conveyor. Regarding time centering.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is known an article storage device which uses a conveyor in a shelf and transfers articles to and from the shelf. In such an article storage device, a plurality of shelves are connected by a chain or the like, and the shelves are moved up and down one by one to pass through a conveying surface of an in-shelf conveyor using a roller conveyor, a chain conveyor, or the like. When the shelves rise above the transport surface, the in-shelf conveyor transfers to the shelves, and when the shelves descend below the transport surface, the shelves move to the in-shelf conveyor.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a basic object of the present invention to allow an article to be centered and stored on a shelf of a storage device. (Claims 1 to 3). An additional object of the invention of claim 2 is to enable reliable centering with a simple structure. An additional object of the invention of claim 3 is to enable centering of articles of various sizes.

[0004]

The article storage apparatus of the present invention is provided with an in-shelf conveyor for loading and unloading articles, and the elevating means elevates and lowers the shelves one by one so as to pass through the conveying surface of the in-shelf conveyor. And an in-shelf conveyor for transferring articles between the in-shelf conveyor and a supply means for supplying the in-shelf conveyor while centering the article in the width direction of the in-shelf conveyor. It is characterized by (claim 1).

Preferably, the supply means is provided on the inner side of the direction changing means when the article is branched from the storage conveyor and supplied in a direction substantially orthogonal to the storage conveyor, and the direction changing means when viewed from the storage conveyor. And a guide member for centering.

Further preferably, at least two cylinders having different strokes are connected in series and attached to the guide member so that the guide member is movable in a direction parallel to the width direction of the in-shelf conveyor. 3).

[0007]

According to the present invention, since the articles are supplied to the in-shelf conveyor while being centered, the articles are centered and stored even in the shelves transferred from the in-shelf conveyor. Therefore, the article can be centered and stored on the shelf with a simple structure (claim 1).

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the article is centered by the guide member at the inner side of the direction changing means when viewed from the warehousing conveyor, it is possible to center the article which is misaligned with respect to the lateral direction of the in-shelf conveyor during the direction change. . Therefore, the article can be surely centered on the shelf with a simple structure.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the two cylinders are connected in series to move the guide member. Here, since the two cylinders have different strokes, for example, the centering position along the width direction of the in-shelf conveyor can be changed in four steps. Therefore, even if the size of the article to be stored varies, the centering can be performed easily and reliably by switching the position of the guide member with the cylinder.

[0010]

EXAMPLE An example is shown in FIGS. In FIG. 1, 2 is a main body of the article storage device, for example, a plurality of them are arranged in parallel. Each article storage device main body 2 has an in-shelf conveyor 4, and a plurality of shelves are stacked and stored in the lower stage of the in-shelf conveyor 4, and the shelves are elevated one by one so as to pass through the conveying surface of the in-shelf conveyor 4. The article is received from the in-shelf conveyor 4. When the shelves (not shown) are lowered to the lower side of the in-shelf conveyor 4 at the time of shipping, articles can be transferred from the shelves to the in-shelf conveyor 4. Therefore, if the article can be centered and supplied in the width direction of the in-shelf conveyor 4, the article can be centered and stored in the width direction even on the shelf.

Reference numeral 6 is a warehousing line, for example, a roller conveyor or the like is used, and 8 is a warehousing sub-conveyor, which also uses a roller conveyor or the like. A chain conveyor or a belt conveyor may be used instead of the roller conveyor. A movable sorter 10 moves along the storage line 6 and selects one of the plurality of storage sub-conveyors 8 to store the article. At the time of storage, the articles are changed by the sorter 10 at a substantially right angle from the direction along the storage line 6 to the direction substantially orthogonal thereto. In the embodiment, the sorter 10 supplies the articles to the storage sub-conveyor 8 in the preceding stage, not to the intra-shelf conveyor 4, but may directly supply the articles to the intra-shelf conveyor without the storage sub-conveyor 8. The role of the storage sub-conveyor 8 is a buffer for supplying articles to the in-shelf conveyor 4.

Reference numeral 12 is a bar code reader, which is a storage line 6
Read the ID such as the barcode of the article above. Reference numeral 14 is a delivery sub-conveyor on the delivery side of the article storage device main body, and 16 is a delivery line, for which a roller conveyor or the like is used. 18
Is a physical distribution CPU, 20 is a receiving line controller, 22
Is a storage device controller, and 24 is a delivery line controller. When the bar code reader 12 reads the bar code of the article, the warehousing line controller 20 determines the physical distribution CPU.
Inquiries about the storage destination of goods corresponding to 18, and the physical distribution CPU
In response to this, 18 instructs the storage line controller 20 and the storage device controller 22 to store the goods.

The command to the warehousing line controller 20 at the time of warehousing of an article is to which article storage apparatus main body, that is, which frontage, and how many articles of which article number are to be stored. As auxiliary information other than this, command the size of the article,
Here, the size is expressed in four stages along the width direction of the in-shelf conveyor 4. This size is, for example, LL, L, M, S. The command to the storage device controller 22 commands how many articles of which product number are to be stored in which article storage device main body. The size of the article may be obtained by storing a table for converting the product number into the article size on the receiving line controller 20 side, instead of being notified from the physical distribution CPU 18 each time the article is received. The warehousing line controller 20 controls the warehousing line 6 to the warehousing sub-conveyor 8, and the storage device controller 22.
Controls the in-shelf conveyor of the article storage device body 2 and the up and down movement of the shelf.

FIG. 2 shows the appearance of the article storage device body 2. 4 is the above-mentioned in-shelf conveyor, for example, a large number of rollers 2
6 is a roller conveyor in which 6 is driven by a conveyor motor 27. A chain conveyor or the like may be used instead of the roller conveyor. 28 is a shelf, 29 is a shelf 28
Is a plurality of combs. When the shelf 28 moves up and down, the comb 29 passes through the gap between the rollers 26, 26, and when the shelf 28 rises from the conveying surface of the in-shelf conveyor 4, the articles on the in-shelf conveyor 4 are loaded and the shelf 28 moves in the shelf. When the conveyor 4 passes through the conveying surface downward, the articles on the shelf 28 are unloaded onto the in-shelf conveyor 4.

Reference numeral 30 is a column of the main body 2 of the article storage device, and an elevating motor 32 and a chain 34 elevate and lower the shelf 28.
The shelves 28 are stacked and stored in the lower part of the in-shelf conveyor 4, and between the shelves 28 and 28, a metal plate 36 is attached to the chain 34.
To prevent the chain 34 from being pinched between shelves when the shelves 28 are stacked on the lower part of the in-shelf conveyor 4 by mounting the shelves. The shelves 28 can be raised and lowered one by one in order, and the space between the shelves is determined by the metal plate 36 and the chain.

Marks 40 using mirrors such as reflective tape are attached to both ends of the shelf 28 in the loading / unloading direction, and the shelf 2
8 to be able to detect the ascending / descending position. In addition to this, a mark 42 using a mirror or the like is attached to the top shelf,
Make it possible to detect that it is the top shelf. Similarly, a mark 44 using a mirror or the like is attached to the lower end shelf so that the lower end shelf can be detected. Mark 4
0, 42, and 44 are, for example, stop positions immediately above the in-shelf conveyor 4, and are detected by an optical sensor (not shown), and the shelves 28 are detected.
Used to control the elevation of the.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the sorter 10. For example, a pair of guide rails 50 are provided in parallel with the warehousing line 6,
The sorter 10 is self-propelled to a desired frontage position while being guided in the guide rail 50 by the wheels 52. Reference numeral 54 is a belt conveyor for picking up an article from the warehousing line 6, and may be a guide member for simply riding and guiding the article without being a conveyor, or without providing them. good.

The articles carried into the sorter 10 from the belt conveyor 54 are carried by the power rollers in the sorter. Reference numerals 56 and 57 denote tapered rollers. Here, the diameter of the roller is increased on the inside of the curve from the storage line 6 to the storage sub-conveyor 8 (on the side close to the center of curvature), and on the outside of the curve (outside when viewed from the center of curvature). The roller diameter is reduced by. The role of the tapered rollers 56 and 57 is to relatively increase the article conveyance speed inside the curve and relatively reduce the article conveyance speed outside the curve. Reference numerals 58 and 59 are intermediate rollers for feeding the articles to the tapered rollers 56 and 57, and 60 is an outlet side roller, which delivers the articles to the storage sub-conveyor 8. A part of these rollers may be a free roller without power.

Reference numeral 62 is a guide member, which is provided on the far side as viewed from the direction of carrying articles from the warehousing line to the sorter 10, that is, on the left side in FIG. It was provided over the range from the tapered rollers 56 and 57 to the outlet side roller 60. The range in which the guide member 62 is provided is preferably within the range from the position where the sorter 10 starts to curve the article to the position where it exits. Particularly, it is preferable to provide the guide member 62 along the exit side of the sorter from the latter half of the area where the article is curved. .

The guide member 62 is constituted by a belt conveyor, 64 is its belt, and 66, 66 are rollers for feeding the belt 64. Also, the feeding direction of the belt 64 is
The direction in which the articles are conveyed on the sorter 10 is substantially parallel to and in the same direction, and preferably, the conveyance speed of the articles on the exit side roller 60 and the speed of the belt 64 on the contact surface with the articles are substantially equal in the same direction. To do. Instead of the guide member 62, a simple steel guide plate or the like may be used. If the feeding speed of the belt 64 is set to be different from the conveying speed of the outlet side roller 60, the article can be rotated by the belt and its direction can be adjusted.

68 is a fixed base, 70 is a first stage cylinder, 72 is a second stage cylinder, and 74 and 75 are pistons thereof. Pneumatic cylinders are used as the cylinders 70 and 72, but hydraulic cylinders may be used. The first-stage cylinder 70 pushes the base 68 with the piston 74, which causes the first-stage cylinder 70 to move in the left-right direction in FIG. The second stage cylinder 72 is the first stage cylinder 7.
The guide member 62 is fixed at 0 and the piston 75 pushes the guide member 62 to move the guide member 62 in the left-right direction in FIG.
Since the second-stage cylinder 72 is fixed to the first-stage cylinder 70, they are connected in series as a whole,
The cylinders 70 and 72 are slidable with respect to the base 68, for example. Further, the stroke of the first-stage cylinder 70 is different from the stroke of the second-stage cylinder 72, and is doubled, for example.

The operation of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 80
Is an article to be stored in the article storage device main body, and its clockwise and counterclockwise directions are determined as shown in FIG. Cylinder 70,7
Since No. 2 has different strokes and is connected in series, the guide member 62 can be shifted to the left and right at a total of four stages. The position of the guide member 62 is the
When the size of 0 is LL, the cylinder 70, 7 is on the leftmost side.
2 is off (state where piston is not advanced)
Becomes When the article size is L, the piston of the cylinder 72 has advanced, and the piston of the cylinder 70 has not advanced at this time. When the article size is M, the piston of the cylinder 70 advances and the piston of the cylinder 72 retracts. The article size is S, the pistons of the cylinders 70 and 72 both advance, and the guide member 62 moves to the rightmost side in FIG.

The article 80 is picked up by the belt conveyor 54, slightly bent in direction by the intermediate rollers 58 and 59, and conveyed by the tapered rollers 56 and 57. The tapered rollers 56 and 57 have a large diameter inside the curve,
Since the diameter is small on the outside, the posture of the article 80 is to be rotated clockwise. On the other hand, the article 80 tries to change its posture by 90 ° counterclockwise in the curve of the sorter 10. Therefore, if the article is rotated clockwise by 90 ° by using the tapered rollers 56 and 57, the article will be rotated. Figure 4
Like 80a and 80b, it curves without changing the direction.

To bend an article without changing its direction,
It suffices that the sorter 10 conveys the article at a high speed inside the curve and a low speed outside the curve. Therefore, even with a configuration other than the tapered rollers 56 and 57, the article can be curved without changing the direction. For example 2 on the inside and 2 on the curve
The roller conveyors may be arranged in parallel with each other so that the conveying speed of the inner roller conveyor is higher than that of the outer roller conveyor. Also, tapered rollers 56, 5
The transport surface of 7 (the height of the top surfaces of the rollers 56 and 57) is horizontal.

When the articles 80 are stored in the storage sub-conveyor 8 without changing the direction, the long side direction of the articles 80, which is shown in the longitudinal direction of the line on the storage line, is changed to the width direction of the in-shelf conveyor or the shelves. Appears and can accommodate a large number of articles by the same length of in-shelf conveyors and shelves. Similarly, a larger number of articles can be accommodated in the storage sub-conveyor and the output sub-conveyor having the same length. The thicker and shorter in-shelf conveyors, storage sub-conveyors, and storage sub-conveyors are space-saving and easier to handle than slender in-shelf conveyors, storage sub-conveyors, and storage sub-conveyors.

The articles 80 are conveyed on the sorter 10 in the conveying direction 90.
It changes, and during this time, it is difficult to use the tapered rollers 56 and 57 so that the rollers 56 and 57 are naturally centered on the outlet side roller 60. Therefore, the article 80 is guided by the belt 64 of the guide member 62, centered in the width direction of the exit side roller 60, and centered and stored on the in-shelf conveyor or on the shelf.

In principle, only articles of the same type are stored in the article storage device body, and a large number of article storage device bodies are arranged in parallel for operation. Here, the allocation of product types to the article storage device body may be changed. In such a case, the centering position can be automatically changed by using the cylinders 70 and 72 even if the number of the article storage device main bodies is large, so that the product type can be easily changed.

Although the movable sorter 10 is provided with the guide member in the embodiment, the entrance of the receiving sub-conveyor is extended so as to be almost in contact with the receiving line, and the articles are transferred from the receiving line to the receiving sub-conveyor for each receiving sub-conveyor. A movable turning device for branching may be provided. In this case, it is preferable that the guide member is provided, for example, on the storage sub-conveyor on the back side as viewed in the transport direction of the storage line, that is, outside the curve by the direction changing device, in parallel with the side surface of the storage sub-conveyor. Also in this case, it is preferable to connect two cylinders having different strokes in series so that the position of the guide member can be switched in at least four stages.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a layout of an article storage device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the article storage device body of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a sorter used in the examples.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the operation of the sorter in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 Article storage device body 4 In-shelf conveyor 6 warehousing line 8 Storage sub-conveyor 10 Sorter 12 Bar code reader 14 Outgoing sub-conveyor 16 Delivery line 18 Logistics CPU 20 Storage line controller 22 Storage device controller 24 Delivery line controller 26 Laura 27 Conveyor motor 28 shelves 30 props 32 lifting motor 34 chains 36 Metal Plate 40, 42, 44 marks 50 guide rails 52 wheels 54 belt conveyor 56,57 Tapered roller 58,59 Intermediate roller 60 Exit side roller 62 Guide member 64 belt 66,66 roller 68 base 70 First stage cylinder 72 Second stage cylinder 74,75 pistons 80 articles

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An in-shelf conveyor for loading and unloading articles is provided, and the shelves are moved up and down one by one so as to pass through the conveying surface of the in-shelf conveyor by the elevating means, and between the shelves and the in-shelf conveyor. An apparatus for transferring articles, comprising: a supply means for supplying the articles to the in-shelf conveyor while centering the articles in the width direction of the in-shelf conveyor. . 2. A direction changing means for supplying an article from a warehousing conveyor in a direction substantially orthogonal to the warehousing conveyor, and a centering provided on the back side of the directional changing means when viewed from the warehousing conveyor. The article storage device according to claim 1, wherein the article storage device comprises: 3. The guide member is movable in a direction parallel to the width direction of the in-shelf conveyor by connecting at least two cylinders having different strokes in series and attaching to the guide member. The article storage device according to claim 2.