JP2005247548A - Lifting position confirming means - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a lifting position confirming means for allowing a worker to confirm an accurate lifting position from the inside of a maintenance cage. <P>SOLUTION: This lifting position confirming means 10 confirms a vertical position of the maintenance cage 3 of a stacker crane 1; and is composed of a confirming window 14 arranged on the mast 2 side of the maintenance cage 3, a dial plate 16 arranged in the vertical direction on a mast 2 so as to be visually confirmable via the confirming window 14 from the inside of the maintenance cage 3, and a warning generating apparatus 18 for issuing a warning when the lifting or lowering maintenance cage 3 reaches a position U1 near to the upper limit U, and when reaching a position D1 near to the lower limit D. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a lifting position confirmation means for confirming a lifting position of a maintenance cage attached to a stacker crane.

  Conventionally, a stacker crane is used for loading and unloading in an automatic warehouse. This stacker crane is arranged so as to be able to travel along the left-right direction of the rack, and is erected on the carriage and a carriage that moves in the left-right direction along a pair of upper and lower guide rails laid on the ceiling and floor of the passage. And a carriage disposed between the two masts so as to be movable up and down. The carriage includes a slide fork that can be expanded and contracted in the front-rear direction. The stacker crane lifts and lowers the carriage and expands and contracts the slide fork to load and unload the load with the rack. In addition, a loading / unloading station is arranged on the right side of the rack. This loading / unloading station is composed of a loading station for loading the pallet with the load conveyed by the forklift as a conveying means, and a loading station for loading the load unloaded from the rack by the stacker crane. In the loading / unloading station, a receiving platform for placing the load is provided. The load placed at the warehousing station is carried into a predetermined storage space of the rack by the stacker crane, and the load placed at the warehousing station is conveyed to the outside by the forklift. In such an automatic warehouse, the stacker crane carries out the work of replacing the load in a plurality of storage spaces of the rack, or loads the load placed in the storage station into a predetermined storage space of the storage shelf, When carrying out loading / unloading work for unloading the cargo stored in the storage space and placing it on the loading / unloading station, the loading / unloading operation of the load is performed with the slide fork.

  In order to perform maintenance of such a stacker crane, a maintenance cage is attached to the stacker crane. For example, in the case of the stacker crane 1 shown in FIG. 5, a maintenance cage 3 that rises or falls along a mast 2 extending in the vertical direction is attached. According to the maintenance cage 3, an operator can get on and raise and lower in the vertical direction by his own operation to perform maintenance of the stacker crane 1. With respect to the lifting platform, a display means has been devised for confirming the vertical position of the carriage that moves up and down along the mast 2 (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 56-20976

  However, there is no display means that allows the operator to confirm the exact vertical position of the maintenance gauge from within the maintenance cage. Thereby, since it is difficult for the operator to predict the forced stop at the upper limit or the lower limit, the worker may be unexpectedly impacted by the forced stop at the upper limit or the lower limit.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an elevating position confirming means that allows an operator to confirm an accurate elevating position of a maintenance gauge from within a maintenance cage.

  The present invention is a lifting position confirmation means for confirming the vertical position of the maintenance cage that rises or descends along the mast extending in the vertical direction of the stacker crane, and a confirmation window provided on the mast side of the maintenance cage, A strip-shaped scale plate arranged vertically on the mast so as to be visible from the inside of the maintenance cage through the confirmation window.

  Further, the lift position confirmation means is characterized by comprising an indicator line extending horizontally in the confirmation window.

  The lifting position confirmation means may further comprise an alarm generating device that issues an alarm when the ascending or descending maintenance cage reaches a certain vertical position.

  According to the lift position confirmation means according to the present invention, the accurate vertical position of the maintenance cage can be confirmed by visually reading the scale plate provided on the mast through the confirmation window. For this reason, it can recognize that it is approaching an upper limit or a lower limit during raising / lowering, and the impact by the forced stop at an upper limit or a lower limit is not received unexpectedly. Further, according to the lift position confirmation means of the present invention provided with an index line extending horizontally in the window, an accurate vertical position can be confirmed using the index line as a guide. In addition, unlike an electrical measurement device, no electric wire is required, and a low-cost and failure-free configuration can be achieved.

  Further, according to the lifting position confirmation means of the present invention provided with an alarm generating device, the upper limit during lifting is configured by being configured to issue an alarm when the rising or lowering maintenance cage reaches a position close to the upper limit or lower limit. Or it can be surely recognized that the lower limit is being approached. In addition, you may provide the fixed position which issues a warning in each of several places of the position near an upper limit or a minimum. Furthermore, a certain position where an alarm is issued may be set to an intermediate position.

  Next, based on FIG. 1 thru | or FIG. 4, embodiment of the raising / lowering position confirmation means 10 is described. Detailed description of the prior art is omitted.

  First, with reference to FIG.1 and FIG.2, 1st embodiment of the raising / lowering position confirmation means 10 is described. The lift position confirmation means 10 of the present invention is a lift position confirmation means for confirming the vertical position of the maintenance cage (lift platform) 3 of the stacker crane 1, a confirmation window 14 provided on the mast 2 side of the maintenance cage 3, When the scale plate 16 arranged in the vertical direction on the mast 2 and the ascending or descending maintenance cage 3 reach the position U1 close to the upper limit U and the lower limit D so that the maintenance cage 3 can be seen through the confirmation window 14 The alarm generating device 18 is configured to issue an alarm when the position D1 close to is reached. In the figure, U, U1, D, and D1 are shown with reference to the position of the bottom surface of the maintenance cage 3.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the confirmation window 14 is configured by providing a rectangular hole in the side wall 20 of the maintenance cage 3. An intermediate portion of the confirmation window 14 is provided with an index line 22 extending in the horizontal direction so that the scale plate 16 can be easily read using the index line 22 as a guide. The confirmation window 14 may be covered with a transparent member made of resin, glass or the like, and the indicator line 22 may be drawn on the transparent member with a paint or a tape or the like may be attached.

  The scale plate 16 is composed of three display tapes 32, 34 and 36 attached from the upper part to the lower part of the mast 2. The distance to the lower limit D is displayed on the display tape 32 in cm, and is attached to the left portion of the mast 2 in FIG. The display tape 34 displays the number of shelves in the automatic warehouse and is attached to the middle portion of the mast 2. The distance to the upper limit U is displayed on the display tape 36 in cm, and is attached to the right side portion of the mast 2.

  In addition, the alarm generating device 18 comes into contact with a bell 26 that emits a sound by hitting the metal fitting 24 and a dog 28 fixed to the mast 2, thereby rotating about an axis 29 and hitting the metal fitting 24. It consists of and. FIG. 2 shows a state where the maintenance cage 3 is in a position near the lower limit. The position of the dog 28 is 50 cm to 100 cm below or above from the upper limit U or the lower limit D.

  The stacker crane 1 provided with such lift position confirmation means 10 is operated while an operator gets on the maintenance cage 3 and operates a manual button to operate a motor (not shown) to raise or lower the maintenance cage 3. Do. When the maintenance cage 3 is raised or lowered, the operator can confirm the vertical position of the maintenance cage 3 by reading the scale plate 16 from the confirmation window 14.

  Further, when the maintenance cage 3 is raised or lowered, the operator can recognize that the upper limit U or the lower limit D has been approached by the sound produced by the bell 26. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, when the maintenance cage 3 approaches the lower limit D, the dog 28 and the arm 30 come into contact immediately before the maintenance cage 3 descends to the lower limit D, the arm 30 rotates and hits the metal fitting 24, Since 26 emits a sound, an operator on the maintenance cage 3 can recognize this sound as an alarm. For this reason, it can be recognized that the lower limit D will be reached soon, and even if the lower limit D is reached and the maintenance cage 3 is forcibly stopped electrically or mechanically, there is no unexpected impact.

  Although the first embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the first embodiment.

  For example, the alarm generating device is not limited to the alarm generating device 18 described above, and may be the alarm generating device 50 shown in FIG. The alarm generating device 50 includes a contact sensor 52 that detects contact with the dog 28 and a buzzer 54 that receives a detection signal from the contact sensor 52 and emits a sound.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4, when the contact sensor 52 detects that the dog 28 has been touched and the buzzer 54 emits a sound, it is provided with a lamp 56 that is turned on simultaneously so that the operator can visually recognize it. Anyway. Also, as shown in FIG. 4, two dogs 28 may be fixed adjacent to each other so that a sound is emitted twice when the maintenance cage 3 approaches the upper limit U or the lower limit D.

  Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment shown in the drawings. For example, the number of confirmation windows is not limited to one and may be plural. Further, the scale plate is not limited to one composed of three display tapes, and may be composed of one, two, or four or more display tapes. Further, the lifting position confirmation means of the present invention is not limited to use in a maintenance cage that is raised or lowered by a manual button, but may be used in a maintenance cage that is raised by automatic operation. In addition, the present invention can be implemented in a mode in which various improvements, modifications, or variations are added based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

  According to the present invention, since the vertical position of the maintenance cage can be confirmed, the impact due to the forced stop at the upper limit or the lower limit is not unexpectedly received, and the safety when handling the stacker crane can be improved as compared with the conventional case.

It is a front view which shows the stacker crane which uses the raising / lowering position confirmation means of this invention. It is an expanded front sectional view of the raising / lowering position confirmation means of FIG. It is an expanded front sectional view which shows 2nd Embodiment of the raising / lowering position confirmation means of this invention. It is expansion front sectional drawing which shows further 3rd Embodiment of the raising / lowering position confirmation means of this invention. It is a side view which shows the conventional stacker crane.

Explanation of symbols

1: Stacker crane 2: Mast 3: Maintenance cage (lift)
10: Lift position confirmation means 14: Confirmation window 16: Scale board 18, 50: Alarm generating device 20: Side wall 22: Indicator line 24: Metal fitting 26: Bell 28: Dog U: Upper limit U1: Position close to upper limit U D: Lower limit D1: Position close to lower limit D

Claims (3)

A lifting position confirmation means for confirming the vertical position of the lifting platform that rises or descends along the mast extending in the vertical direction of the stacker crane,
A confirmation window provided on the mast side of the lifting platform;
A band-shaped scale plate fixed in the vertical direction to the mast so that it can be seen through the confirmation window from within the elevator,
Elevating position confirmation means equipped with.   The raising / lowering position confirmation means of Claim 1 provided with the index line extended in a horizontal direction within the said confirmation window.   The raising / lowering position confirmation means of Claim 1 or Claim 2 provided with the alarm generation tool which issues a warning when the said raising / lowering raising / lowering stand reaches a fixed up-down position.

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