JP2006103874A - Vertical sorting device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vertical sorting device having a very simple configuration and high sorting capability. <P>SOLUTION: This vertical sorting device is constituted in such a way that it has a pair of power transmission members 33A, 33B connected in an endless manner and having a plurality of supporting brackets 36 at substantially fixed interval, they are stretched over in substantially vertical direction in a folded-back condition, they are arranged adjacent to each other while the supporting brackets 36 being the pair oppose mutually at a predetermined interval, and they elevate or lower in synchronization. This vertical sorting device is provided with a charging means 37 for charging an article storage case 10 into a predetermined supporting bracket 36 by matching timing with elevation and lowering of the supporting bracket 36 and a pushing-out means for pushing out the article storage case 10 supported on the supporting bracket 36 into any of a plurality of transfer parts provided at predetermined height positions based on predetermined sorting information by matching timing with elevation and lowering of the supporting bracket 36. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a sorting apparatus for sorting and shipping received articles by order, for example, in a distribution center that handles a large number of articles, and in particular, a vertical sorting apparatus that performs sorting while transporting articles in a vertical direction. About.

  Conventionally, as this type of vertical sorting device, a belt conveyor is used for the lifting shelf, and the article is discharged at the take-out port, and the articles are lifted and conveyed by a plurality of comb-shaped lifting shelves connected by a chain. In addition, there is known an apparatus in which a comb-shaped take-out conveyor is operated at a take-out port to discharge an article.

  However, the conventional vertical sorting apparatus is versatile in order to cope with various dimensions and shapes, so that there is a problem that the structure is complicated and the cost is increased.

  For example, in the case of a vertical sorting apparatus using comb-like lifting shelves, a movable take-out conveyor that crosses the lifting shelves in a non-contact manner and guides articles to the sorting line side is required at each stage take-out port, Moreover, since the thing using a belt conveyor type raising / lowering shelf needs a cross belt type conveyor, cost becomes very high.

Furthermore, in the case of the above-described prior art, there is a problem that it is difficult to improve the sorting ability because it is necessary to increase the interval between the lifting shelves in order to perform the take-out operation during the lifting operation.
JP 2004-131258 A

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and an object thereof is to provide a vertical sorting apparatus having a very simple configuration and high sorting ability.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 has a pair of endlessly connected power transmission members in which a plurality of support brackets for supporting an article are provided at substantially constant intervals. The power transmission members are wound in a substantially vertical direction in a folded state, and are disposed adjacent to each other with a predetermined interval in a state where the pair of support brackets are opposed to each other. Elevating means configured to move up and down in synchronism, throwing means disposed in the vicinity of the power transmission member, and throwing articles into a predetermined support bracket in synchronization with the raising and lowering of the support bracket, and the support An article supported by the bracket is moved to one of a plurality of chute portions provided at a predetermined height position on the basis of predetermined sorting information, and the support bracket is moved up and down. Further comprising a pushing means for pushing together a vertical sorting apparatus according to claim.
The invention according to claim 2 is the invention according to claim 1, wherein the mounting pitch of the support brackets is substantially equal to the height pitch of the plurality of chute portions, and the height positions of the support brackets are When the height position of the chute portion is substantially equal to the height position of the throwing means, the height position of the support bracket to which the article is thrown by the throwing means is configured to be equal. Features.

  In the case of the present invention, a pair of endlessly connected power transmission members provided with a plurality of support brackets at a substantially constant interval are arranged adjacent to each other at a predetermined interval, and the loaded article is replaced with the pair of power transmission members. Since it is moved up and down in synchronization and conveyed in the vertical direction, the article is pushed out to the chute in time with the raising and lowering of the support bracket, so there is no need to use a conveyor as in the prior art, and it is extremely simple and low A cost vertical sorting device can be provided.

  Moreover, according to this invention, the space | interval of a support bracket can be made small according to the size of the articles | goods to sort, and, thereby, sorting ability can be improved compared with a prior art.

  In the present invention, the mounting pitch of the support bracket is substantially equal to the height pitch of the plurality of chute portions, and the height positions of the support brackets are substantially equal to the height positions of the chute portions. When the loading height position of the loading means and the height position of the support bracket into which the article is loaded by the loading means are equal, the timing of loading the article and each chute part Since the timing of sorting can be synchronized, articles can be efficiently put in and sorted.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a vertical sorting apparatus suitable for sorting equipment having a very large number of openings for sorting articles having substantially the same dimensions.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a vertical sorting apparatus having a very simple configuration and high sorting ability.

  Hereinafter, the best embodiment of the vertical sorter according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of sorting equipment using a vertical sorting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a basic configuration of the sorting equipment.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the sorting facility 1 according to the present embodiment has a storage unit 2 capable of storing a plurality of article storage cases (articles) 10, and a vertical unit described later is provided near the storage unit. A mold sorting device 3, a traveling sorting unit 4, and a case take-out device 5 are provided.

  The storage unit 2 includes a plurality of storage conveyors 20 made of, for example, flow racks arranged in parallel and assembled in multiple stages. In the case of the present embodiment, the first and second storage conveyor groups 21 and 22 are arranged. It is composed of

  Here, the 1st storage conveyor group 21 is comprised from a pair of opposing conveyor groups 21A and 21B arrange | positioned in the state which each input part 21a and 21b was made to oppose.

  The second storage conveyor group 22 is also composed of a pair of opposed conveyor groups 22A and 22B arranged in a state where the input portions 22a and 22b are opposed to each other.

  The first and second storage conveyor groups 21 and 22 are arranged adjacent to each other, and the corresponding opposing conveyor groups 21A and 22A and the input sections 21a and 22a and 21b and 22b of the opposing conveyor groups 21B and 22B are linear. It is configured to be arranged.

  In the case of the present embodiment, as the first and second storage conveyor groups 21 and 22, those having the same number of storage conveyors 20 and having the same configuration are used.

  The storage conveyor 20 of the storage unit 2 is provided, for example, corresponding to the number of orders per day, and position information corresponding to each order is given to each storage conveyor 20.

  Each storage conveyor 20 is provided with means (not shown) for cutting out a predetermined number of article storage cases 10 based on predetermined order information.

  The vertical sorting apparatus 3 has a tower-shaped vertical sorting conveyor 30 provided at the downstream end of the warehousing conveyor 6 in the transport direction, and a delivery unit 31 corresponding to the storage conveyor 20 at each stage of the storage unit 2, for example. ing.

  The vertical sorting conveyor 30 conveys the article storage case 10 introduced from the warehousing conveyor 6 upward by a plurality of support brackets 36, which will be described later, and sorts it into a delivery section (chute section) 31 on a predetermined floor according to predetermined sorting data. It is configured as follows.

  The delivery unit 31 is provided with a station 32 for delivering each sorted article storage case 10 to the following travel sorting unit 4.

  The sorting cart unit 4 of the present embodiment is provided between the opposing conveyor groups 21A and 21B of the first storage conveyor group 21 and between the opposing conveyor groups 22A and 22B of the second storage conveyor group 22. The sorting cart unit 4 includes, for example, a traveling lane 40 corresponding to the storage conveyor 20 of each stage of the storage unit 2 and a sorting cart 41 that can reciprocate along each traveling lane 40.

  Here, each traveling lane 40 is horizontally arranged so as to extend in the width direction of each storage conveyor 20, and is formed in a multi-stage shape so as to be almost the same height as the input portions 21a, 21b, 22a, 22b of each stage. Is provided.

  The traveling cart 41 is provided with, for example, a cross-belt sorting unit 42 that sorts the article storage cases 10 in a direction orthogonal to the traveling direction, and stores articles received from the delivery unit 31 of the vertical sorting conveyor 30. The case 10 is configured to be loaded into the loading portions 21a, 21b, 22a, and 22b of the storage conveyors 20 in the respective stages of the first and second storage conveyor groups 21 and 22 based on predetermined order information. .

  By the way, in the case of this invention, it is preferable to arrange | position the vertical sorting conveyor 30 mentioned above not the edge part of the driving | running | working lane 40 of the driving | running | working sorting part 4 but the center part from a viewpoint of improving sorting capability.

  In this case, more preferably, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, the transfer unit 31 of the vertical sorting apparatus 3 is located between the first and second storage conveyor groups 21 and 22, and each storage conveyor 20. However, it is preferable that the travel distances of the traveling carriages 41 are equal to each other.

  On the other hand, the case take-out device 5 of the present embodiment is a first and second case take-out device provided in the vicinity of the cutout portions 21c, 21d, 22c, 22d of the first and second storage conveyor groups 21, 22. 5 (5A, 5B).

  As shown in FIG. 1, the case cutting device 5 of the present embodiment includes a main body frame 51 that can reciprocate on a rail 50 that is arranged adjacent to and parallel to the delivery conveyor 7, for example.

  The main body frame 51 is formed at substantially the same height as the storage unit 2, and the main body frame 51 is provided with an elevating station 53 and an elevating table 54 that can move up and down independently in the height direction.

  The elevating station 53 has an introduction part 55 for introducing the article storage cases 10 cut out from each storage conveyor 20, and a predetermined number of article storage cases 10 introduced from the introduction part 55 are arranged in a row by the roller conveyor 56. They are arranged and transferred to the lifting table 54 by the pusher 57.

  Furthermore, a transformer conveyor 58 for transferring the article storage case 10 delivered from the lifting table 54 to the delivery conveyor 7 is provided at a position adjacent to the delivery conveyor 7 below the main body frame 51. .

  3 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of the vertical sorting apparatus according to the present embodiment, FIG. 4 is a side view showing the schematic configuration of the vertical sorting apparatus, and FIG. 5 is a main part of the vertical sorting apparatus. It is a top view which shows schematic structure.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the sorting conveyor 30 according to the present embodiment includes an elevating unit 34 having a pair of endlessly connected power transmission members 33 (33A, 33B) made of, for example, a chain.

  Each of these power transmission members 33A and 33B is provided with a plurality of support brackets 36 each having an L-shaped cross section, for example, at a substantially constant interval, and is suspended in a substantially vertical direction in a state of being folded back by, for example, a sprocket 35 or the like. The pair of support brackets 36 are arranged adjacent to each other at a predetermined interval with the support brackets 36 facing each other.

  The power transmission members 33A and 33B are configured such that the opposing support brackets 36 are raised in synchronization by driving the sprocket 35 by a drive motor (not shown).

  As shown in FIG. 4, in the vicinity of the lower part of the power transmission members 33 </ b> A and 33 </ b> B, a loading unit 37 for loading the article storage case 10 into the support bracket 36 is disposed.

  The input means 37 includes an input conveyor 38 arranged to receive the articles 10 conveyed by the warehousing conveyor 6.

  The input conveyor 38 is disposed between the power transmission members 33 </ b> A and 33 </ b> B, and is configured to input the article storage case 10 into a predetermined support bracket 36 in synchronization with the rising of the support bracket 36.

  In the case of the present embodiment, the support brackets 36 provided on the power transmission members 33A and 33B are configured such that the mounting pitch thereof is substantially equal to the height pitch of each of the delivery portions 31 described above.

  Further, in the present embodiment, when the height position of each support bracket 36 becomes substantially equal to the height position of each delivery portion 31, the article storage case is placed by the insertion height position of the input means 37 and the input means 37. 10 is configured so that the height positions of the support brackets 36a into which 10 is inserted are equal.

  On the other hand, a plurality of push-out means 39 for pushing out each article storage case 10 is provided on the opposite side of the delivery portion 31 with the power transmission members 33A and 33B interposed therebetween.

  In the present embodiment, each pusher 39 is disposed at substantially the same height as the transfer section 31 at each stage.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the push-out means 39 has a pusher 39a configured to reciprocate by a drive motor (not shown). The pusher 39a is synchronized with the ascending of the support bracket 36, and the power transmission member 33A, The article storage case 10 on the support bracket 36 is configured to be pushed out to the corresponding delivery section 31 by being inserted between 33B.

  Under such a configuration, in the present embodiment, first, after an operator confirms the item contents of the received goods, the articles are put into the article storage case 10 one by one, and then the articles are stored. The barcode of the case 10 is read by a barcode reader, and the item information of each article is associated with the case ID information (not shown).

  Then, as shown in FIG. 1, each article storage case 10 is conveyed to the input means 37 of the vertical sorting conveyor 30 of the vertical sorting device 3 via the warehousing conveyor 6.

  As shown in FIG. 4, in the input conveyor 38, each delivered article storage case 10 is input to the support bracket 36 of the vertical sorting conveyor 30 in synchronization with the rising of the support bracket 36.

  Then, the article storage case 10 is sequentially conveyed upward by driving the elevating means 34 to raise the support bracket 36.

  Further, according to predetermined sorting data, the pusher 39a of the push-out means 39 is operated in synchronization with the ascending of the support bracket 36, thereby sorting the article storage cases 10 on the respective support brackets 36 to the predetermined stage transfer section 31. .

  The delivery unit 31 delivers each sorted article storage case 10 to the corresponding sorting cart 41 via the station 32.

  Then, the sorting cart 41 is moved on the rail 40 in accordance with predetermined order information. For example, each article storage case 10 is put into a predetermined storage conveyor 20 and stored, and thereafter stored in order units.

  On the other hand, the article storage cases 10 stored in each storage conveyor 20 are sequentially cut out to the delivery conveyor 7 via the case cutting device 5 in accordance with a predetermined sequence.

  According to the present embodiment described above, a pair of endlessly connected power transmission members 33A and 33B provided with a plurality of support brackets 36 at a substantially constant interval are disposed adjacent to each other at a predetermined interval. Since the article storage case 10 is conveyed upward in synchronism with the pair of power transmission members 33A and 33B, the article storage case 10 is pushed out in time with the rise of the support bracket 36. Thus, it is not necessary to use a conveyor, and it is possible to provide a low-cost vertical sorting apparatus with a very simple configuration.

  Moreover, according to this Embodiment, the space | interval of the support bracket 36 can be made small according to the size of the article | item storage case 10 to sort, and, thereby, sorting ability can be improved compared with a prior art.

  Particularly in the present embodiment, the mounting pitch of the support brackets 36 is substantially equal to the height pitch of the plurality of transfer portions 31, and the respective height positions of the support brackets 36 are the respective height positions of the transfer portions 31. Since the loading height position of the loading means 37 and the height position of the support bracket 36 into which the article storage case 10 is loaded by the loading means 37 are equal to each other, the article storage case 10 can be synchronized with the timing of sorting to each delivery section 31, so that the article storage case 10 can be loaded and sorted efficiently.

  As described above, the vertical sorting apparatus 3 according to the present embodiment is particularly suitable for the sorting equipment 1 according to the present embodiment having a very large number of openings for sorting the article storage cases 10 having substantially the same dimensions. This is preferable.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various changes can be made.
For example, in the above-described embodiment, sorting is performed by raising an article, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can also be applied to sorting by dropping an article.

  Further, the present invention can be applied to various sorting equipment in addition to the sorting equipment of the above embodiment.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, in addition to storing a plurality of received articles one by one in an article storage case, when there are a plurality of the same items in one order, a plurality of articles of the same item are It can also be stored in an article storage case. If such an operation is performed, there is an advantage that the storage space for the article can be reduced.

It is a perspective view which shows an example of the sorting equipment using the vertical sorting apparatus of embodiment of this invention. It is a top view which shows the basic composition of the same sorting equipment. It is a front view which shows schematic structure of the vertical type | mold sorting apparatus of the embodiment. It is a side view which shows schematic structure of the vertical type | mold sorting apparatus. It is a top view which shows the principal part schematic structure of the vertical sorter.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Sorting equipment 2 ... Storage part 3 ... Vertical type | mold sorting apparatus 4 ... Travel sorting part 5 ... Case taking-out apparatus 10 ... Article storage case (article)
30 ... Sorting conveyor 31 ... Delivery section (chute section)
33 (33A, 33B) ... power transmission member 34 ... lifting means 36 ... support bracket 37 ... loading means 39 ... extrusion means

Claims (2)

The support bracket for supporting an article has a pair of endlessly connected power transmission members provided at a plurality of substantially constant intervals, and the pair of power transmission members are folded in a substantially vertical direction in a folded state. The pair of support brackets are arranged adjacent to each other at a predetermined interval with the support brackets facing each other, and the pair of power transmission members are configured to move up and down synchronously;
An input unit disposed in the vicinity of the power transmission member, and inputs an article into a predetermined support bracket in synchronization with the raising and lowering of the support bracket;
Extruding means for extruding the article supported by the support bracket to any one of a plurality of chute portions provided at a predetermined height position in synchronization with the raising and lowering of the support bracket based on predetermined sorting information A vertical sorting apparatus characterized by comprising:   When the mounting pitch of the support bracket is substantially equal to the height pitch of the plurality of chute parts, and each height position of the support bracket is substantially equal to each height position of the chute parts, 2. The vertical sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the loading height position of the loading means is equal to the height position of the support bracket into which the article is loaded by the loading means.

Images