JP2009187867A - Running vehicle system, and static elimination method of running vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate static from a running vehicle without performing special control nor easily generating dust. <P>SOLUTION: A vessel holding a conductive magnetic fluid in an electrically grounded state is arranged along a running route of a running vehicle; the running vehicle is provided, at a position passing through an upper part of the vessel, with a magnet attracting the magnetic fluid, and a conductive part eliminating static by contacting the magnetic fluid attracted to the magnet side; and static is eliminated from the running vehicle by attracting the magnetic fluid from the vessel by the magnet to be brought into contact with the conductive part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a traveling vehicle system such as an overhead traveling vehicle, a tracked carriage, an unmanned transport vehicle that travels without a track, or a stacker crane, and more particularly to static elimination of a traveling vehicle.

If a traveling vehicle equipped with insulating traveling wheels such as rubber or plastic is charged, the IC on the control unit may malfunction due to a discharge from the ground side, or adversely affect surrounding equipment. Therefore, it is necessary to discharge the charged static electricity by grounding, that is, to eliminate the charge. In this regard, Patent Literature 1: Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 02-5374 describes that a traveling roller is provided with a metal grounding roller separately from a normal traveling wheel. However, providing a roller for grounding is also a problem in terms of cost, and in the case of a traveling vehicle that runs in a clean room, the abrasion powder of the metal roller causes dust generation, which is not preferable.
ACT 02-5374

An object of the present invention is to neutralize a traveling vehicle without generating dust.
An additional problem in the invention of claim 2 is to easily remove the static electricity from the traveling vehicle without special control.

  In the traveling vehicle system of the present invention, a container for holding the conductive magnetic fluid in an electrically grounded state is provided along the traveling path of the traveling vehicle, and the traveling vehicle is positioned so as to pass through the upper portion of the container. In addition, a magnet that attracts the magnetic fluid and a conduction portion that contacts the magnetic fluid attracted to the magnet side and removes electricity are provided. The magnet may be an electromagnet or the like, but is preferably a permanent magnet. In addition, static elimination is discharging the charged static electricity.

  Further, in the method for removing static electricity from a traveling vehicle according to the present invention, a container for holding a conductive magnetic fluid in an electrically grounded state is disposed along a traveling route of the traveling vehicle, and when traveling on the container, A traveling vehicle is provided with a magnet and a conduction part so as to face the magnetic fluid, and the traveling vehicle is neutralized by drawing the magnetic fluid from the container and bringing it into contact with the conduction part.

  In the present invention, when the traveling vehicle passes over the magnetic fluid container, the magnet draws the magnetic fluid from the container toward the magnet. The magnetic fluid has the property that the internal magnetic particles tend to be connected to each other, so it is difficult to be separated, and because it has a property to extend along the magnetic field, the magnetic fluid extends from the container by the magnetic field from the magnet and It reaches to the conduction part. Since the magnetic fluid is made conductive and grounded, the traveling vehicle can be electrically grounded via the magnetic fluid. When the traveling vehicle finishes traveling on the container, the magnetic fluid does not return to the container and scatter around. When a permanent magnet or the like is used, a part of the magnetic fluid may remain attached to the magnet, but there is no problem if it does not drop as it is attached to the magnet.

  Here, if the magnet is an electromagnet and the magnet is demagnetized after passing through the upper part of the container, the magnetic fluid mostly returns to the container. However, if this is done, the power supply and control of the electromagnet are required. On the other hand, when the magnet is composed of a permanent magnet, when the traveling vehicle finishes passing through the upper part of the container, most of the magnetic fluid returns to the container, but a part remains attached to the magnet. The traveling vehicle magnet travels with the magnetic fluid attached. Since the magnetic fluid is attracted to the magnet by the magnetic force and does not fall, it does not cause dust generation. For this reason, it is possible to eliminate static electricity without requiring a power source and without performing control.

  In the following, an optimum embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be shown.

  1 to 5 show an embodiment and its modifications. In the embodiment, neutralization of the automatic guided vehicle 2 is taken as an example, but the present invention can be similarly used for static elimination of other traveling vehicles such as an overhead traveling vehicle, a tracked carriage, and a stacker crane. The automatic guided vehicle 2 includes, for example, four traveling wheels 4 and a transfer device 6, further includes an electromagnet 8 at the bottom of the automatic guided vehicle 2, a power supply 10 for the electromagnet 8, a switch 12, and a controller 14 for the electromagnet 8. I have. The controller 14 stores a map of the travel route of the automatic guided vehicle 2 and stores the location of the magnetic fluid container 16. When the automatic guided vehicle 2 passes through the upper portion of the container 16, the switch 12 is turned on to turn on the electromagnet 8, and when it passes through the upper portion of the container 16, the switch 12 is turned off to demagnetize the electromagnet 8. FIG. 2 shows a travel route 18 of the automatic guided vehicle 2, the container 16 is provided at least at one location along the travel route 18, and 20 is a ground side controller that assigns a transport command to the automatic guided vehicle 2. Do.

  In FIG. 3, the arrangement | positioning of the bottom part in the automatic guided vehicle 2 is shown. The traveling wheels 4 are each driven by a traveling motor 22, and for example, four traveling wheels 4 are independently driven to perform traveling and steering. The controller 14 detects that the electromagnet 8 has reached the upper part of the magnetic fluid container 16 from the current position of the automatic guided vehicle 2 and the map of the travel route, and turns on the electromagnet 8 by the switch 12. When the automatic guided vehicle 2 travels along the travel route, the electromagnet 8 is attached to the automatic guided vehicle 2 so that the electromagnet 8 passes through the upper portion of the container 16. Note that the container 16 may be shifted from the position through which the electromagnet 8 passes through the normal travel route, the automatic guided vehicle 2 may steer, and the electromagnet 8 may pass through the upper portion of the container 16. In the case where the traveling route is restricted by rails such as an overhead traveling vehicle, a tracked carriage, a stacker crane, etc., the electromagnet 8 is provided on the traveling vehicle so as to pass over the container of the magnetic fluid.

  FIG. 4 shows the spike 32 of the magnetic fluid 30 and the conduction part 9. The conducting portion 9 is made of a metal plate such as Al or stainless steel, and conducts the bottom surface of the electromagnet 8 and the chassis of the automatic guided vehicle 2. The magnetic fluid 30 is obtained by dispersing a magnetic metal powder such as iron powder or a magnetic ceramic powder such as iron oxide in a non-volatile organic solvent with a surfactant. When the magnetic fluid is insufficient in conductivity due to iron oxide or the like, it is preferable to mix conductive powder such as iron powder into the magnetic fluid. The container 16 is open at the top and is electrically grounded by the grounding part 34. When the container 16 is provided on a floor with a clean room grating or the like, since the floor itself is metal, the container 16 itself also serves as the grounding portion 34. When the container 16 is installed on an insulating floor such as concrete, the grounding portion 34 is a wire connected to a concrete rebar or the like, or a ground wire provided along the floor.

  When the electromagnet of the automatic guided vehicle 2 passes through the upper part of the container 16, the electromagnet 8 is turned on. Then, since the magnetic field from the electromagnet 8 advances toward the magnetic fluid 30 and the magnetic fluid has a property of deforming so as to extend along the magnetic field, the magnetic fluid 30 protrudes in a spike shape toward the electromagnet 8. This ear reaches the electromagnet 8 side and is referred to as Hotate 32. Since the magnetic fluid is conductive, the automatic guided vehicle 2 can be neutralized from the conducting portion 9 on the electromagnet 8 side via the spikelet 32 and the grounding portion 34. When the electromagnet 8 moves away from the upper part of the container 16, the electromagnet 8 is turned off. As a result, the ears 32 are eliminated and the magnetic fluid returns to the container 16. The conducting portion 9 may be, for example, a conductive coating provided on the bottom of the electromagnet 8 or the like.

  Since the electromagnet 8 is used in the embodiment, the controller 14, the power source 10, and the switch 12 are required. In contrast, in the modification of FIG. 5, a permanent magnet 40 is provided instead of the electromagnet 8. The permanent magnet 40 is provided with a conduction portion (not shown) to electrically conduct the bottom of the permanent magnet 40 and the chassis of the automatic guided vehicle. In this case, the controller 14, the power supply 10, and the switch 12 are unnecessary. The permanent magnet 40 is attached to a position that passes through the upper portion of the container 16 when the automatic guided vehicle 2 travels along the travel route. As a result, the magnetic field from the permanent magnet 40 causes a rise from the container, and the automatic guided vehicle 2 can be neutralized. When the permanent magnet 40 moves away from the container 16, the heading is interrupted, a part of the magnetic fluid remains attached to the magnet 40, and the remaining magnetic fluid is collected in the container 16. The magnetic fluid 42 attached to the permanent magnet 40 is directly attracted by the magnetic force of the permanent magnet 40 and does not fall. Therefore, it does not cause dust generation.

In the embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) Since the static electricity is removed by a conductive magnetic fluid, no metal roller or metal brush is required. Therefore, there is no dust generation due to wear of a metal roller or the like, and it is particularly suitable for static elimination of a traveling vehicle traveling in a clean room.
(2) When the permanent magnet 40 is used, control for static elimination becomes completely unnecessary. Moreover, since the magnetic fluid adhering to the permanent magnet does not fall while adsorbed to the magnet, it does not cause dust generation.
(3) Since the automatic guided vehicle can be neutralized, there is no malfunction of the automatic guided vehicle due to charging and no adverse effects on the surroundings.

The figure which shows the conveyance vehicle and magnetic fluid container which are used in an Example The figure which shows typically the driving | running route of the conveyance vehicle in an Example. The figure which shows arrangement | positioning of the running wheel and electromagnet of the conveyance vehicle bottom part in an Example. The figure which shows the contact of the electromagnet of the conveyance vehicle and magnetic fluid in an Example The figure which shows typically the permanent magnet and magnetic fluid container of a conveyance vehicle

Explanation of symbols

2 Automatic guided vehicle 4 Traveling wheel 6 Transfer device 8 Electromagnet 9 Conducting part 10 Power supply 12 Switch 14 Controller 16 Container 18 Traveling route 20 Ground side controller 22 Traveling motor 30, 42 Magnetic fluid 32 Hot stand 34 Grounding part 40 Permanent magnet

Claims (3)

Along with the traveling path of the traveling vehicle, a container for holding the conductive magnetic fluid in an electrically grounded state is provided, and
The traveling vehicle is provided with a magnet that attracts the magnetic fluid and a conductive portion that contacts the magnetic fluid attracted to the magnet side and removes electricity at a position passing through the upper portion of the container. system. The traveling vehicle system according to claim 1, wherein the magnet is a permanent magnet. A method for neutralizing a traveling vehicle traveling along a traveling route,
A container that holds the conductive magnetic fluid in an electrically grounded state is disposed along the traveling route of the traveling vehicle,
When traveling on the container, a traveling vehicle is provided with a magnet and a conduction part so as to face the magnetic fluid,
A method for neutralizing a traveling vehicle, wherein the traveling vehicle is neutralized by drawing a magnetic fluid from the container and bringing the magnet into contact with a conducting portion.

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