JP2024046005A - Stocker - Google Patents

Abstract

To facilitate performance of a work such as maintenance of devices arranged inside a control box.SOLUTION: A stocker includes a plurality of boxes. The stocker comprises: storage boxes each of which is a part of the boxes and openable, and can store articles inside the box in an open state; and a control box which is a part of the boxes and is formed in a drawer shape where a front surface part and a bottom surface part are integrated, and where devices including a control unit to control the stocker are arranged in the drawer.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

This specification discloses a stocker.

Conventionally, a stocker has been proposed that includes a plurality of delivery warehouses each having a door that can be opened and closed to allow goods to be delivered by opening the door, and a control unit that controls each delivery warehouse (for example, see Patent Document 1). . The control unit consists of a main body that is the same size as the delivery warehouse, a front panel that covers the front of the main body and has various devices such as a touch panel, card reader, and code reader attached, and a control section that is placed in the space inside the main body. , is provided.

International Publication No. 2019/054041

If the front panel (front part) of the control unit is formed with a hinged door like that of a delivery warehouse, and the bottom part on which the control unit and other devices are placed is a pull-out type that is separate from the front part, workers can access the inside of the control unit during maintenance, etc. by opening the door of the control unit and pulling the bottom part forward. However, in this case, the bottom part cannot be pulled out unless the door is opened widely, which creates the problem of poor workability.

The main objective of the present disclosure is to provide a stocker that allows easier work on equipment placed inside a control box.

This disclosure takes the following steps to achieve the above-mentioned primary objective:

The stocker of the present disclosure includes:
In a stocker having a plurality of boxes,
a storage box that is a part of the plurality of boxes and that can be opened and closed and can store an item inside the box when it is open;
a control box, which is one of the plurality of boxes and is formed in a drawer shape with a front part and a bottom part integrated therein, and in which devices including a controller for controlling the stocker are disposed inside the drawer;
The gist of the invention is to provide the following:

In addition to the storage box, the stocker of the present disclosure includes a control box that is formed in the shape of a drawer with an integrated front part and a bottom part, and in which equipment including a controller is disposed inside the drawer. This allows the operator to easily access the interior of the drawer by simply pulling out the front side of the control box, making maintenance and other operations easier.

FIG. FIG. 3 is a front perspective view of the inside of the control box. It is a perspective view of the back side inside a control box.

A preferred embodiment of the stocker of the present disclosure will be described using the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the stocker 10. FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the inside of the control box 30. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the inside of the control box 30 on the back side.

As shown in FIG. 1, the stocker 10 includes a plurality of box-shaped storage boxes 20 into which articles can be delivered, and a function that accepts various operations related to the delivery and removal of articles to and from each storage box 20, locks each storage box 20, and so on. It includes a control box 30 that performs various processes related to unlocking. In the stocker 10, a plurality of storage boxes 20 (four in FIG. 1) are arranged vertically and in a plurality of rows (five in FIG. 1) on the left and right. A control box 30 is arranged in the leftmost row in place of one storage box 20. This stocker 10 is installed indoors or outdoors in various places such as offices, stores, stations, schools, apartments, and shopping centers. The stocker 10 is mainly used for receiving goods by taking out the goods from the storage box 20 after the goods are delivered by a delivery person (delivery person) to one of the storage boxes 20. It is used for receiving and receiving goods delivered by a delivery person.

The storage box 20 includes a rectangular parallelepiped main body 21 with an open front, a door 22 attached to the opening of the main body 21 via a hinge so that it can be opened and closed, and an electric lock 24 for locking and unlocking the door 22. It includes various sensors such as an opening/closing sensor that detects opening/closing of the door 22 and an article detection sensor that detects articles in the storage box 20. The door 22 is biased in the opening direction by a spring provided on the hinge, and when the electric lock 24 is unlocked, the door opens automatically due to the biasing force of the spring.

The control box 30 comprises a rectangular parallelepiped main body 31 of the same size as each storage box 20, a drawer member 32 housed in the main body 31, and various devices installed inside the drawer. The drawer member 32 has a front part 32a (front panel) that covers the opening of the main body 31 when the drawer member 32 is closed, and a bottom part 32b that is integral with the front part 32a and can slide back and forth relative to the main body 31. A key mechanism 41, an operation panel 42, a reader 43, a label discharge port 44, a speaker 45, etc. are fixed to the front part 32a. A control device 51, a label printer 52, a power supply unit 53, etc. are fixed to the bottom part 32b.

The key mechanism 41 has a keyhole 41a on the surface of the front portion 32a. The drawer member 32 is normally locked by a key mechanism 41 so that it cannot be pulled out, and the administrator of the stocker 10 inserts a key into the keyhole 41a and turns it to unlock and pull the drawer member 32 forward. be able to. The operation panel 42 is a touch panel display, and displays operational guidance related to the delivery and receipt of articles, and also accepts input operations necessary for delivering and receiving articles. The reader 43 is a QR code reader for reading a QR code (registered trademark) used for authentication for a recipient to receive an item. The label discharge port 44 is a discharge port through which a label printed by a label printing machine 52, which will be described later, is discharged. The speaker 45 outputs operational guidance regarding the delivery and removal of articles through a plurality of audio output holes.

The label printer 52 has a paper tray 52a and a printer main body 52b. The paper tray 52a is a tray that is open at the top so that paper P can be set from above. In this embodiment, fanfold paper that is folded along perforations is set in the paper tray 52a. The printer main body 52b takes out the paper P from the paper tray 52a, prints it, cuts it, and discharges it to the label discharge port 44.

The power supply device 53 has an AC/DC converter that converts AC power from a commercial power source into DC power. In this embodiment, the power supply device 53 converts AC 100V power into DC 24V or DC 5V power and outputs the converted power to each device in the control box 30 and each device in each accommodation box 20. The DC 24V power is used, for example, as power for operating the control device 51 and power for driving the electric lock 24 of each storage box 20. Further, the DC 5V power is used, for example, as power for driving the reader 43 and power for driving various sensors. Note that the label printing machine 52 is connected to a commercial power source without going through the power supply device 53, and is driven by receiving AC 100V power.

The control device 51 is a computer including a CPU, ROM, RAM, and storage, and operates by receiving DC 24V power from the power supply device 53. The storage of the control device 51 stores management information for managing each storage box 20 (for example, whether or not there is an item stored in each storage box 20 and recipient information regarding the recipient of the item). .

The control device 51 receives input signals such as operation signals from the operation panel 42, read signals from the reader 43, and detection signals from various sensors (open/close sensor, article detection sensor, etc.) for each storage box 20. On the other hand, the control device 51 outputs a control signal to the operation panel 42, a control signal to the reader 43, an audio signal to the speaker 45, a control signal to the electric lock 24 of each storage box 20, and the like. The control device 51 is installed on the back side of the operation panel 42 provided on the front part 32a, and supplies power to the operation panel 42 via a harness (not shown), and inputs operation signals from the operation panel 42 and to the operation panel 42. and output of control signals.

When the delivery of an item to the storage box 20 is requested based on the operation of the operation panel 42 by the deliverer, the CPU of the control device 51 has the deliverer input the authentication number and the recipient information about the recipient (e.g., the order number of the item purchased by the recipient), then searches for an available storage box 20 based on the management information, unlocks the storage box 20, and accepts the delivery of the item to the storage box 20. When the CPU accepts the delivery of the item, it associates the input recipient information with the number of the storage box 20 to which the item was delivered and stores it in the storage (management information), and changes the presence or absence of the item in the storage box 20 with the corresponding number to present. When the CPU of the control device 51 has the receiver input the recipient information (e.g., the order number), then reads the number of the storage box 20 corresponding to the input recipient information from the management information, and unlocks the corresponding storage box 20. This allows the receiver to take out the item from the storage box 20. When an item is removed from a storage box 20, the CPU clears the corresponding recipient information in the management information and changes the presence or absence of an item in the storage box 20 with the corresponding number to none.

Here, for example, a seller can deliver goods sold at a flea market site to the stocker 10, and a delivery person can collect the goods from the stocker 10 and deliver them to the purchaser. In this case, the label printing machine 52 is used to print a shipping label to be attached to the item. Further, the label printing machine 52 is used, for example, when a delivery person collects articles from the stocker 10, to print a statement to confirm how many items there are to be collected.

The control device 51 and power supply device 53 of the control box 30 and various devices (electric lock 24 and sensors) of each accommodation box 20 are electrically connected by a cable 11 that bundles power and control wires. . Note that the cable 11 also bundles power wires that connect the power supply device 53 and a commercial power source. The cable 11 hangs down from the top of the control box 30 and is connected to a control device 51, a label printer 52, a power supply device 53, and the like. Since the cable 11 is provided with some slack, even when the pull-out member 32 of the control box 30 is pulled out, the cable 11 can be smoothly followed.

In this embodiment, the drawer member 32 has a front part 32a and a bottom part 32b integrally formed, an operation panel 42 is fixed to the front part 32a, and the operation panel 42 and a harness are fixed to the bottom part 32b. A control device 51 connected thereto is fixed. Thereby, even if the drawer member 32 is pulled out, the positional relationship between the operation panel 42 and the control device 51 does not change, so the length of the harness connecting the operation panel 42 and the control device 51 can be shortened. On the other hand, if the control box 30 is formed by a swinging door, and the operation panel is fixed to the front part and the control device is fixed to the bottom part, when the door is closed, the operation panel and the control device are fixed. When the operation panel and the control device are close to each other and the door is open, the operation panel and the control device are separated. In this case, even if the door is opened, the harness connecting the operation panel and the control device must be sufficiently long so that it does not break, and when closing the door, Care must be taken to ensure that the door does not get caught in the door.

In addition, because the paper tray 52a of the label printer 52 is open at the top, when the paper runs out, the paper P can be replenished by pulling out the drawer member 32, placing new paper P on the paper tray 52a from above, and connecting the beginning end of the paper P to the printer body 52b. In this way, making the control box 30 a drawer type also makes it easier to replenish paper P.

Here, the correspondence between the components of this embodiment and the components of the present invention will be clarified. The storage box 20 of this embodiment corresponds to the storage box of this disclosure, the control device 51 corresponds to the controller, and the control box 30 corresponds to the control box. Also, the label printer 52 corresponds to the printer.

It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and can be implemented in various forms as long as they fall within the technical scope of the present invention.

For example, in the embodiment described above, the cable 11 connecting the control box 30 and each housing box 20 (or commercial power source) is arranged so as to hang down from the top surface of the control box 30. It may also be arranged so as to extend toward.

Further, in the embodiment described above, the label printing machine 52 uses fanfold paper, but is not limited to this, and for example, roll paper may be used. In this case, by providing a roll paper tray at the top of the printing press main body 52b, it becomes possible to pull out the drawer member 32 of the control box 30 and set the roll paper from above. Therefore, the work of replenishing roll paper becomes easy.

As described above, the stocker of the present disclosure includes, in addition to the storage box, a control box formed like a drawer with an integrated front and bottom, with devices including a controller disposed inside the drawer. This allows an operator to easily access the inside of the drawer simply by pulling the front of the control box forward, making maintenance and other tasks easier.

In such a storage unit disclosed herein, the device may be connected to an electric wire arranged to hang down from the top surface of the control box. In this way, the electric wire can easily follow the control box even when the control box is pulled forward.

In addition, in the stocker disclosed herein, the device may include a storage section into which paper can be set from above, and may also include a printer that removes paper from the storage section and prints on it. This makes it easier to replenish with new paper when the paper runs out.

The present invention can be used in the manufacturing industry for stockers equipped with control boxes.

10 stocker, 11 cable, 20 storage box, 21 main body, 22 door, 24 electric lock, 30 control box, 31 main body, 32 drawer member, 32a front part, 32b bottom part, 41 key mechanism, 41a keyhole, 42 operation panel, 43 reader, 44 label discharge port, 45 speaker, 51 control device, 52 label printing machine, 52a paper tray, 52b printing machine main body, 53 power supply device, P paper.

Claims (3)

In a stocker with multiple boxes,
a storage box that is part of the plurality of boxes and is openable and closable and capable of accommodating an article inside the box in an open state;
a control box that is one of the plurality of boxes and is formed in the shape of a drawer with an integrated front part and a bottom part, and in which equipment including a controller for controlling the stocker is disposed inside the drawer;
A stocker equipped with The stocker according to claim 1,
The device is connected to an electric wire that is arranged to hang down from the top surface of the control box.
Stocker. The stocker according to claim 1 or 2,
The device includes a storage section in which paper can be set from above, and a printing machine that takes out the paper from the storage section and prints.
Stocker.

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