JP3151671U - Forklift fork structure - Google Patents

Abstract

When a forklift transports a bag with a non-contact IC tag and reads it with a reader / writer, the forklift prevents a reading leak or reading failure from occurring due to the influence of a metal fork. Provide fork structure. A reader / writer for reading a non-contact IC tag is installed by loading a load on a container 5 with a non-contact IC tag 1 or loading a load with a non-contact IC tag on a pallet. The fork 10 of the forklift that passes through the gate, and the buffer material sheet 11 made of a nonmetallic material having a thickness of 10 mm to 20 mm is bonded to the surface of the fork 10 that is in contact with the pallet that the metal fork 10 conveys. Features. [Selection] Figure 4

Description

  The present invention relates to a fork structure of a forklift suitable for reading a non-contact IC tag. Specifically, when a container with a non-contact IC tag is loaded on a pallet, or a load with a non-contact IC tag is loaded on a pallet and transported by a forklift and passed through a gate with a reader / writer, the non-contact The present invention relates to a forklift fork structure that can reduce the inability to read or misread an IC tag.

In recent years, non-contact IC tags have been widely used in logistics and the like. Conventionally, an optical bar code is attached to a packaging body such as cardboard and the like is also read. However, the optical bar code must be attached to the surface where the bar code display unit faces the bar code reader or at least the surface where the reading light of the reader reaches. Therefore, it is necessary to align the label surfaces of all the pallet loads in one direction and to arrange them so as not to be on the back surface of the other packing bodies.
On the other hand, even if the non-contact IC tags are stacked or in a state where the non-contact IC tags are not visible because they are on the back of the load, they are instantaneously bundled unless the load or packing is a metal object or metal material. Convenient to read. The same applies to a case where a package or the like is loaded on a pallet and transported. If the package is placed on a forklift and passed through a gate with a reader / writer, all IC tags can be read simultaneously.

However, because the fork (claw) of a forklift is usually made of thick steel, the electromagnetic wave transmitted from the reader / writer is absorbed by the fork, and the non-contact IC tag on the pallet, particularly in the portion near the fork, cannot be read. It is recognized that
In general, it is said that when a metal body is in the vicinity of a non-contact IC tag, the metal body absorbs an electromagnetic wave to generate a demagnetizing field and weakens a radio wave from a reader / writer. This is considered to cause unreadable or erroneous reading. Although the influence of the fork can be reduced by adjusting the positions of the two forks of the forklift, there is a problem that it is troublesome to perform this work for each change of the load. In addition, metal-compatible non-contact IC tags and the like are also commercially available, but they cannot be attached to all packages, and there is a problem that costs are generally increased.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a state in which a container with a non-contact IC tag is loaded on a pallet. As is well known, the forklift has a pair of forks 10a and 10b on the front side of the vehicle body. The fork performs a back-and-forth motion and a lifting / lowering operation in parallel.
In FIG. 6, the right side is shown in a transparent state for easy understanding of the relationship with the fork (claw) 10a of the forklift. Four containers 5 are loaded on the pallet 8, and a non-contact IC tag 1 is attached to each container 5. As shown in FIG. 6, when the forks 10a and 10b of the forklift come to be located directly under the non-contact IC tag 1, it has been conventionally recognized that the reading rate is lowered or erroneous reading occurs. Yes.

Therefore, the present invention reduces the reading trouble by adhering a cushioning material sheet made of a non-metallic material to the fork 10 of the forklift so that a distance is provided between the metal fork 10 and the non-contact IC tag 1. Is to consider.
Prior documents directly related to the fork structure of the forklift of the present invention cannot be detected. However, there are the following documents that solve the problem of reading failure due to metal of the non-contact IC tag.

JP 2007-295557 A JP 2009-9205 A

When a load is loaded on a container with a non-contact IC tag or when a non-contact IC tag is attached to a package to be loaded on a pallet, the fork of the fork lift that transports the pallet is a metal body. If the data is read by the non-contact IC tag reader through the reading gate during conveyance, the data of the non-contact IC tag particularly at a position close to the fork may not be read or may be erroneously read.
The present invention aims to solve this problem by bonding a cushioning material sheet made of a non-metallic material to the fork of a forklift to reduce the influence of metal.

In order to achieve the above object, a fork structure of a forklift according to the present invention is configured such that a container with a non-contact IC tag is loaded on a pallet, or a load with a non-contact IC tag is loaded on a pallet. A fork of a forklift that passes through a gate provided with a reader / writer for reading a non-contact IC tag, the surface of the fork lift contacting the pallet transported by the metal fork is a buffer made of a non-metallic material having a thickness of 10 mm to 20 mm. The material sheet is bonded.
In the above, the cushioning material sheet can be made of hard or soft rubber or plastic material.

  When a cushioning material sheet made of a non-metallic material is bonded to the fork of a forklift, the distance between the non-contact IC tag attached to the package and the metal fork becomes large, so the influence of the demagnetizing field caused by the metal fork As a result, the non-contact IC tag reader cannot read or the erroneous reading rate decreases.

It is a figure which shows the state which bonded the buffer material sheet to the fork. It is a figure which shows the specific example of a buffer material sheet. It is a figure which shows a foldable container and a non-contact IC tag. It is a figure which shows the relationship between a container, a pallet, and a fork. It is a figure which shows the gate in which the reader / writer for reading was installed. It is a top view which shows the state which loaded the container with a non-contact IC tag on the pallet.

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
1A and 1B are views showing a state in which a buffer material sheet is bonded to a fork, in which FIG. 1A is a plan view and FIG. 1B is a side view. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific example of the cushioning material sheet.
The fork 10 of the forklift is made of a thick and sturdy metal material for conveying heavy objects, and steel is generally used. The claw width and thickness of the fork 10 vary depending on the weight of the cargo to be transported, but generally the claw width is about 10 to 20 cm, the tip thickness is about 10 mm, and the base of the fork is thicker and about 25 mm thick. It has become.

The present invention is characterized in that the buffer material sheet 11 is bonded to the upper surface of the fork 10 that contacts the pallet. As shown in FIG. 1 (A), it is preferable that the range of adhesion is in the range of L = about 1 meter corresponding to the lower surface of the pallet from the front end of the fork 10 or near the front end.
Although one fork 10 is shown in the drawing, the buffer material sheet 11 is naturally bonded to a pair of forks. The thickness of the buffer material sheet 11 is preferably about 10 mm to 20 mm.
If it is less than 10 mm, the influence of the demagnetizing field cannot be sufficiently reduced, and if it is 20 mm or more, it becomes difficult to insert the fork 10 into the pallet. Since the gap for inserting the fork 10 of the pallet is about 100 mm, if the thickness is too large, the difference between the entire thickness of the fork 10 and the gap becomes small, which causes a problem that the operation of the forklift becomes difficult.
It is conceivable to use a sleeve-like covering material by inserting it into the fork 10 instead of the cushioning material sheet 11, but in this case as well, the cushioning material is inserted into the front and back of the fork 10, so that the fork is thicker. There is a problem.

As the buffer material sheet 11, hard or soft rubber, elastic plastic material, or the like can be used. Since it is used repeatedly, a highly durable material is preferable. Examples of the elastic plastic material include urethane rubber and foamable plastic material.
With commercially available materials, a fatigue-reducing mat or a highly durable mat can be suitably used. As shown in FIG. 2, the fatigue reduction mat is formed with warped protrusions that disperse pressure on an oil-resistant rubber sheet, and is originally a sheet intended to reduce the burden on the human body in a work place or the like.
A highly durable mat is a sheet developed as a flooring material for a passage in a construction site where the footstep is poor or a parking lot or the like, and a surface of a rubber sheet has a grain of about 10 mm square. It is considered to make it difficult to slip and drainage. Natural rubber is the main material, but there is a feature that the durability is increased without using powder material.

  The buffer material sheet 11 is bonded to the fork 10 with a double-sided adhesive tape or the like. Since the forklift handles heavy objects, the cushioning material sheet 11 cannot withstand long-term use. Therefore, it is preferable that it can be easily replaced with a double-sided adhesive tape or the like.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a folding container and a non-contact IC tag. 3A is a plan view of the container in a folded state, FIG. 3B is a diagram showing dimensions of the container in a folded state, and FIG. 3C is an external perspective view of the container in an assembled state. It is.
The non-contact IC tag 1 may be directly attached to the cargo or product, but is often applied to the folding container 5. As shown in FIG. 3A, when not in use, the four side walls can be folded inward to form a flat surface with a thickness of about 3 cm.
As shown in FIG. 3B, when folded, it becomes approximately 400 mm × 600 mm. 1 is provided with a portion where a non-contact IC tag 1 having a size of about 60 mm × 100 mm is attached exclusively. After assembly, the container 5 is as shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between a container, a pallet, and a fork.
When the folded container 5 is loaded on the pallet 8, as shown in FIG. 4A, in the normal case, the distance between the fork (claw) 10 and the non-contact IC tag 1 attached to the container 5 is The thickness of the upper plate of the pallet 8 is added to be about 4 cm in total.
On the other hand, when the buffer material sheet 11 having a thickness of 1.5 cm is bonded to the fork (nail) 10, the distance between the fork (nail) 10 and the non-contact IC tag 1 attached to the container 5 is as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG.
In this way, especially when the container 5 is folded and carried, it becomes difficult to read the IC tag 1 of the lower container, but when the cushioning material sheet 11 is adhered to the fork (claw) 10 as shown in FIG. Since the distance between the non-contact IC tag 1 and the fork 10 which is a metal body is increased, reading is improved.

As for the shape of the pallet, the standard size of “flat pallet for integrated transport” is defined as T11 (1100 × 1100 × 144 mm) by JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard), but the pallet size varies depending on the company used. Internationally, each country defines various sizes and is not unified. Pallet forms include a two-way pallet, a four-way pallet, a single-sided pallet and a double-sided pallet. Two-way insertion means that the fork can be inserted from two directions, and four-way insertion means from four directions.
Conventionally, the material of the pallet has been mainly sawwood wood, but plastic (PE, PP) is also increasing. Some are made of plywood and paper. Although there is also metallicity (steel, aluminum) with high durability, the present invention does not target metal from the viewpoint of the reading performance of the non-contact IC tag 1.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a gate on which a reader / writer for reading is installed. 5A is a front view, FIG. 5B is a view from above, and FIG. 5C is a side view.
The UHF band non-contact IC tag 1 is normally used for reading the conveyed product of the forklift. Therefore, a UHF band reader / writer and an antenna are also used for reading. The antenna 2a has, for example, a plate shape having a thickness of 57 mm and a planar size of about 256 mm × 256 mm.

The gate 2 is provided with two poles 2p, and two antennas 2a are attached to each pole 2p. If any one of a total of four antennas reads, duplicate reading is prevented. The position of the antenna 2a is not uniform depending on the size of the forklift, the height of the load, and the conveyance state. However, when the gate width H is 2100 mm and the height of the load from the road surface is about 1800 mm, the lower antenna 2a is 1100 mm from the road surface. It is confirmed that the reading rate can be increased by attaching the antenna 2a at the upper stage to a height position of about 2100 mm from the road surface.
For example, as shown in FIG. 5B, each antenna 2a has an angle α of 45 degrees with respect to the approach direction Y of the forklift, and an angle β of 70 degrees as shown in FIG. 5C. It can be attached to become.

  Four antennas 2a are controlled by one reader / writer 2r. The location of the reader / writer 2r is assumed to be next to the pole 2p of the gate 2. Each antenna 2a and the reader / writer 2r are connected by a cable (not shown). However, since the loss increases as the cable length increases, it is necessary to limit the length to a certain length of about 10 meters.

  As the cushioning material sheet 11, a fatigue reduction mat (Osaka Rubber Co., Ltd .; thickness: 15 mm) made of an oil-resistant rubber sheet is used. It was bonded to the upper surface (width 100 mm) using a double-sided adhesive tape over a length of 1100 mm from the tip. As shown in FIG. 2, the oil-resistant rubber sheet has protrusions t having a diameter of about 15 mm and a height of about 3 mm on the entire surface.

  As the UHF band non-contact IC tag 1, “web” (antenna size: 30 mm × 50 mm) manufactured by UPM Kymmene (Finland) was used. The non-contact IC tag (data already written) 1 was attached to 220 units of the folding container 5 having the shape and size shown in FIG. 3 at the position shown in FIG.

As the reader / writer 2r for reading, a stationary reader / writer (V750-BB50C04-JP; transmission output 890 mW) manufactured by OMRON Corporation is used, and (V750-HS01CA-JP; 4 waves) were used.
The width (pole interval) H of the gate 2 through which the forklift passes was set to 2100 mm, and the reading reader / writer 2r and the four antennas 2a were installed in the configuration shown in FIG.
The height of the antenna 2a from the road surface was set to 1100 mm for the lower stage and 2100 mm for the upper stage, and the set angles α = 45 degrees and β = 70 degrees for the antenna surface.

  On a plastic pallet (size: 1200 mm x 1000 mm), 220 of the foldable containers 5 prepared above are divided into four piles as shown in FIG. The four mountains were stacked so that the total was 220. The height of the containers 5 stacked in 55 steps from the upper surface of the pallet 8 was about 1700 mm.

  The pallet 8 was placed on the fork lift prepared by adhering the cushioning material sheet 11 to both of the forks 10a and 10b prepared as described above so that the forks 10a and 10b are directly below the non-contact IC tag 1. A forklift was passed through the gate 2 at a speed of 5 km / h to check for reading defects.

(Comparative example)
The test was performed under the same conditions as in the example, but the test was performed in a state where the buffer material sheet was not adhered to the forks 10a and 10b.

  As a result, in the example, it was confirmed that all the non-contact IC tags 1 were read, and there was no erroneous reading. However, in the comparative example, three non-contact IC tags 1 out of the lowermost containers were Could not read.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Non-contact IC tag 2 Gate 2a Antenna 2r Reader / writer 2p Pole 5 Foldable container 8 Pallet 10, 10a, 10b Fork 11 Buffer material sheet 20 Fork lift

Claims (2)

A forklift that loads a container with a non-contact IC tag on a pallet or loads a load with a non-contact IC tag on a pallet and passes through a gate provided with a reader / writer for reading a non-contact IC tag A fork structure of a forklift, wherein a cushioning material sheet made of a non-metallic material having a thickness of 10 mm to 20 mm is bonded to a surface of the fork that is in contact with a pallet that is transported by the metal fork. 2. The fork structure of a forklift according to claim 1, wherein the cushioning material sheet is made of hard or soft rubber, or an elastic plastic material.

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