JP3381843B2 - Transfer device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a carrier device using a dolly carriage, and more particularly to feeding and winding a cable from a carrier body to a dolly carrier.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The inventors have considered mounting a dolly truck on a carrying device such as a stacker crane and moving the dolly truck into a shelf of an automatic warehouse to transfer articles. Unlike the case where a slide fork or a scalar arm is used, a dolly truck requires a cable for supplying power from the carrier body to the dolly truck. A reel or a pulley is required for feeding / winding the cable, and the reel or the pulley is bulky, so that the transport device cannot be made compact. Further, if the dolly truck is allowed to move forward in both the left and right directions with respect to the carrier body, the cables are fed out in both the left and right directions, so that the cables are likely to interfere with each other.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A basic object of the present invention is to compactly accommodate a reel or pulley of a cable connecting a carrier body and a dolly carriage, and to extend the dolly carriage to either side of the carrier. , It is to prevent the cables from interfering with each other (claims 1 and 2). An additional object of the invention of claim 2 is to prevent the cable, the dolly truck, etc. from being damaged by the cable being caught by a transfer partner or the like.

[0004]

According to the present invention, a dolly trolley mounted on a main body of a transfer device is loaded onto a transfer partner to transfer articles, and the dolly trolley can be mounted on either side of the main body. It is configured so that you can board the transfer partner freely,
The main body and the dolly cart are electrically connected by a cable, and a reel for winding / unwinding a cable rotating in a horizontal plane is provided on the main body, and the cable is guided between the reel and the dolly cart, and a horizontal plane. And a pulley that rotates in a tilted manner from each other, the height level of the cable is made different between the entrance side and the exit side of the pulley, and when the dolly truck rides on the transfer partner on the left or right side of the main body, , From the pulley so that the cables do not intersect at the entrance side and the exit side of the pulley, and when the dolly truck rides on the transfer partner on the other side of the main body, from the pulley, It is characterized in that the cable is drawn out so that the cables cross at different height levels on the inlet side and the outlet side of the pulley (claim 1).

Preferably, the transfer partner is a shelf in an automatic warehouse,
A stacker crane is used as the transport device, and a drive motor for driving the reel is provided in the main body, and the torque applied from the drive motor to the reel is controlled to be small when the cable is unwound and large when the cable is wound. In this way, the cable is prevented from sagging and the resistance exerted by the cable as the dolly truck traverses into the shelf is reduced.

Further preferably, detection means for detecting the completion of winding of the cable on the reel and generating a winding signal is provided, and until the winding signal is generated, the conveying device is operated. Start is prohibited (Claim 2).
The detection means may be a soft sensor such as integrating the rotation amount of the reel with a resolver or the like, but preferably a sensor for detecting the position of the outer circumference of the cable in the reel,
A mechanical switch is particularly preferable in terms of reliability.

[0007]

According to the present invention, since the reel and the pulley are arranged so as to rotate in a substantially horizontal plane, these can be compactly housed in the carrier body. In particular, since the pulley is rotated with a slight inclination from the horizontal plane, the height of the cable differs between the entrance side and the exit side of the pulley, and even if the dolly truck is advanced to either the left or right side of the carrier, There is no interference (claim 1).

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since it is detected that the winding of the cable on the reel is completed, the winding is incomplete when the cable is entangled or caught on a shelf or a dolly truck. , The carrier does not start. For this reason, it is possible to prevent damage to the dolly truck and cables.

[0009]

EXAMPLE An example is shown in FIGS. In the example, a dolly cart mounted on a stacker crane is loaded onto a shelf of an automatic warehouse to transfer articles.
However, the transfer partner is not limited to the shelf, and may be, for example, a station of an automatic warehouse or a station of a processing device such as a semiconductor processing device. Although a stacker crane is shown as an example of the transfer device, a dolly trolley may be mounted on a transfer device such as an unmanned transfer vehicle or a track guided vehicle so that it can be loaded onto a shelf or a station.

FIG. 1 shows a lifting table 4 of a stacker crane 2.
6 is a mast for moving up and down the lifting table 4,
Reference numeral 8 is a traveling rail for traveling the stacker crane 2 in the automatic warehouse. 10 is a dolly trolley, which is mounted on the lifting platform 4, 12 is a traveling wheel of the dolly trolley, and 14 is for loading and unloading articles between shelves provided on both right and left sides of the crane rail 8. It is a lifter. Reference numeral 16 is an elevator rail provided on the elevator 4, and the dolly truck 10 travels along the elevator rail 16 by the traveling wheels 12. In FIG. 1, the dolly cart 10 is shown to have entered the shelf side, and the rails 16 are shown in a cutout form.

Referring to both FIGS. 1 and 2, 18 is a reel, 20 and 22 are pulleys, which are provided on the lifting table 4 at a position below the bottom surface of the dolly carriage 10, and the reel 18 is a cable 24. And a pulley 20 for guiding the cable 24. The pulley 22 is for guiding the cable 24 so as not to get caught in a shelf or the like, and may not be provided. These reels 18 and pulleys 20 and 22 are
Since it rotates in a substantially horizontal plane, it is possible to increase the diameter of the cable 24 so that the force applied to the cable 24 can be removed, and it can be accommodated compactly in the lower portion of the dolly carriage 10.

The reel 18 rotates in a horizontal plane, the pulley 20 rotates slightly inclined from the horizontal plane, and the inclination angle is, for example, 2 to 30 degrees, preferably 5 to 15 degrees.
The height of the cable from 8 is the same as that of the reel 18 on the inlet side, and is higher than that of the reel 18 on the outlet side so that the cable on the inlet side and the cable intersect vertically. In addition, when the dolly truck 10 advances in the opposite direction of FIG.
The cable 24 does not pass through the pulley 22 and has the chain line arrangement in FIG.

A torque motor 26 rotates the reel 18 and may be another motor. Reference numeral 28 denotes a torque control unit, which includes, for example, a pair of power sources, increases the output torque of the torque motor 26 during winding, and reduces the output torque during unwinding to prevent the cable 24 from bending and to enter the shelf of the dolly carriage 10. Try not to become a resistance. Reference numeral 30 is a slip ring at the bottom of the reel 18, 32 is a rotary connector, and the cable 24 is used for power supply and also for the lifting table 4
Used for exchanging signals between the dolly and the dolly cart 10.
34 is a pulley provided on the bottom surface of the dolly truck 10,
Guide the tip of the cable 24. The cable 24
Has one end connected to the dolly carriage 10 and the other end connected to the reel 18.

Returning to FIG. 1, 40 and 40 are columns of a shelf, and 42
Is a shelf-side rail provided on a shelf, on which an article is placed, and the C-shaped rail 42 is used by the dolly truck 10 to move in, and the lifter 14 transfers the article. In FIG. 1, the shelves on the opposite side of the crane rails 8 are omitted.

FIG. 3 illustrates detection of completion of winding of the cable 24 on the reel 18. 50 is a free roller, 52 is a swing center, 54 is a lever, and a swing center 5
The free roller 50 swings around 2 and moves to 5
Reference numeral 6 is a tension spring, 58 is a contact portion, and 60 is a position sensor such as a limit switch. The roller 50 has a spring 56.
Is urged to swing rightward in FIG.
It contacts the outer circumference of the cable 24 and is pushed to the left side in FIG.

When the cable 24 is completely wound up, the contact portion 58 comes into contact with the limit switch 60 to generate a signal indicating that the winding of the cable 24 is completed. For this reason, the outer peripheral position of the cable 24 wound on the reel 18 can be mechanically detected, which is highly reliable unlike software detection. Until the switch 60 operates, the stacker crane 2 is prohibited from starting and the lift 4 is lifted. Therefore, the incompletely wound cable 24 is entangled with the shelves, the dolly carriage 10, etc. The dolly truck 10 is not damaged.

In the embodiment, the reel 18, the pulley 20,
22 can be compactly accommodated in the lifting table 4 and a large reel 18 or the like can be used, so that the cable 24 is not overloaded. Further, since the pulley 20 is tilted, there is no interference between the cables 24, and the dolly carriage 10 can be extended to either the left or right of the lift 4. Cable 24
While preventing the slack of the dolly, it is possible to reduce the resistance of the dolly carriage 10 when it traverses and to detect that the cable 24 has been completely wound up.
The stacker crane 2 will not start.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view with partial cutouts showing the arrangement of cable reels and pulleys in a lifting platform of a stacker crane according to an embodiment, and a chain line indicates a state when a dolly truck enters a shelf in the opposite direction. The arrangement of cables is shown.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the lifting table in the embodiment, showing a cable from a reel being guided to a pulley of a dolly truck through an inclined pulley.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing reel winding detection in the embodiment, showing a free roller that swings counterclockwise as the cable is wound, and a limit switch that operates by swinging the roller.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 stacker crane 4 lifts 6 masts 8 crane rails 10 Dolly cart 12 running wheels 14 lifters 16 Lifting rail 18 reel 20 inclined pulley 22 pulley 24 cables 26 Torque motor 28 Torque control unit 30 slip rings 32 rotary connector 34 pulley 40 Shelf Pillars 42 Shelf side rail 50 free rollers 52 Swing center 54 lever 56 tension spring 58 Contact part 60 limit switch

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A transfer device for transferring an article by loading a dolly trolley mounted on a main body of a transfer device onto a transfer partner, wherein the dolly trolley is mounted on a transfer partner on either side of the main body. A cable for connecting the main body and the dolly truck electrically so that the main body and the dolly truck are electrically connected, and a reel for winding / unwinding a cable that rotates in a horizontal plane to the main body and a cable between the reel and the dolly truck. And a pulley that rotates inclining from the horizontal plane, and the height level of the cable is made different between the entrance side and the exit side of the pulley, and the dolly carriage is transferred to the left or right side of the main body. When getting on the other party, pull out the cable from the pulley so that the cables do not intersect at the entrance side and the exit side of the pulley. When boarding the transfer destination from the pulley, at the inlet side and the outlet side of the pulley, conveyor apparatus being characterized in that so as to feed the cable to cross by changing cable high level. 2. A detection means for detecting the completion of winding of the cable on the reel and generating a winding signal, and starting the conveying device until the winding signal is generated. Characterized by prohibition,
The transport device according to claim 1.