JPH0418963Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] <Industrial application field> The present invention is an article storage device.
A platform for placing articles is provided to be movable up and down, a storage member having multi-tiered shelves is arranged adjacent to the platform so as to be replaceable, and the platform is stopped at a predetermined shelf position. The present invention relates to an improvement in an article storage device that transfers articles from one shelf to another and stores the articles in each shelf in sequence.

<Prior art and its problems> In order to store articles on each shelf in the article storage device as described above, the number of shelves of the storage member and the order in which the articles are to be stored must be set in advance.

However, the number of shelves of a storage member may be set incorrectly, and for example, if a seven-layered storage member is stacked only five times, two levels will be wasted and inefficient. On the other hand, if nine levels are stacked in a seven-level storage member, there is a risk that two levels of articles may fall and be damaged.

<Technical issues of the invention> The invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to ensure that articles are stored on each shelf of the storage member without setting the number of shelves. The object of the present invention is to provide an article storage device that allows for storage of items.

<Means for Solving the Technical Problems> The article storage device of the present invention sets the article storage order so that the last article is toward the top of the storage member, and for,
A reflective optical sensor is disposed to protrude above the mounting table and detects the presence or absence of the supporting column that supports the shelf one level higher than the shelf position when the shelf position is stopped. A determining means for determining whether or not the shelf at the shelf position where the stand is stopped is the uppermost shelf; The present invention is characterized by comprising means for outputting a signal instructing replacement of the storage member.

<Example> An example of the implementation of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the figure, 1 is a device main body. Guide rails 1c are provided on both sides of the front of the frame 1b,
1c is provided, and an elevator mechanism 2 is provided, and the platform 3 is slidably fitted to the guide rails 1c, 1c, and is moved up and down by the elevator mechanism 2.

The elevator mechanism 2 has a conventionally well-known structure, in which sprockets are provided at the upper and lower parts of the chain 2a, and the front side of the chain 2a is connected to the platform 3, and the back side of the chain 2a is A balance weight 2b is provided at the top, and the platform 3 is driven up and down by a motor 2c linked to an upper sprocket.

The listing table 3 is a table on which articles are placed, and is adjacent to a positioning plate 10 for arranging storage members 4 having multi-tiered shelves 4a adjacent to each other.
A pusher 5 is provided.

The pusher 5 is protruded from a belt extending in the direction of conveyance of articles, and is driven by a belt motor (not shown).
etc. to push the articles on the platform 3 to the shelf 4a.
Make sure to store it in the

The storage member 4 has a multi-tiered shelf 4a connected to a support portion 4.
It is a frame body supported by b, and casters for transportation are provided on the bottom surface of the frame body.

The positioning plate 10, on which the storage member 4 is placed, is provided with a sliding loading platform 10a that moves in parallel, and supports the storage member 4 on the loading platform 10a.

As shown in Fig. 3, two storage members 4, 4 are loaded on the loading platform 10a, and when the storage member 4 is full, the motor 10b is driven to slide it to the right in the figure. The empty storage member 4 is brought close to the mounting table 3, and the full storage member 4 is replaced with an empty storage member 4.

Next, regarding the sensors, S, S ₁ ,
S ₂ , S ₃ , S ₄ , S ₅ , and S ₁₁ are sensors provided on the platform 3, and S ₆ , S ₇ , S ₈ , S ₉ , and S ₁₀ are sensors provided on the apparatus main body 1.

Sensor S ₆ is a sensor for setting an upper limit provided at the _top of the device main body 1 _, and sensor S ₇ is a sensor for setting a lower limit provided at the bottom of the device main body 1. When it reaches the
After returning to the initial position described later, the elevator mechanism 2 is brought to a stopped state.

The sensor S ₈ is a position detection sensor that detects whether the platform 3 has returned to the normal height for _{receiving the article, that is, the initial position. Sensors S 9 ,} S ₁₀ are provided respectively.

The sensors S ₉ and S ₁₀ are sensors that detect whether the platform 3 has returned to the vicinity of the initial position or whether the platform 3 has left the vicinity of the initial position.
The speed is changed so that the stage 3 is moved at a low speed between S ₉ and S ₁₀ and at a high speed at positions above sensor S ₉ and below sensor S ₁₀ to improve processing speed and prevent sudden stops. It is.

The sensor S ₁ detects whether or not an article is placed on the platform 3, and the sensor S ₂ is a position sensor that detects in which position of the storage member 4 the shelf 4a is located.

By counting the number of detections by the sensor _S2 , it is possible to detect the number of shelves that the platform 3 passes when sliding to a predetermined shelf. In this embodiment, if the vicinity of the stop position of the mounting table 3 is the shelf one shelf before the predetermined shelf, the stop position is reached when the count number is one less than the total count up to the predetermined shelf. is detected.

The sensor _S3 is a reflective optical sensor that detects whether items are stored in the shelf 4a and prevents items from being stored one on top of the other. the sensor
S ₃ is provided on the platform 3 so that it can appear and retract freely, and the pusher 5
The shelf 4a of the storage member 4 is
Make it stick out to nearby areas. Therefore, the sensor
By detecting the position of the pusher 5 at _S11 , the detection position of the sensor _S3 is regulated.

The sensor _S5 detects whether the pusher 5 that has moved forward has moved backward and returned to its initial position, and when it detects that the pusher 5 has returned to its initial position, it stops the driving belt of the pusher 5.

The sensor _S4 detects whether the pusher 5 moves forward and reaches a predetermined position.When it detects that the pusher 5 reaches a predetermined position,
The drive belt of the pusher 5 is reversed to move the pusher 5 backward.

Since the detection signal of the sensor _S4 indicates that the pusher 5 has moved forward and transferred the article, the sensor _S4
How many shelves 4a are detected by counting the number of detections of
It is possible to detect whether an item has been transferred to or from.

The characteristic sensor S of the present invention is provided at the tip of a support arm Sa projecting upward from the side surface of the platform 3, so that the sensor S and the support portion 4b of the storage member 4 are opposed to each other.

That is, the sensor S is a reflective optical sensor, and normally detects the presence of the support portion 4b, but when storing articles from the platform 3 on the uppermost shelf 4a of the storage member 4, it detects the presence of the support portion 4b. To detect.

The order in which the articles of the present invention are stored is on the top shelf 4a.
Since the storage member 4 is set to be stored last, when the sensor S detects that the support portion 4b is absent, the storage member 4
is full.

The electrical configuration of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. 6. In the figure, 20 is a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU).
and to the CPU 20 via the common bus 21,
ROM22, RAM23, first input/output port 24,
Second input/output port 25 and motor control circuit 2
Connect 6, 27, and 28.

The CPU 20 is a conventionally well-known one-chip microprocessor, and includes a ROM 22 and a RAM 2.
3 and input/output ports 24, 25.

The ROM 22 is a conventionally well-known memory that stores programs for the CPU 20, and the RAM 23
is a conventionally well-known memory mainly used during program execution by the CPU 20.

An operation panel 29 and a display panel 30 are connected to the first input/output port 24, and the second input/output port 25
The sensors S, S ₁ , S _{2 .} . . S ₁₁ are respectively connected to the terminals.

In the figure, 2c is a motor for driving the elevator, and 5b
10b is a motor for driving the pusher, 10b is a motor for driving the platform, and each motor 2c, 5b,
10b have motor control circuits 26, 27, 28, respectively.
and the motor drive circuits 31, 32, 33 are connected so that each motor 2c, 5b, 10b operates normally. In addition, the motor control circuit 26, 2
7, 28 and motor drive circuits 31, 32, 33
has a conventionally well-known configuration, and its explanation will be omitted.

The operation panel 29 consists of a group of switches, a numeric keypad, etc., and is used to input commands to start and stop work, the number of shelves for storage members to be used, and the like.

The display panel 30 is composed of display lamps and a group of LEDs, and is used to display various operating states and abnormalities of the device.

Both of the panels 29 and 30 are appropriately provided on the surface of the main body of the apparatus.

In the above embodiment, the order and procedure for storing articles on the shelf 4a are set in the program.
It is stored in the ROM 22 and executed by the CPU 20.

The order and procedure for storing articles on the shelves 4a are set so that the uppermost shelf 4a is placed last. For example, from the bottom, or from the top below the initial position of the platform, and from the bottom above the initial position of the platform.

The article of the present invention is, for example, a bag containing a predetermined number of packaged products.

The operation of the above-mentioned article storage device will be explained as follows.
When the work starts (40), the shelf to be stored is determined (41) according to the program set in the ROM 22.

Next, the first sensor S ₁ checks whether the article has been carried onto the platform 3 (42), and the platform 3 is moved to a predetermined position and stopped (43).

After the sensor S detects the presence or absence of the support portion 4b, that is, whether or not the shelf 4a is the top shelf 44, the article is transferred and stored from the platform 3 to the shelf 4a 45, and the platform 3 is moved back. 46.

If the sensor S detects the presence of the support portion 4b, the process returns to step 41 and the above operations are repeated.

If the sensor S detects that the support portion 4b is absent, the storage member 4 is full, so a command is issued to switch the storage member 47, and the system enters a waiting state 48 until the storage member 4 is switched.

When commanded to switch the storage member, the motor 10
b slides the loading platform 10a as shown in FIG. 3 so that the empty storage member 4 is adjacent to the loading platform 3.

When the switching of the storage member 4 is completed, the process moves to the process 41 and the subsequent processes are continued.

During this time, the worker moves the full storage member 4 to the loading platform 10a.
When the storage member 4 is full again, the loading platform 10a is slid in the opposite direction and the above operation is repeated.

Also, there are various types of storage materials, so
A plurality of sensors may be provided in advance at positions corresponding to the storage member to be used, and the sensors may be switched according to the storage member.

Further, the mounting position of the sensor may be made variable so that the mounting position can be changed according to the storage member.

<Operations and Effects> Since the present invention is configured as described above, the following effects can be obtained.

A sensor provided on the platform can determine whether or not there is a shelf above the shelf when the platform is stopped at the shelf position, that is, whether or not that shelf is the topmost shelf. Therefore, even if the number of shelves of the storage member changes, there is no need to perform a setting operation for the number of shelves, and there is no possibility of setting errors, and it is possible to reliably store articles in all shelves without excess or deficiency. .

The sensor installed on the platform can determine that the current shelf is the top shelf, that is, the storage member will be full by transferring the item to that shelf, so the item cannot be placed on the shelf. To immediately output a warning that the storage member is full or a command to switch the storage member without performing unnecessary detection operations such as moving the platform up and down to determine the next storage shelf position after the transfer. I can do it. Therefore, it is possible to reduce unnecessary operations and improve processing efficiency.

Since the configuration detects the presence or absence of the upper shelf by detecting the presence or absence of the support section, which is a component of the storage member, special detection marks or lamps are required on the storage member to detect the presence or absence of the upper shelf. There is no need to provide any other equipment, which saves unnecessary effort and expense, and there is no risk of detection errors due to marks getting dirty or lamps breaking down.

By doing so, we will reach our intended purpose.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a plan view showing an article storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front view of the same, Fig. 3 is a side view of the same, Fig. 4 is a plan view showing the arrangement of sensors, and Fig. 5 is a plan view of the same. A side view, FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the embodiment, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the same operation. In the figure, 1...apparatus main body, 3...stand, 4...storage member, 4a...shelf, 4b...support portion, 5...
Pushya, S... It's a sensor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A platform for loading articles is provided in the main body of the device so as to be movable up and down, and a storage member consisting of a support portion and a multi-tiered shelf is arranged in a replaceable manner adjacent to the platform. In an article storage device that stops a storage member at a predetermined shelf position, transfers the article from the loading stage to the shelf, and stores the articles in each shelf in sequence, the article storage order is set so that the last article is directed toward the top of the storage member, The platform is provided with a reflective optical sensor that protrudes above the platform and detects the presence or absence of the supporting column that supports the shelf one step higher than the shelf when the shelf is stopped, and a detection signal of the sensor is provided. determining means for determining whether or not the shelf at the shelf position where the loading platform is stopped is the topmost shelf; An article storage device comprising means for outputting a signal instructing replacement of the storage member after the transfer of the storage member is completed.