JPH04341404A - Automatic warehouse - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an automatic warehouse without any laterally-moving stacker cranes. CONSTITUTION:An automatic warehouse has a rack device 1 which is provided with a number of goods storing shelves 3 in the vertical and the lateral direction, a laterally long elevating platform 12 which is capable of being elevated in front of the rack device 1 and whose length corresponds to the lateral length of the rack device 1, a laterally-movable table 16 which is provided to the elevating platform 12 in a laterally movable manner, and a slide fork which is provided to the movable table 16 in a laterally-movable manner.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to automatic warehouses.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art The following types of conventional automated warehouses are known. That is, it has a rack device having a large number of article storage shelves vertically and horizontally, and a stacker crane provided in front of this rack device so as to be able to move left and right, and the stacker crane has a running cart and a stacker crane that moves horizontally in front of this rack device. It is known to have a lifting platform provided on the mast of a trolley so that it can be raised and lowered, and a slide fork (article transfer device) provided on the lifting platform so as to be slidable back and forth.

0003

[Disadvantages of the Prior Art] The conventional automated warehouse has the following drawbacks. In other words, when installing a rack device that is long in the left and right direction, there is no problem with a conventional automated warehouse, but if only a short rack device is installed in the left and right direction and the stacker crane is to run left and right, the stacker crane The stacker crane has to start traveling, accelerate, travel at a constant speed, decelerate, and stop within a short distance.In other words, the stacker crane must be accelerated and decelerated over a short distance, so the stacker crane must be run at high speed. Although the original functions of the stacker crane cannot be fully demonstrated, the equipment necessary for the stacker crane to run must be installed, resulting in high costs. Additionally, there is a limit to how compact the stacker crane itself can be, so a certain amount of dead space is required at the left and right ends of the automated warehouse for the stacker crane. The disadvantage was that the proportion of land occupied by land was high and it was not possible to make effective use of the land.

0004

[Means for Eliminating the above-mentioned disadvantages] In order to eliminate the above-mentioned disadvantages, the present invention employs the following means. The present invention comprises a rack device having a large number of article storage shelves vertically and horizontally, and a horizontally long elevating platform with a length corresponding to the left and right length of the rack device, which can be raised and lowered in front of the rack device. The lifting platform includes a left-right movable table that can be moved left and right, and an article transfer device that is provided on the left-right movable table.

[0005]

[Operations of the Invention] This invention has the following functions. The article transfer device can be positioned at a predetermined article storage shelf or carry-out/carry-in station by raising and lowering the lifting table and moving the left-right moving table mounted on the lifting table laterally.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be explained below based on embodiments shown in the drawings. In this specification, "front" refers to the front side of the paper in FIG. 1, "back" refers to the back side of the drawing, and "left" refers to the left side of FIG.
Right refers to the right side of the figure.

[0007] A pair of front and rear rack devices 1, which are erected on the floor at a predetermined interval in the front and back direction, have a large number of front support columns 2 arranged on the left and right at a predetermined interval, and these front support columns 2.
It has rear columns 2 lined up at a predetermined interval behind the column, and article supporting members 4 provided at predetermined intervals in the height direction on these front and rear columns 2. An article storage shelf 3 is constituted by a pair of left and right article supporting members 4 that face each other without intervening. A fork passing gap 5 is formed between the pair of left and right article supporting members 4 to allow vertical movement of a slide fork 20, which will be described later. The article loading/unloading ports 6 of the front and rear article storage shelves 3 face each other.

Below the rack device 1 is an article loading/unloading station 8, and one drive conveyor 9 is provided for each group of article storage shelves 3 arranged vertically in the article loading/unloading station 8, which can be driven in forward and reverse directions. are installed so that the transport direction is oriented in the front-back direction.

A pair of left and right guide masts 11 are erected so as to be located in the longitudinal center between the rack apparatuses 1 and on the sides of the rack apparatus 1. A lifting platform 12 that is long in the left-right direction and has a length corresponding to the left-right length is moved by a known lifting device 13.
It can be raised and lowered freely.

[0010] A pair of guide rails 15 are provided at the center in the front and back direction of the lifting platform 12, and the longitudinal direction thereof is oriented left and right.
A left-right movable base 16 is movable left and right along these guide rails 15 by a known travel drive device (not shown). A horizontal rotating plate 17 is provided on the left-right moving table 16,
This horizontal rotary disk 17 is configured to be horizontally rotated by a motor 18 that can freely rotate in forward and reverse directions. A slide fork 20 is mounted on the horizontal rotary plate 17.
It is provided so as to be slidable back and forth by a known advance/retreat mechanism as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3762 and the like. As is well known, the slide fork 20 performs operations such as protruding the article W downward, lifting the article W by raising the lifting table 12, and retreating to the lifting table 12, thereby pulling the article W into the lifting table 12, and pulling the article W into the lifting table 12. By the reverse operation, the article W can be unloaded onto the article storage shelf 3 or the like.

[0011] An auxiliary drive conveyor 22 is provided at the front and rear sides of the lifting platform 12 with the guide rail 15 as a boundary, so as to face each group of article storage shelves 3 arranged in the vertical direction, and can be driven forward and backward. ing. Note that these auxiliary drive conveyors 22 are designed so as not to obstruct the horizontal protrusion of the slide fork 20. Corresponding to each of the auxiliary drive conveyors 22, a pair of left and right elevating frames 23 are provided on the left and right sides of the auxiliary drive conveyor 22 so as to be movable up and down. These elevating frames 23 can protrude upward from the upper surface of the slide fork 20 and can retract downward from the conveying surface of the auxiliary drive conveyor 22. Further, the length between the outer sides of the pair of lifting frames 23 is made shorter than the length of the article W in the left-right direction. As will become clear from the explanation below, the lifting frame 23 receives the article W from the slide fork 20 and places it on the auxiliary drive conveyor 22, or conversely lifts the article W from the auxiliary drive conveyor 22 and places it on the slide fork 20. It is something that works.

0012

[Operation of the embodiment] Next, the operation of the apparatus of the embodiment will be explained. First, a case where articles W are stored in article storage shelf 3 will be described. The lifting table 12 is lowered to make the conveyance surface of the auxiliary drive conveyor 22 flush with or almost flush with the conveyance surface of the drive conveyor 9.

After that, all or part of the drive conveyor 9 and the auxiliary drive conveyor 22 connected thereto are driven,
The article W is placed on the auxiliary drive conveyor 22. Note that the elevating frame 23 is lowered below the conveyance surface of the auxiliary drive conveyor 22. When the article W is placed on the auxiliary drive conveyor 22, the drive conveyor 9 and the auxiliary drive conveyor 22 are stopped.

Thereafter, the lifting platform 12 is raised and lowered to a position where the upper surface of the slide fork 20 is slightly higher than the article supporting surface of the article storage shelf 3 in which the article W is to be stored.

Thereafter, the elevating frame 23, which has been lowered until now, is raised so that the bottom surface of the article W is above the top surface of the slide fork 20.

[0016] After that, the left-right movable table 16 is moved so as to face the article storage shelf 3 that stores the articles W, and the horizontal rotary plate 17 is rotated so that the slide fork 20 moves toward the article storage shelf 3. and make it stand out.

After that, the slide fork 20 is made to protrude below the article W, and then the slide fork 20 is temporarily
is stopped, the elevating frame 23 is lowered, and the article W is placed on the slide fork 20.

After that, the slide fork 20 is further projected to move the article W above the article storage shelf 3, and then the elevating table 12 is lowered to store the article W on the article storage shelf 3.

After that, the slide fork 20 is retracted. Then, when storing the article W in another article storage shelf 3 on the stage where the above operation was performed, the article W is raised again by the amount that was lowered to store it in the article storage shelf 3.
The article W is stored in the article storage shelf 3 by performing the same operation as described above. If not, it moves to the position of the step of the article storage shelf 3 where the next article W is to be stored. Note that when all the auxiliary drive conveyors 22 are loaded with articles W, the first article W has to be stored in the opposite article storage shelf 3, but even if one auxiliary drive conveyor 22 is empty, (if it becomes empty), the article W is transferred to the empty auxiliary drive conveyor 22.
By once transferring the article to the elevating frame 23, the predetermined article W on the auxiliary drive conveyor 22 can be stored in the predetermined article storage shelf 3 without the above-mentioned restrictions.

[0020] By repeating such operations, the articles W can be stored in the article storage shelf 3, and by performing the reverse operation, the articles W can be carried out to the drive conveyor 9.

Note that it is sufficient to have one rack device 1. Further, the slide fork 20 may be replaced with a known robot hand. The horizontal rotary plate 17 has a slide fork 20
It is also possible to omit both the front and rear ends of the front and rear ends thereof to protrude by the required length toward the front and rear article storage shelves 3.

[0022]

[Effects of the Invention] With the above-described configuration, the present invention achieves the following effects. A lifting platform that is long in the left-right direction and has a length corresponding to the left-right length of the rack device, a left-right moving table provided on this lifting table so as to be movable left and right, and an article transfer device provided on this left-right moving table. Unlike the conventional method, the stacker crane is not moved from side to side, so the above-mentioned drawbacks caused by moving the stacker crane from side to side can be eliminated.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Rack device 3. Goods storage shelf 12 Lifting platform 16 Left/right movement platform 20 Slide fork

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A rack device having a large number of article storage shelves vertically and horizontally, and a horizontally long elevating platform with a length corresponding to the left and right length of the rack device, which can be raised and lowered in front of the rack device. An automatic warehouse comprising: a horizontally movable platform provided on the elevating platform so as to be movable left and right; and an article transfer device provided on the horizontally movable platform.