JPH05286528A - Automatic warehouse and stacker crane - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accommodate the freight having a variety of dimension without using a pallet by using a V shaped freight receiving member and a slide fork. CONSTITUTION:An opened port 23 for fork is formed between the top edge parts of a shelf receiving members 22 which are inclined downward at an angle of about 45 deg. and form an angle of 90 deg. each other. A V-shaped freight loading part 38 having the equal tilt angle to the shelf receiving member 22 and an arm part are installed on the fork body 37 of the slide fork 32 of a stacker crane. The slide fork 32 is moved vertically in the projection state to an accommodation shelf 20 side, and a freight 10 is stocked and delivered from the accommodation shelf 20. When the slide fork 32 is moved vertically, the fright loading part 38 is positioned in the opened port 23 for fork, and the arm part 39 passes through the cut part 24 of the shelf receiving member 22. Accordingly, in case of the freight 10 larger than the opened port 23 for fork, the freight 10 can be accommodated into the accommodation shelf 20 without using a pallet, and during the stocking/delivery work of the stacker crane 30, the freight 10 can be held always in a stable attitude.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic warehouse and a stacker crane for carrying loads in the automatic warehouse.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known an automatic warehouse configured to store a load in a rack having a plurality of columns provided with shelf receiving members. One shelf receiving member is provided so as to straddle two columns, and each shelf receiving member is connected to the other two adjacent columns.
It supports a load by forming a pair with a shelf receiving member provided on a column of the book. That is, one storage shelf is configured by the pair of shelf receiving members.

[0003]

In some cases, a pallet is not used to store a load in a storage rack. In such a case, the distance between the pair of shelf receiving members must be smaller than the width of the load. That is, conventionally, there has been a problem that the size of a load that can be stored in a storage rack is limited unless a pallet is used. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic warehouse that can store loads of various sizes in a storage shelf without using a pallet, and a stacker crane suitable for use in such an automatic warehouse.

[0004]

An automatic warehouse according to the present invention is an automatic warehouse provided with a rack in which storage shelves are constituted by a set of shelf receiving members provided on adjacent columns. The member is formed in a V shape so as to incline downward from the column toward the center of the storage rack, and is characterized by supporting adjacent surfaces sandwiching the corner portion of the load. Further, the stacker crane according to the present invention includes a lift table that can be raised and lowered, and a slide fork that is provided so as to project from the lift table toward the storage shelf and has a V-shape corresponding to the shelf receiving member. The slide fork is characterized in that it can pass through the openings formed between the shelf receiving members.

[0005]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an automated warehouse which is an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, a stacker crane 30 travels along a crane passage 11 formed between two racks 12, 12 and conveys a load 10 between a storage shelf 20 of the rack 12 and a fixing station (not shown). The storage shelves 20 are provided in multiple columns in the up-down direction on a support column 21 that is vertically arranged on the floor surface of the automated warehouse.

2 and 3 show the structure of the storage rack 20. The storage shelf 20 is composed of a pair of shelf receiving members 22. In this embodiment, the shelf receiving member 22 is formed by bending a single plate material, and each shelf receiving member 22 is fixed to two adjacent columns 21. The shelf receiving member 22 is also fixed to the two columns 21 provided adjacent to these columns 21, and the pair of shelf receiving members 22, 22 constitutes a pair of storage shelves 20.

The pair of shelf receiving members 22, 22 are arranged in a V shape. That is, each of the shelf receiving members 22 has its base end fixed to each of the two columns 21, and is inclined downward at an angle of about 45 degrees to form an angle of about 90 degrees with each other. A predetermined space W is formed between the tip ends of the shelf receiving members 22. The space W between the front ends of the shelf receiving members 22 is the fork opening 23, and has a size that allows the fork main body 37 of the slide fork 32, which will be described later, to pass in the vertical direction.

The load 10 has a fork opening 23 at its corner.
It is stored in the storage shelf 20 in a state of being dropped into. That is, the surfaces of both sides of the load 10 that sandwich the corners are the shelf receiving members 2
Supported by 2, 22.

Each shelf receiving member 22 has a fork opening 2
3 is provided with a cutout 24 that opens. The cutout 24 is
It is provided to pass an arm portion 39 of a slide fork 32, which will be described later, in the vertical direction, and is formed at a position close to both ends of the shelf receiving member 22, that is, each of the columns 21. Due to these notches 24, the length L of one side of each of the storage shelves 20 on both sides of the corner located in the fork opening 23 is the intersection O of the extension lines of the two shelf receiving members 22. It is larger than the distance A from the tip of the shelf receiving member 22 and the intersection point O
Load 1 smaller than the distance B between the rack and the base end of the shelf receiving member 22
If 0, it can be stored. The fixed station also has the same configuration as each of the storage shelves 20, and one fixed station is provided for each rack 12.

Next, the structure of the stacker crane 30 will be described with reference to FIGS. A lift 32 is supported by the crane body 31 so as to be lifted up and down, and a slide fork 33 is provided on the lift 32. The slide fork 33 projects toward the rack 12 side to load and unload the load 10.

The slide fork 32 includes a bottom plate 34 fixed to a lift table 33 and a middle plate 35.
Also, it has a three-stage retractable structure in which the top plate 36 is slidably supported by a chain drive. Top plate 3
A fork main body 37 is fixed on the upper part 6. The fork main body 37 is erected at the center of the top plate 36 in the width direction along the slide direction, and at the upper portion thereof, the forked load carrying portion 3 that is inclined obliquely upward at an angle of about 45 degrees.
8 is formed. At both ends in the sliding direction of the loading section 38, a total of four arm sections 39 are provided, for example, two each. These arm portions 39 are extended at the same inclination angle as the load placing portion 38. The fork main body 37 is provided when the slide fork 32 is moved up and down by raising and lowering the elevating table 33.
The fork opening 23 of the storage shelf 20 can pass through in the vertical direction, and the arm portion 39 can pass through the cutout portion 24.

More preferably, the storage rack 2 of the loading section 38.
A fall prevention plate 40 is provided at the end on the 0 side. The fall prevention plate 40 has a configuration in which the tip end portion is bent upward, and prevents the load 10 from dropping from the placing portion 38 when the load 10 is unloaded from the storage rack 20.

When loading and unloading the load 10 into and from the storage shelves 20, the lift table 33 can be unloaded onto the shelf receiving member 22 with the upper surface of the load placing portion 38 slightly above the upper surface of the shelf receiving member 22. At a position (hereinafter, referred to as an upper level), or the upper surface of the load carrying section 38 is slightly lower than the upper surface of the shelf receiving member 22, the load carrying section 38 is placed on the shelf receiving member 22.
It can be stopped at a position where it can be scooped up (hereinafter referred to as the lower level).

The operation of this embodiment will be described. The rectangular parallelepiped load 10 such as a cardboard is supported by the pair of shelf receiving members 22 so that the corners thereof are dropped into the fork opening 23.

The load 10 on the fixed station is placed by an operator, for example, at the end far from the crane passage 11. This is because the load 10 is placed on the storage rack 20 with one side surface of the load 10 aligned with the end on the side far from the crane passage 11. Now, the slide fork 32 projects toward the fixed station with the elevating table 33 positioned at the lower level. In this state, when the elevating table 33 rises to the upper level H, the fork body 37 of the slide fork 32 and the arm portion 39.
Lifts the load 10 through the fork opening and the notch of the fixing station from below to above. Then, the slide fork 32 returns from the fixing station onto the lift table 33.

Next, the crane main body 31 is a predetermined storage shelf 2
Drive to near 0. Here, the lifting table 33 is the storage shelf 20.
The slide fork 3 is located at the upper level with respect to
2 projects to the storage shelf 20 side. When the elevating table 33 descends to a lower level in this state, the fork main body 37 and the arm portion 39 of the slide fork 32 pass through the fork opening 23 and the notch portion 24 of the storage shelf 20 from above to below, and the load placing portion 38. Lowers to a position where the upper surface of the is lower than the upper surface of the shelf receiving member 22. As a result, the slide fork 32 transfers the load 10 supported by the load placing portion 38 of the fork main body 37 and the arm portion 39 onto the shelf receiving member 22 of the storage shelf 20. At this time, the load 10 is placed at a position where one side surface is aligned with the end of the storage rack 20 far from the crane passage 11.

When the load 10 is transported from the storage rack 20 to the fixed station, the same operation is performed through the procedure reverse to that described above.

As described above, in this embodiment, each shelf receiving member 2
2 is inclined downward at an angle of about 45 degrees, and a V-shape of about 90 degrees is formed with the fork opening 23 provided between the tip portions. Therefore, the load 10 larger than the fork opening 23 can be stored in the storage shelf 20 without using a pallet. Further, in this embodiment, the slide fork 32 has a fork main body 37 with a V-shape having the same inclination angle as the storage shelf 20.
Since the load-carrying portion 38 having a V-shape is provided and the arm portion 39 is extended to support both sides of the load 10 on both sides of the corner of the load 10, the stacker crane 30 is loaded and unloaded. During operation, the load 10 can always be held in a stable posture.

In the above embodiment, the fixed station has the same structure as the storage rack 20, and the storage position of the load 10 on the storage rack 20 is determined by the operator's positioning on the fixed station. The fixing station 50 may be tilted as shown in FIG. That is, in the fixing station 50, the support plate 51 on which a load is placed is inclined along the advancing / retreating direction of the slide fork, and the support plate 51 is provided with a large number of free rollers 52 rotatably. Further, a locking plate 53 is provided on the inclined lower end. According to this, when the worker only places the load 10 on the support plate 51, the load 10 can move the load 10 to the free roller 52.
It moves up and abuts on the locking plate 53, and is always positioned at a predetermined position.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to store loads of various sizes without using a pallet.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an automated warehouse according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a storage rack of the automated warehouse of FIG. 1 and a slide fork of a stacker crane.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a storage shelf of the automated warehouse of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing the stacker crane of the automated warehouse of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing another example of a fixing station.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Load 20 Storage Shelf 21 Strut 22 Shelf Receiving Member 23 Opening (Fork Opening) 30 Stacker Crane 32 Slide Fork 33 Lifting Platform

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An automated warehouse comprising a rack in which storage shelves are formed by a set of shelf receiving members provided on adjacent columns, wherein each shelf receiving member is lowered from the columns toward the center of the storage shelf. An automatic warehouse characterized by being formed in a V shape so as to incline in a vertical direction and supporting adjacent surfaces sandwiching a corner of a load. 2. A stacker crane for loading and unloading loads to and from each storage rack in the automated warehouse according to claim 1, wherein the lifter is provided so as to be able to move up and down, and is provided so as to be able to project from the lift base toward the storage rack. And a slide fork formed in a V shape corresponding to the shelf receiving member, the slide fork being able to pass through an opening formed between the shelf receiving members. crane.