JPH0664750A - Palletizing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To load a plurality of kinds of articles built by fully utilizing volume on a pallet. CONSTITUTION:In the case of loading three kinds of articles 1a, 1b, 1c of different size built on a pallet P, the article is piled up from a level as low as possible so as to not exceed the loading maximum height. However, by loading the article built preferentially in a position distant from a palletizing robot, a packing rate of the pallet P is maximized so as to avoid generating a position where the article can not be loaded to be built by the palletizing robot.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a palletizing method for placing articles on a pallet, and more particularly to a palletizing method for efficiently palletizing a plurality of types of articles on the same pallet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, at a distribution center or the like, a plurality of types of articles may be palletized on the same pallet in accordance with shipping requirements. A large number of articles are prepared in the warehouse of the distribution center, and are palletized for delivery according to the customer's order. That is, typically, a picking request is made for a customer's order, a pallet in which a large number of various kinds of goods are stacked is taken out from a warehouse, and the requested number of pallets are palletized on empty pallets to obtain a plurality of kinds of goods. The pallet carrying the items is transported to the shipping site, and the goods are transferred to a truck or the like and delivered to the customer.

[0003]

As described above, when different articles are mixed and placed on the same pallet, it is preferable that the number of pallets is as small as possible in order to satisfy one conveyance request. Is clear. For example, in order to fulfill one order, it is necessary to stack all the articles on one pallet and transport one pallet rather than placing the articles separately on two pallets and transporting them. It is possible to shorten the time to transport to the shipping place. If the pallets are to be placed on a truck, the number of pallets also affects the efficiency of transportation outside the distribution center. In order to reduce the number of pallets to be transported, it is important to load as many articles as possible on one pallet.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a palletizing method capable of efficiently palletizing a plurality of types of articles.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention first selects a lowest plane having a width capable of mounting an intended article from each plane constituted by a pallet and articles on the pallet. The process and the work of making a plane which is lower than the upper surface of the article when placed on the lowest plane and has a width capable of placing the article and which is located farther from the palletizer as a new lowest plane. The palletizing method was constituted by repeatedly determining the lowest plane on which the article should be placed.

[0006]

Since the present invention has the above-mentioned structure, it has the following effects.

In the palletizing method according to the present invention, when the intended articles are to be stacked, the lowest plane is first selected. The lowest plane is a plane formed by the pallet and the article on the pallet, and is the lowest plane among the planes having a space in which the article can be placed.
Obviously, if the articles are placed in order from the lowest plane, many articles can be loaded on a pallet with a limited stacking height.

However, since the packing is performed by the palletizer, it is preferable that the palletizer hands for gripping and moving the goods leave as much room for the goods as possible. Therefore, in order to stack the pallets in order from the back of the palletizer, a plane located farther from the palletizer than the lowest plane is searched. Of course, the target article must be a flat surface that can be placed, and it must be a plane that is lower than the height of the top surface of the article when the target article is placed on the currently selected lowest plane. In addition to the conditions, the corresponding plane is newly set as the lowest plane. That is,
The newly selected lowest plane will be the lowest plane after the previous lowest plane has been loaded with articles, so turn the order by 1.
Replace them with priority, and stack from the plane on the back side so that they can be stacked with the palletizer.

After the new lowest plane is selected, the work of searching for the lowest plane that satisfies the conditions further in the back is repeated, and the articles are finally stacked on the selected lowest plane. Through this process, from the lowest possible surface,
Moreover, it is possible to satisfy the requirement of stacking from the back as much as possible, so that the volume on the pallet can be utilized to the maximum extent.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments shown in the drawings will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a package shape palletized by an embodiment of the palletizing method according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a process of completing the package shape shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the pallet and the articles that make up the package of FIG. 1.

In FIG. 1, a plurality of three types of articles 1a, 1b, 1c having different sizes are palletized on a pallet P respectively. A total of seven articles 1a are placed directly on the surface of the pallet P, and five articles 1b and two articles 1c are placed on the plane formed by the seven articles 1a, respectively. Has been done.

As shown in FIG. 3, it is required that seven articles 1a, five articles 1b, and two articles 1c be placed on the pallet P. In response to this request, in the palletizing method of the present embodiment, first, as shown in FIG.
The widest article 1 among the articles is located on the far right of the pallet P.
a is placed (in this example, the width of the article 1a is the same as that of the article 1b, and the width of the article 1c is small).

Further, the articles 1a are arranged from the right back to the front right (FIG. 2 (b)), and when there is no space in the front right, they are arranged from the back left to the front left, as shown in FIG.
The state becomes as shown in (c). This completes the packing of seven articles 1a.

Next, 5 articles 1b are stacked.
Since the width and the depth of the pallet are the same as those of the article 1a, the palletizing robot (not shown) for stacking can also be placed in the space left left in FIG. Since it is installed in the front left direction,
An article 1b that is taller than the article 1a in the left front space
If the items are stacked, it becomes difficult to stack the next item. Therefore, the article 1b is placed on the article 1a on the far right (see FIG. 2).
(D)). The articles 1b are also placed from the right back to the front right, and to the left back when there is no more space, and five items are stacked as shown in FIG. 2 (e).

Next, when the article 1c is loaded, the article 1c
Can be stacked in three places on the left front space, on the article 1a in the left row, and on the article 1b in the right row. If the article 1c is stacked in the space on the front left side, the next article is difficult to stack on the article 1c, which is inappropriate. When the article 1c is stacked on the article 1a in the left column, the next article is the article 1
It is not suitable here because it is difficult to stack on top of b. However, if the articles 1c are stacked on the articles 1b, the maximum stacking height is exceeded, so that the articles 1c are finally stacked on the articles 1a in the left column as shown in FIG.

FIG. 1 shows a state in which each article is centered in the vertical and horizontal directions from the state of FIG. 2 (f) and gathered in the center to improve stability.

FIG. 4 is a main flow showing the process steps in an embodiment of the palletizing method according to the present invention.

First, when a packing request consisting of items and the number of items for each item is input to a control device (not shown), necessary data is input (step 1). The data includes the number of articles requested to be packed, the width and depth of each article (where width> = depth), the height, the width and depth of the pallet, the maximum loading height, and the like.

The following process is a process in which a control device performs a simulation to determine a package form, and the package form actually formed is only the package form finally derived as a result of the simulation. In the process up to that point, for example, the packing appearance shown in FIG. 8 is virtual. However, it is possible to display the package form on the display connected to the control device.

Next, it is judged whether or not there is a surface forming item for each item (step 2). That is, it is determined whether the same item can form a plane having the same size as the pallet or a slightly smaller size. An example is shown in FIG. FIG. 5A shows a pattern in which eight articles 1i form a surface having substantially the same size as the pallet P. 5 (b) is 1
This is a pattern in which a surface of a size slightly smaller than the pallet P is formed by 0 articles 1j. Each article does not necessarily have one pattern forming a surface, and some articles have a pattern forming a plurality of surfaces.

If there is a surface-constituent item, the corresponding articles are stacked in the surface-constant pattern (step 3). By stacking the patterns that form the surfaces, it is possible to stack efficiently and stably on the pallet. Further, when there are a plurality of patterns forming the surface, for example, one packing request includes eight or more articles 1i and ten or more articles 1j, and both patterns of FIGS. 5A and 5B can be established. When the surface can be composed of two or more different patterns even when the same article is used, the pyramid should be formed so that the area of the composing surface is wide, the narrow surface is up. To ensure stability. For example, in the example of FIG.
Stack with (b) facing up.

When the surface is formed for each item in this way, the width and depth of the pallet size are updated (step 4). In the example of FIG. 5, in the case of (a), a surface having a size substantially the same as the size of the pallet P can be formed, but in the case of (b), the pallet P has a larger depth, so the article 1j
The following processing is performed with the width and depth of the surface constituted by the above as the width and depth of the pallet, respectively.

When the surface cannot be constructed on an item-by-item basis and after updating the pallet size, a fractional number of articles are stacked. First, the pallet P is vertically divided into two (step 5). As shown in FIG. 6, the pallet P is vertically divided into left and right parts, and the width centers of the articles are aligned with the center lines of the left and right parts indicated by broken lines, and the pallets are stacked from the back. If the article protrudes from the pallet P, that is, if the width of the pallet P is less than twice the width of the article, it is divided into two in the lateral direction.

The items are stacked in the order of the widest articles (step 6). Since width> = depth, even if an article is placed on the placed article, the article above does not extend and be placed in the width direction. As a result, whether or not an article is placed on a certain surface results in a comparison between the depth of the surface and the depth of the article to be placed.

The packing process (step 7) is shown in the flowchart of the packing process shown in FIG.

First, data such as the pallet size, the number of articles for each item, the width, the depth and the height are input (step 701). The number of articles will be the number originally requested to be loaded minus the number taken up in area in step 3.

First, the lowest face is searched (step 7).
02). If nothing is stacked on the pallet P, the lowest surface is the surface of the pallet P. If the area is measured, it is the plane that constitutes the area-covered article. At this time, because the palletizing robot is arranged in front of the pallet P on the left side, the right column of FIG. 6 is preferentially searched.

The lowest plane searched is the lowest plane (plane LO
W) (step 703), and it is determined whether or not the depth of the relevant article to be stacked is larger than the depth of the surface LOW (step 704). If the depth of the surface LOW is larger, the articles can be stacked. Therefore, it is determined whether or not the maximum loading height is exceeded when the corresponding articles are stacked next on the surface LOW (step 705). If the maximum stacking height is not exceeded, the corresponding articles are stacked (step 706). However, this is provisional packing.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2 (a), since the lowest surface is obviously the surface of the pallet P, it is piled up in the innermost part of the row on the right side, and then on the right side as shown in FIG. 2 (b). If you line up in front of the columns and there is no space in the right column,
The rows on the left side are arranged from the back and are arranged as shown in FIG.

Next, it is determined whether or not a surface lower than the upper surface of the articles tentatively stacked on the surface LOW exists in the back (step 707). If not, the article in question is stowed on surface LOW. If the lower surface exists in the back, the process returns to step 7703 to judge whether the article can be placed on the surface.

The process up to this point will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 8A, articles 1d,
Three articles 1e and 1f are placed on the pallet P
There is no space left on the surface.

When an article 1g is loaded in this state,
The surface LOW, which is the lowest plane, is the upper surface of the article 1f.
Therefore, when the article 1g is tentatively placed here, the upper surface of the article 1g becomes higher than the upper surface of the article 1e. That is,
Since the surface lower than the upper surface of the article 1g exists in the back, the article 1g is provisionally placed on this surface. Then, article 1g
Since the upper surface of the article is higher than the upper surface of the article 1d, the article 1g is eventually placed on the upper surface of the article 1d.

By deciding the surface on which the articles are placed in such a process, the packing form can be lowered and the palletizing robot can be loaded while leaving the transferable position. That is, for example, in order to maximize the use of the volume on the pallet, it is preferable to place the article 1g on the lowest surface. However, if a high article is placed at a position in front of the palletizing robot, it will be located deeper than that position. It becomes difficult to stack articles on the article 1e. Therefore, in order to prevent the space at the back from becoming unusable by placing the article on the lowest surface, the conditions such as step 707 are provided.

Next, a case where the depth of the relevant article is larger than the depth of the surface LOW in step 704 will be described. As shown in FIG. 8B, two articles 1g have already been placed on the article 1e. Third item 1
When g is placed, the plane above the article 1f, the article 1e
The plane LOW is selected in the order of the upper planes, and then the plane on the article 1d is set as the plane LOW.

However, on the plane above the article 1d, the article 1g
There is no space to put on and the depth of the article 1g is LOW.
Larger than the depth of. In this case, it is determined whether or not there is a next lower surface, excluding the previously provisional planes on the articles 1e and 1d (step 708).

Then, since the next lower surface is the upper surface of the article 1g on the article 1e, if the process returns to step 703 and the articles 1g are further stacked in step 706, the maximum loading height L will be exceeded. Therefore, the depth of the pallet is updated (step 709) so that the depth of the pallet is the front of the upper surface of the article 1g on the article 1e.

When the depth of the pallet is updated, the process returns from step 710 to step 702, and the articles 1f and 1e are again used.
The upper plane is provisionally set in order, and the plane on the article 1d is the surface LOW.
Since there is not enough depth, it is determined again in step 708 whether there is a next lower surface.

Since the depth of the palette has been updated,
This time, there is no next lower surface, so it is determined whether or not the previous stacking position exists (step 711).
Since the last loading position is the plane on the article 1e,
It is returned to the previous packing position (step 712). If the previous loading position does not exist, it means that the requested items could not be loaded on the pallet,
It ends abnormally.

In FIG. 8 (c), two articles 1g are placed on the article 1d.
The process of stacking the articles 1h in the stacked state is shown. First, the articles 1f and 1e are provisionally arranged in order, and then the article 1d is provisionally formed. Since the depth of the surface LOW remaining on the article 1d is larger than the depth of the article 1h (step 704), the process proceeds to step 705. However, if the article 1h is placed on the article 1d, the maximum loading height L will be exceeded. . Then, the pallet depth is updated (step 709), and the process is returned to the previous stacking position in step 712 through the same process as in the case of FIG. 8 (b) and placed on the article 1e.

After packing through the above process (step 7), and finally centering in both vertical and horizontal directions to enhance stability (step 8), the packing form as shown in FIG. 1 is determined. It

As described above, according to this embodiment, by selecting the lowest possible surface and stacking the articles, a large number of articles can be stacked before the maximum loading height is reached. The utilization rate is high, and thus high transport efficiency can be realized. In addition, the palletizing robot is placed in a position farther from the palletizing robot placed on the left front side, that is, the back of the pallet, and the right column is preferentially loaded, so that the palletizing robot is obstructed by the already loaded items. Positions that cannot be attached are unlikely to occur, which also makes it possible to realize a high filling rate.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above.
It is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments and can be appropriately modified within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

For example, in the above embodiment, the palletizing robot is described as being located on the left front side of the pallet, but it is obvious that the position on the pallet far from the palletizing robot changes depending on the position of the palletizing robot.

[0045]

As described above, according to the palletizing method according to the present invention, the packing requirement can be satisfied with a small number of pallets, so that the number of pallets can be minimized and the transport efficiency can be improved. You can

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a package shape palletized by an embodiment of a palletizing method according to the present invention.

2 (a) to 2 (f) are plan views showing a process of palletizing the packing form shown in FIG. 1, respectively.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an article and a pallet, respectively, in the example of the packing configuration in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a main flow showing a process of an embodiment of a palletizing method according to the present invention.

5 (a) and 5 (b) are plan views each showing an example of a pattern of an area by a plurality of articles in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a pallet divided into two parts in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a stacking process in the embodiment of FIG.

8A to 8C are side views showing a pallet and articles for explaining the stacking process of FIG. 7, respectively.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a, 1b, 1c Article P pallet

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A process of first selecting a lowest plane having a size capable of mounting a target article from each plane formed by the pallet and the articles on the pallet, and a size capable of mounting the article, A process of determining the lowest plane on which the article is to be placed by repeating the operation of newly setting the plane that is lower than the upper surface of the article when placed on the lowest plane and is located farther from the palletizer as the lowest plane. A palletizing method including and.