JPH08324712A - Automatic high-rise warehouse - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To increase storage efficiency without any additional increase in carrying-in/out cycle time. CONSTITUTION: In three-dimensional racks 12, 13 provided on both sides of a passage 11, storage shelves 14 are arranged in the depth direction, too, so the proportion of the floor area of the racks 12, 13 to the passage 11 is increased for higher storage efficiency. When a stacker crane 16 is located and stopped at the (n)th address, for example, to the racks 12, 13, a load 10 is received or delivered between the storage shelve and it by a traversing carriage 17. The traversing carriage 17 can be operated separately from the stacker crane 16, and conduct operation as indicated by broken lines even while the stacker crane 16 is separate from the (n)th address, so it is possible to shorten all-round carrying-in/out cycle time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a three-dimensional automatic warehouse capable of automatically sorting and storing various kinds of parcels and automatically taking out them as needed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 10 shows a conventional concept of a three-dimensional automated warehouse aiming at high storage efficiency. Racks 2 and 3 are installed on both sides of a linearly extending passage 1. A plurality of storage shelves 4 are arranged in each of the racks 2 and 3, and addresses are given in advance in the direction along the passage 1 and in the vertical direction. Further, in the depth direction, the storage shelves 4 are arranged in the first, second, and third columns with the distance L as a unit. A rail 5 is provided in the passage 1, and a stacker crane 6 can travel on the rail 5. The stacker crane 6 is provided with a carriage that can be displaced in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 10, and luggage is transferred between the carriage and the storage rack 4.

Prior art related to a high storage efficiency type three-dimensional automatic warehouse in which the racks 2 and 3 have only the first row of storage shelves 4 facing the aisle 1 is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 53-80683 and 54-54. 22680 and the like. Figure 10
When a plurality of storage shelves 4 are provided in the depth direction as well, a stacker crane 6 is provided with a multi-reach fork type stacker crane in which the forks extend to a long distance, and a rack side is provided with a free roller, so that the stacker crane 6 It is necessary to use a push-pull type stacker crane that only needs to push and pull.

[0004]

In an ordinary three-dimensional automated warehouse in which the storage shelves 4 are provided only along the aisles 1, the racks 2, 2
The ratio of the area occupied by the passage 1 to 3 is large, and the storage efficiency is poor. The above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 53-80683 and 54
In the prior art No. 22680, the objective is to achieve the objective by improving the storage efficiency and making the loading / unloading cycle time equivalent to that of a normal three-dimensional automated warehouse, by narrowing the passage width. However, if the passage is narrowed, the storage method of luggage is greatly restricted.
The stacker is stored in the traveling direction of the stacker in order, so there is no problem if there are many packages in the same lot, but it is difficult to remove the packages stored in the back for small lot products. Unsuitable for In addition, the traveling and lifting operations of the stacker crane cannot always be performed simultaneously, so the cycle time is not necessarily shortened. Further, since it is not possible to extend the rack in the depth direction to increase the number of storage shelves, there is a limit to improving storage efficiency.

Further, when a multi-reach fork type stacker crane or a push-pull type stacker crane is used, the time required for delivery of luggage increases as the distance from the passage increases, and the loading / unloading cycle time of the luggage on the back side increases. I will end up. Further, since the stacker crane main body is mechanically connected to the forks and pushers, the depth dimension can be limited. It is also possible to configure the stacker crane to be a parent-child type, and the child dolly travels in the depth direction to transfer the luggage to and from the parent stacker crane, but by connecting the stacker crane and the child dolly with a cable. In that case, the stacker crane needs to wait for the child carriage while transferring the baggage on the back side to the stacker crane, which results in a long loading / unloading cycle time.

[0006] An object of the present invention is to provide a three-dimensional automatic warehouse that has a high storage efficiency and does not have a particularly long loading / unloading cycle time as compared with the conventional three-dimensional automatic warehouse.

[0007]

The present invention is directed to a rack in which a plurality of storage shelves designated in advance by addresses are arranged in a plurality of rows in a direction along a substantially horizontal passage, in a vertical direction, and in a depth direction, respectively. A stacker crane that can be moved along the rack's aisle, has a lift mechanism, and can be positioned on the storage shelf facing the aisle by specifying the aisle direction and vertical direction, and can be mounted on the stacker crane and is independent of the stacker crane. Further, it is a three-dimensional automatic warehouse characterized by being capable of traveling in the depth direction of a rack and including a traversing cart capable of transferring luggage between a storage rack and a stacker crane or between storage racks. Further, the present invention is characterized in that the racks are erected on both sides of a passage, and the traverse carriage can travel on the racks on both sides. Furthermore, the present invention is characterized in that the traverse vehicle is driven by using a storage battery as a power source, and the storage battery is charged while the traverse vehicle is mounted on the stacker crane.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the stacker crane specifies the passage direction and the vertical direction for a rack in which a plurality of rows of storage shelves are three-dimensionally arranged in the direction along the passage, the vertical direction, and the depth direction. Can be positioned. As for the depth direction, it can be mounted on a stacker crane, and a traverse cart that can travel in the depth direction of the rack independently of the stacker crane transfers luggage between the stacker crane and storage shelves or between storage shelves. It is possible. The stacker crane can move the luggage independently while the transverse carriage is transferring the luggage in the depth direction, so the loading / unloading cycle time is similar to that of a multi-story automated warehouse where storage shelves are not formed in the depth direction. Can be realized. Since the storage rack is also formed in the depth direction, the area of the rack with respect to the passage can be increased, and the storage efficiency can be increased.

Further, according to the present invention, since the racks are erected on both sides of the aisle, the ratio of the storage shelves to the aisle can be further increased to improve the storage efficiency.

Further, according to the present invention, since the traverse vehicle is driven by using the storage battery as a power source, it can be operated in various modes independently of the stacker crane. Since the storage battery is stored while the traversing cart is mounted on the stacker crane, it is possible to charge the storage battery by effectively utilizing the time and to keep the vehicle ready for traveling.

[0011]

FIG. 1 shows the basic construction of an embodiment of the present invention. As a three-dimensional automatic warehouse for storing the luggage 10, racks 12 and 13 are erected on both sides of a linear passage 11. Storage racks 14 each having a fixed size are attached to the racks 12 and 13 in the direction in which the passage 11 extends, in the vertical direction, and in the depth direction as in the first, second, and third rows. It is arranged dimensionally. A rail 15 is provided in the passage 11, and a stacker crane 16 can reciprocate on the rail 15 in the direction in which the passage extends. The stacker crane 16 has a carriage which can be displaced up and down in the vertical direction and which can be stopped at the position of the storage shelf 14 to transfer the package 10. The stacker crane 16 travels on the rails 15, moves the carriage up and down, and is positioned at a specific position of the storage rack 14, for example, the address n.

Between the stacker crane 16 and the racks 12 and 13 in the stopped state, the transverse carriage 17 travels in the depth direction to transfer the luggage. The stacker crane 16 and the traversing carriage 17 operate based on a remote command from a control device 18 that performs overall management of the entire three-dimensional automated warehouse via radio waves. The control device 18 stores the luggage storage status of the storage shelves 14 of the racks 12 and 13 in the memory 19 and gives an instruction to the stacker crane 16 and the traverse carriage 17 based on this storage.

With the stacker crane 16 standing by at the address n, the traverse carriage 17 transfers the luggage as shown in FIG.
Is indicated by the solid line. In this embodiment, since the traversing carriage 17 can operate independently of the stacker crane 16, even when the stacker crane 16 is not waiting at the address n,
The luggage 10 can be transferred between the storage shelves 14 as indicated by the broken line by the traverse carriage 17. During this time, the stacker crane 16 carries the received package 10 to the delivery place to the outside, and the package received from the outside to the delivery place is designated by the control device 18 to the storage rack 14
Can be moved to. Assuming that the distance in the depth direction of one section of the storage rack 14 is L, and the loads 10 on the storage rack 14 in the depth direction m columns are sequentially transferred to the stacker crane 16,
Table 1 below shows the result of comparison by substituting the total time required for the stacker crane 16 to be stopped at the nth address for delivery as the sum of the traverse distances for the traverse distance transfer of the traverse carriage 17.

[0014]

[Table 1]

In this way, when comparing the case where the parcels 10 of 3 pallets from the nth address are continuously unloaded, the total traverse distance is 12 L in the conventional method of FIG. 10, whereas the method of the present embodiment of FIG. Then it becomes 6L and it is reduced to half. In the present embodiment, the luggage 10 in the third row and the second row is temporarily loaded with the traverse carriage 1
Although the operation shown by the broken line that sequentially moves to the first column is performed only with No. 7, it is not necessary to make the stacker crane 16 stand by at the address n for this operation. As shown in the general formula of Table 1, according to the present embodiment, only the movement operation of the luggage 10 between the first-row storage rack 14 and the stacker crane 16 affects the cycle time, and The operation of moving the luggage 10 to the first row can be performed while the stacker crane 16 moves from the address n and is operating. Therefore, as the number of rows of the storage shelves 14 increases, the difference in cycle time between the method of this embodiment and the conventional method increases.

2, 3 and 4 show the construction of the stacker crane 16 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is a front view, FIG. 3 is a right side view, and FIGS. 4 (A) and 4 (B) are a sectional view taken along line A-B and a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 2, respectively. The luggage 10 is placed on the pedestals 21 on both sides of the carriage 20 which can be displaced up and down. The cradle 21 is
It is made of steel having a U-shaped cross section and has two sides arranged in a horizontal direction and a side connecting the two sides arranged in a vertical direction.
The upper surfaces of the two parallel sides are used as the pedestal 21, and the lower upper surfaces of the two parallel sides are used as the guide rails 22. The carriage 20 can be displaced up and down along an elevator guide 24a of a mast 24 that is attached to a lift 23 and extends vertically upward. Wire 25 for lifting the lift 23
Is wound around a pulley 26 arranged above the mast 24, and further wound up by a hoisting electric motor 27. When lowering the carriage 20, the carriage 20 is lowered by its own weight while using the hoisting motor 27 as a brake.

The lower end of the mast 24 is fixed to the frame 28. Wheels 29 for traveling are provided on the frame 28 and driven by a traveling electric motor 30 to travel on the rail 15. An upper guide 31 is also provided on the upper portion of the mast 24, and guides along the upper edges of the racks 12 and 13 on both sides of the passage 11 to prevent the mast 24 from swinging. Stacker crane 1
The power supply to 6 is performed by, for example, a trolley system. The control signal can be transmitted not only by radio waves but also by an optical fiber.

FIG. 5, FIG. 6, FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 show the construction of the transverse carriage 17. 5 is a front view, FIG. 6 is a right side view, FIG. 7 is a plan view, and FIG. 8 is a configuration of an elevating mechanism. The transverse carriage 17 is provided with traveling wheels 33 on the outer frame 32 and is capable of traveling in the depth direction of the racks 12 and 13 in FIG. 1. Guide wheels 34 are provided to maintain a stable traveling state. The traveling wheels 33 and the guide wheels 34 can be suitably manufactured by using, for example, hard urethane. The load is arranged on the upper surface of the lifting table 35, and the lifting mechanism including the hydraulic unit 36 and the hydraulic cylinder 37 moves the lifting table 35 up and down between the lowered position shown by the solid line and the raised position shown by the phantom line in FIG. be able to. An outline of the lifting mechanism 38 is shown in FIG. In the lifting mechanism 38, the crossing angle of the X-shaped frame body 39 is changed by the hydraulic cylinder 37, and the lifting table 3 is moved.
The distance between the outer frame 32 and the outer frame 5 changes. The frame 39 is
One end is pin-connected to the outer frame 32 and the lifting table 35, and the other end is slidable and displaceable via a roller 40.

The storage rack 14 has a receiving stand 41 similar to the receiving stand 21 and the guide rails 22 provided on the carriage 20.
And a guide rail 42 is provided. The mold steel forming the pedestal 41 and the guide rail 42 is the rack 12,
13 extend in the depth direction and are arranged. The trolley 17
When the elevating table 35 is lowered, the surface of the elevating table 35 is lower than the receiving table 41. When the elevating table 35 is lowered, it is possible to freely travel even if there is a load on each storage rack 14. When the traverse carriage 17 is stopped under the luggage and the lifting mechanism 38 raises the lifting table 35, the luggage can be transferred from the pedestal 41 to the upper surface of the lifting table 35. In this state, the traveling wheel 33 causes the transverse carriage 17 to travel along the guide rail 42, whereby the luggage can be moved. The traversing carriage 17 can also deliver the luggage to the pedestal 21 and the guide rail 22 on the carriage 20 of the stacker crane 16. In addition, in order to perform such smooth baggage delivery by the traversing carriage 17,
It is necessary to accurately position the pedestal 21 and the guide rail 22 of the carriage 20 of the stacker crane 16 and the pedestal 41 and the guide rail 42 of the positioned storage shelf 14 by using a position detection sensor, a guide or the like.

The traveling wheels 33 of the transverse carriage 17 are driven by a traveling electric motor 44 which uses a storage battery 43 as a power source. Since the traverse carriage 17 can operate without connecting a power supply wire to the parent stacker crane 16, FIG.
It is possible to perform completely independent operations such as the operation indicated by the broken line in FIG. Further, it is possible to manage the luggage by using a plurality of traversing carriages 17 for one stacker crane 16. The storage battery 43 is automatically and rapidly charged by the stacker crane 16 in a state in which the traverse carriage 17 is stored on the carriage 20 of the stacker crane 16. The transverse carriage 17 is provided with a signal indicating its presence from the stacker crane 16, and the transverse carriage 17 itself is also equipped with a sensor for detecting the stacker crane 16. This makes it possible to prevent an accident in which the traversing carriage 17 jumps out into the aisle 11 with a double safety measure even though the carriage 20 of the stacker crane 16 does not exist.

FIG. 9 shows a schematic structure of another embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 9, a plurality of passages 50, 51, ...
A plurality of racks 60, 61, ..., 6m are arranged between them. However, m = n-1. Each rack 60, 61,
..., 6m has a plurality of rows of storage shelves. For example, a single trolley 60 can be loaded with traverse carriages from both of the two passages 50 and 51 to handle the luggage. Therefore, even if the stacker crane in one of the passages is out of order, the other passage can be used to handle the load.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the stacker crane is constructed in the parent-child type in which the transverse carriage is mounted,
It is possible to freely select the depth dimension of the rack and perform the optimum design according to the conditions such as the size of the lot to be stored and the loading / unloading form. By increasing the depth dimension, the ratio of the rack to the passage can be increased and the storage efficiency can be improved. In addition, since the traverse truck can run independently of the stacker crane, the traverse truck can transfer the cargo in the depth direction and the stacker crane can move the luggage in the aisle direction and the vertical direction in parallel. Cycle time can be shortened and leveled. Furthermore, since it is possible to operate one stacker crane with multiple traversing trucks,
The cycle time can be shortened when operating the double command.

Further, according to the present invention, the racks are erected on both sides of the aisle and the traversing carriage can run on the racks on both sides, so that the ratio of the area occupied by the rack to the aisle can be further increased, and the rack can be stored. The efficiency can be further increased.

Further, according to the present invention, the transverse carriage runs on the storage battery as a power source, and the storage battery is charged while being mounted on the stacker crane. The traversing cart is charged even while it is mounted on the stacker crane and moving in the aisle direction and the vertical direction, and it is possible to continue loading and unloading for a long time while traveling in the rack away from the stacker crane. You can

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a simplified plan view showing a basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a stacker crane used in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a right side view of the stacker crane of FIG.

4 is a cross-sectional view of the stacker crane of FIG. 2 as seen from the direction of arrow A and a section line BB.

5 is a front view of a traverse vehicle used in the embodiment of FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a right side view of the transverse carriage of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the transverse carriage of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration of an elevating mechanism of the transverse carriage of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a simplified plan view showing the arrangement of racks and aisles according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a simplified plan view showing a configuration of a conventional three-dimensional automatic warehouse.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11,50,51, ..., 5n Passage 12,13,60,61, ..., 6m Rack 14 Storage rack 15 Rail 16 Stacker crane 17 Traverse truck 18 Controller 19 Memory 20 Carriage 21, 41 Cradle 22, 42 Guide rail 24 Mast 27 Hoisting electric motor 29 Wheels 30,44 Traveling electric motor 31 Upper guide 32 Outer frame 33 Traveling wheel 35 Lifting table 38 Lifting mechanism 43 Storage battery

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of storage shelves designated in advance by an address,
A rack that is arranged in a plurality of rows in a direction along a substantially horizontal passage, a vertical direction, and a depth direction, and is movable along the passage of the rack, and is equipped with a lift mechanism,
A stacker crane that can be positioned by specifying the direction of the aisle and the vertical direction with respect to the storage shelf facing the aisle, and can be mounted on the stacker crane and can run in the depth direction of the rack independently of the stacker crane. A three-dimensional automated warehouse, which includes a transverse carriage capable of transferring luggage between a crane and storage shelves. 2. The three-dimensional automatic warehouse according to claim 1, wherein the racks are erected on both sides of the aisle, and the traverse carriage can run on the racks on both sides. 3. The three-dimensional automatic vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the traverse vehicle is driven by using a storage battery as a power source, and the storage battery is charged while the traverse vehicle is mounted on the stacker crane. Warehouse.