JPH08337304A - Object conveying system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To hand over object between' apparatus having a fork using a simple configuration which does not require any lifter. CONSTITUTION: An object conveying system includes a chain conveyor 1 having a left and a right conveyor unit 2, 2, which are laid parallel, and a load table 30 which travels on the conveyor 1. A fork inserting space is formed between an object placing part 34 on the load table 30 and a fore-and-aft coupling frame piece 31. The conveyor unit 2 is composed of a side frame 3, a drive unit 5 installed at the head of the side frame 3 and having a motor and drive sprocket 10, a follower unit 12 having a follower sprocket 17 installed at the tail of the side frame 3, and a chain 20 set over the two sprockets.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article transport system having a loading platform that reciprocates between a loading / unloading station of an automatic warehouse and a delivery station such as a forklift.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a chain conveyor is arranged between a loading / unloading station of an automated warehouse and a delivery station of a forklift, and an article delivery section of the chain conveyor delivers articles between a stacker crane and a forklift. It has been known. In such a system, when the articles are transferred between the stacker crane or forklift and the chain conveyor, a fork insertion space is required between the conveyor surface of the chain conveyor and the articles. The section is equipped with a lifter.

[0003]

However, in the conventional system, since the lifter is provided for each article transfer section of the chain conveyor, an elevating source and an elevating mechanism are required for each lifter, which complicates the configuration and increases the cost. Was becoming.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a simple structure that does not require a lifter.
An object of the present invention is to provide an article transport system capable of delivering an article to and from a device having a fork.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention according to claim 1 has a conveyor and a cargo carrier conveyed by the conveyor, and the cargo carrier is an article placing section. And a fork insertion space formed below the article placement section.

According to a second aspect of the invention, the conveyor is
It is assumed that the chain conveyor has a plurality of conveyor units arranged in parallel.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the conveyor unit includes a side frame, a drive unit having a drive source and a drive sprocket provided at one of the front and rear ends of the side frame, and the other of the front and rear ends of the side frame. It has a driven unit having a driven sprocket provided on the sprocket and a chain hung on both sprockets.

[0008]

The present invention has the following functions.
The loading platform has an article placement section and a fork insertion space formed below the article placement section, and is always conveyed on the conveyor in a state where the article can be delivered by the fork, so the article delivery section of the conveyor It is not necessary to provide a lifter for forming the fork insertion space. Further, since the loading platform is not fixed to the conveyor but is merely transported on the conveyor, the loading platform can be easily changed or removed according to the type of the article.

[0009]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to these examples without departing from the gist of the present invention. In this specification, the term "preceding" refers to FIG.
The right side and the rear side mean the left side in the figure, the left side means the upper side in FIG. 1, and the right side means the lower side in the figure.

The article transport system includes a chain conveyor 1 having a pair of left and right conveyor units 2 and 2 arranged side by side.
And a loading platform 30 transported on the chain conveyor 1. The chain conveyor 1 is assumed to have a front end (article delivery section A) located at a loading / unloading station of an automated warehouse and a rear end (article delivery section B) located at a delivery station such as a forklift.

The conveyor unit 2 includes a side frame 3 whose longitudinal direction is in the front-rear direction, a drive unit 5 provided at the front end of the side frame 3, and a driven unit 12 provided at the rear end of the side frame 3. A drive sprocket 10 and a driven sprocket 17, which will be described later, are provided around the chain 20. A plurality of connecting bars 22 are provided to the left and right conveyor units 2 and 2 at predetermined intervals using a T-shaped groove 4 formed in the side frame 3 to be described later.

The side frame 3 has a length corresponding to the place of installation, the size of the object to be conveyed, etc., and is made of an extruded metal material such as aluminum, and has a T-shaped groove 4 long in the front-rear direction.
have. In the present specification, the T-shaped groove 4 refers to a groove in which projecting edges facing each other are formed in the opening edge portion, and the T-shaped groove 4 faces the opening edge portion even if the cross-sectional shape is other than T-shaped. The drive unit 5, the driven unit 12 and the connecting bar 22 described later are attached to the side frame 3 by using the T-shaped groove 4 and bolts and nuts. ing.

The drive unit 5 has a sprocket opening 6
And a rotary shaft 8 in the casing 7.
Forward / reverse rotatable motor 9 having a speed reducer and a brake device attached so that the axis of
And a drive sprocket 10 fitted and fixed to the rotary shaft 8 so that the upper portion is exposed from the sprocket opening 6;
The cover 11 covers a required part of the casing 7. The drive unit 5 is attached to the side frame 3 by screwing a bolt into a nut piece inserted into the T-shaped groove 4 through a through hole formed in the casing 7 and the cover 11.

The driven unit 12 has a casing 1 having a sprocket opening 13 and a long hole 14 elongated in the front-rear direction.
5 and a sprocket shaft 16 which is fitted in the elongated hole 14 of the casing 15 so as to be movable back and forth, and has a shaft center oriented in the left-right direction
And this sprocket shaft 16 has a sprocket opening 13
It has a driven sprocket 17 rotatably fitted through a bearing so that the upper part of the casing is exposed, and a cover 18 covering a required portion of the casing 15. The driven unit 12 is attached to the side frame 3 at the casing 15 and the cover 18 by the same means as the casing 7 and the cover 11. The driven unit 12 has a tension device 19 for moving the sprocket shaft 16 back and forth within the elongated hole 14, and the tension of the chain 20 is moved by the back and forth motion of the driven sprocket 17 accompanying the back and forth motion of the sprocket shaft 16. It can be adjusted.

The upper and lower straight portions 20 of the chain 20 which is hung on the driving sprocket 10 and the driven sprocket 17.
"a" is mounted on a chain guide rail 21 made of synthetic resin and having a convex cross section. The chain guide rail 21 is fitted in the T-shaped groove 4 of the side frame 3 so as not to come out upward, and its front and rear ends are in contact with part of the casings 7 and 15 so as not to move in the front and rear direction. ing.

Detectors 23 for detecting the arrival (presence) of an object to be conveyed (packing platform 30) are provided at the front end (article delivery section A) and the rear end (article delivery section B) of the chain conveyor 1. . The detector 23 is connected to the T via the required bracket.
By using the shaped groove 4, it is attached to the inner surface of the right side frame 3. The drive of the chain conveyor 1 and the delivery of articles are controlled according to the detection result of the detector 23.

The loading platform 30 includes a pair of left and right front and rear connecting bars 31 and a pair of front and rear left and right connecting bars 32 which are connected so as to have a substantially square shape in a plan view, and a vertical bar which is erected at a connecting portion of both the connecting bars. 33 and an article placement section 34 provided on the upper end of the vertical crosspiece 33.

The vertical rails 33 are long enough to allow the forks of a stacker crane or a forklift to be inserted, and four vertical rails are provided between the article mounting surface formed by the article mounting portion 34 and the front-rear connecting rails 31. The space surrounded by the crosspiece 33
It is a fork insertion space.

The article placing portion 34 is a plate-like member having a horizontal portion located directly above the vertical crosspiece 33 and an upward bending portion on the outer side in the front-rear and left-right directions. Each article placement unit 3
A horizontal surface including the horizontal portion 4 serves as an article placement surface, and each bent portion restricts the horizontal movement of the placed article and prevents the article from falling from the article placement section 34.

[0020]

[Modifications, etc.]

(1) The chain conveyor 1 may be a roller conveyor, a belt conveyor or the like. (2) The cargo bed 30 does not reciprocate between the two article transfer units A and B, but there are three or more article transfer units on the looped chain conveyor 1 so that a plurality of cargo beds 30 can be transported. You may

[0021]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above,
The above effects are achieved. In the invention according to claim 1, since the loading platform conveyed by the conveyor has an article placing section and a fork insertion space formed below the article placing section, a stacker crane, a forklift, etc. are provided in the fork insertion space. Articles can be delivered by inserting the fork. Therefore,
The lifting mechanism for raising the article placing portion to form the fork insertion space is not required, and the configuration is simplified. In the invention according to claim 1, since the loading platform is only conveyed (not fixed) by the conveyor, the loading platform can be easily changed by simply remounting it, and can flexibly cope with the type of the article. . According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the loading platform is only transported by the conveyor (not fixed), even when the article is directly placed on the conveyor and transported, the loading platform can be easily removed and handled. According to the second aspect of the present invention, by utilizing the space between the conveyor units arranged in parallel, necessary members such as various sensors can be easily arranged without wasting the space. In the invention according to claim 3, since the conveyor unit is composed of the side frame, the drive unit, the driven unit, and the chain, the chain having the length, width, and height corresponding to the installation location or the like can be obtained only by combining them. The conveyor can be easily manufactured in a short time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of an article carrying system according to the present invention.

2 is a side view of the article transport system of FIG. 1. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Chain Conveyor 2 Conveyor Unit 3 Side Frame 4 T-Slot 5 Drive Unit 10 Drive Sprocket 12 Driven Unit 17 Driven Sprocket 30 Bed 31 Front and Rear Connecting Rails 32 Left and Right Connecting Rails 33 Vertical Rails 34 Article Placement Section

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An article conveyor having a conveyor and a loading platform conveyed by the conveyor, the loading platform having an article placement section and a fork insertion space formed below the article placement section. system. 2. The conveyor is a chain conveyor having a plurality of conveyor units arranged in parallel.
The article transport system described. 3. The conveyor unit includes a side frame, a drive unit having a drive source and a drive sprocket provided at one of the front and rear ends of the side frame, and a driven sprocket provided at the other of the front and rear ends of the side frame. 3. The article transport system according to claim 2, further comprising a driven unit having the above and a chain hung on both sprockets.