JPH09110113A - Stacker crane for automatic warehouse - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely clamp an upper guide rail by means of a clamp piece. SOLUTION: An upper guide roller and an auxiliary guide roller 32 are followingly guided along an upper guide rail 11 smoothly while being accompanied by the horizontal rotation of a rotary plate 26, so that an interval between clamping pieces 30 on the front side and on the rear side and the upper guide rail 11 can be surely held constant, and as a result, a clamp device 20 can be surely operated and can surely function.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

The present invention relates to a stacker crane for an automatic warehouse.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The following automatic warehouses are known. That is, a pair of front and rear rack devices having a large number of article storage shelves vertically and horizontally provided at predetermined intervals in the front and rear direction, and a longitudinal direction in the upper and lower portions between the front and rear rack devices in the left and right direction. A pair of upper and lower guide rails provided so as to face each other, and a stacker crane that can move left and right along the upper and lower guide rails, and the stacker crane travels along the lower guide rail. A bogie, a hoist that is made to be able to move up and down on a pair of left and right masts provided on the traveling bogie,
An article transfer device (e.g., a slide fork slidably provided in the front-rear direction) provided on the lift table, and upper ends of the left and right masts are connected by a connecting member; A horizontal extension arm is provided on each of the left and right portions, and a pair of front and rear upper guide rollers are provided on the horizontal extension arms with their axes centered vertically, and these front and rear upper guide rollers move the upper guide rail in the front-rear direction. And a pair of front and rear members which are located at an intermediate portion between the left and right upper guide rollers and which are made to be close to and separated from each other by a connecting member so as to hold and open the upper guide rail. A device provided with a clamping device having the above-mentioned clamping piece is known. The clamp device operates in conjunction with the stop of the stacker crane (traveling trolley), clamps the upper guide rail slightly loosely, and when the stacker crane stops, the upper part of the mast moves in the left-right direction (running direction) due to inertia. This is to prevent shaking. This clamp device is required as the mast is increased and as the traveling speed of the stacker crane is increased.

[0003]

Disadvantages of the prior art The conventional stacker crane has the following disadvantages. That is, since the clamp device is provided on the connecting member so as to be located in the middle portion in the left-right direction of the connecting member, that is, in the middle portion between the left and right upper guide rollers, the upper guide rail is moved in the front-rear direction. If it is slightly meandering or slightly curved in the front-rear direction, the upper guide roller sandwiches the upper guide rail from the front and rear and completely follows the upper guide rail. In such a case, the gap length between the front clamp piece and the upper guide rail of the clamp device provided in the intermediate portion is different from the gap length between the rear clamp piece and the upper guide rail. Even if the clamp piece is operated to clamp the guide rail, one of the clamp pieces may not clamp the upper guide rail, and the clamp device may not be able to perform its function. There has been a drawback that there is.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Disadvantages] The present invention employs the following means in order to eliminate the above disadvantages. The invention according to claim 1 is a stacker crane for an automatic warehouse, which is configured to be movable left and right along a pair of upper and lower guide rails whose longitudinal direction is directed to the left and right directions, wherein an upper guide roller of the stacker crane guided by the upper guide rail is provided. A clamp device having a pair of front and rear clamp pieces sandwiching the upper guide rail is provided so as to be located in the vicinity.

[0005]

The first aspect of the present invention has the following functions. A clamp device having a pair of front and rear clamp pieces for holding the upper guide rail is provided near the upper guide roller, and the front and rear clamp pieces are also moved to the upper guide rail as the upper guide roller is guided by following the upper guide rail. Therefore, the gap between the front and rear clamp pieces with respect to the upper guide rail can be kept constant, and as a result, the clamp device can be reliably operated and operated.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this description, the front means the lower side in FIG. 1, the rear means the upper side in FIG. 1, the left means the left part in FIG. 1, and the right means the right part in FIG.

[0007] A pair of front and rear rack devices 1 are erected on the floor so as to open the stacker crane passage 10. The rack device 1 includes a plurality of front columns 2 arranged side by side at a predetermined interval, a rear column 2 arranged behind the front columns 2 with a predetermined interval therebetween, and front and rear columns 2. And a plurality of article support members 4 provided at predetermined intervals in the height direction, and a pair of left and right article support members 4 opposed to each other without the support pillar 2 interposed therebetween.
Is configured. A space between the pair of left and right article support members 4 is a fork passage gap 5 that allows the slide fork 17 to be described later to move in the vertical direction. The entrances 6 of the article storage shelves 3 of the front and rear rack devices 1 face each other.

A loading / unloading roller conveyor 8 is provided on the left side of the rack device 1 with the transport direction directed to the left and right. Rack device 1 of this loading and unloading roller conveyor 8
A known article elevator (not shown) is provided on the side.
The article elevator includes a lifting platform that can be raised and lowered by a known lifting device below the rollers of the loading and unloading roller conveyor 8,
It has a pair of support frames that are erected on the lift table and are located between the rollers of the entrance and exit roller conveyor 8. The article elevator lifts the article W by the support frame to form a fork insertion gap between the transport surface of the loading / unloading roller conveyor 8 and the lower surface of the article W, or the slide fork 1 by the support frame at the raised position.
The article W is received from the storage 7 and then lowered to drop the article W onto the loading / unloading roller conveyor 8.

A pair of upper and lower guide rails 11 are arranged in the stacker crane passage 10 so that the longitudinal direction is directed to the left and right, and the stacker crane 13 is guided by these guide rails 11 so as to be movable left and right. The stacker crane 13 includes a traveling vehicle 14 that travels along the lower guide rail 11, a lifting platform 16 that is configured to be able to move up and down on a pair of left and right masts 15 provided on the traveling vehicle 14, And a slide fork 17 provided horizontally slidably in the front-rear direction by a known advance / retreat mechanism. The slide fork 1
7 is a well-known projecting / elevating platform 1 for projecting the article W downward.
6, the article W is lifted up and retreated to the elevator 16 side to pull the article W into the elevator 16 and the article W can be dropped on the article storage shelf 3 or the like by the reverse operation. .

The upper ends of the left and right masts 15 are connected to the connecting members 2.
The connecting member 20 is provided with a horizontal extending arm 21 at each of the left and right portions thereof. A pair of front and rear upper guide rollers 22 with their axes oriented in the vertical direction are rotatably provided on the left horizontal extension arm 21, and these front and rear upper guide rollers 22 move the upper guide rail 11 from the front and rear directions. It is made to pinch.

A swivel plate 26 is provided on the right horizontal extension arm 21 via a central axis 25 whose axis is directed in the vertical direction so as to be horizontally swingable at the center in the front-rear and left-right directions.
A clamp device 28 is provided on the revolving plate 26 so as to be located at the central portion of the revolving plate. The clamp device 28 includes a casing 29 and a pair of front and rear clamp pieces 20 provided so as to move close to and away from each other to clamp and open the upper guide rail 11 in the casing 29.
And an actuating device (not shown) including an electromagnet, a spring, and the like, for moving the clamp pieces 30 toward and away from each other. The portion of the clamp piece 30 that sandwiches the upper guide rail 11 is made of an elastic material such as rubber. In addition, both clamp pieces 30 are used when the stacker crane 13 stops and when the stacker crane 13 is not in a stopped state.
1 and the same distance.

A pair of front and rear upper guide rollers 22 and a pair of front and rear auxiliary guide rollers 32, whose front and rear shafts are vertically oriented, are positioned on the revolving plate 26 so as to be located on the left and right sides of the clamp device 28, so as to be rotatable. The upper guide rollers 22 and the auxiliary guide rollers 32 are provided so as to sandwich the upper guide rail 11 in the front-rear direction. The right upper guide roller 2
2 and the auxiliary guide roller 32 are separated from the center of the central shaft 25 by the same distance. With such a configuration, the upper guide roller 22 and the auxiliary guide roller 32 are smoothly guided along the upper guide rail 11 with the horizontal rotation of the revolving plate 26. The gap with respect to the rail 11 can be reliably kept constant with high accuracy.

[0013]

[Modifications and the like] Modifications and the like will be described below. (1) The turning plate 26 may be fixed so as not to turn. (2) The auxiliary guide roller 32 may not be provided. (3) The clamp device 28 may be provided near the upper guide roller 22 on the left side. (4) The center of the central shaft 25 and the upper guide roller 2 on the right side
It is preferable that the distance between the shaft 2 and the auxiliary guide roller 32 be as short as possible. (5) The upper guide rail 11 has an inverted U-shaped cross section, and one left and right upper guide roller 22 is formed in a downwardly open recess, and no gap is formed between the upper guide rail 11 and both hanging walls of the upper guide rail 11. So that the guide rail 11
It is good also as a structure which clamps the hanging wall of this with the clamp piece 30. FIG.

[0014]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained by the above-described configuration. According to the first aspect of the present invention, a clamp device having a pair of front and rear clamp pieces that sandwich the upper guide rail is provided near the upper guide roller, and the upper guide roller is guided by the upper guide rail. ,
Since the front and rear clamp pieces also follow the upper guide rail, the gap between the front and rear clamp pieces with respect to the upper guide rail can be kept constant. As a result, the clamp device can be reliably operated and functioned. I can do it. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the upper guide roller and the auxiliary guide roller are guided to follow the upper guide rail, that is, both right and left sides of the clamp device are guided to follow the upper guide rail. Therefore, the gap between the front and rear clamp pieces with respect to the upper guide rail can be more reliably kept constant, and as a result, the clamp device can be more reliably operated and functioned. According to the invention of claim 3, since the upper guide roller and the auxiliary guide roller follow the upper guide rail smoothly with the horizontal turning of the turning plate,
The gap between the front and rear clamp pieces with respect to the upper guide rail can be more reliably kept constant, and as a result, the clamp device can be more reliably operated and operated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a simplified plan view with an intermediate omitted, showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG.

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

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Guide Rail 13 Stacker Crane 22 Upper Guide Roller 28 Clamping Device 30 Clamp Piece

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A stacker crane for an automatic warehouse, which is movable left and right along a pair of upper and lower guide rails whose longitudinal direction is directed to the left and right, near an upper guide roller of the stacker crane guided by the upper guide rail. A stacker crane for an automatic warehouse provided with a clamp device having a pair of front and rear clamp pieces for holding an upper guide rail so as to be positioned. 2. The stacker crane for an automatic warehouse according to claim 1, further comprising an auxiliary guide roller guided by an upper guide rail, the auxiliary guide roller being opposed to the upper guide roller with the clamping device interposed therebetween. 3. A swivel plate is provided at an upper portion of the stacker crane so as to be horizontally swivelable at a central portion in the left-right direction, and a clamp device is provided on the swivel plate so as to be located at the central portion of the swivel plate. A pair of front and rear upper guide rollers and a pair of front and rear auxiliary guide rollers are provided rotatably so as to be positioned on the left and right sides of the clamp device and the axes of which are directed vertically. 3. The stacker crane according to claim 2, wherein the rollers sandwich the upper guide rail from the front and rear directions.