JPH0958812A - Stacker crane - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate administration of a cargo delivering site by aiming at man hour saving and space saving, by providing an unit for raising/lowering a fork device which makes automatically its exiting/entering motion from a stacker crane to a shelf and vice versa and an unit for grasping an article on a fork lift device from the upper part. SOLUTION: A grasping device 9 which grasps articles 12 moves on a rail 10 and stops on a fork 7'. A pallet 11 is mounted in its empty state on the fork 7' previously. A lifter 8' rises by a specified distance according to the number of articles 12 so as to move up to the bottom of the grasping device. After the end of the abovementioned movement, the arms of the grasping device 9 are opened and the articles 12 are placed on the pallet 11. After opening of the arms, the lifter 8' descends and a series of picking action is completed. In addition, when another article 12 is taken out, the same action is repeated. After picking of a preset amount is completed, a stacker crane is moved to an entrance/exit station to carry out delivery.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stacker crane for an automatic warehouse for stacking and storing articles on pallets.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, articles stored in shelves of an automated warehouse are put out from the warehouse as a pallet unit by a stacker crane, picked a required amount on a conveyor, and the articles remaining on the pallet are stacked again. I received it at
It was a method of re-storing on a shelf (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-211103).

[0003]

In the conventional example, the stacker crane only stores the articles in the shelves and unloads the articles from the shelves, picks up the required quantity, and then returns the articles to the warehouse. It was stored.

[0004] In this case, since a heavy load must be carried out of the warehouse many times, it takes a long working time and is inefficient, and the load on the equipment is large, which is also disadvantageous in terms of the life of the equipment. Considering the installation area of the equipment, there is a need for a space for picking up the goods that have been unloaded from the warehouse, which is a problem.

An object of the present invention is to pick up a predetermined amount by a device on a stacker crane when an article is pulled out from a warehouse shelf by a stacker crane fork device.
Only the necessary items can be taken out of the warehouse to improve the efficiency of picking work.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a stacker crane, in which a fork device for loading and unloading articles from a shelf is provided in parallel on an elevating body for vertically moving the shelf. Two units are provided, on the one hand, the articles are taken out from the shelf in units of pallets, and the taken-out articles are gripped from the top by the necessary amount and transferred onto the other fork device on which the pallet is placed in advance. The pallet in which the articles are picked first is stored in the original shelf by the fork device, and the picked articles are unloaded from the warehouse by the stacker crane.

A device for transferring articles between two fork devices has a structure of a device for gripping an upper part of stacked articles from a side and a slide mechanism for transferring the fork devices. The articles in between are transferred.

Further, since the heights of the stacked articles are different each time, by mounting a lifter on the lower part of the fork device, the fork device can be moved up and down independently to adjust the height. , Securely grip articles with different heights from the top.

[0009]

The stacker crane has two fork devices mounted on the elevating / lowering body, while the articles are unloaded from the shelves of the warehouse. The fork device is lifted up to a predetermined height by a lifter attached to the lower part of the fork according to the height of the article, and is gripped by the gripping device on the upper part by a required amount (for example, two or three pieces).

The gripped article is moved by the slide mechanism.
It is transferred to the other fork device. At this time, the fork device is preliminarily loaded with pallets and similarly lifts to a predetermined height to receive the transferred articles. The height is automatically detected depending on the number of articles.

The stacker crane of the present invention handles plate-like products, and the gripping device is of a type in which the product crimping type pad is driven in the gripping width direction to pick up the product. Further, the arm is provided so that the articles do not drop after the rest of the articles have descended after the crimping, so that the picking work can be performed reliably.

[0012]

EXAMPLE An overall view of an automated warehouse is shown in FIG. Automatic warehouse equipment consists of shelf 1, stacker crane 2, loading / unloading station 3
It consists of.

Of these, the stacker crane 2 is provided with a lifting device 6 for moving the traveling device 4 and the lifting body 5 up and down, and a fork device 7 for loading and unloading articles from the lifting body 5 to the shelf 1. The article 12 on the fork is moved straight into the shelf 1, stored in the shelf 1, and returned to the center of the lifting body 5 after storage.

The articles unloaded from the shelf 1 by the stacker crane 2 are moved by the traveling device 4 and the elevating device 6 and transferred to the loading / unloading station 3 by using the fork device 7. The reverse of this operation is performed when the goods are stored.

FIG. 2 shows an overall view of the lifting body of the stacker crane with a picking device. The lift 5 has two fork devices 7 (fork a is 7 and fork b is 7 ') for moving the articles 12 at the shelf 1 and the loading / unloading station, and the fork device 7 has a lifter 8 ( Lifter a 8,
The lifter b is attached to the upper part of 8 ') and has a structure capable of moving up and down. The lifter 8 is moved up and down by a link mechanism driven by an electric ball screw, for example. A gripping device 9 for gripping an article 12 is attached to a rail 10 on the upper and lower parts of the elevating body 5, and is movable left and right. The moving method can be, for example, an electric ball screw or a rack and pinion method. The gripping device 9 is a device for gripping the article 12 on the fork a7, moving the article 12, and moving the article 12 onto the fork b7 '. The fork a7 is a device that pulls out the article 12 from the shelf 1 to the elevating body 5 and stores it again.
7'takes the pallet 11 from the loading / unloading station,
This is a device for moving the article 12 taken out from the shelf 1 by the fork a7 and moving it by the holding device 9 to take out a necessary amount.

A side view of the lift 5 is shown in FIG. A procedure for taking out the articles 12 from the shelf 1 and picking the required number of pieces will be described with reference to this figure and FIG. First, an article 12 is stored in the shelf 1, and a fork a7 goes straight from the center of the lifting body 5, scoops the pallet 11 and takes it out to the center of the lifting body 5. The fork device 7 has the same structure as the existing stacker crane. Next, the lifter 8 is raised by a predetermined amount. The amount of ascent is controlled by the dimensional data of the article 12, positioned using, for example, a sensor, and enters the inside of the gripping device 9. The gripping device 9 closes the arm 14 and grips several articles 12 after the arm 14 is opened by the turning motor 15 and the lifter 8 completes raising the article by a predetermined amount. After the grip is completed, the lifter 8 descends.

The following operation will be described with reference to FIG.

The gripping device 9 gripping the article 12 moves on the rail 10 and stops on the fork b7 '. An empty pallet 11 is preliminarily loaded on the fork b7 '. The lifter b8 'moves upward by a predetermined amount depending on the number of articles 12 and moves to the bottom of the gripping device 9. After completion, the arm 14 of the gripping device 9 is opened and the article 1 is placed on the pallet 11.
Put 2 on. After opening the arm 14, the lifter b8 'descends, and a series of picking operations is completed. When taking out another article 12, the same operation is repeated. After the picking of a predetermined amount is completed, the stacker crane 2 moves to the loading / unloading station 3 and is unloaded.

FIG. 4 shows an article fall prevention stopper of the gripping device 9.
Shown in Since the articles have various shapes and weights, the gripping device 9
After gripping the article 12, the stopper 13 is rotated by, for example, a motor so that the article 1 does not drop when it is gripped by the arm 14 of the article 1.
Move to the bottom of 2 to prevent falling.

As described above, the stacker crane 2 does not have to return to the loading / unloading station 3 each time, and the picking of the articles can be continued up to the loadable amount on the lifting body 5.

[0021]

According to the present invention, only necessary items can be taken out from the shelf, and (1) manpower is saved because manpower is not required for picking work.

(2) No conveyor equipment for picking is required outside the warehouse, and space can be saved.

(3) Since the goods delivered from the warehouse can be shipped directly, the management of the shipping place becomes easy.

The above effects can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automated warehouse.

FIG. 2 is a front view of an elevator body picking unit.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the lifting body picking unit.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram in which a stopper rotates to prevent articles from falling.

[Explanation of symbols]

 8 ... Lifter, 9 ... Grasping device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A stacker crane for storing a plurality of articles and a stacker crane for automatically loading and unloading the articles to and from the shelf, when the articles are pulled out from the shelf or for storing in the shelf, A stacker crane, comprising: a device for automatically raising and lowering a fork device that automatically moves in and out of the shelf, and a device for gripping the article on the fork device from above.