JPH1159824A - Article storage equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To release an article caught in a roller array by moving a movable roller array among a specified number of roller arrays in the inclined direction by a driving means when an article stays in the midway of a gravity conveyer. SOLUTION: In an article storage equipment, at least one roller array 25a is movable in the inclined direction by a first actuator 33 as a driving means. Under the condition where an article 10a is caught in the midway of the gravity conveyer, the movable roller array 25a is moved in the inclined direction by the first actuator 33. Whereupon, the article 10a is stimulated to flow to the downstream side. Thus, even if the gravity conveyer does not have a large gradient, staying of the article can be surely prevented. Further, it is possible to prevent the trouble that an article supplied on the upper stage of the gravity conveyer collides with a stopper 20 to be broken.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an article storage facility using a gravity conveyor, and more particularly to an article storage facility comprising a gravity conveyor having one or more rows of rollers inclined in the direction of article travel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a distribution facility such as an article distribution center, many kinds of articles are sorted or picked. As one of the article storage facilities for handling a large number of articles, there is an article storage facility using an inclined gravity conveyor which does not require a power source such as a motor and can be packed forward by its own weight.

[0003]

However, in a conventional article storage facility using a gravity conveyor, articles sometimes stay in the middle of the gravity conveyor.
This may have various causes depending on the article, such as the bottom shape, the weight of the article, or the lubrication state of the gravity conveyor.

[0004] Conventionally, in order to solve such stagnation of articles, it has been general to increase the inclination angle of the gravity conveyor. However, if the inclination angle of the gravity conveyor is increased in this way, the descending speed of the articles put in from the upper end of the gravity conveyor becomes too fast, and the articles collide with the stopper at the lower end of the gravity conveyor or the articles already stored. Could be damaged.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to prevent stagnation of articles on a gravity conveyor and to prevent the articles from being hit by stoppers or other articles and being damaged. An object of the present invention is to provide an article storage facility that does not have a steeply inclined structure.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide at least one roller row (25a, 2a) inclined in the direction of article movement.
An article storage facility (1) comprising a gravity conveyor (17) having at least one roller row (5b, 25c), characterized in that at least one row of the rollers can be moved by a driving means (33) along an inclined direction. Article storage facility (1)
Is achieved by

[0007] According to the article storage facility constructed as described above, when the articles stay in the middle of the gravity conveyor, the movable row of rollers is moved in the inclined direction by the driving means. Due to the movement of the roller row, the stagnated articles are stimulated to prevent the articles from being caught on the roller row, so that the articles flow under their own weight and can be moved forward.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of an article storage facility according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Here, for convenience of explanation, first, the overall configuration of the equipment will be described with reference to FIG. 8, and then the configuration and operation of each unit will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 8 shows an article storage facility 1 to which the present invention is applied.
It is a perspective view of. As shown in FIG. 1, in the article storage facility 1, an article 10 conveyed by a replenishment side roller conveyor 11 is transferred to a conveyor 12. Next, the article 10
Is lifted by the scooping equipment 13 and the lifting device 1
Moved to 4. In the elevating device 14, the articles 10 are placed on the elevating tray 15 and circulated and moved as appropriate.

When the article 10 is placed at a predetermined position, the article 10 is re-mounted on a lifting carriage 16, and among the plurality of gravity conveyors 17 arranged vertically and horizontally by the lifting carriage 16, It is supplied to the upper end of the gravity conveyor 17.

Each gravity conveyor 17 is arranged to be inclined at an appropriate angle (an angle at which articles do not descend too fast). Therefore, the article 10 supplied to the upper end portion of the gravity conveyor 17 usually flows downstream by its own weight, and stops at the stopper 20 or the gravity conveyor 17.
It stops by contacting another article 10 stored above.
Then, it is stored as it is until it is discharged.

At the lower end of the gravity conveyor 17, a stopper 20 capable of temporarily stopping the articles is arranged.
Has been stopped. By retracting the stopper 20, the article 10 is discharged by its own weight.
Transfer to the belt conveyor 21.

A second elevating device 22 having an elevating tray mechanism similar to the above-described first elevating device 14 is disposed at the end of the belt conveyor 21. The gravity conveyor 1 is mounted on the lifting tray 23 circulating in the second lifting device 22.
The articles 10 are supplied from a belt conveyor 21 located on the article discharge side of No. 7. Then, when the lifting tray 23 is placed at a predetermined position, the article 10 is transferred to the picking-side roller conveyor 24 and is conveyed to the next step.

As shown in FIG. 1, each gravity conveyor 17 includes a plurality of, in this embodiment, three roller rows 25a,
25b and 25c are arranged in parallel at a predetermined interval. At least one roller row, in this embodiment, one end of the roller row 25a is movable along the inclined direction. On the other hand, the other roller rows 25b, 25c
Is fixed.

Roller row 25 movable along the inclination direction
In FIG. 2A, a moving frame 28 is arranged in a long fixed frame 27 as shown in FIG. Moving frame 28
A plurality of transport rollers 29 are rotatably arranged at predetermined intervals on the upper side of the frame, and a plurality of transfer rollers 30 are rotatably arranged in contact with the fixed frame 27 at predetermined intervals on the lower side.

Further, a bracket 31 is formed at the lower end of the moving frame 28 so as to protrude. The bracket 31 is provided with an opening 32 provided on the bottom wall of the fixed frame 27.
From the first actuator 3
Three rods 34 are attached.

As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of transport rollers 29 are rotatably arranged at predetermined intervals in the fixed roller rows 25b and 25c. Roller row 2
The above-mentioned stopper 20 is arranged at the lower end side on the side where 5b and 25c are arranged. This stopper 20 is shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, the second actuator 37 makes it possible to move up and down.

In the article storage facility 1 configured as described above, for example, as shown in FIG.
The case where the leading end portion of the article is located on the transport roller 29a and stays there will be described. In addition, in FIG. 3 to FIG.
It is expressed separately from 0.

When the article 10a stays, first, as shown in FIG. 4, the first actuator 33 is operated to raise the moving frame 28 along the inclination (the direction of arrow A). At this time, the article 10a does not move from the staying position,
Only move up. When the moving frame 28 moves up, it is considered that a certain amount of stimulus (pressure or the like) is applied to the article 10a by the transport roller 29a or the like, but in most cases, the article 10a stays at the initial position as described above. As a result, the roller row 25a moves upward in this state.

After the roller row 25a has moved upward by a predetermined distance, the first actuator 33 is actuated at a predetermined speed in the reverse direction (in the direction of arrow B) as shown in FIG.
5a is lowered to the original position. Then, the article 10
“a” starts to move downward with the return operation of the roller row 25a (operation in the downward direction indicated by the arrow B). As a result, the article 10a starts to move as a result of a “trigger” to overcome the stagnation force (inertia) of the article 10a by the return operation of the roller row 25a.

That is, the component 10a is always subjected to a downward force in the downward direction in the transport direction.
By the movement of the first actuator 33 in the descending direction,
The article 10a starts to move downward by the return operation of the roller row 25a (movement in the same direction as the component force of gravity).

As described above, in the article storage facility 1, at least one roller row 25a can be moved in the inclined direction by the driving means (the first actuator 33 in the present embodiment), so that the article 10a can be moved. When the movable roller row 25a is moved in the inclined direction by the first actuator 33 when it is caught in the middle of the gravity conveyor 17, the article 10a is stimulated to flow downstream.

Therefore, even if the gravity conveyor 17 does not have a large inclination, the stagnation of articles can be reliably prevented. In addition, since it is not necessary to increase the inclination angle of the gravity conveyor 17 so much, it is possible to prevent troubles such as the article supplied to the upper end of the gravity conveyor 17 colliding with the stopper 20 and being damaged.

In the above embodiment, the stopper 2
0 is moved up and down by the second actuator 37 (see FIG. 2) to cut out the articles. However, in the article storage facility according to the present invention, there are various forms other than the embodiment shown in FIG. Can be
For example, an embodiment as shown in FIG. 6 can be adopted.

In FIG. 6, for example, the gravity conveyor 17 (the roller train 25 connected to the actuator 33) is used.
a) at the lower end of the revolving frame 40
Is turned by a predetermined angle θ, so that the stopper 4
1 can be canceled. That is, in the case of the present embodiment, for example, the lower end portion of the revolving frame 40 is attached to the lower end side of the gravity conveyor 17 so as to be rotatable about the shaft 42. In the upper half of the revolving frame 40 on the upstream side,
A plurality of transport rollers 29 are rotatably mounted. A third actuator 4 is provided below the turning frame 40.
3 is attached. Further, a frame 44 is fixed above the downstream side of the revolving frame 40 at a predetermined angle θ with respect to the revolving frame 40, and a plurality of transport rollers 29 are rotatably mounted on the frame 44, and the upper end thereof is Attach the stopper 41.

In this case, the article 10 flowing from the upstream of the gravity conveyor 17 is stopped by the stopper 41 and stored. When discharging the stored article 10, the third actuator 43 is operated to rotate the turning frame 40 in the clockwise direction in FIG.
Is pivoted only so as to be arranged in the same row as the frame 44.

Then, the article 10 placed on the revolving frame 40 is lifted, and the bottom surface of the case 10 is higher than the upper end face of the stopper 41. Thus, the stopper 41 is released, and the article 10 is discharged to the belt conveyor 21 side.

In the above-described embodiments, the first conveyor 33 is attached to each gravity conveyor 17 as a driving means, and the first actuator 33 moves the roller row 25a, so that the accumulated articles are retained. In this case, a stimulus capable of releasing the stay is given. However, the present invention is not limited to this type, and may take other forms. That is, the roller array 25a is configured to be movable as in the above-described embodiment, and a bracket or the like appropriately exposed at the lower end side of the roller array 25a is provided. on the other hand,
A self-propelled receiving device (not shown) is arranged at the lower end side of the gravity conveyor 17, and the receiving device is provided with driving means for moving the roller row 25 a by engaging with the bracket or the like.

Therefore, when the self-propelled receiving device goes to the predetermined gravity conveyor 17 to receive the articles, the roller array 25a can be moved by the driving means of the receiving device. In this case, since only one driving means needs to be provided in the receiving device, the number of components can be reduced. In the article storage facility according to the present invention, the devices on the article supply side and the article discharge side described above are not limited to those shown in the drawings, but can be appropriately changed.

[0030]

As described above, according to the article storage facility of the present invention, when an article unexpectedly stays in the middle of a gravity conveyor, the movable roller array is moved along the inclination direction by the driving means. Can be moved. By this movement, a stimulus (external force) is applied to the article, and the article is released from being caught and flows under its own weight, so that the article can be reliably prevented from staying. Further, according to the article storage facility of the present invention, it is not necessary to increase the inclination angle of the gravity conveyor in order to avoid stagnation of the articles. It is possible to avoid troubles such as collision and damage.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a gravity conveyor in an embodiment of an article storage facility according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the operation of the article storage facility according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the operation of the article storage facility according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the operation of the article storage facility according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a main part showing another embodiment of the article storage facility according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view illustrating the operation of another embodiment of the article storage device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic perspective view showing the overall configuration of an article storage facility according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Article storage apparatus 10, 10a Article (article) 17 Gravity conveyor 25a, 25b, 25c Roller row 33 1st actuator (drive means)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An article storage facility (1) comprising a gravity conveyor (17) having one or more rows of rollers (25a, 25b, 25c) inclined in the article traveling direction,
An article storage facility (1), characterized in that at least one of said rows of rollers is movable along a direction of inclination by a driving means (33).