JPS617108A - Cargo storing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable both one receiving and one shipping devices to handle all the receiving and shipping operations from and to numbers of receiving and shipping points so as to reduce the cost of the device involved and improve the speed in operation by arranging numbers of cargo receiving and shipping points within the loop of storing shelves which have one or more stages. CONSTITUTION:A cargo storing device carries firstly storing shelves 101 arranged in a form of a loop, each of which has one or more stages, secondly receiving and shipping devices 102 and 104 which travel and move up and down for receiving and shipping actions to the above mentioned storing device, and thirdly a cargo pusher 103. In this configuration, the above mentioned receiving and shipping devices 102 and 104 are arranged within the loop of the storing shelves 101. This cargo storing device enables both one receiving device 102 and one shipping device 104 to receive and ship the cargo from and to numbers of receiving and shipping points respectively. This configuration not only makes the storing device simple and inexpensive but also improves the speed in receiving and shipping operations.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an article storage device suitable for use in production plants, distribution centers, etc., where articles are frequently received and taken out.

[Background of the invention]

BACKGROUND ART In production factories, distribution centers, etc., storage warehouses that are controlled by computers and are equipped with an automatic storage/unloading function are used. This kind of storage is equipped with loop-shaped storage shelves that aim to (1) speed up the loading and unloading of goods, and (2) reduce the footprint of the goods storage. There are products on the market that have multiple stages.

The removal of goods from this storage is performed in the following steps.

(1) The loop storage shelf is rotated to move the item requested to be delivered to the exit of the shelf where the item is stored.

(2) Move the unloading elevator (connection device to the conveyor for transportation to the next process) installed so that it runs along the exit of each tier to the exit of the tier where the requested item is stored. move it.

(3) Place the requested item on the elevator.

(4) Use the elevator to transport the requested items to the conveyor for transport to the next process.

Here, the elevators for entering and exiting the warehouse may be provided separately or may be used in combination. In the following, the elevator is entered,
The explanation will be given assuming that it is provided separately for shipping. Therefore, there will be separate entry and exit entrances. The following discussion holds true even when an elevator is provided for both loading and unloading.

In the article storage apparatus according to the procedure described above, the rotation speed of the loop-shaped storage shelf is usually lower than the moving speed of the elevator in many cases.

Therefore, when leaving the warehouse, until the goods arrive at the exit gate,
The elevator may have to wait there. Also,
Similarly, when entering a warehouse, the elevator is forced to wait until the storage location of the article arrives at the warehouse entrance. In order to solve such problems, the following measures have been taken in conventional article storage devices.

(1) In order to shorten the time required for goods to arrive at the exit, multiple exits will be provided.

(2) The loop-shaped storage shelves are rotated independently for each stage, and the goods to be shipped are moved in advance from the storage location to the exit.

However, each of the measures (1) and (2) above has the following disadvantages.

(1) Since a plurality of elevators are required to take out articles from the exit, the price of the article storage device is higher than that of conventional devices.

(2) It often takes time to move goods to the exit. This is because it is not possible to store items that are taken out of the warehouse in the order in which they are taken out of the warehouse for the following reason.

(a) In many cases, the order in which items are to be taken out of the warehouse is not determined at the time the items are placed in the warehouse.

(b) Since requested items are stored in the storage warehouse at any time, it is difficult to develop a storage method that only optimizes the shipping order.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an article storage device that aims to speed up the loading and unloading operations in the article storage device.

[Summary of the invention]

In a conventional article storage device, one elevator is installed for one entry/exit entrance on the outside of a loop-shaped storage shelf, and articles are taken in and out of the warehouse. According to this device, for example, if a loop-shaped storage shelf has exit ports at two places, the storage shelf can be rotated 1/4 turn at worst, and 78 turns on average. will arrive at the exit. At this time,
A total of two elevators are required at the exit.

In the present invention, in order to ensure the same capacity as in the above example without increasing the number of elevators, it was devised to provide elevators for loading and unloading within the loops of the loop-shaped storage shelves. This results in
To realize loading and unloading of articles from multiple entrances and exits using one elevator. By adopting such a configuration, the article storage device becomes inexpensive, and furthermore, it is possible to realize faster loading and unloading operations.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to Examples.

An example of an article storage device using the present invention is shown in FIG. In the figure, (a) is a plan view, (b) is an elevation view, and (c) is a plan view.
is a side view, 101 is a loop-shaped storage shelf, 102 is an elevator for taking out articles, ] 03 is an article pushing device, and 104 is an elevator for warehousing articles.

Next, a description will be given of an article shipping operation using this device. The hardware configuration here is shown in FIG. 2.

In the figure, 201 is an article storage device, 202 is a computer, 203 is a storage device that stores a management table for incoming and outgoing articles, 204 is an article storage controller, and 205
206 is a conveyor for transporting incoming goods, 206 is a conveyor for transporting outgoing goods, and 207 is a controller for the transporting conveyor. First, when a request is made for a stored item to be delivered, the following six steps are processed and processed by computer.
Control, control, and carry out shipping work. Please note that goods may be stocked at any time.
shall be carried out.

<Step 1> The storage location data of the item for which the delivery request has been made is stored in the in-stock item management table registered in the external storage device (for example, Figure 4 a).
), take it out.

<Step 2> Move the goods to the exit. Specifically, perform the following steps.

(1) Calculate the distance d from the storage location to the nearest exit using the following formula (see Figure 3).

d= -〇-m d=m--〇 However, m: Distance from the storage entrance (known from step 1) Q: Loop table for loop-shaped storage shelves (2) Storage for only d determined in (1) above rotate the shelves,
Move the goods to the exit. Here, the rotation direction of the storage shelf is determined as follows.

Clockwise: When the rotation direction of the stock management table is counterclockwise.

Counterclockwise...When the rotation direction of the incoming goods management table is clockwise.

<Step 3> Move the 1m lifter to the tier where the item requested for delivery is stored. Note that this step is similar to step 2.
Execute in parallel.

<Step 4> The outgoing goods are placed on the elevator by the outgoing goods pushing out device. At that time, in the outgoing goods management table (for example, Fig. 4b),
Outgoing items are stored7. Register the location information etc.

Step 5> The elevator lowers the goods to be delivered to the bottom.

Step 6> The outgoing goods are sent out onto the transport conveyor by the outgoing goods extrusion device.

Repeat the above steps until there are no more shipping requests. 〔Effect of the invention〕 According to the present invention, there is a first-order effect.

(1) Since only one elevator is required for loading and unloading, it becomes an inexpensive article storage device.

(2) Since articles can be loaded and unloaded at multiple locations on the loop-shaped storage shelf, loading and unloading work becomes faster. For example, if a loop-shaped storage shelf has n storage openings, the time required for the item requested to be delivered to arrive at the storage opening, or the time required for the storage location of the item to arrive at the storage opening. The time can be reduced to 1/4n (on average), or at worst 1/2n, of the time conventionally required (the time required for the loop-shaped storage shelf to make half a turn).

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1a, b, and c are three-sided views of an article storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a hardware configuration diagram during loading and unloading operations, and Figures 3a and b are moving distances to the loading and unloading gate. A diagram explaining the calculation of
FIG. 4a shows an incoming goods management table, and the same figure shows an outgoing goods management table. 101...Loop-shaped storage shelf, 102...Elevator for goods retrieval Figure 1 (long (b) ¥: J1 Figure γ 3 Figure is) (b) [4 Figure (first) (b)

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an article storage device consisting of one or more stages of loop-shaped storage shelves and a loading/unloading device, by installing the loading/unloading device inside the loop of the loop-shaped storage shelf, loading/unloading from multiple locations on the loop is possible. An article storage device characterized by having functions.