JPH0717606A - Moving shelf system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a manual operation per shelf even in automatic operation and improve the operation rate of entire system by arranging a switching means between an automatic operation and a manual operation on every shelf of plural moving shelves. CONSTITUTION:Changeover switches 10-15 are provided on controllers 31-36 of respective moving shelves B1-B6 respectively so that the automatic operation and the manual operation of each moving shelf can be switched to each other. During the automatic operation of the moving shelf, for example when the maintenance of a block B2 is carried out, the changeover switch 11 of the controller 32 in the block B2 is switched to the manual operation side. Thereby, the block B2 is switched to the manual operation and stopped and then he maintenance of the block B2 can be carried out. On the blocks B3-B6, the automatic operation for opening/closing a passage can be continued as it is, but because the block B1 is sandwiched between B2 and a fixed shelf and a passage is not formed on both neighborhoods of B1, B1 is stopped by an interlock automatically and the maintenance can be carried out at the same time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile rack system including a plurality of mobile racks. In particular, the present invention relates to a mobile shelf system that can perform manual operation in units of shelves without stopping the automatic operation of the entire system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a factory or a warehouse, a moving rack system capable of efficiently storing luggage in a small space has been used.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a moving rack in such a moving rack system.

In FIG. 1, the movable rack is provided with a movable carriage 1 movable along a traveling rail R and a luggage storage rack 2 which is erected on the upper portion of the movable carriage 1. Reference numeral 3 denotes a controller for automatically operating the shelves, which is attached to the front of the luggage storage shelf 2.

Such a movable rack is, as shown in FIG.
Plural pieces are arranged side by side on the traveling rail R. The movable shelves arranged in this way are automatically moved by operating the controller 3, as described below. An interlock is provided between the movable shelves.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram for explaining the automatic operation of the mobile rack.

In the figure, block B1 to block B
Reference numeral 5 is a movable rack, P1 to P6 are symbols indicating passages or positions where passages should be formed, and S1 to S6 are switches of the controllers 30 to 35 for opening any of the passages P1 to P6. Each movable rack is movable in the directions of arrows X1 and X2. Normally, the passage is limited to one place.

Next, the operation and action of opening the passage will be described. Here, from the state where the passage P4 is open,
The case of opening the passage P2 will be described.

First, the switch S2 for opening the passage P2 on the right side of the block B1 of the movable rack is operated. Then, from the controller 31 of the block B1 to the block B
A movement command is sent to the controller 33 of No. 3. The controller 33 of the block B3 confirms that the block B3 can move in the arrow X1 direction, and moves the block B3 in the arrow X1 direction. This causes passage P4 to be closed and passage P3 to be opened instead.

After that, the controller 32 of the block B2
Confirms the movement of the block B3 and moves the block B2 in the direction of the arrow X1. As a result, the passage P3 is closed, and instead the passage P2 is opened and the movement of the shelf is completed.

[0011]

The conventional moving rack system described above has the following problems.

During the automatic operation of the moving rack, it was not possible to manually operate the rack unit. For this reason, when trying to perform maintenance of a specific mobile shelf, the automatic operation of the entire system must be stopped, resulting in poor operating efficiency.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to provide a mobile shelf system capable of performing manual operation in units of shelves even during automatic operation and improving the operating efficiency of the entire system. To provide.

[0014]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a system comprising a plurality of movable shelves,
For each mobile rack, a switching means for switching between automatic operation and manual operation of the mobile rack is provided.

[0015]

Since the movable rack system of the present invention has the above-mentioned structure, it has the following operational effects.

That is, since switching means for switching between the automatic operation and the manual operation of the moving shelf is provided for each moving shelf, it is possible to switch any shelf from the automatic operation to the manual operation. It is possible to perform maintenance of any moving rack without stopping the automatic operation.

Therefore, according to the mobile shelf system of the present invention, there is an effect that the operating efficiency of the entire system can be improved.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a mobile shelf showing an embodiment of the mobile shelf system according to the present invention. The same parts as those in the conventional example are designated by the same reference numerals.

In the figure, 10 to 15 are changeover switches as switching means, which are provided in the controllers 31 to 36 of the movable shelves B1 to B6, respectively. Each of the changeover switches 10 to 15 is configured to switch between automatic operation and manual operation of the moving rack. Each of the moving shelves B1 to B6
When the automatic operation is switched to the manual operation by the changeover switches 10 to 15, the operation is disconnected from the automatic operation and the movement is stopped.

For example, when the maintenance of the block B2 is performed during the automatic operation of the movable rack, the changeover switch 11 of the controller 32 of the block B2 is switched to the manual operation side.

As a result, the block B2 is switched to the manual operation and stopped, and the block B2 can be maintained. Regarding the blocks B3 to B6, the changeover switches 12 to 15 are set to the automatic operation side, so that the controller 3 is provided between the blocks B3 to B6.
The automatic operation of opening and closing the passage by the operations of 3 to 36 can be continued as it is (see FIG. 2). In addition, the block B1 is sandwiched between the block B1 and the fixed shelf T1 because the adjacent block B2 is switched to the manual operation and stopped.
Further, since no passage is formed on both sides of the block B1, the block B1 is automatically stopped by the interlock. Therefore, in such a case, the block B1 can be stopped without performing the operation of switching the changeover switch 10 of the block B1 to the manual operation side.
There is a merit that the maintenance of the block B1 can be performed simultaneously with the maintenance of 2.

By utilizing such an advantage, the system can be divided into an operable area and an operation prohibited area. That is, in the mobile shelf system as shown in FIG. 3, when the block B4 is switched to the manual operation, the blocks B1 to B3 can be set as the operable area and the blocks B4 to B7 can be set as the operation prohibited area. In this way, it becomes possible to collectively stop a wide area of blocks B4 to B7 at the same time.

Further, two passages P3, as shown in FIG.
In the mobile rack system in which P6 is formed, the operable area can be divided into two areas A1 and A2, and the system can be divided into two. In this case, it is possible to operate the block B4 that has been manually operated as a fixed shelf, and it is possible to flexibly respond to the application of the system.

According to the mobile rack system of this embodiment described above, each mobile rack is provided with the changeover switches 10 to 15 for switching between the automatic operation and the manual operation of the mobile rack.
Any shelf can be switched from automatic operation to manual operation, and maintenance of any moving shelf can be performed without stopping automatic operation of the entire system. As a result, the operating efficiency of the entire system can be improved.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a mobile shelf showing an embodiment of the mobile shelf system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view showing the operation.

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view showing the same operation.

FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing the operation in the case of two-pass control.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a moving rack in a conventional moving rack system.

FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view of a moving rack.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 to 15 changeover switch

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A mobile rack system comprising a plurality of mobile racks, wherein each mobile rack is provided with switching means for switching between automatic operation and manual operation of the mobile rack.