JPH0812017A - Transfer device of stacker crane - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a transfer device for a stacker crane which can accommodate and transfer a plurality of loads at the same time and can accommodate and transfer only one load. CONSTITUTION:An automatic warehouse is equipped with an accommodation part 4 for accommodating two loads. Further, in the automatic warehouse, an upper fork 14 which transfers in the lateral and horizontal direction and can mount two loads, and 9a transfer device 10 for a stacker crane having the limit switches 22-24 for detecting the lateral and the horizontal position of the upper fork 14 and a dog 25 are installed. On the basis of the signals of the limit switches 22-24, a crane controller controls the lateral and the horizontal shift of the upper fork 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transfer device for a stacker crane in an automatic warehouse.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been an automatic warehouse configured to store a plurality of loads in one storage section in order to increase storage efficiency.

The automatic warehouse will be described below with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 9, the automated warehouse 50 has shelves 51 arranged side by side at predetermined intervals (however, in FIG. 9, the shelf 51 located on the right side of the automated warehouse 50 is not shown). No). On the shelf 51, a storage section 53 is sectioned in the height direction and the depth direction by a load receiving member 52 provided at a predetermined height. Incidentally, the storage portion 53
Has a depth capable of accommodating a plurality of loads, here two loads W, side by side. A traveling rail 54 is laid on the floor between the left and right shelves 51, and a stacker crane 55 is set on the traveling rail 54 so as to reciprocate back and forth. The stacker crane 55 includes a traveling platform 56 that travels on the traveling rails 54, a pair of masts 57 standing on the traveling platform 56, a carriage 58 that is vertically movable between the masts 57, and a carriage 58. And a transfer device 59 that is horizontally movable horizontally.

By the way, two types of transfer devices 59 are considered in the automatic warehouse 50 capable of accommodating two loads W in one accommodating portion 53 configured as described above. As shown in FIG. 10, the transfer device 59 according to one embodiment has a fork 60 on which only one load W can be placed.
Is a double reach type in which the longest protruding length is approximately twice the left and right length of the fork 60. Therefore, when storing two loads W in one storage portion 53, first, one load W mounted on the carriage 58 is transported to the side of the storage portion 53, and the fork 60 is protruded by the longest protrusion length. It is stored on the back side with respect to the storage portion 53. Next, another load W is similarly transported to the side of the storage portion 53, and as shown in FIG.
The load W is stored in the front side of the load W previously stored in the storage unit 53 by projecting the same length as the left and right length of 0. Storage 53
When the load W is taken out from the container, the load W on the front side is first carried out, and then the load W on the back side is carried out, contrary to the above.

As shown in FIG. 12, the two transfer devices 59 have a fork 60 on which two loads W can be placed side by side. The transfer device 59 is of a single reach type that horizontally moves left and right by a length substantially equal to the left and right length of the fork 60. Therefore, when the two loads W are stored in the one storage part 53, the carriage 58 carrying the two loads W is transported to the side of the storage part 53, the fork 60 is projected into the storage part 53, and the two loads W are loaded. To be stored at the same time. When taking out the load W from the storage section 53, as in the case of storage,
Two loads W are unloaded at the same time.

[0006]

However, since the transfer device 59 of the above-described one proposal can mount only one load W on the fork 60, it takes time to store and carry out the load W, resulting in poor work efficiency. It was In addition, the transfer device 5 of the two alternatives
9 can store and carry out two loads W at the same time, but when the two loads W are mounted on the carriage 58, only one load W is stored in the storage portion 53, or two loads W are one. Only one load W cannot be carried out from the storage portion 53 when it is stored in the storage portion 53.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a stacker crane capable of storing and unloading a plurality of loads at the same time and storing and unloading only one load. It is to provide a transfer device.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 is a transfer device for a stacker crane in an automatic warehouse capable of storing a plurality of loads in the left and right direction of one storage section. And a fork having a length capable of horizontally moving left and right to mount a plurality of loads, a position detecting device for detecting the left and right horizontal positions of the fork, and a control means for receiving a signal from the position detecting device and controlling the horizontal movement of the fork. The gist of the provision of and.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the transfer device according to the first aspect, the position detecting device has a longest position where the fork projection length is longest, an origin position of the fork, and an intermediate position between them. It is the gist to detect.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the transfer apparatus according to the first aspect, the control means causes the fork to move horizontally in the horizontal direction between the longest position where the protrusion length of the fork is the longest and the origin position of the fork. The gist is to perform control to stop.

[0011]

Therefore, according to the invention of claim 1, one or a plurality of loads are mounted on the fork, and the upper fork is horizontally moved by the control means. The position detection device detects a horizontal position of the fork. The control means stops horizontal movement of the fork on the basis of the signal from the position detection device, and stores the load in the storage section of the automatic warehouse.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the position detecting device detects the longest position where the protrusion length of the fork is the longest, the origin position of the fork, and the intermediate position therebetween.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the horizontal movement of the fork is stopped by the control means between the longest position where the protrusion length of the fork is the longest and the origin position of the fork.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the stacker crane transfer device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the automatic warehouse 1
Has shelves 2 arranged side by side at a predetermined interval. A storage unit 4 is sectioned and set on the shelf 2 in a height direction and a depth direction by a load receiving member 3 provided at a predetermined height. The storage portion 4 has a depth that allows two loads W to be stored side by side. A traveling rail 5 is laid on the floor between the left and right shelves 2, and a stacker crane 6 reciprocates back and forth on the traveling rail 5. The stacker crane 6 includes a traveling platform 7 traveling on the traveling rail 5 and a pair of masts 8 standing on the traveling platform 7.
A carriage 9 that moves up and down between the masts 8 and a transfer device 10 that horizontally moves on the carriage 9 and can mount two loads W side by side. Then, the crane controller 11 as a control means for controlling the operations of the traveling platform 7, the carriage 9 and the transfer device 10 has one mast 8
It is provided at the lower part.

As shown in FIG. 3, the transfer device 10 includes a base 12 fixedly mounted on the carriage 9, a middle fork 13 horizontally horizontally movable on the base 12.
The upper fork 14 is arranged on the middle fork 13 so as to be horizontally movable left and right. Base 12
A fork motor 15 for driving the forks 13 and 14 is attached to the lower part of the. A drive gear 16 is attached to the output shaft 15a of the fork motor 15, and a transmission gear 17 supported by the base 12 is meshed with the drive gear 16. Base 1 for transmission gear 17
A pair of pinions 18 supported by 2 are meshed with each other, and a rack 19 attached to the lower surface of the middle fork 13 is meshed with the pinion 18. Therefore, by driving the fork motor 15, the pinion 18 rotates via the drive gear 16 and the transmission gear 17, and the rack 19 is attached to the lower surface.
The middle fork 13 having a horizontal movement horizontally on the base 12. Sprockets 20 are supported on both left and right sides of the middle fork 13, and chains 21 are wound around the sprockets 20, respectively. One end 21 of the chain 21 wound around the sprocket 20 on the left side
The a is connected to the right end of the base 12, and the other end 21b is connected to the right end of the upper fork 14. Similarly, the chain 21 wound around the sprocket 20 on the right side has one end 21a connected to the left end of the base 12 and the other end 21b.
Is connected to the left end of the upper fork 14. Therefore, the middle fork 13 moves horizontally, the upper fork 14 is pulled by the chain 21, and the upper fork 1
4 horizontally moves on the middle fork 13. Therefore, by driving the fork motor 15, the middle fork 13 projects in the left-right direction with respect to the base 12,
In conjunction with this, the upper fork 14 projects in the left-right direction with respect to the middle fork 13. FIG. 3 shows the longest position of the transfer device 10 in which the protruding length of the upper fork 14 with respect to the base 12 is the longest protruding length L. That is, the transfer device 10 is of a single reach type in which the upper fork 14 horizontally moves left and right by the same length as the left and right length of the upper fork 14.

As shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, limit switches 22, 23, 24 and dogs 25 as position detecting devices for the upper fork 14 are provided on the front side surface of the transfer device 10. The limit switches 22, 23, and 24 are provided on the front side surface of the base 12, and the dog 25 is provided at the center of the front side surface of the middle fork 13.
It is attached to the height for operating 3, 24. The limit switches 22, 23, 24 include a longest position switch 22, an intermediate position switch 23, and an origin switch 24. The longest position switch 22 is located at the left and right ends of the base 12, the origin switch 24 is located at the center of the base 12, and the intermediate position switch 2
3 is attached in the middle of the longest position switch 22 and the origin switch 24, respectively. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, the longest position switch 22 comes into contact with the dog 25 at the longest position of the transfer device 10 where the projection length of the upper fork 14 with respect to the base 12 becomes the longest projection length L. As shown in FIG. 5, the intermediate position switch 23 is a dog 25 when the transfer length of the upper fork 14 with respect to the base 12 is L / 2 which is half of the longest protruding length L. Contact with. As shown in FIG. 6, the origin switch 24 contacts the dog 25 when the position of the upper fork 14 is at the origin position of the transfer device 10 directly above the base 12.

When the limit switches 22, 23, 24 come into contact with the dog 25, the limit switches 22, 23, 24 output signals to the crane controller 11 as shown in FIG. The crane controller 11 has limit switches 2
Signals from 2, 23, and 24 are input and the drive of the fork motor 15 is controlled. or,
The crane controller 11 is adapted to communicate with a ground operation panel 26 for managing entry / exit of the automated warehouse 1.

Next, the transfer device 1 configured as described above.
The operation of 0 will be described. When two loads W are stored in the storage section 4 at the same time, first, the crane controller 11 moves the carriage 9 to the side of the arbitrary storage section 4 according to a command from the ground operation panel 26. Next, the fork motor 15 is driven by the signal from the crane controller 11,
The transfer device 10 is moved horizontally. Then, as shown in FIG. 4, when the dog 25 attached to the middle fork 13 contacts the longest position switch 22, the longest position switch 22 outputs a signal to the crane controller 11. Based on the signal from the longest position switch 22, the crane controller 11 stops driving the fork motor 15 and stops the horizontal movement of the transfer device 10. At this time, since the upper fork 14 is at the longest position where the projecting length with respect to the base 12 is the longest projecting length L, the two loads W placed on the upper fork 14 are stored in the storage section 4 at the same time.

When only one load W is stored in the storage section 4, first, similarly to the case where two loads W are stored in the storage section 4 at the same time, the crane controller 11 causes the carriage controller 11 to move the carriage by the command from the ground operation panel 26. 9, the fork motor 15 is driven by a signal from the crane controller 11, and the transfer device 10 is horizontally moved. Then, as shown in FIG. 5, the middle fork 1
When the dog 25 attached to No. 3 contacts the intermediate position switch 23, the intermediate position switch 23 outputs a signal to the crane controller 11. Crane controller 11
Stops the driving of the fork motor 15 and stops the horizontal movement of the transfer device 10 based on the signal from the intermediate position switch 23. At this time, the upper fork 14 is at the intermediate position where the protruding length with respect to the base 12 is half the maximum protruding length L, that is, the length L / 2, so that the load W placed on the storage portion 4 side of the upper fork 14 is It is stored on the front side of the storage unit 4.

When the load W is stored in the storage section 4, the fork motor 15 is driven by a signal from the crane controller 11 to move the transfer device 10 horizontally, contrary to the case where the load W is stored. Then, as shown in FIG. 6, when the dog 25 attached to the middle fork 13 contacts the origin switch 24, the origin switch 24 outputs a signal to the crane controller 11. Based on the signal from the origin switch 24, the crane controller 11 stops driving the fork motor 15 and stops the horizontal movement of the transfer device 10. At this time, the upper fork 14 stops at the origin position directly above the base 12.

Similarly, when carrying out the load W from the storage section 4, the upper fork 14 is projected to the longest position when carrying out two loads W at the same time, and the upper fork 14 is carried out when carrying out only one load W. Project the fork 14 to the intermediate position,
The load W is unloaded.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the transfer device 1
The limit switches 22, 23, 24 and the dog 25 are provided at 0, the signals of the limit switches 22, 23, 24 are output to the crane controller 11, and the crane controller 11 controls the fork motor 15 to load the two loads W. It is possible to store and carry out at the same time, and to store and carry out only one load W. Therefore, the work efficiency at the time of storing and unloading the load W is improved.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but may be configured as follows, for example, within the scope of the invention. (1) In the above embodiment, the limit switches 22, 23,
24 is the longest position switch 22 and the intermediate position switch 23
8 and the origin switch 24 are set, limit switches 23a and 23b are further provided on both sides of the intermediate position switch 23 as shown in FIG. 8 to set the longest position switch 22, the long intermediate position switch 23a, and the intermediate position switch 23. The short intermediate position switch 23b and the origin switch 24 may be set. In this case, three types of intermediate protrusion lengths of the upper fork 14 can be set. Therefore, three different sizes of cargo W
1, W2, W3 can be combined and stored in the storage part 4, and the storage efficiency of a load can be improved.

(2) In the above embodiment, the limit switches 22, 23 and 24 are arranged on the base 12 and the dog 25 is arranged on the middle fork 13.
3, 24 may be arranged in the middle fork 13 and the dog 25 may be arranged in the upper fork 14. In this case, the same effect as the above embodiment can be obtained.

(3) In the above embodiment, the upper fork 1
Limit switches 22, 23,
Although the 24 and the dog 25 are provided, a rotary encoder may be attached to the output shaft 15a of the fork motor 15 to detect the position of the upper fork 14. In this case, the intermediate protruding length of the upper fork 14 can be controlled steplessly. Therefore, various loads having different sizes can be combined and stored in the storage unit 4, and the storage efficiency of the loads can be further improved.

(4) In the above embodiment, the upper fork 1
Limit switches 22, 23,
Although the 24 and the dog 25 are provided, the position of the upper fork 14 may be detected by providing a photoelectric sensor or a magnetic sensor at the end of the upper fork 14 and providing a detected object in the storage section 4. In this case, the same effect as the above embodiment can be obtained.

(5) In the above-described embodiment, the storage section 4 is provided so that two loads W can be arranged side by side and the transfer device 10 capable of mounting the two loads W side by side is arranged. The transfer device 10 may be arranged so that one load W can be stored side by side and the three transfer loads W can be mounted side by side. In this case, three loads W can be stored in the storage portion 4 at the same time, so that the storage efficiency of the loads can be improved.

(6) In the above embodiment, the single-reach type transfer device 10 capable of mounting two loads W side by side is arranged. However, the double-reach type transfer device capable of mounting two loads W side by side. 10 may be provided. In this case, since the storage can be performed even if the depth of the storage section 4 is widened, the storage efficiency of the load can be improved.

[0030]

As described above in detail, according to the inventions of claims 1 to 3, at the intermediate position between the longest position where the projection length of the fork is the longest and the origin position of the fork, Since the horizontal movement of the forks can be stopped, a plurality of loads can be stored and carried out at the same time, and only one load can be stored and carried out. Therefore, the load is stored in the storage section of the automated warehouse,
In addition, the work efficiency when carrying out from the storage unit is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall front view showing an automated warehouse in an embodiment embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall left side view showing an automated warehouse in one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a transfer device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing the longest position of the transfer device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a front view showing an intermediate position of the transfer device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing the origin position of the transfer device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a transfer device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a front view showing a transfer device according to another example.

FIG. 9 is an overall perspective view showing an automated warehouse according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 10 is a front view showing the longest position of the transfer device according to the related art.

FIG. 11 is a front view showing an intermediate position of a transfer device according to the related art.

FIG. 12 is a front view showing two alternative transfer devices in the prior art.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Automatic warehouse, 4 ... Storage section, 6 ... Stacker crane, 1
0 ... Transfer device, 11 ... Crane controller as control means, 14 ... Upper fork, 22 ... Longest position switch as position detecting device, 23 ... Intermediate position switch as position detecting device, 24 ... Origin as position detecting device Switch, 25 ... Dog as position detecting device, W ... Load

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An automatic warehouse capable of accommodating a plurality of loads in the left-right direction of one storage unit, horizontally moving horizontally, and detecting a fork having a length capable of mounting a plurality of loads and a horizontal position of the forks. A stacker crane transfer device having a position detection device and control means for receiving a signal from the position detection device and controlling horizontal movement of the fork. 2. The transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the position detection device detects a longest position where the projection length of the fork is longest, an origin position of the fork, and an intermediate position between them. Transfer device. 3. The transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the control means performs control for stopping horizontal fork movement of the fork between the longest position where the protruding length of the fork is longest and the origin position of the fork. Stacker crane transfer device.