JP7640480B2 - Crane Equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a crane device, and in particular to a crane device that is linked to an earthquake reporting system.

When workers use a crane installed in a factory or other facility to lift or move products, there is a risk that the load being lifted or moved may swing or fall during the lifting or moving process if an earthquake occurs. For this reason, it is necessary to handle the load suspended from the crane appropriately in the event of an earthquake.

However, because it is difficult to predict the occurrence of earthquakes, it is not possible to carry out work on site while taking into consideration the shaking caused by earthquakes in advance. For this reason, a practical method for minimizing the adverse effects of earthquakes on cranes is known, which automatically switches the control of the crane equipment to control that is appropriate for earthquakes when an earthquake is detected.

For example, JP 2013-121864 A (Patent Document 1) discloses a crane device that includes a landing detection unit that detects when a suspended container is landed at a predetermined position, an earthquake detection unit that detects the occurrence of an earthquake, a tension relief mechanism that releases the tension of the main hoisting rope, and a control unit that outputs an operation signal for the tension relief mechanism unit when both a landing detection signal from the landing detection unit and an earthquake occurrence signal from the earthquake detection unit are received.

According to this crane device, if an earthquake occurs during loading and unloading of a suspended container on a container ship or the like, the tension relief mechanism operates in response to an operating signal output from the control unit, preventing tension or excessive tension acting on the main hoisting rope.

JP 2013-121864 A

The crane apparatus described in Patent Document 1 detects the occurrence of an earthquake using a seismometer or accelerometer installed on the crane apparatus, or an earthquake information signal input from outside, and switches the control of the crane apparatus to control that corresponds to the earthquake.

However, the crane apparatus described in Patent Document 1 simply switches the control of the crane apparatus to control that responds to earthquakes, and does not take into consideration notifying workers working in a factory that an earthquake has occurred. In particular, no specific measures are given for encouraging workers to respond to an earthquake (stopping work, calling attention to evacuation, etc.) by using the time until the actual earthquake shaking arrives, or for how to handle the crane apparatus after that.

Therefore, there is a need to encourage workers to take action against the earthquake by utilizing the time it takes for the actual earthquake shaking to reach the area from the point where the earthquake occurs, and to come up with specific measures for the safe handling of the loads suspended by the crane equipment after this.

The object of the present invention is to provide a crane device that utilizes the time it takes for the actual earthquake shaking to reach the site of the earthquake to encourage workers to respond to the earthquake and that can handle suspended loads more safely.

The present invention is a crane apparatus equipped with a hoisting motor that hoists a hook on which a load is attached, a moving motor that moves the hoisting motor back and forth and/or left and right, and a control means that controls the operation of the hoisting motor and the moving motor, and the control means is characterized by the crane apparatus equipped with earthquake information receiving means that receives earthquake information, a control processing unit that receives the earthquake information and executes an alarm control process and a load control process, an alarm means that is controlled by the control processing unit and notifies the surrounding area of an impending earthquake using a sound generating means by executing the alarm control process, and a load control means that is controlled by the control processing unit and moves the load to an appropriate position according to the current load condition by executing the load control process.

The present invention provides a crane device that utilizes the time between the occurrence of an earthquake and the arrival of actual earthquake shaking to encourage workers to respond to the earthquake and to handle suspended loads more safely.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of the crane apparatus. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an overall configuration of a control system for a crane apparatus. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control system for a crane apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a flowchart showing a process flow of the control system shown in FIG. 3 . 5 is a flowchart showing a safety processing flow after the stopping operation processing shown in FIG. 4 .

The following describes in detail an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the following embodiment, and the scope of the present invention includes various modifications and applications within the technical concept of the present invention.

Figure 1 shows the overall configuration of a crane device to which the present invention is applied, and Figure 2 shows the overall configuration of a crane device control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A crane device is roughly equipped with a hoisting motor that hoists and lowers the crane hook on which a load is attached, a moving motor that moves the hoisting motor back and forth and/or left and right, and a control means that controls the operation of the hoisting motor and the moving motor. The specific configuration is as follows:

In Figure 1, it is composed of a crane hook 1, a wire rope 2, a hoisting induction motor 3, a hoisting drum 4, a traverse induction motor 5, traverse wheels 6, a traverse girder 7, a traveling induction motor 8, a traveling wheel 9, a traveling girder 10, a hoisting/traverse inverter control device 11, an operation input device 12 suspended from a cable, a traveling inverter control device 13, etc. In addition, the hoisting induction motor 3, the traverse induction motor 5, and the traveling induction motor 8 each have an induction motor brake 14 (see Figure 2) built in.

Here, the hoisting induction motor 3 raises and lowers the load hung from the crane hook 1 in the direction of gravity, and the traverse induction motor 5 and the travel induction motor 8 are motors for moving the hoisting induction motor 3 in the forward/backward and/or left/right directions.

The crane device moves a load attached to a crane hook 1 in the direction of gravity (indicated by the Y direction and -Y arrows), i.e., up and down, by using a hoist drum 4 rotated by a hoist induction motor 3 to hoist and lower a wire rope 2. In addition, a traverse induction motor 5 rotates traverse wheels 6, which move left and right (indicated by the X direction and -X arrows) along a traverse girder 7. In addition, a traveling induction motor 8 rotates running wheels 9, which move forward and backward (indicated by the Z direction and -Z arrows) along a traveling girder 10.

As shown in FIG. 2, the hoisting/traverse inverter control device 11 includes a hoisting/traverse inverter control unit 15, a hoisting inverter 16, and a traverse inverter 17. The traveling inverter control device 13 includes a traveling inverter control unit 18 and a traveling inverter 19. The hoisting/traverse inverter control unit 15 and the traveling inverter control unit 18 are connected by a communication line 20.

The hoisting induction motor 3 and the traverse induction motor 5 are controlled by the hoisting/traverse inverter control unit 15 stored in the hoisting/traverse inverter control device 11. That is, when the operator inputs a specific instruction from the operation input device 12, the hoisting/traverse inverter control unit 15 provides the hoisting inverter 16 and the traverse inverter 17 with control information necessary for control in order to control them. An encoder 21 is attached to the hoisting induction motor 3, and inputs the rotation information of the hoisting induction motor 3 to the hoisting/traverse inverter control unit 15.

The hoisting inverter 16 and the traverse inverter 17 apply the necessary frequency, voltage, and current to the hoisting induction motor 3 and the traverse induction motor 5, and at the same time control the release of the induction motor brake 14. As a result, in the case of the hoisting drum 4, the load attached to the crane hook 1 is moved in the Y direction without falling, and in the case of the traverse wheels 6, the traverse wheels 6 are moved in the X direction along the traverse girder 7.

Similarly, when the operator inputs a specific command from the operation input device 12, the traveling induction motor 8 attached to the traveling wheel 9 is controlled by the traveling inverter control unit 18 stored in the traveling inverter control device 13, which controls the traveling inverter 19, and the traveling inverter 19 applies the necessary frequency, voltage, and current to the traveling induction motor 8, and at the same time controls the release of the induction motor brake 14, thereby moving the traveling wheel 9 in the Z direction along the traveling girder 10.

Furthermore, the hoisting/traversing inverter control device 11 is provided with a communication unit 22, which is connected to the hoisting/traversing inverter control unit 15 by a communication line 23. The communication unit 22 is connected by wireless communication to a cloud network (hereinafter referred to as the cloud) 24 composed of a server equipped with a calculation function, and the cloud 24 is also connected by wireless communication to an emergency earthquake notification system 25 equipped with a communication unit.

Therefore, the communication unit 22 and the emergency earthquake notification system 25 are set in an environment in which they can communicate with each other via the cloud 24. Of course, it goes without saying that they may also be connected to each other via a wired connection so that they can communicate with each other.

The cloud 24 equipped with a server is installed at a crane equipment manufacturing company or a maintenance company. The emergency earthquake notification system 25 can use the "Emergency Earthquake Warning System" operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency. This emergency earthquake warning system is designed to issue "forecasts" and "warnings."

For example, a "forecast" is issued when the maximum seismic intensity is expected to be 3 or greater, or a magnitude of 3.5 or greater, and a "warning" is issued when shaking of a maximum seismic intensity of 5 or greater is expected. By selecting between "forecast" and "warning," the control state of the crane equipment can be changed. In addition, earthquakes are first observed as "initial tremors" caused by P waves, followed by "main tremors" caused by S waves.

Therefore, when a "forecast" is issued due to initial tremors and then an "alarm" is issued in succession due to the main tremors, there is a time lag between these two. This time lag can be used to control the crane equipment in response to earthquakes.

Next, we will explain the configuration of a control system for a crane device linked to an emergency earthquake notification system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 shows the general configuration of the control system according to this embodiment.

In this embodiment, the hoisting/traversing inverter control device 11 is used as the control device, but since various control devices can be used, the following explanation will be given using the control device 11 as a representative example.

The control device 11 is equipped with a control processing unit 30, which has the function of executing control processing of the crane device when an earthquake occurs, and as is well known, this is executed by a microcomputer that operates according to a control program. Various information is input to the control processing unit 30 from various sensors. Information related to this embodiment, for example, includes position information of the suspended load, load information of the suspended load, and image information of the area in which the suspended load is located, which are input to the control processing unit 30.

The position information of the suspended load is acquired by the position information acquisition unit 31. This is obtained from the position of the crane hook 1, and can be obtained from the amount of wire rope 2 wound on the hoisting drum 4. It can also be obtained from the rotation of the hoisting induction motor 3, and the point is that it is sufficient to obtain the position information of the crane hook 1. The position information of the crane hook 1 can be treated as the position information of the suspended load.

The load information of the suspended load is acquired by the load information acquisition unit 32. This is obtained from a load meter (not shown). Note that it can also be obtained from the current value (load torque) of the hoisting induction motor 3, and the point is that it is sufficient to obtain the load information of the suspended load.

Video information of the area where the load is located is acquired by the camera image acquisition unit 33. This is obtained from a camera (not shown). In this embodiment, the camera is mounted on the hoisting drum 4, but it can also be obtained from an image from a camera located away from the crane device. The point is that video information of the area where the load is located can be obtained.

Furthermore, earthquake information (e.g., emergency earthquake alerts) relating to earthquakes is input to the control processing unit 30 from the communication unit 22. The earthquake information is sent from the emergency earthquake notification system 25 via the cloud 24.

As mentioned above, the emergency earthquake notification system 25 receives information from the "Emergency Earthquake Warning System" operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency, and sends out "forecasts" and "warnings" according to the strength of the earthquake. In addition, since the initial tremors caused by P waves and the main tremors caused by S waves arrive at the seismometer with a time delay, "forecasts" and "warnings" may be issued in chronological order in response to this.

The control processing unit 30 transmits information to the alarm control unit 34 to notify it of a "forecast" and an "alert". The alarm control unit 34 has a function to notify an audio generating means such as a speaker of the occurrence of an earthquake, the strength of the earthquake, a request for evacuation, evacuation methods, etc. by voice.

Therefore, by providing the crane device with an alarm control unit 34 and sound generating means, workers can smoothly take evacuation action based on earthquake information, even if they do not carry an information terminal such as a smartphone.

The control processing unit 30 also has a control function that causes the operation control unit 35 to stop the crane, move the suspended load, etc. For example, it has a function to perform alert control when it receives an "alarm" from the communication unit 22, and a function to perform alert control when it receives a "forecast," stop control of the crane device, and control the movement of the suspended load, such as landing the load on the floor and hoisting it up.

As a result, the control content of the crane equipment is selected according to the strength of the earthquake, making it possible to execute appropriate control of the crane equipment in response to the earthquake.

Next, we will explain the specific processing flow when an earthquake occurs in such a control system. Figure 4 shows the processing flow when an emergency earthquake warning is received. This control is started by a time interrupt at a predetermined time interval, and when an emergency earthquake warning is received, control corresponding to the earthquake is executed.

<Step S11>
In step S11, it is determined whether or not an emergency earthquake warning has been received. If an emergency earthquake warning has not been received (No), the process goes to END and waits for the next activation timing. On the other hand, if an emergency earthquake warning has been received, the process proceeds to step S12.

<Step S12>
In step S12, it is determined whether the earthquake level is "Primary" (corresponding to the second predetermined intensity in the claims). This "Primary" corresponds to the earthquake intensity set in "Forecast". If it is determined that it is not "Primary" (No), the process proceeds to step S13. In other words, if it is not "Primary", it is determined that it is "Scandary" (corresponding to the first predetermined intensity in the claims), which is the earthquake intensity set in "Warning". On the other hand, if it is determined that it is "Primary", the process proceeds to step S14.

<Step S13>
Since the earthquake level is judged to be "Scandary" in step S12, it is expected that a strong earthquake will occur soon, so in step S13, the safety of the workers is prioritized and an alarm is issued. In this case, a buzzer is sounded by the sound generating means to notify the operator by voice that a strong earthquake is coming.

In other words, when the intensity of the earthquake is judged to be "Scandary" (above a first predetermined intensity), the load control process described below is not executed, but the alarm control process is executed to quickly alert the user using the sound generation means.

For example, an announcement such as "An earthquake of magnitude 6 has occurred. Please evacuate immediately to the nearest safe place" is made. This allows the worker to quickly take action to evacuate to a safe place and ensure their own safety. After executing the process of step S13, the process goes to END and waits for the next activation timing to arrive.

<Step S14>
Since the earthquake level is judged to be "Primary" in step S12, it is predicted that an earthquake of a relatively low intensity will occur, and therefore, in step S14, the safety of the workers is prioritized and an alarm is issued. In this case, a buzzer is sounded by the sound generating means, and an audio message is generated to inform the operator that an earthquake of a relatively low intensity will occur.

For example, an announcement such as "An earthquake of seismic intensity 3 has occurred. Please evacuate to the nearest safe place. There is a risk of further earthquakes of greater intensity." is made. This allows workers to quickly take action to ensure their own safety, such as by taking refuge under the nearest desk. Once the alarm processing is complete, the process proceeds to step S15.

<Step S15>
In step S12, the earthquake is deemed to be of a low seismic intensity, and is deemed to be an initial tremor that may be followed by a main tremor of high seismic intensity. For this reason, the time delay between the initial tremor and the main tremor is utilized to execute the process of stopping the crane apparatus.

In this case, the operation of the hoisting induction motor 3, traverse induction motor 5, and travel induction motor 8 is stopped. This allows the crane device to be stopped before the main motion arrives. Details of the load safety processing (corresponding to the load control processing referred to in the claims) that follows this stopping operation processing are shown in Figure 5. When the stopping operation processing is completed, it exits to the end and waits for the next start timing to arrive.

In other words, when the intensity of the earthquake is determined to be equal to or greater than "Primary" (second predetermined intensity), which is smaller than "Scondary" (first predetermined intensity), but less than "Scondary" (first predetermined intensity), an alarm control process is executed to alert the user using the alarm means, and then a safety process (load control process) is executed to move the load to an appropriate position.

Next, the safety processing of the suspended load after the stop processing (load control processing) will be explained with reference to Figure 5. This safety processing is not executed until the stop operation processing shown in Figure 4 is completed. If the safety processing is executed before the stop operation processing is completed, the suspended load may move unexpectedly. To avoid this, the safety processing is executed after the stop operation processing is completed.

<Step S21>
In step S21, it is determined whether the stopping operation based on the emergency earthquake warning has been completed. The reason for this is that, as described above, if safety processing is performed before the stopping operation processing is completed, the suspended load may move unexpectedly. Therefore, if it is determined that the stopping operation processing is not completed, the system goes to the end and waits for the arrival of the next start timing. On the other hand, if it is determined that the stopping operation processing is completed, the system moves to step S22.

<Step S22>
In step S22, a determination is made as to whether or not the load is being lifted. This determination is made using the load information obtained from the load information acquisition unit 32. If it is determined from the load information that the load is not being lifted, the process proceeds to step S23. On the other hand, if it is determined from the load information that the load is being lifted, the process proceeds to step S24.

<Step S23>
Since it is determined in step S22 that the load is not being lifted, in step S23, a process of hoisting the crane hook 1 to its upper limit position is executed. By hoisting the crane hook 1 in this manner, it is possible to prevent the crane hook 1 from swinging unnecessarily due to earthquake shaking.

When winding up the wire rope 2 to its upper limit position, the upper limit position can be determined from the amount of wire rope 2 wound on the hoist drum 4. It can also be determined from the rotation of the hoist induction motor 3. When the crane hook 1 is wound up to its upper limit position, it comes out of the end and waits for the next start timing to arrive.

<Step S24>
Since it is determined in step S22 that the load is being lifted, a determination is made in step S24 as to whether the load can be landed on the floor. This determination is made using image information obtained from the camera image acquisition unit 33. The space in which the load is to be landed can be determined using an image recognition function.

If the video information indicates that there is enough space to land the suspended load, the process moves to step S25. On the other hand, if there is not enough space to land the suspended load, the process moves to step S26.

<Step S25>
Since it is determined in step S24 that the load can be landed, in step S25, the hoisting induction motor 3 is operated to execute an automatic landing process for lowering the load into a space where the load can be landed. Once the load has been landed, it is released to the end and waits for the next start timing.

<Step S26>
Since it is determined in step S24 that the load cannot be landed on the floor, a permission determination is made in step S26 as to whether to allow the load to be hoisted up to the upper limit position. This hoisting permission determination determines whether the suspended load should be left in its current position or should be hoisted up without being left in its current position.

For example, if the load is close to the floor, leaving it in its current position will have little effect on the swaying of the load, but if it is located high up and away from the floor, the swaying of the load will have a large effect on safety, and in this case it is preferable to hoist it up. Once the hoisting permission decision has been made, the process moves to step S27.

<Step S27>
In step S27, a decision is made as to whether or not to permit hoisting the load to the upper limit position, based on the decision result in step S26. If it is decided that hoisting is not permitted, the load is stopped at the current position and pulled out to the end to wait for the next start timing.

<Step S28>
Since it is determined in step S27 that hoisting of the load is permitted, in step S28, a process is executed to hoist the load to the upper limit position. When hoisting the wire rope 2 to the upper limit position in this process, the upper limit position can be obtained from the amount of the wire rope 2 wound on the hoist drum 4. It can also be obtained from the rotation of the hoist induction motor 3. When the load is hoisted to the upper limit position, it is released to the end and waits for the arrival of the next start timing.

By implementing the safety procedures described above, the suspended load is automatically maintained in an appropriate state even when the worker has evacuated, preventing the worker from being exposed to the danger of the swaying load.

In this way, the present invention is characterized by a crane apparatus equipped with a hoisting motor that hoists the crane hook on which a load is attached, a moving motor that moves the hoisting motor back and forth and/or left and right, and a control means that controls the operation of the hoisting motor and the moving motor, the control means being earthquake information receiving means that receives earthquake information, a control processing unit that receives the earthquake information and executes an alarm control process and a load control process, an alarm means that is controlled by the control processing unit and notifies the surrounding area of an impending earthquake using a sound generating means by executing the alarm control process, and a load control means that is controlled by the control processing unit and executes the load control process to move the load to an appropriate position depending on the current load condition.

This allows the time between the occurrence of an earthquake and the arrival of actual seismic tremors to be utilized to encourage workers to respond to the earthquake, and provides a crane device that can handle suspended loads more safely.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, but includes various modified examples. The above-mentioned embodiments have been described in detail to clearly explain the present invention, and are not necessarily limited to those having all of the configurations described. In addition, it is possible to replace part of the configuration of one embodiment with the configuration of another embodiment, and it is also possible to add the configuration of another embodiment to the configuration of one embodiment. It is also possible to add, delete, or replace other configurations with respect to the configuration of each embodiment.

1...Crane hook, 2...Wire rope, 3...Hoisting induction motor, 4...Hoisting drum, 5...Traveling induction motor, 6...Traveling wheel, 7...Traveling girder, 8...Traveling induction motor, 9...Traveling wheel, 10...Traveling girder, 11...Hoisting/traverse inverter control device, 12...Operation input device, 13...Traveling inverter device, 14...Induction motor brake, 15...Hoisting/traverse inverter control unit, 16...Hoisting inverter, 17...Traveling inverter, 18...Traveling inverter control unit, 19...Traveling inverter, 20...Communication line,
21...Encoder, 22...Communication unit, 23...Communication line, 24...Cloud, 25...Emergency earthquake notification system, 30...Control processing unit, 31...Position information acquisition unit, 32...Load information acquisition unit, 33...Camera image acquisition unit, 34...Alarm control unit, 35...Operation control unit.

Claims (8)

A crane apparatus including a hoisting motor for hoisting a crane hook on which a load is hung, a moving motor for moving the hoisting motor back and forth and/or left and right , and a control means for controlling the operation of the hoisting motor and the moving motor,
The control means
An earthquake information receiving means for receiving earthquake information;
A control processing unit that receives the earthquake information and executes an alarm control process and a load control process;
an alarm means for notifying people in the vicinity that an earthquake is approaching by using a sound generating means, the alarm means being controlled by the control processing unit and executing the alarm control process;
A load control means is provided which is controlled by the control processing unit and which moves the load to an appropriate position according to the current load condition by executing the load control process ;
When the intensity of the earthquake is determined to be equal to or greater than a first predetermined intensity, the control processing unit does not execute the load control process, but executes the alarm control process to alert the worker by the alarm issuing means.
A crane apparatus comprising: The crane apparatus according to claim 1,
The earthquake information receiving means is connected to a cloud network, and the cloud network is connected to an emergency earthquake notification system.
A crane apparatus comprising: The crane apparatus according to claim 1 ,
When the intensity of an earthquake is determined to be equal to or greater than a second predetermined intensity which is smaller than the first predetermined intensity, but less than the first predetermined intensity, the control processing unit executes the alarm control process to alert the worker using the alarm means, and subsequently executes the load control process to move the load to an appropriate position using the load control means. The crane apparatus according to claim 3,
The crane apparatus is characterized in that the earthquake information is an emergency earthquake warning obtained from a system operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the first predetermined intensity corresponds to a "warning" of the emergency earthquake warning, and the second predetermined intensity corresponds to a "forecast" of the emergency earthquake warning. The crane apparatus according to claim 4,
A crane apparatus, characterized in that the load control process is executed after the operation of the hoisting motor and the moving motor is stopped. The crane apparatus according to claim 5,
The crane apparatus is characterized in that the load control process hoists the crane hook to an upper limit position when it is determined that the load is not being hoisted. The crane apparatus according to claim 6,
The crane apparatus is characterized in that the load control process lands the load on the floor when it is determined that the load is being hoisted and that the load can be landed on the floor. The crane apparatus according to claim 6,
The crane apparatus is characterized in that the load control process performs an operation of hoisting the load to the upper limit position when it is determined that the load is being hoisted and that the load cannot be landed on the floor.

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