JPH0757643B2 - Load sorting device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an apparatus for rearranging loads arranged in a random order in a desired order, and is particularly suitable as a delivery apparatus for a warehouse.

[Conventional technology]

Automated warehouses are often used in distribution centers for various products. An automated warehouse is a three-dimensional storage rack having a large number of storage shelves, a stacker crane that travels along the three-dimensional storage shelves, and transports loads between the storage shelves and the loading / unloading ports. Etc. Consists of a conveyor and so on. (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-128101) Explaining the case of unloading a load, the stacker crane unloads the load from the storage shelf based on the shipping instruction and outputs it to the shipping port. This load is conveyed by a conveyor or the like and loaded on a truck or the like by a forklift or the like.

When loading a truck, it is necessary to consider the order of unloading the truck. For example, in the case of a truck that delivers loads to multiple stores, first, X
When delivering the A, B, C loads to the store and then the B, C, D loads to the Y store, place the X store load on the unloading side of the truck and the It is necessary to load a load for Y shop. That is, it is generally necessary to load in the reverse order of unloading.
In addition, even when all the cargo is transported to the same place,
It may be necessary to carry out loading considering the order of unloading from the viewpoint of work contents and storage contents at the destination.

In this case, when the load is unloaded from the three-dimensional storage shelf using the stacker crane, the load may be unloaded in the reverse order of the unloading from the truck. However, in this way, as is well known, it takes an extremely long time to unload a set of loads.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

For this reason, there is provided a device for randomly unloading the three-dimensional storage shelves and rearranging the loads between the load supply section such as the exit of the three-dimensional storage shelf and the load receiving section such as the loading place on the truck. For example, the order of the loads can be set in the requested order by the sorting device.

This rearrangement device has a conveyor line for carrying loads,
And a hydraulic lifter which is provided along the conveyor line and lifts a load on the conveyor line upward.

For example, when supplying four loads A, B, C, D from the supply unit to the supplied unit in the order A, B, C, D, the load supply unit supplies these four loads (for example, shipping). Supply in easy order. Therefore, B, D, A, and C are conveyed to the conveyor line in this order. The top B load is lifted by the second lifter from the top, the next D load is lifted by the last (fourth from the top) lifter, and the third A load is the fourth and second lifters from the top. Or stop at the top (first) position under the load of
Or, it is conveyed as it is, and the load of the last C is lifted by the third lifter. As a result, the loads are arranged in the order of A, B, C, D from the top. Next, the load of this lifter is lowered to the conveyor line and supplied to the supply target portion.

If there are three lifters, it is desirable that the hydraulic pumps that drive the lifters (raise the load) have the ability to drive the three lifters at the same time.
However, doing so makes the hydraulic pump bulky and expensive.

Therefore, it is conceivable that the hydraulic pump is capable of driving only two lifters at the same time. In this case, if three lifters are requested to rise in substantially the same time zone, it is possible to drive two lifters at the same time in the order of raising requests. However, this would require a great deal of time to rearrange the entire load.

The present invention has been made based on this novel problem, and an object thereof is to make it possible to rearrange all loads in a short time.

[Means for solving problems]

In the present invention, the number of lifters that can be simultaneously lifted is set to be smaller than that of all lifters, and the lifter on the upstream side in the conveying direction of the conveyor line is set to have a higher priority for the lift operation than the lifters on the downstream side. At the same time, if the number of lifters that have been requested to be lifted is larger than a predetermined number, the predetermined number of lifters are selected from the higher priority, and a lift command is given to the selected lifters.

[Action]

Since the lifter with the higher priority (that is, the lifter on the upstream side) is raised earlier, after the lifting operation is finished, the lifter on the downstream side is supplied during the time zone when the load on the upstream side is supplied to the downstream side. Since the ascending operation can be performed, the rearrangement can be performed in a short time.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The present embodiment is an example in which the load of the three-dimensional storage rack is unloaded by a stacker crane and loaded on a truck.

In FIG. 3, ten loads 2 of A to J are placed on the truck 1 in a state of 5 × 2 rows. It is assumed that truck 1 is unloaded from the rear side. It is assumed that the loads A to J need to be placed at the positions shown in the figure. The rearrangement device 30 can make a set of 5 pieces × 2 rows at a time.

A plurality of warehouses are provided side by side, each including a stacker crane 3 and three-dimensional storage shelves 5 on both sides thereof. The stacker crane 3 includes two sets of fork devices, and can load two loads 2 into the shipping port 6 at one time. The two sets of fork devices are provided in parallel in the horizontal direction.

The two loads 2 at the delivery port 6 are placed on one carriage 8 and supplied to a buffer 20 composed of a conveyor. The dolly 8 circulates in the circulation path 9 and stops at the positions of the respective outlets 6 and the upstream end of the buffer 20. A conveyor is provided on the upper surface of the delivery port 6 and the dolly 8. The carriage 8 carries two loads 2 in parallel in the traveling direction.

The buffer 20 consists of two rows of conveyors, each of which can be operated independently. The buffer 20 in each row has 5 loads 2
Can be placed. That is, the load for one truck can be retained. There is a gap between the loads 2 in each row. Such load stopping means are known. There is a gap between the loads 2 in the row direction. The buffers 20 in each row supply the loads 2 to the sorting device 30 one by one.

When it is necessary to distinguish the two columns of buffers 20, the upper column buffer 20 is referred to as 20a in the figure, and the lower column buffer 20 is referred to as 20b in the figure.

A sorting device 25 is provided between the buffer 20 and the stop position 11 of the truck 8 to divide the load of the truck 8 into each row 20a, 20b.
Has been installed.

The sorting device 25 includes a first conveyor in the X direction that connects the stop position 11 and the buffer 20a, and a second conveyor in the X direction that is parallel to the conveyor and connected to the buffer 20b.
It consists of a Y-direction conveyor connecting two X-direction conveyors. The Y-direction conveyor is vertically movable with respect to the two X-direction conveyors. The first conveyor can carry two loads. Such a sorting device is basically known.

The rearrangement device 30 is connected to the buffer 20. The rearrangement device 30 is composed of two rows of devices in the figure. When it is necessary to distinguish the upper and lower rows, the rearrangement apparatus 30 in the upper row is set to 30a and the rearrangement apparatus 30 in the lower row is set to 30b.

The sorting device 30 in each row is a conveyor line that conveys loads.
31 and a lifter 33 for raising the load on the conveyor line 31. With the load lifted by the lifter 33, the load can pass under the load. The conveyor line 31 is for carrying a load on a conveyor. The conveyor line 31 has five stop positions capable of carrying five loads.
Such load stopping means are known. There is a gap between the front and back of the load stopped at the stop position. The lifter 33 is installed at each of the second to fifth stop positions except the first stop position. Each lifter 33 can operate independently.

The position lifted by the lifter 33 and the position at the beginning are the load retaining portions. It can be said that the position lifted by the lifter 33 is the retracting part.

The rearrangement devices 30a and 30b are vertically symmetrical in the figure,
There is a gap between the loads in each row.

The set of loads sorted by the sorting device 30 is conveyed by the conveyor 42.
And is conveyed to the conveyor 45 of the transfer section on the truck 1.

When loading a load on truck 1, the gap between the front and rear loads, 2
This is done on conveyor 42 or conveyor 45 if it is desired to eliminate the gaps between the loads in the row. If the conveyor is driven to idle while the top load is applied to the stopper so as not to move, the front and rear gaps can be eliminated. If the conveyor in one row is moved to the conveyor side in the other row with a load placed, the gap between the two rows can be eliminated.

A set of loads of conveyors 45 are loaded onto truck 1 at a time by a known truck loader 48. A space for the fork of the truck loader 48 is provided under the load.

Details of the arrangement of the rearrangement device 30a in the upper row will be described with reference to FIGS.

The conveyor line 31 is made up of two chains of chain conveyors. Conveyor line 31 runs from downstream to upstream 31a,
It is divided into three parts 31b and 31c. That is, it consists of a chain conveyor 31a at the first (first) stop position, a chain conveyor 31b at the second and third stop positions, and a chain conveyor 31c at the fourth and fifth stop positions, each of which can be operated independently. The conveyors at the second to fifth stop positions are provided at two stop positions, and the number of drive motors is reduced. Each stop position has a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a load,
It has a stopper that moves up and down from the conveyor to stop the movement of the load. A configuration for stopping the load at these stop positions is known.

As shown in FIG. 7, the central portion of the chain conveyor at the second to fifth stop positions on the lifter 33 side is the arm 37 of the lifter 33.
Is cut so that it can move up and down. The cuts are connected by chains.

The lifter 33 includes an elevating body 35 that moves up and down along an upright rectangular frame 34, and a cylinder device 36 installed between the frame 34 and the elevating body 35. One arm 37 is horizontally projected from the elevating body 35. A seat 38 for mounting a load is installed on the upper surface of the tip of the arm 37. The seat 38 can be moved up and down between the two rows of chain conveyors 31. Seat 38 is a bracket
It is fixed to the arm 37 via 38a.

The operation of this configuration will be described.

The dolly 8 on which the two loads at the exit 6 are placed stops at the stop position 11. The load of the truck 8 is sorted by the sorting device 25 into the buffer 20a in the upper row or the buffer 25b in the lower row. For example, when the load of one truck 8 is C and D, the load of C is transported to the upper row 20a and the load of D is transported to the lower row 25b.

The loads thus arranged in the buffers 20a and 20b in each column are conveyed one by one to the rearrangement devices 30a and 30b.

In the rearrangement device 30, each load is transported to each position. Now, when the load is loaded on the buffer 20 as shown in the figure, the load C is transported to the second position from the beginning and stopped. Then, with the lifter 33 of this part, this load C
Lift up. The loads E and I are lifted by the third and fifth lifters 33 and 33 from the top. The cargo A is conveyed under the cargoes I, E, and C to the first position at the top. Since there is no load passing the leading position and there is one conveyor 31a for one load, it is not necessary to lift the leading load.

When the 1st and 2nd loads arrive and the 3rd load has not arrived, there is one set of conveyors 31b of the 2nd and 3rd, so the 2nd load must be lifted by the lifter 33. I have to. If the third load arrives while the first and second loads have arrived, the third lifter 33 need not be raised. Further, when the second load arrives while the first and third loads have arrived, it is not necessary to raise the second lifter 33.

In this way, all the loads are conveyed to the conveyor 42 when a set of loads of 5 pieces × 2 rows is collected. The transport operation is as described above.

It should be noted that at each position of each trolley 8, the sorting device 25, the buffer 20, and the rearrangement device 30, it is necessary to recognize which load, which is possible by using a known technique called tracking. is there.

Here, a hydraulic circuit for raising the lifter 33 is shown in FIG. The hydraulic pump motor 51 is constantly rotating, and the hydraulic pump 52 is always sending oil. When all lifters 33 do not move up, the main valve 53 is ON and oil flows by bypass.

If you need to lift the lifter 33 to sort the load,
By turning on the valve 56 of the cylinder device 36 of the corresponding lifter 33, turning off the valve 57, and further turning off the main valve 53, the oil flows to the designated cylinder device 36, and the lifter 33 rises due to the flow. When the lifter 33 is raised to the raised position, or when the raising operation is temporarily stopped (not lowered), the valve 56 is turned off. When lowering the lifter 33, the valve 56 is turned off and the valve 57 is turned on.

However, since the capacity of the hydraulic pump 52 is also limited, if there is only the capacity to lift only two lifters 33 at the same time, if three or more lifters are requested to be lifted at the same time, two of them will be used.
Only the pedestal needs to be raised and the rest have to wait until the climb is over.

In such a case, the ability of the rearrangement device (time required for rearrangement), and eventually the delivery capacity from the three-dimensional storage rack, is greatly affected by which lifter 33 is raised. In the above embodiment, the number of lifters 33 is four and the number is small. However, when the number of lifters is large and the number of lifters that can be used simultaneously is small, the time required for rearrangement is eliminated.

Therefore, each of the four lifters 33 is provided with an ascending priority order, and the ascending and ascending waiting control of the lifter 33 is performed according to this priority order.

This control is performed by the control device. Sensors (not shown) for detecting the presence / absence of a load are installed at the five stop positions of the conveyor 31, and the detection signals are input to the control device.
The control device can detect which load has arrived at which stop position based on the signal from the sensor and the signal from the host control device. When the load or the like stops at a predetermined position and the sensor or the like detects that the lifter 33 needs to be lifted, the control device gives the lifter 33 a lift command. When three lifters are requested to be lifted in the same time zone, a lift command is given to the two lifters having higher priorities.

The lifting operation of the lifter 33 has a higher priority on the upstream side in the transport direction of the conveyor line 31 than on the downstream side. That is, in the figure, if the names of the four lifters are 33I, 33G, 33E, and 33C from the upstream side to the downstream side, the priority order is 33I> 33G.
>33E> 33C.

An embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

First, referring to FIG. 2, it will be described whether or not the load is lifted by using the lifter.

When the load 2 is transported from the upstream buffer 20 (F10), it is moved to a predetermined load stop position (F15). When the load 2 arrives at the predetermined position (F20), the arrival state of the load 2 at the stop position in front (downstream side) of the position is checked (F25). In order to allow the load to pass, the lifter (F30) at the position where the load arrives is performed.

Next, referring to FIG. 1, the selection of the lifting operation of the lifter will be described.

Request for lifting operation of the lifter in step F30 (F
First, check if 50 or more lifters are currently being lifted (F25). This is because, as described above, the maximum number of lifters that can be simultaneously raised is two due to the capacity of the hydraulic pump 52. If two or more are not being lifted (that is, the lifter in the lifting operation is zero or one), the lifter that has been requested to lift is commanded to be lifted (F60).

If two lifters have already been lifted, the two lifters are compared with the lift requesting lifter (F6).
Five). If the two lifters that are already climbing have a higher priority than the lifters that request climbing, the lifters that are climbing request are placed on standby (F70).

If the priority of the lifter of the ascending request is higher than either of the two lifters that are already ascending, first the priority of the two lifters that are already ascending is compared (F75), and the one with the lower priority is compared. Stop the ascent (F80), (F85). afterwards,
Start lifting the demand lifter (F90).

If the lifter reaches the ascending point and the ascending operation is completed (F95), it is checked whether there is another lifter waiting for the ascent (F97), and if there is, the above flow is executed again.

By performing the above-described control, the lifter raising operation according to the set rising priority can be realized.

An example of concrete transportation of a load will be described with reference to FIG.

Now, it is assumed that the loads 2 are arranged in the buffer 20 in the order of C, E, I, A, G from the beginning, and are rearranged in the buffer 30 in the order of A, C, E, G, I from the beginning. Also, in FIG. 5, the lifter
33 will be called the top 33A, 33C, 33E, 33G, 33I.

In FIG. 5, loads C and E have arrived at predetermined positions and are being lifted by the lifters 33C and 33E. The load I has also arrived at a predetermined position and is about to be lifted. Further, the buffer 20 is loaded on the downstream end side.
A and G have been sequentially transported and stopped. Up arrow T
₁ , T ₂ , T ₃ indicate the magnitude of the time required from the present time of the lifter to the completion of the raising operation, and T ₁ <T ₂ <T ₃ .

The lifter 33I has the highest priority, the lifter 33G has the second highest priority, the lifter 33E has the second highest priority, and the lifter 33C has the lowest priority. That is, the priority is set to be gradually lower from the upstream side of the load flow toward the downstream side.

Now, in the state of FIG. 5, when the load I is stopped at the position of the lifter 33I, and there is a request for lifting of the lifter 33I, the priority of lifting of the lifters 33C, 33E, 33I is set based on FIG. Compare. Since the lifter 33C has the lowest priority, the lifting operation of the lifter 3C is temporarily stopped (not lowered), and instead the lifter 33I starts to rise. As a result, the lifters 33I and 33E rise. Then, when the lifter 33I is lifted, the lifter 33C is started to lift. At the same time, the loads A and G of the buffer 20 are started to be transported downstream.

Here, the time required for the load A located at the downstream end of the buffer 20 to move to the downstream end (conveyor 31a) of the rearrangement device 30 is T ₅ . However, T ₅ > T ₁ . Now, the time T required to carry the load A to the conveyor 31a after starting the timing from the state of FIG. 5 is “T ₄ + T ₅ ”. T ₁ is omitted because the lifter 33C rises at the same time as the load A is transported.

On the other hand, if the lifter lifting operation is performed in the requested order without setting the priority order, the lifter 33I cannot start rising until the lifter 33C completes lifting, so T = T
It becomes ₁ + T ₄ + T ₅ .

Therefore, according to the present invention using the priority order, the time required for rearrangement can be shortened. It is considered that the effect increases as the number of lifters increases. That is, when the load is being lifted by the lifter, the waiting time for moving the load, which is waiting immediately after that, is shortened. This directly affects subsequent loads and further loads, so that the time required for rearrangement can be greatly reduced as a whole.

The reason why the state of FIG. 5 occurs will be described. For example, one of the reasons is that the horizontal movement of the load in the sorting device 30 is continuously performed, whereas
This is because the load is supplied from 20 to the sorting device 30 intermittently one by one. Also, the distance between the lifter 33I and the load stop position at the end of the buffer 20 is larger than the distance between the lifters 33. In the above embodiment, the number of lifters is small, but when the number of lifters is large, the above-mentioned state is likely to occur due to the combination of various conditions. Also,
This occurs when the load is supplied to the rearrangement device 30 and the rearrangement is started when all the loads are not stocked in the buffer 20 such as at the start of operation.

In the above embodiment, the number of lifters that can be raised simultaneously is two, but it may be one or more than two.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, since the lifters are operated according to the priority order, the time required for rearranging the loads can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of an embodiment for driving a lifter of a load rearranging apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flow chart for driving a conveyor line of a load rearranging apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a book. FIG. 4 is a plan view of a rearrangement apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention, FIG. 4 is a plan view of a main part of the rearrangement apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a line 5-5 of FIG. 4, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a hydraulic piping view of a lifter according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 7 is a front view of a lifter according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a right side view of FIG. 20 …… buffer, 30 …… sorting device, 31 …… conveyor, 33 …… lifter, 36 …… cylinder device, 52 …… pump

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-59-163225 (JP, A) JP-A-63-272703 (JP, A) JP-A-63-282008 (JP, A) Actual development Sho-61- 151921 (JP, U) Actually opened Sho 62-5126 (JP, U) Japanese Patent Sho 55-32610 (JP, B2)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A conveyor line capable of horizontally transporting a plurality of loads side by side, and a plurality of conveyor lines installed along the conveyor direction of the conveyor line.
A plurality of lifters for individually raising the load on the conveyor line to a higher place than a load on the conveyor line; and a plurality of cylinder devices installed in the respective lifters as a drive device for raising the lifter. , A hydraulic pump for supplying hydraulic pressure to the plurality of cylinder devices, the capacity of which is less than all of the lifters, and a hydraulic pump having only the capacity to raise the lifters at the same time; A command for ascending operation is given to the lifter that has made a request, and when there is a request for ascending operation in a number larger than the predetermined number, the priority set in advance for each of the plurality of lifters is given. The predetermined number of lifters is selected from the higher order, and the priority is such that the lifter on the upstream side in the conveying direction by the conveyor line is more than the lifter on the downstream side. Ku and set to become the controller, the load consisting of reordering device.