JP2001261165A - Pallet loading and unloading equipment and loading and unloading method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pallet loading and unloading equipment and a method therefor capable of shipping and receiving large amount of articles rapidly and efficiently without enlarging a building and the site thereof to operate shipment and receipt for a factory and/or a warehouse and reduce physical distribution cost. SOLUTION: This pallet loading and unloading equipment is provided with a truck berth floor 5 having a truck berth a truck for loading a shipment pallet or unloading a receipt pallet coming in freely, a storage space floor for the shipment pallet and the receipt pallet at waiting positioned on a different floor from the truck berth floor 5 and having temporary storage spaces 15 and 17 for the shipment pallet and the receipt pallet, and a pallet transfer device positioned on a different floor from the truck berth floor 5 for loading the shipment pallet from the temporary storage space to a truck 10 or unloading the receipt pallet from the truck 10 to the temporary storage space. Pallet loading or unloading is performed by properly using the above equipment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for efficiently loading a pallet on which a product is loaded onto a truck when the product is shipped from a factory or a warehouse by truck, or when the product is received at a factory or a warehouse. Pallet loading / unloading equipment installed in the factory or warehouse when efficiently loading or unloading pallets loaded with incoming goods from the truck, and a method for loading / unloading pallets in such cases. Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When an article is to be carried out of a factory or a warehouse by truck, or when an article is to be carried into a factory or a warehouse by truck, the truck loads the article on the carrier or unloads the article from the carrier. To do so, the vehicle enters a truck berth of the factory or warehouse and arrives at a truck platform where the loading or unloading of goods is performed. Next, the pallet transfer device loads predetermined articles on the truck bed or unloads predetermined articles from the truck bed. In this case, when a large number of articles are stacked on a pallet in advance from the back or side of the truck and are to be loaded onto the loading platform, or when a large amount of products are to be unloaded from the loading platform. In this case, it is necessary to use an appropriate device for transferring pallets on which the articles are stacked.

As described above, in order to load a pallet on which articles are stacked on a truck bed, a pallet on which the articles are stacked (hereinafter, referred to as a "pallet") before loading.
Shipping preparation work such as temporary placement and alignment of “shipping pallets” must be completed. In addition, in order to drop a pallet (hereinafter referred to as an “incoming pallet”) in which articles loaded and conveyed on a truck bed are loaded into a loading place, the unloading operation must be performed before unloading. Must be completed, such as securing a temporary storage space for the goods.

[0004] However, the above-mentioned shipping setup work or receiving setup work is conventionally performed on the same floor as the floor on which the truck home of the truck berth the truck enters and leaves. That is, on the same floor as the floor on which the shipping setup operation or the receiving setup operation is performed (hereinafter, referred to as “shipping floor”, “incoming floor” or “outgoing / incoming floor”), a shipping article temporary storage area where shipment items are waiting to be carried out. Alternatively, a temporary storage area for incoming goods and a setup area for those goods are provided. Therefore, a large amount of
In order to perform the receiving in a short time, the outgoing and receiving floors have conventionally required a very large floor area. Moreover, out
The receiving floor is usually provided on the first floor in many cases.

[0005] However, under construction conditions where the site area of a building having a truck berth is limited, it is necessary to secure a large temporary floor space for outgoing / incoming goods and an outgoing / incoming setup space on these outgoing / incoming floors. It is difficult in practice, and in the case of an existing building, the area of the building must be increased or the area of the building must be changed at the design stage. However, this comes with difficulties. Therefore, without increasing the floor area of the shipping floor or the receiving floor provided on the truck floor, it is possible to secure an area for a required temporary storage place for the shipped goods or the like, or a temporary storage place for the received goods, and quickly and efficiently. It is required to load or unload pallets to be shipped or received from trucks.

Conventionally, as a device for loading articles such as containers on a truck bed, a transport trolley equipped with a transfer device is known. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-330111, a transport trolley on which a transfer device is mounted is provided on a predetermined rail, and by using this, a container and a pallet are lifted from a storage shelf on both sides of the rail. A method of carrying a truck to a side of a truck at a predetermined position and loading the truck on a truck bed, and a pallet loading device used for the method are described (the same publication, [0024] to [0026],
[0035] to [0041]).

[0007]

However, even if the pallet loading apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-330111 is used, as described above, the loading / unloading corresponding to the floor on which the rails are installed is performed. It is difficult to quickly and efficiently load and unload large quantities of incoming and outgoing pallets without increasing the floor area of the floor.

Therefore, the present inventors have developed a layout inside a factory or warehouse and a layout inside the factory or warehouse for promptly sending and receiving a large amount of pallets even under the condition that the floor area of the outgoing and incoming floors is limited. It was an object to create a suitable pallet transfer device and a method for realizing it. Thus, an object of the present invention is to enable a large-volume article to be quickly and efficiently shipped and received without expanding a building or a site for carrying out a shipping or receiving operation of a factory or a warehouse, and a logistics system. An object of the present invention is to provide a pallet loading / unloading facility and a method for loading / unloading the pallets, which can reduce the cost.

[0009]

Means for Solving the Problems The present inventors have earnestly conducted tests and studies in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and have obtained the following findings. In other words, in the case of shipment of articles, all the temporary storage areas for carrying out the article shipment preparation work and loading the articles on the truck are located on the floor where the shipment floor where the article truck for the article enters as in the past. Rather than providing it on the same floor, at least a part of such a place is provided on a floor other than the shipping floor, and a pallet on which the shipments prepared in the temporary storage are loaded is placed on the temporary storage. Shipment work is performed using a pallet transfer device for efficiently loading trucks waiting on a shipping floor on a floor different from a certain floor. In addition, when receiving goods, a time schedule is set so as not to conflict with shipping work as much as possible, and the same place is used jointly as much as possible. By doing so, it has been found that it is possible to solve the problem of the present invention.

[0010] The present invention has been made based on the above findings, and the gist thereof is as follows. That is, the pallet loading / unloading equipment according to the first aspect of the present invention includes the following (a) to
(C) is characterized by being provided.

(A) Of the trucks for loading the pallets for shipment and the trucks on which the pallets for arrival are loaded,
(B) at least one of the truck berths having a truck berth on which the truck berth can enter, and Outgoing / incoming / outgoing goods pallet storage floor surface which has one or both of the temporary storage area and the temporary storage area of the incoming goods pallets after receiving setup, and (c) the shipping goods pallet after the above shipping setup Transfer operation to load the pallets loaded on the trucks on the truck berth floor, and / or transfer operations to lower the received pallets loaded on the trucks stored on the truck berth floor to the temporary storage area of the received pallets. A pallet transfer device that can perform both transfer operations and is installed at least on a floor different from the floor on which the truck berth floor surface is provided .

[0012] In the pallet unloading and unloading equipment of the present invention, the temporary storage area for the pallets for outgoing and incoming goods is at least
The truck berth floor is provided on a different floor from the floor on which the truck berth floor is located. If there is room on the truck berth floor, the truck berth floor may be further provided on the truck berth floor.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pallet loading method, wherein a truck for loading a pallet to be shipped enters a truck berth floor, and at least a shipping setup area is provided.
Installed on a floor different from the floor where the truck berth floor is located,
It is characterized in that the shipped pallets temporarily placed in the shipping setup area are loaded onto the truck by a pallet transfer device.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pallet loading method, wherein a truck for loading a pallet to be shipped enters a truck berth floor, and at least a shipping setup place is provided on the floor provided with the truck berth floor. And a pallet transfer device installed on a floor different from the floor on which the truck berth floor surface is provided, and the shipping pallets temporarily placed in the shipping setup area are loaded on the truck. In particular, it has features.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pallet unloading method, wherein a truck loaded with an incoming pallet is made to enter a truck berth floor, and a receiving place is provided at least on a floor provided with the truck berth floor. Is provided on a different floor, and the palletized goods loaded on the truck are lowered to the receiving place by a pallet transfer device installed on a floor different from the floor on which the truck berth floor is provided. It has.

[0016]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.
This will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a partially cut-away schematic perspective view of a distribution center for explaining an example of an embodiment of a pallet unloading facility according to the present invention.

The distribution center 1 mainly includes a warehouse area 2 for storing articles and an outgoing / incoming area 3 for shipping and receiving articles. Both areas have a first floor and a second floor. The example provided in both is shown. The warehouse area 2 is composed of a so-called automatic warehouse 4 in which articles are stored in a storage form such as case storage, oricon storage, and stored in a large amount in the automatic warehouse 4 in a form of being stacked on pallets. ing. When shipping the articles stored in the automatic warehouse 4, the pallets (shipment pallets) stored in the predetermined racks are moved by a stacker crane (not shown) normally provided in the automatic warehouse 4. After being picked up, it is transferred from the automatic warehouse 4 to the unloading / receiving area 3 by using a commonly used transfer device (not shown) such as a forklift. On the other hand, in order to transfer the pallets loaded on the truck and received at the distribution center 1 from the unloading / receiving area 3 to the warehouse area 2, the above-mentioned transporting device is used, and then the stacker crane picks up the pallets. In a rack.

The delivery / arrival area 3 comprises a first floor and a second floor. A truck berth 5 and an outgoing / incoming floor 7 are arranged in the outgoing / incoming area 3a on the first floor.
The receiving floor 7 is provided with a setup area 14 and a temporary storage area 15 for preparing for shipment of the shipped pallets or for preparing for receiving the received pallets.

On the other hand, on the floor of the outgoing / incoming area 3b on the second floor, there is a setup area 16 for preparing the shipment of the pallets to be shipped or for preparing the pallets to be received.
And a temporary storage space 17 are provided. As shown in the figure, the temporary storage 17 on the second floor is provided both at a location continuous in front of the setup area 16 and at a location in front of the opening 13. The setup areas 14, 16 and temporary storage areas 15, 17 provided on the first and second floors are used as shipping or receiving work places as appropriate, depending on whether shipping work or receiving work is performed. I do.

As described above, the floor of the outgoing / arrival standby pallet, which has a temporary storage area for the shipped pallets after the shipping setup and a temporary storage area for the incoming pallets after the incoming setup,
There are five truck berths on the first floor with five floors, but separately on the second floor, a different floor. Then, the pallet transfer device 9 that can unload the pallets shipped from the temporary storage areas 15 and 17 on the first floor and the second floor to the loading platform 10a of the truck 10 waiting at the truck home 5a on the first floor, The pallet transfer device 9 is provided on the second floor.
a pallets loaded on the loading platform 10a of the truck 10 that has arrived at the temporary storage sites 15, 1 on the first floor and the second floor.
7 can be loaded.

The pallet transfer device 9 has the following configuration and function. As shown in FIG. 1, the pallet transfer device 9 is attached to a traveling and traversable crane 12 bridged by rails 11 laid on the second floor ceiling. An opening 13 is provided on the second floor corresponding to the traveling area of the crane 12, and the truck platform 5 is provided below the opening 13.
a is provided. Therefore, the pallet transfer device 9
By the traveling / traversing operation and the hoisting / lowering operation of the crane 12, any of the temporary storage areas 15, 17 on the first floor or the second floor is provided.
Pallet of the truck 10 which is lifted by the slide fork 27 and stands by on the first floor
Can be loaded on top. In addition, as for the palletized goods, those arriving after being loaded on a truck can be lifted by the slide fork 28 and lowered to the temporary storage 15 or 17 on either the first floor or the second floor.

As described above, according to the pallet loading / unloading equipment of the above-described embodiment, the loading operation of the shipping pallets onto the truck or the loading / unloading operation of the incoming pallets from the truck can be performed on the setup floor 14 on the first floor. And temporary storage 15
In addition, since it can be performed using the setup floor 16 and the temporary storage space 17 on the second floor, a large amount of article pallets can be loaded or unloaded in a short time.

As another embodiment of the above-mentioned embodiment of the pallet loading / unloading equipment of the present invention, a floor on which an outgoing / incoming setup area and a temporary storage area for outgoing / incoming pallets are arranged, that is, an outgoing / incoming floor 7 is provided. Need not be limited to the first floor and the second floor as illustrated in FIG. 1, the size of the article case, the scale of the handling amount, or whether the pallet loading / unloading equipment is in the distribution center or the factory shipping center. It is desirable to change them according to the difference in the above or the like and other differences in the unique conditions. Due to specific conditions, for example,
A truck berth and an outgoing / incoming floor are provided on the first floor, and outgoing / incoming floors are further provided on the second and third floors, or a truck berth is provided on the ground floor, and the outgoing / incoming floor is a single floor or a plurality of ground floors. Make appropriate changes such as providing over In any case, it is possible to provide the arrival / reception floor on a floor other than the floor where the truck berth is provided, even if the floor is not provided on the floor where the truck berth is provided.
This is the most significant feature of the pallet loading / unloading device of the present invention.

The crane 12 and the pallet transfer device 9
Are used as a pair. It is desirable that both of these include a plurality of groups as appropriate, including a spare.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a main part of one half of the pallet transfer device 9. The pallet transfer device 9 is provided with four masts 22 at four corners in the vertical direction.
The length of 2 is approximately longer than the floor of the first floor to the upper end of the height of the shipping pallet placed in the temporary storage on the second floor, and wheels 22a are attached to the lower end, and are parallel to the truck platform 5a. Run on the rails 8 laid on the road. An elevating body 23 is provided inside the mast 22 so as to be vertically movable with respect to the mast 22, that is, provided with a slide fork 27 on which a pallet is placed. The mast 22 has a quadrangular outer periphery in cross section, and guide rollers 2 attached to the elevating body 23 on both short sides.
2c are provided so as to be sandwiched. The elevating body 23 is guided by a guide roller 22c while guiding the mast 22 from a sprocket provided in a normal elevating device, a chain wrapped around the sprocket, a rotation drive system (not shown) of the sprocket, and the like. The elevating mechanism can move up and down in the vertical direction.

As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of slide forks 27 having a slide expansion / contraction structure are arranged on the upper surface of the elevating body 23 in parallel with each other with the lower surface as a slide surface. The slide fork 27 forms a main part of a so-called “slide fork mechanism”. Further, a chain conveyor 24 is laid on the elevating body 23 at substantially the same height position in parallel with the longitudinal direction of the slide fork 27. The chain conveyor 24 is a conventional pallet front-rear moving device equipped with a normal vertical moving mechanism capable of moving up and down about 2-3 cm in height. This is a state in which the shipment pallet is lifted from the upper surface of the slide fork 27, and is moved from the rear slide fork 27 to the front slide fork (a portion provided on the right front side of the longitudinal symmetry axis in FIG. 2 and not shown). It has the function of moving it upward and lowering it on the front slide fork. Accordingly, the pallet transfer device 9 moves the pallets shipped from the temporary storage spaces 15 and 17 to the loading platform 10a of the truck 10 by the following operation by the cooperative operation of the rear slide fork 27 and the front slide fork and the chain conveyor 24. Move.

As shown in the layout of the first floor shown in FIG.
The pallets to be shipped are moved from the temporary storage 15 in front (to the left in FIG. 1).
3A, the rear slide fork 27 is inserted into the gap 26a at the bottom of the shipment pallet 26 on the pallet table 25 of the temporary storage space 15, as shown in FIG. (See FIG. 4), the lifting body 23 (see FIG. 2) is raised, and
6 is lifted by the slide fork 27, the slide fork 27 is contracted and moved forward,
Pull in to 3. Next, the chain conveyor 24 (see FIG. 2) is slightly raised to lift the shipment pallet 26 from the slide fork 27, and
Then, the chain conveyor 24 is moved forward (to the right in FIG. 2, that is, to the left in FIG. 2), and a front slide fork (a portion provided in front of the front-rear symmetric axis in FIG. 2). 2 is not shown in FIG.
8) At the position where the shipment pallet 26 comes upward, the chain conveyor 24 is stopped, then lowered to the original height, and the shipment pallet 26 is transferred onto the front slide fork 28. Next, the elevating body 23 (see FIG. 2,
The same applies hereinafter) is lowered (see FIG. 3B), the height of the slide fork 28 is stopped at a position slightly higher than the upper surface of the loading platform 10a of the truck 10, and then the slide fork 28 is extended forward, The shipment product pallet 26 is stopped at a position above the loading platform 10a of the truck 10. Finally, the lifting / lowering body 23 is lowered by the inching operation so that the shipment pallet 26 is landed on the carrier 10a of the truck 10, and the load is applied to the carrier 10a. The pallet 26 is pulled out from the gap 26a at the bottom.

The slide forks 27 and 28 have a structure that allows fine adjustment in the vertical direction and fine adjustment in the horizontal direction in the horizontal plane by a shift device such as a hydraulic cylinder. By providing a means for detecting the distance from the bottom surface of the truck 28, it is possible to reduce the impact and the like when the shipping pallet 26 is landed on the carrier 10a of the truck 10. Further, as the shape of the slide forks 27 and 28, an appropriate one such as a flat plate-like structure or the like is selected in accordance with the form type of the pallet, in addition to the fork-like structure.

Next, the operation method for loading the pallet for shipment on the second floor shown in FIG. 1 from the temporary storage 17 to the loading platform 10a of the truck 10 waiting on the first floor is performed by a predetermined shipping method in the temporary storage 17 on the second floor. The product pallet is drawn into the elevating body 23 with the rear slide fork 27 in the same manner as the product pallet in the temporary storage 15 on the first floor is drawn into the elevating body 23 of the pallet transfer device 9. An operation according to the method of transferring the first-floor shipping pallet 26 to the truck 10 described above, except that an operation of lowering the elevating body 23 from the height of the second floor to the height of the first floor is added. Do it in the way.

In the above embodiment, the shipment items are set up on the first floor and the second floor and are temporarily placed. However, the preparation for the shipment items is made on the first floor, the second floor, and the third floor. , Or more than that, the shipment can be collectively transferred to the truck according to the above-described embodiment.

On the other hand, the method of transferring the pallets loaded on the trucks loaded on the floor of the truck berth to the temporary storage of the pallets on the first and second floors is also described above. The intended purpose can be achieved by performing the procedure reverse to the method of the transfer operation to the truck.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is not necessary to provide the temporary storage place for shipping goods and the temporary storage place for received goods only on the same floor as the floor where the truck berth is located, and they may be provided separately on floors other than the floor where the truck berth is located. Therefore, in a distribution center, a shipping center of a factory, and the like, the construction site area can be reduced, and the entire distribution cost can be reduced. It is possible to provide such an apparatus for unloading and loading pallets and a method for loading and unloading the pallets, so that the distribution of manufactured products can be carried out efficiently, and industrially useful effects can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cut-away schematic perspective view of a distribution center for explaining an example of an embodiment of a pallet unloading facility according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a main part of a pallet transfer device in the pallet loading / unloading equipment of the present invention.

3 is a schematic side view illustrating an operation method for loading a pallet for shipment on the first floor of FIG. 1 onto a truck by a pallet transfer device.

FIG. 4 is a view taken in the direction of arrows AA in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Distribution Center 2 Warehouse Area 3 Outgoing / Incoming Area 3a Outgoing / Incoming Area on 1F 3b Outgoing / Incoming Area on 2F 4 Automated Warehouse 5 Truck Berth 5a Truck Home 6 Outgoing / Incoming Product Pallet in Setup Area 7 Outgoing / Incoming Floor 8 Rail 9 Pallet transfer device 10 Truck 10a Carrier 11 Rail (for traveling) 11a Rail (for traversing) 12 Crane 13 Opening 14 1st floor setup 15 Temporary storage 1st floor 16 Second floor setup 17 Temporary storage space on the second floor 22 Mast 22a Wheels 22b Support arm 22c Guide roller 23 Elevating body 24 Chain conveyor 25 Pallet table 26 Shipment pallet 26a Gap 27 Rear slide fork 28 Front slide fork

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masatake Kumamoto 1-2-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo F-term (reference) 3F076 AA02 BA01 CA03 DA02 DA11 DB11 GA05

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A pallet loading / unloading facility comprising the following items (a) to (c). (B) a truck berth floor surface, in which one or both of the trucks for loading the shipping pallets and the trucks on which the receiving pallets are loaded have a truck berth, (b) at least On a floor different from the floor where the truck berth floor is, and has a temporary storage space for the shipping pallets after the shipping setup and a temporary storage space for the receiving pallets after the receiving setup, and has one or both temporary storage spaces. (C) a transfer operation for loading the pallets for shipment, which have been set up for shipment, on a truck waiting on the floor of the truck berth, and loading the trucks on the floor of the truck berth. It is possible to perform any one or both of the transfer operations of lowering the received pallet of received goods to the temporary storage area of the received pallet. Can, pallet transfer device installed in different floors are the floors at least the track berths floor is provided. 2. A truck for loading a pallet for shipment enters a truck berth floor, and a shipping setup area is provided at least on a floor different from the floor on which the truck berth floor is provided. A pallet transfer device installed on a floor different from the floor on which the truck berth floor surface is provided, and loading the pallets temporarily placed on the trucks. 3. A truck loaded with incoming pallets is made to enter the truck berth floor, and a receiving place is provided at least on a floor different from the floor on which the truck berth floor is provided. A method for unloading a pallet, comprising: loading the pallet received by the pallet transfer device installed on a floor different from the floor on which the floor surface of the truck berth is provided.