JPH01303212A - Ascent and descent device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To ease a stop control by providing a position detection mark to the rotation disc provided to the sprocket of an endless chain for ascending and descending at the intervals corresponding to a link pinch of the chain, and calculating an up and down displacement quantity by the detection number of the mark in the ascent and descent device for housed goods. CONSTITUTION:Transparent holes 35a and 35b, formed to the disc 35 rotating following the drive of a container ascent and descent mechanism 34, are detected with corresponding position detecting sensors 36a and 36b, and a detected number is counted with an unshown counter. And when a counted value reaches the value corresponding to this side position by a given distance from a destination shelf layer, a motor 30 is switched to a low speed to be shifted to a deceleration motion. And when reaches the counted value corresponding to a destination shelf layer, the motor 30 is stopped. Thus a stop control and also the change of a destination stop position can be eased.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) This invention provides a method of fixing a plurality of supporting members at equal intervals to each of annular cables that are arranged opposite to each other on the left and right sides and that rotate synchronously in the vertical direction. The present invention relates to a lifting device that lifts and lowers an article placed between support members by rotating an annular cable.

(Prior art) When this type of lifting device is used for loading and unloading articles into and out of a storage area consisting of a plurality of shelves, conventionally the timing for stopping the lifting device has been given using the following configuration. . That is, for example, a mark for position detection is provided at each height position corresponding to each shelf in the storage area, and a mark sensor for detecting this mark is provided on the ring cable of the lifting device, and the sensor detects the mark as the ring cable rotates. The number of position detection marks detected by the mark sensor is counted by a separately provided counter, and the amount of elevation and descent is calculated from the counted value, thereby giving the timing for stopping at the target shelf.

In this case, an AC motor and an inverter that switches and sets the rotational speed of the AC motor to two stages, high speed and low speed, are used as the drive source for the lifting device, and until the elevator reaches one or two stages before the target shelf, The lifting device is driven at high speed, then decelerated, driven at low speed until just short of reaching the target shelf, and then decelerated further to obtain a predetermined stopping accuracy.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) In the case of the lifting device having the above-mentioned configuration, speed control is performed according to the detection of position detection marks provided in relation to the height position of each shelf. Speed control is required, and it is not possible to perform precise speed control that constantly selects the optimal travel pattern according to the travel distance. For this reason, the conventional lifting device has a problem in that the average time required for one operation cycle for loading and unloading articles is relatively long.

In addition, with the conventional lifting device described above, if the vertical spacing of the shelves in the storage area to which it is applied changes, the spacing of the position detection marks must be changed accordingly, resulting in a lack of versatility. be.

A rotary encoder can also be used as a means to detect the amount of elevation, but in the case of the above-mentioned elevation device, the extremely high stopping accuracy that can be obtained with a rotary encoder is not required, and the rotary encoder is Since it is expensive, it increases the cost of the device. In addition, when using a rotary encoder, an expensive motor such as a servo motor is required as a drive source for the lifting device, and the signal processing circuit for the rotary encoder is also complicated, which further reduces the cost of the device. It will increase it.

This invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an elevating device that is easy to control to stop, can shorten the elevating operation cycle time, is inexpensive, and has excellent versatility.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The lifting device of the present invention has a plurality of support members fixed at equal intervals to each of annular cables that are arranged opposite to each other on the left and right sides and rotate synchronously in the vertical direction, and the supporting members facing each other A lifting device that lifts and lowers articles placed between them by rotating an annular cable, the annular cable includes an endless chain mechanism in which a chain is stretched around a sprocket, and the annular cable has a constant pitch corresponding to the link pitch of the chain. A rotary plate is provided with position detection marks arranged at intervals around the circumference, and a rotary plate that rotates in synchronization with the sprocket, and a detection sensor that detects the position detection marks. It is designed to determine the vertical displacement image of.

(Function) In this invention, the link pitch of the chain of the endless chain mechanism is used as the unit of vertical displacement, and the vertical displacement image of the chain is determined by the function of the rotating plate and the detection sensor. It is possible to easily perform stop control such as starting deceleration at a certain position, and even if the height of the target stop position changes due to changes in the height of shelves in the applicable storage area, the detection sensor detects the change accordingly. This can be easily handled by simply changing the count value of the mark.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows a schematic plan view of an arbitrary shelf of an automatic storage and retrieval device to which a lifting device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

In this automatic storage and retrieval device, storage areas 2.3 are provided at the front and rear sides of the housing 1, and each storage area 2.3 is provided at the front and rear sides of the housing 1.
3, shelves 4 serving as article storage areas are arranged in a matrix in both directions. The front and rear storage areas 2.3 are arranged so that the open sides of the shelves 4 face each other, and in the intermediate area sandwiched between the front and rear storage areas 2, 3, there are storage areas b,
A picker 6 for taking containers 5 into and out of the shelves 4 for each of the three shelves is provided so as to be movable in the left and right direction. That is, a pair of rails 7 are provided extending in the left-right direction at the height positions corresponding to the respective shelves of the front and rear storage areas 2°3, and the picker 6 is mounted on these rails 7 so as to be freely movable. ing. This picker 6 has an arm 6
A and 6b are provided with an in/out mechanism for taking in containers 5 stored on the shelves 4 of the front and rear storage areas 2.3 onto the picker 6, or inserting the containers 5 into the shelves 4 from above the picker 6. It is now possible to do so.

On the other hand, at the left end of the rear storage area 2, instead of the shelf 4,
A loading/unloading device 8 is provided for transporting the container 5 from the outside to each shelf and transporting the container 5 from each shelf to the outside.

As shown in the rear view in FIG. a roller conveyor 10 and a second roller conveyor 11 adjacent to the left side of this roller conveyor 10
It has an in/out mechanism 12 composed of.

The left and right endless chain mechanisms 9 include a pair of front and rear coaxial upper sprockets 14a, 14b and a lower sprocket 1 which are pivotally connected to the vertical frame portion 13a of the frame 13 of the loading/unloading device 8.
A pair of front and rear chains 16a, 16b between 5a, 15b
They are each constructed by spanning the .

FIG. 3 shows a horizontal sectional view of the loading/unloading device 8. Between the pair of front and rear chains 16a, 16b, there is a fixed interval larger than the height of the container 5 (shelf 4 in this case).
Multiple horizontal support arms 1 at equal intervals according to the vertical spacing of
7 is fixedly installed horizontally as shown in FIG. That is, each horizontal support arm 17 is formed by bending a pipe member into a general shape, as shown in FIG. 4, which is a partially enlarged view of FIG. is connected to the connecting pins 19 of the chains 16a, 16b via a connecting member 18 in the shape of a generally lattice shape shown in a front view in FIG. The vertical piece 18a of the connecting member 18 has an elongated hole 20 and a round hole 2 at the top and bottom.
1 is formed, and as shown in FIG.
9 into the elongated hole 20 and the round hole 21, and then fit the guide roller 22 thereon as shown in FIG. Accordingly, the connecting portion vJ18 is connected to the chains 16a, 1
6b. Also, the horizontal piece 18 of the connecting member 18
Round holes 24 are formed on the left and right sides of b, and bolts 25 are inserted through these round holes 24 into round holes (not shown) formed in the flattened portion 17a of the horizontal support arm 17, as shown in FIG. By tightening the nut 26, the connecting member 8 and the horizontal support arm 17 are connected.

The guide roller 22 is connected to the frame 13 of the loading/unloading device 8.
The chains 16a, 16b are rotatably inserted into the vertical frame portions 13a of the chains 16a, 16b, and are rotatably inserted into guide rails 27 vertically installed along the movement paths of the chains 16a, 16b.
b is configured to circulate and move in a stable manner.

With the above configuration, the vertical spacing between the horizontal support arms 17 of the endless chain mechanism 9 is set as a value that is an integral multiple of the pitch P of the chains 16a, 16b. A pair of front and rear coaxial upper sprockets 14a of the left and right endless chain mechanisms 9.

14b, as shown in FIG. 2, are two sprockets 28 and 29 coaxially and directly connected to the left and right upper sprockets 14a and 14t), and a drive source provided on the upper part of the frame 13 of the loading/unloading device 8. The AC motor 30 is connected to the AC motor 30 via an endless chain 33 that is stretched between one sprocket 31 that is directly connected to the AC motor 30 and another sprocket 32 that is also provided at the top of the frame 13.
The left and right endless chain mechanisms 9 constitute a container lifting mechanism 34 that moves the container 5 up and down while placing it between the left and right horizontal support arms 17.

The upper sprocket 14b of one of the endless chain mechanisms 9 described above is provided with a disk 35 that is directly connected to the upper sprocket and rotates integrally with the upper sprocket 14b, and this disk 35 has chains 16a, 1
Through-holes 35a, 35b for position detection are formed in the circumferential direction in units of rotation angles corresponding to the amount of movement of one pitch of 6b.
are arranged around the outer circumferential side and the inner circumferential side at equal intervals.

Position detection sensors 36a and 36b, which are made of photocoupler or the like and detect the respective through holes 35a and 35b, are provided on the outer peripheral edge of the disk 35, and the detection outputs of these position detection sensors 36a and 36b are used to detect the respective through holes 35a and 35b. , is configured to detect the fifth position of a container placed on the container lifting mechanism 34 and being lifted or lowered.゛Also, the first roller conveyor 1 of the above-described loading/unloading mechanism 12
0, a plurality of rollers 38 arranged on the support base 37 in the left-right direction with each axis facing the front-rear direction can be driven to rotate in both directions by a drive source (not shown). The support stand 37 is placed on a base 39 fixed to the bottom of the frame 13, and is configured to be movable forward and backward. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the O-Ra conveyor 10 has a pair of left and right guide members 40 that protrude downward from the support base 37, and a pair of left and right guide members 40 that are formed on the base 39 in the front-rear direction. It is fitted into a pair of guide grooves 41 and is movable back and forth.

FIG. 7 shows a vertical cross-sectional view of the first roller conveyor 10 as seen from the side, and the base 39 is provided with an endless chain mechanism 44 in which a chain 43 is stretched between a pair of front and rear sprockets 42a, 42b. and the chain 4
The middle part of the base 3 is connected to the bottom of the support base 37.
The roller conveyor 10 is moved back and forth by driving the endless chain mechanism 44 back and forth with a drive source 45 provided at the roller conveyor 9 . Guide plates 46 and 47 are provided at the front and rear ends of the upper surface of the first roller conveyor 10, respectively, as shown in FIG. The guide plate 46 at the front end includes a guide portion 46a that is inclined downwardly toward the front in order to guide the container 5 when transferring the container 5 from the picker 6 at the lowest stage directly onto the roller conveyor 10, and a guide portion 46a that is inclined downwardly toward the front. A guide plate 47 at the rear end has a stopper portion 46b having an angular cross-section to prevent the container 5 transferred thereon from shifting forward.
a guide portion 47a whose upper end is inclined toward the rear in order to guide the container 5 placed on the container lifting mechanism 34 and descending to an appropriate position on the roller conveyor 1o;
A stopper portion 47 having an angular cross-section that prevents the container 5 transferred onto the roller conveyor 10 from shifting backward.
It has b.

Furthermore, regarding the second roller conveyor 11 of the above-mentioned loading/unloading mechanism 12, a plurality of rollers 49 arranged in the left-right direction on the support base 48 with each axis directed in the front-rear direction are bidirectionally moved by a drive source (not shown). It is designed to be rotatably driven, and its support stand 48 is attached to the frame 13 of the loading/unloading device 8.
is fixed at the bottom of the Also, this roller conveyor 1
1 is installed within a range that does not interfere with the horizontal support arm 17 that moves up and down of the container lifting mechanism 34, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

The heights of the container 5 mounting surfaces of the first and second roller conveyors 10.11 are the same, and when the first roller conveyor 10 has completed its retreat from the front position near the picker 6 to the rear position, , so that the positions of the second roller conveyor 11 and the front and back are aligned. On the left end side of the second roller conveyor 11, another conveyor 50 for carrying in or carrying out the container 5 from the outside is arranged as shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the drive control system of the container lifting mechanism 34 described above. In the figure, 51 is an inverter that switches the AC motor 30, which is the drive source of the container lifting mechanism 34, between high speed rotation and low speed rotation. , 52 is the through hole 35a of the disc 35 detected by the position detection sensors 36a and 36b.
, 35b.

Next, the operation of this automatic storage and retrieval device will be explained.

For example, when the shelf picker 6 shown in FIG. , an arm 6a attached to the picker 6,
The container 5 is taken out from the shelf 4 and loaded onto the picker 6 by the operation of the take-out mechanism including 6b. When the take-in operation is completed, the picker 6 horizontally travels to the loading/unloading device 8 on the left end side and stops in front of the loading/unloading device 8.

The above operations of the picker 6 are performed independently for each shelf.

On the other hand, in the loading/unloading device 8, the container lifting mechanism 34 stops at a position where each horizontal support arm 17 is aligned with the height of each shelf, and the container 5 is transferred from the picker 6 onto the corresponding horizontal support arm 17. Ru. This operation can be performed simultaneously for the pickers 6 on each shelf.

Prior to this operation, the first roller conveyor 10 of the Deoiso structure 12 moves to the front position as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 7 by driving the endless chain mechanism 44 of the base 39, and the front end The tip of the guide plate 46 is the picker 6
It waits at the position reached by the side edge of the rail 7 on which it runs (the position is indicated by a dashed line in FIG. 7).

As shown by the solid line in FIG. 7, the container 5 is placed on the horizontal support arm 17 and the container elevating mechanism 34 performs a descending operation, and the horizontal support arm 17 moves toward the first roller conveyor 10.
When the container 5 descends to a position slightly lower than the loading surface (corresponding to the lowest shelf position), the mechanism 34 stops lifting the container, and the container 5 on the horizontal support arm 17 is moved as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. The first roller conveyor 10 is moving like this.
Translated above. At the above-mentioned stop position of the container elevating mechanism 34, the roller conveyor 1 with one brim of the horizontal support arm 17 whose movement path is the left end side of the second roller conveyor 11.
It stops at a position slightly lower than the mounting surface of 1. Therefore, this horizontal support arm 17 and the horizontal support arm 17 located one level above this are connected to the second roller conveyor 11.
This means that it is stopped at a position where it does not interfere with the container 5 being carried out.

The first roller conveyor 10 is then moved back to the rear position shown by the solid line in FIG. 7 by the drive of the endless chain mechanism 44 of the base 39, and is aligned with the second roller conveyor 11 as shown in FIG. . After this, the first. Second
The rollers 38.4-9 of the roller conveyor 10.11 are rotationally driven in the left direction, and the container 5 is moved along the roller conveyor 10.
．． 11 to the outside via a conveyor 50 shown in FIG.

The container 6 on the lowest shelf 4 is carried out by directly transferring the container 5 from the picker 6 to the first roller conveyor 10 without operating the container lifting mechanism 34.

On the other hand, when carrying in the container 5 from the outside, an operation opposite to the above-described carrying-out operation is performed. That is,
As shown in FIG. 3, the first roller conveyor 10 waits at a rear position alongside the second roller conveyor 11, while the container lifting mechanism 34 has its horizontal support arm 17 at the rear position, as shown in FIG. While the container 5 is stopped at a position where it does not interfere with the container 5 carried in from the roller conveyor 11 of the second roller conveyor, the first roller conveyor 11 is stopped. Second roller conveyor 10°11
The rollers 38 and 49 are driven to rotate in the right direction, and the container 5 is transferred from the external conveyor 50 shown in FIG. 1 to the first roller conveyor 10 via the second roller conveyor 11. After this, the first roller conveyor 1o moves to the front position and stops. Next, the container lifting mechanism 34
starts its upward movement, and the container 5 on the roller conveyor 10 is transferred onto the horizontal support arm 17. When the horizontal support arm 17 carrying the container 5 reaches the target shelf, the container elevating mechanism 34 stops, and the picker 6 of that shelf takes out the container 5 from the horizontal support arm 17 and stores it on the designated shelf 4. do. The container 5 is transferred to the bottom shelf 4 by the bottom picker 6 directly taking in the container 5 from the second roller conveyor 10 without operating the container lifting mechanism 34.

Stop control of the container lifting mechanism 34 in the above operation is performed as follows.

For example, in carrying-in operation, when lifting the container 5 from the first roller conveyor 10 to the target S stage, the through holes 35a and 35b formed in the disk 35 that rotates as the container lifting mechanism 34 is driven correspond to the openings 35a and 35b. The through holes 35a and 35b are detected by the position detection sensors 36a and 36b, respectively.
is counted by the counter 51 shown in FIG.
2 is an AC motor 3 which is a driving source for the container lifting mechanism 34;
0 is switched from high-speed rotation to low-speed rotation, whereby the container elevating mechanism 34 shifts to a deceleration operation. Then, when the count value of the counter 51 reaches a value corresponding to the target shelf, the AC motor 30 is stopped and the container 6 is lifted to the target shelf. Such a deceleration pattern is always an optimal pattern depending on the moving distance. In the case of unloading, the container lifting mechanism 34 is stopped by a similar operation when the horizontal support arm 17 carrying the container 5 has descended to the lowest shelf position. In addition,
Distinguishing whether the AC motor 30 that drives the container elevating mechanism 34 is clockwise or counterclockwise, that is, distinguishing between the ascending operation and the descending operation of the container elevating mechanism 34, is done by detecting the through hole 35a of the disc 35. The detection signal of the position detection sensor 36a to detect the through hole 35b, and the position detection sensor 36b to detect the through hole 35b
This is done based on the phase shift of the detection signal.

In the above operation, one of the through holes 35a, 35b of the disk 35 detected by the position detection sensors 36a, 36b is the chain 16a of the container lifting mechanism 34.

16b, it is possible to set a much finer deceleration start point than in the conventional case, and one operation cycle for loading and unloading is shortened accordingly. Additionally, if there is a change in the vertical spacing of the shelves 4, the chain 16a can be adjusted accordingly.
, 16b, the interval between the horizontal support arms 17, that is, the number of link pitches therebetween, is changed.
This can be easily handled by changing the number of through holes 35a and 35b that are counted as one shelf 4.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the elevating device of the present invention, the link pitch of the chain of the endless chain mechanism is used as the unit of elevating displacement, and the amount of elevating displacement of the chain is determined by the plow of the rotating plate and the detection sensor. With this configuration, it is possible to easily perform extremely fine stop divisions with an inexpensive configuration, and effects such as being able to easily respond to changes in the height of the target stop position can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing arbitrary shelves of an automatic storage and retrieval device to which a lifting device is applied, which is an embodiment of the present invention;
The figure is a rear view of the loading/unloading device, FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view of the loading/unloading device, FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a front view showing a connecting member for the horizontal support arm. , FIG. 6 is a front view showing a part of the chain of the container lifting/lowering mechanism, FIG. 7 is a side sectional view showing the container loading/unloading mechanism, and FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the drive control system of the container lifting/lowering mechanism. 2.3...Storage area, 4...Lightning, 5...Container, 8...Input/output device, 9...Endless chain mechanism, 14a, 14b...Upper sprocket, 15a, 15
b...lower sprocket, 16a, 16b...chain, 17...horizontal support arm, 30...AC motor,
34... Container elevation nm structure, 35... Disc, 35
a, 35b... through hole,

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A plurality of support members are fixed at equal intervals to each of the annular cables that are arranged to face each other on the left and right and rotate synchronously in the vertical direction, and the articles placed between the opposing support members are driven by the rotation of the annular cables. A lifting device for lifting and lowering, wherein the annular cable includes an endless chain mechanism in which a chain is stretched around a sprocket, position detection marks are provided around the circumference at regular intervals corresponding to the link pitch of the chain, It is characterized by comprising a rotary plate that rotates in synchronization with the sprocket and a detection sensor that detects the position detection marks, and the amount of vertical displacement of the chain is determined from the number of marks detected by the detection sensor. lifting device.