JP2013035671A - Automatic warehouse - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic warehouse, in which picking can be done and there is no constraint of, e.g., delivery in a lump.SOLUTION: The automatic warehouse includes: a carrier of which a plurality of articles are freely taken in/out from a front; a rack on which the plurality of carriers are freely placed; a station for stock and delivery; and a transfer device in which both any article in the carrier and any carrier freely transfer. The automatic warehouse also includes a conveying device for conveying the carrier or the article between the rack and the station.

Description

  The present invention relates to an automatic warehouse having a picking function, for example.

  The inventor considers an automatic warehouse that can be picked in the warehouse, and provides a lifting shelf for warehousing on the warehousing side, and a lifting shelf for warehousing on the shipping side. Proposed an automatic warehouse capable of picking (loading assortment) in the warehouse by carrying it randomly (Patent Document 1 JP2004-359431A). In this automatic warehouse, the articles received in a lump on the warehousing side are picked up by the transfer device and placed on the warehousing side elevating shelf. Then, when the lifting shelf on the delivery side is lowered, picked articles can be delivered collectively.

  In the automatic warehouse of Patent Document 1, picking can be performed in the warehouse, but a lifting shelf for delivery is necessary, and in principle, delivery can only be performed in a batch. The inventor studied an automatic warehouse without such a restriction and arrived at the present invention.

JP2004-359431A

  An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic warehouse in which, for example, picking can be performed in a warehouse, and there is no restriction such as batch delivery.

  The automatic warehouse according to the present invention includes a carrier in which a plurality of articles can be taken in and out from the front, a rack in which a plurality of carriers can be placed, a loading / unloading station, an arbitrary article in the carrier, and the carrier itself. A transfer device that can be loaded, and a transfer device that transfers a carrier or an article between the rack and the station.

In the present invention, any carrier and any article in the rack can be transported by the transport device. For this reason,
-Storing goods by carrier, assembling goods from carrier to carrier, and issuing goods by carrier;
-Storing goods by carrier, picking any goods from the carrier, and issuing goods by goods;
・ Goods can be received in units of goods, goods can be stocked to any carrier, and goods can be issued in units of carriers.
The goods can be delivered at random for each carrier or article, and it is not necessary to collect goods in a lump, and no lifting shelf is required.

  Preferably, the transfer device is composed of a plurality of arms that can be moved independently, and the carrier is transferred by moving the arms simultaneously and synchronously, and the article is moved by moving the arms individually. Is transferred. In this way, the same transfer device can be used for both carrier transfer and article transfer.

  Preferably, the apparatus further includes a controller that causes the transport device to travel along the rack so as to load the articles to the carrier to be delivered to the station and to deliver the stocked carrier to the station by the transport device. If it does in this way, goods delivered to the carrier which leaves in a rack in the quiet period etc. of loading / unloading work can be packed. And since the conveying apparatus can take out the arbitrary carriers in a rack, it can take out a required carrier when needed.

The top view which shows the layout of the automatic warehouse of the execution example Plan view showing the layout of a modified automated warehouse Front view of carrier Top view of carrier The top view which shows the lifting platform and carrier in an Example Side view showing a lifting platform in a modification The flowchart which shows the picking algorithm in an Example

  In the following, an optimum embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be shown. The scope of the present invention should be determined according to the understanding of those skilled in the art based on the description of the scope of the claims, taking into account the description of the specification and well-known techniques in this field.

  1 to 7 show an embodiment and its modifications. FIG. 1 shows an automatic warehouse 2 according to an embodiment, and a stacker crane 6 as an example of a transport device travels, and 8 is an elevator. Racks 10 and 10 are provided, for example, on both the left and right sides of the travel path of the stacker crane 6, and an entry station comprising the entry sub-conveyors 14 and 14 and an exit station comprising the exit sub-conveyors 16 and 16 are provided. A picking station 18 is provided on the exit side of the delivery sub-conveyor 16. Reference numeral 20 denotes a picking cart, which may be a conveyor for carrying out picked articles, and 22 is a controller on the ground side, which controls the entire automatic warehouse 2, in particular, transfer and transport of articles and carriers by the stacker crane 6, And the assortment of goods delivered by these. The controller 22 controls the sub-conveyors 14 and 16 and controls an indicator (not shown) provided in the picking station 18 so as to display an instruction related to picking.

  The rack 10 has a plurality of entrances along the height direction, and is loaded and unloaded by one or a plurality of stacker cranes 6. Instead of providing the stacker crane 6, a loading / unloading cart may be run for each height level of the frontage. However, if this is done, articles cannot be picked and aligned from a plurality of frontage openings having different height levels. The loading / unloading sub-conveyors 14 and 16 and the picking station 18 constitute a loading / unloading station. However, in a small automatic warehouse, only the sub-conveyor 16 and the picking station 18 may be used.

  In the embodiment, the picking is performed at the picking station 18. However, for example, one height level opening of one rack may also be used as the picking station, and the picking may be performed from the back side of the carrier 30 described later. Such an automatic warehouse 4 is shown in FIG. 2, and a rack that also serves as a picking station is shown as a rack 12. The automated warehouse 4 in FIG. 2 is otherwise identical to the automated warehouse 2 in FIG.

  The carrier 30 is shown in FIGS. The carrier 30 includes a support portion 32 for a plurality of articles, and can support a plurality of articles. 34 is a bottom plate of the carrier 30, and a gap 35 for inserting a slide fork 54 described later is provided between the bottom plate 34 and the lowermost support portion 32 a. The carrier 30 can transfer the article freely from the front side by the transfer device of the stacker crane 6, and can pick the article from the back side by hand, for example. Both the front side and the back side are open so that articles can be taken in and out. The carrier 30 only needs to be capable of both transfer in units of carriers 30 and transfer in units of articles supported by the support portion 32 by the transfer device of the stacker crane 6, and can be accommodated per carrier 30. The number of articles and the shape and structure of the carrier 30 are arbitrary.

  FIG. 5 shows the stacker crane 6 and the carrier 30, and the elevator 8 is provided with, for example, three slide forks 54, 54, 54. This is because, for example, three articles having the same height level can be simultaneously transferred to the carrier 30, and the number and arrangement of the slide forks 54 are arbitrary. When removing individual articles from the carrier 30, the slide forks 54 are individually operated, and when the carrier 30 is transferred as a whole, for example, all the slide forks 54 are operated simultaneously in synchronization, The slide forks 54 and 54 are simultaneously operated in synchronization. Instead of the slide fork 54, a scalar arm or the like may be used.

  On the rack 10 side, a shelf support 58 is attached to the column 56, and the carrier 30 is supported by a pair of shelf supports 58 and 58. Then, the carrier 30 is transferred by moving the slide fork 54 in and out of the space between the shelf supports 58 and 58. At this time, the plurality of slide forks 54 are simultaneously operated in synchronism, that is, aligned so as to move out and withdraw in the same direction with respect to the lifting platform 8. When an individual article is transferred, the space slide fork 54 at the lower part of the support part is moved out and moved. 50 is a traveling rail of the stacker crane 6 and 52 is a mast that supports the raising and lowering of the lifting platform 8. Here, two masts are used, but the number of masts is arbitrary.

  FIG. 6 shows a lift 8 according to a modified example. This lift is composed of, for example, three lifts 8a, 8b and 8c, and three slide forks 54 are provided on each lift 8a, 8b and 8c. . When the carrier 30 is transferred, the uppermost elevator 8c is used, and when the individual article 60 is transferred, the slide fork 54 of each elevator is used. As a result, for example, up to nine articles 60 can be transferred simultaneously. The article 60 is, for example, a case such as a cardboard or paper box, or a bucket containing parts, tools, and the like.

  FIG. 7 shows a picking algorithm in the embodiment. The automatic warehouses 2 and 4 receive goods in units of articles or in units of carriers. When goods are received in units of goods, it takes a long time for the goods to be received. For example, an elevator shelf or the like is provided in place of the storage sub-conveyor 14, and articles are supplied from a long distance conveyor (not shown) to the elevator shelf. When warehousing in units of 30 carriers, for example, the carrier is transported to the warehousing sub-conveyor 14, and the carrier is transported by the stacker crane 6 between the warehousing sub-conveyor 14 and the racks 10 and 12.

  A transport device such as the stacker crane 6 can pick individual articles in the carrier 30. Therefore, according to the delivery schedule, the goods are picked from a predetermined support portion of the carrier 30 instructed by the controller 22 and are aligned to the delivery carrier. Assortment of goods may be done in the off season of automatic warehouses 2 and 4 such as at night. When the delivery time comes, picking is performed by transferring the delivery carrier to a predetermined slot of the rack 12. In the case of the automatic warehouse 4 in FIG. 2, if a carrier for delivery is placed at the frontage for picking from the beginning, delivery of the carrier is not necessary.

  When the carrier for delivery is directly delivered to the outside of the automatic warehouses 2 and 4, for example, it is delivered to the delivery sub-conveyor 16 and delivered. When further picking is performed manually from the delivery carrier, the delivery carrier is delivered to the picking station 18 and picked, or picked on the back side with the rack 12. The empty carrier is re-stocked as necessary, or is transported to an area where articles to be stocked are placed on the stock sub-conveyor 14.

In the embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) Goods can be picked in an automated warehouse.
(2) Picked articles may be delivered in units of carriers, and one carrier can be randomly selected from a plurality of delivery carriers.
(3) Instead of performing delivery in units of carriers, for example, necessary articles may be picked from articles received in units of carriers and delivered in units of articles.
(4) The goods can be received in units of goods, and can be delivered to the carrier.

2,4 Automatic warehouse 6 Stacker crane 8 Lift platform 10, 12 Rack 14 Incoming sub-conveyor 16 Outgoing sub-conveyor 18 Picking station 20 Picking cart 22 Controller 30 Carrier 32 Support section 34 Bottom plate 35 Clearance 50 Travel rail 52 Mast 54 Slide fork 56 Post 58 shelves 60 items

Claims (3)

A carrier that allows multiple items to be taken in and out from the front,
A rack on which a plurality of the carriers can be placed;
A station for loading and unloading;
A transfer device that includes a transfer device that can freely transfer any article in the carrier and the carrier itself, and transports the carrier or the article between the rack and the station,
And an automatic warehouse.   The transfer device consists of a plurality of arms that can be moved in and out independently. The carriers are transferred by moving the arms simultaneously and synchronously, and the articles are transferred by moving the arms individually. The automated warehouse of claim 1, wherein the automated warehouse is configured to:   3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a controller that causes the transport device to travel along the rack so as to load the articles to the carrier that is unloaded to the station and to unload the loaded carrier to the station by the transport device. Automatic warehouse.

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