WO2017085739A2

WO2017085739A2 - Two level vehicle parking system

Info

Publication number: WO2017085739A2
Application number: PCT/IN2016/050398
Authority: WO
Inventors: Manjunatha VARAMBALLY
Original assignee: Varambally Manjunatha
Priority date: 2015-11-16
Filing date: 2016-11-12
Publication date: 2017-05-26
Also published as: WO2017085739A3

Abstract

This invention of a two level vehicle parking system (car parking system) consists of a single column (1) made up of required steel section and pedestal plate in the bottom. There is a platform (2) made of steel structural. This platform can be moved vertically up and down along the column (1) with the help of winch / electro-mechanical / hydraulic / pneumatic Lifting mechanism (4). Another platform (6) positioned a railing (7) fixed to the ground support (9) and can move horizontally. The fixing of the rail is perpendicular to the length of the platform. The above apparatus can work as a standalone or can be assembled in series to enable creates several embodiments. In a series installation as in Fig-14, the platforms(6) are arranged with an offset to the column(1) such that, the area below the targeted top platform is cleared by manipulating the positions of only two sets of lower platforms.

Description

Two level vehicle parking system

The present invention relates to a car parking Apparatus with single column and the method of arrangement of such apparatus in large installations with plurality of said parking apparatus arranged in a pattern. The said invention is several steps advance over the current two level car parking systems available in the market and as such potentially provide a car parking apparatus to be installed in Portico of individual homes and small buildings. This application is a large un-served market and hold potential for huge business and also serves to avoid the parking of vehicles on the roads in front of the house and hence serve easing movement in the localities and add to aesthetics of the area.

In cities and semi-urban cities, the growth of vehicular population is happening in frenetic pace. However the growth of infrastructure such as road, parking places OR parking stands for vehicle fall far behind the vehicular population growth. Also, due to expensive nature of land in these areas, the realtors and general public are less inclined to reserve adequate amount of parking place for ever growing number of vehicles. This has resulted in cramming of roads, vehicle being parked everywhere, be it on the sides of the road on footpaths etc. causing even more congestion of roads and consequent traffic jams. Any amounts of plans made so far to ease this menace have proved to be inadequate.

There are several efforts made by the city administration / private enterprises to improve the parking situation by organizing some parking lots, building multilevel parking lots etc. which are not well appreciated by the vehicle users, may be due to the cultural habits OR solutions offered are cumbersome to use Or they are too expensive to use OR a combination of reasons. Today there are several types of manual, semi-automatic and automatic parking systems available. However, these also suffer the above problem of either too inconvenient OR too to install and work OR both. As a result the cities and towns, especially in the developing countries are experiencing the nightmare of vehicle parking.

Various types of parking systems are disclosed for manual and automatic parking and retrieval of cars with Programmable Logic controls and swipe card access controls.

Before discussing the prior art in the field of Car Parking solutions, understanding a few terminologies is beneficialViz:

DEPENDENT PARKING SYSTEM:

Where a car parked below need to be vacated by manually driving it away for the top platform could be used for parking / un-parking the car. This makes it essential the key of the car parked below should be available around OR if the key of the car parked below is not available, it is not possible to make the top level carriage for the parking OR un-parking of car. This is a bothersome limitation of dependent car parking systems. One of the embodiments of such system is as shown in Fig-8.

NON-DEPENDENT CAR PARKING SYSTEMS:

Wherein the cars parked in the lower level need not be manually driven away. Instead these cars are mounted on some movable type platform. The platform along with the car parked on it can be pushed aside either by manually pushing or by some electro-mechanical/ pneumatic / hydraulic means, this making way for the car laden OR empty upper platform to descend to the ground support level. One of the embodiments is as shown in the Fig-9.

PUZZLE CAR PARKING SOLUTION:

This terminology is used in car parking systems with one or more vertical layers car parking solution. The logic is explained with the help of Fig-9 & Fig-10.

In the embodiment shown in the Fig-9, one parking place is intentionally kept vacant. Whenever a parking space in the upper level to be made use of for parking or un-parking a car, the car parking carriage vertically below and all the platforms beside, will slides to the nearest available vacant place. This will allow the corresponding car carriage in the top to come down and facilitate the parking or un-parking on it.

This is a Non- dependent car parking solution.

Another type of two level car parking system is “ Two story parking apparatus with adjustable ramp angle” , US Patent no 5,,511,924 dated 30.04.1996.( Fig:11)

From the abstract of the above patent document, the system proposes a two layer car parking module with an upper platform pivotally mounted by a shaft on an upper portion of the supporting frame, a tilting device operatively forwarding the upper platform about the shaft for tilting the upper platform for providing an inclinable ramp adapted for a downwardly removing of an upper car from the upper platform towards a ground floor or for an upward parking of the upper car through the inclined ramp from the floor to be loaded. However, the effort of to find evidence to working system based on this invention upon search on internet was futile.

Apart from the above solutions, there are plurality of other Multi-layer Car parking systems like the one shown in Fig-12(a) and Fig-12(b). These are much larger installations, much more technology intensive & large capital cost projects and the same are mentioned here only for academic purpose.

The major drawback of the existing prior arts is a)none of them proved worth in the market, as a feasible Non-dependent car parking solution to increase the number of car parking provision in Individual home and small buildings in urban areas. b)The other drawback is, in a large installation the parking and un-parking of the car on a location on top layer would be cumbersome as, either the car parked below have to be cleared as explained in dependent car parking system (Page 3). OR all the platforms below have to move one way towards the empty space as explained in puzzle car parking solution. (Page-3 &4)

The present invention seeksto alleviate the above shortcomings in the way explained in the detailed description of this specification.

Object of Invention

When we take an urban scenario, there is huge number of homes and small buildings built on general 30X40, 30X50 Ft sites in cities and towns across India and other similar developing countries. Large number of these homes and small buildings two or more living units, or businesses premises and with a requirement of car parking area for more than one car. One may notice, in the above scenarios, if more than one family living in such building owns a car, then one of the cars will be parked outside the home on the road. In such a scenario, in the current art and apparatus available for car parking does not provide a simple solution for parking of two cars in the porticos these homes and buildings.

The principle objectives of this invention are:

To alleviate the shortcomings and draw backs in the existing prior art as explained in above paragraph. The same are:

a)To come up with a modular two layered Non-Dependent car parking apparatus having car lifting platform with a single lifting support column ( Unit- post ) on width wise side, thereby removing all restrictions for approaching / entering the driver seat of the car from sides, making it better suited for installing in the front portico of the individual homes and small buildings.

b)Another key objective of the invention is to provide an independent car parking solution suitable for installations in the porticos of independent homes and small buildings.

c) Yet another objective of this invention is to adopt motorized winch or chain -pulley arrangement for lifting / lowering of car taking assistance of counter balance weight for a two layer car parking apparatus, This aspect of the invention makes the said parking system more suitable for installations in homes and small buildings as mentioned in point no. b) above.

d) Yet another object of this invention is, in larger installations with a number of the said modular car parking apparatus arranged in series, toprovideamethod to make the parking and retrieval of car parked on upper platform to be done by manipulating the positions of only two sets of cars parked on the lower level.

e) Yet another objective of this invention is to enable parking and retrieval of more than one set of cars simultaneously in large parking system installations. These above objectives are described in detailed and bought out with the help of supporting drawings in the detailed description section of this specification. The above novel objective makes this invention several steps advance over the current two car parking systems available in the market and as such potentially holds large domestic and neighborhood car parking application.

A) One particular embodiment of present invention a modular two layer car parking apparatus comprising of facility to lift / lower the car vertically. The car is first parked on the fabricated structural platform. One of the width sides of this platform is rigidly connected to a lifting mechanism supported on a single column. This platform is lifted to such a height and locked there, such that a car can be comfortably parked below the same, which is typically the height of a fully grown man. The lifting of the platform laden with car or empty, is achieved by electromechanical/ hydraulic / pneumatic method.

The apparatus consists of one more platform on the ground support below the movable platform. This platform has wheels underneath, which can move this platform horizontally in an orientation perpendicular to the orientation of parking. The movement of the platform is facilitated by an electro-mechanical drive unit. This electro-mechanical/ hydraulic / pneumatic drive unit is a crawler with rubber belt on its sprockets. Controls systems provided in the module for making limited automation of process of Parking and un-parking of the car parked on the upper platform. A typical work cycle of this modular Non-dependent two layer car parking system is as follows:

When a car parked on the top platform is to be removed, activating the program (by pressing a button OR touch screen / Joy stick of the control system.) will start the sequence of events. First the bottom platform (laden with car OR empty) will slide to the side till a preset distance, clearing the space below for the top platform, to descend without any collision. The top platform descents to the lower preset level. Now the car parked on the same can be driven away. This event is sensed by the platform and after a preset time, it will start ascend to its original level. The lower platform now returns to its original position, which is directly below the upper platform.

The apparatus substantially described above form a modular two layer Non-Dependent parking system.

B) Another embodiment of the invention is meant for situations, where in the two or more of said modules of parking apparatus is arranged in series. The novelty of this embodiment is the method of arranging these modules, wherein the bottom platforms are set at an offset corresponding to the position of the column to be described in the detailed description section. This offset enables this embodiment to facilitate the lowering of the top platform for Parking / un-parking by moving just two lower platforms to a side. Beyond two lower platforms, the positions of the other bottom platforms remain undisturbed. On a long parking configuration, this embodiment allows simultaneous parking / un-parking of cars on to top platforms at several locations.

This invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, throughout which, like reference letters indicate corresponding parts in the various figures.

The various objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description when read along with the appended drawings of a preferred embodiment, in which:

[0019] Fig -1: The general view of the UCPA

Fig- 1(a): The front view of UCPA

Fig- 1(b): The side view of the UCPA

Fig-1(c): Top view of UCPA from level A-A with Lower Platform and counter weight visible

Fig-1(d): Top view of UCPA with upper platform and lifting arrangement visible

Fig-1(e): The blown up view of the carriage

Fig-1(f): The blown up view of the wheels on the bottom platform.

[0020] Fig-2 : Front view of the UPCA loaded with cars

Fig-2(a): Front view of UPCA with the top and lower platform in their normal position and loaded with cars

Fig-2(b): Front view of above UPCA with the lower platform moved aside, and top platform descended on to the ground support.

[0021] Fig-3: Front view of the UCPA with only the top platform loaded with car

Fig-3(a): Front view of UCPA with top platform loaded with car and the Bottom platform empty, but in normal position.

Fig-3(b): The Top platform with the loaded car, descended on to the bottom platform

[0022] Fig-4 :General view of the conventional car parking and car parking with series of UCPA

Fig-4(a): The a parking lot with seven number of cars in a conventional parking mode

Fig-4(b): The above parking lot with six UCPA installed in an innovative sequence with bottom platforms located at an offset with respect to the top platforms. This also shows the parking of total of twelve cars on these UCPAs.

[0023] Fig-5 : General view demonstrating working philosophy of innovative sequence indicated in Fig-(5)

Fig-5(a): With six cars each parked on the top platforms and bottom platforms.

Fig-5(b): The top platforms at position 2 and 5 descended to the ground level, with only two of the lower platform moving to a side of position 2 and 5 respectively.

[0024] Fig-6: Carriage

Fig-6(a): Front view of the carriage assembly

Fig-6(b):Side view of the carriage assembly

Fig-6(c): Top view of the carriage assembly

Fig-6(d): Bottom view of the carriage assembly

[0025] Fig-7 General view of the crawler used for moving the bottom platform

Fig-7(a): the side view of the crawler

Fig-7(b): the front view thereon

Fig-7(c): the top view thereon

ILLUSTRATIONS PERTAINING TO PRIOR ARTS:

[0026] Fig-8: A two level dependent car parking system

[0027] Fig-9: A two level Non-dependent puzzle car parking system.

[0028] Fig-10: A two level car parking system with two support column on the rear side, with hydraulic / pneumatic lifting arrangement

[0029] Fig-11: Sketch taken from the abstract of US patent no. US Patent no 5, 511,924dated 30.04.1996.

[0030] Fig-12 (a) &Fig-12(b): illustration for currently available large multilayered car parking systems

It may be noted that the cars shown as parked in the above illustrative sketches are not part of the invention but used in the sketch for the illustration purpose only.

The embodiments herein, the various features, and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and / or detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.

The following specification describes the invention:- ( Ref fig 1 & Fig 2). The said Car Parking Apparatus consists of a column (1) which is made up of required steel section. In the bottom this has a pedestal plate welded. This post is grouted to the ground below using foundation bolts.

There is a top platform (2) of fabricated steel structural. This platform is assembled on to a carriage (3), where carriage is movably connected to column (1). In general terms, carriage may be understood as any movable means capable of moving platform (2)vertically along the column (1) .

In an illustrative embodiment, construction of carriage is as shown in fig-6. The carriage (3) may be moved vertically up and down along the post (1) with the help of Lifting mechanism (4). This Lifting mechanism is an electrical / hydraulic/pneumatic winch having one end of the wire rope connected to the carriage (3)and the other end of the wire rope is connected to a counterbalance weight (5). An alternative embodiment can be conceived with the winch arrangement replaced by a sprocket and chain arrangement. There will be another horizontal platform(6) down below, which is mounted on a set of wheels (7b). This platform can move horizontally over a railing (7a) fixed to the ground. The fixing of the rail is perpendicular to the length of the platform (6). An electrically driven crawler (8) is used to make the bottom platform (6) move along the rail (7a) in powered mode. The crawler(8) is rigidly fixed to platform (6) crawls on the ground support (9) and thereby moving the bottom platform(6). In an alternative embodiment there the bottom platform is totally avoided and in yet another alternative embodiment, the bottom platform will not have the motorized crawler and hence the lateral movement of the bottom platform is by manually pushing.

Referring to Fig-7, the preferred embodiment of the said crawler(7) has a shaft(1) with sprockets on either ends and driven by a geared motor(2). A crawler belt(3) is assembled over the sprockets and the pinion cassette(5). The structural support(8) of the crawler is connected to the pinion cassettes. Further, a sheet metal hood(4) is provided over the said assembly. The four nos. rods(6) on to the pinion cassettes. The crawler assembly is attached to the hood(4) of the bottom platform with the help of these rods(6). The belt(3) below the pinion cassette (5) settles on the ground support (7). When the geared motor is activated, it makes the sprocket shaft to drive the rubber belt and hence the crawler gets translated towards the direction of the movement of sprocket at its uppermost tip. Since the crawler is rigidly attached to the bottom platform, the crawler carries the bottom platform along with it. Since the wheels of the bottom platform is moving on the rails, the whole bottom platform assembly (with the car laden or empty) move on this rail. The direction of the movement can be on either direction along the rail by running the geared motor either clockwise or anticlockwise as required.

The term rubber belt (3) used herein is an example and the purpose of the same can be achieved by the similar item made of other materials also, including metallic chain.

The above set of equipment can be a freestanding Parking Apparatus module. These modular sets can be assembled in plurality of combinations to enable creates several embodiments of the invention two of which are described below:

1. As a free standing modular two layer car parking apparatus ( Ref: Fig-1, Fig-2& Fig-3)

The module as described above is used to park two cars. In this arrangement the length of the railing(7a) is just enough to ensure that, when the lower platform(6) moved on to end of the rail(7a), the space below the upper platform(2) becomes vacant. Now the upper platform(3) cane lowered by activating the lifting / lowering mechanism(4). The car parked on the platform(2) is manually driven away OR if the platform is empty, an incoming car is parked manuallyon it. Now the upper platform(2) is lifted to the preset height. The bottom platform(3) ismoved back to the position it originally held, i.e. below the top platform(2).

Ref to fig-3, in the case the bottom platform (6) is not laden with car, the upper platform (2) land safely on the bottomplatformandcapable of up-parking or receiving a car in this position.

The above embodiment can be used with simplification such as one with a lower platform (6) without electromechanical drive (8) thereby the movement of the same is by manual pushing. The further simplification is with not having a bottom platform (6) at all.

2. As a Non-Dependent Car Parking system with plurality of subject apparatuses arranged in series. (Ref Fig- 4& Fig-5)

The Uni-post Car Parking Apparatus or UCPA is modular and a number of them can be installed in a series as shown in Fig-4b. However, when this system is used for parking a number of cars, (more than 2), a more automated vehicle parking and removal are achieved by following method:

In this system, a number of said car parking modules are installed with a particular spacing in between them as shown in Fig-4b. With this method, the capacity of parking lot can be improved substantially as illustrated in the Fig-5 (a) & 5(b). The specific offset ‘O’ between the top platform (2) and the bottom platform (6) is empirically arrived at as below:

W - Width of the bottom platform

w-Width of the top platform

S -The spacing between the top platforms

G- Gap between the bottom platforms

O- Offset between top platform and bottom platform centerlines

L- Door opening length

All the above dimensions are in millimeters.

O+W/2 = S-(w/2+30) there by

O = S-(w/2+30) –W/2

= S-w/2 -30-W/2

= S-(W+w)/2 -30

Where S>W+L

Note: ‘W’:depends on the actual width of the car to be parked on the bottom platform + 500mm

‘w’ depends on the actual width of the car to be parked on the top platform+400mm.

With this said parking apparatus, generally large sized cars are parked in the bottom platforms example: innova, swift dzireetc. And small sized cars for example Wagon-R, Alto, Hyundai i-10 etc are parked on top platform.

With the various parameters generally confirming to above relationship, it is possible to park and removea car even if all the lower platforms are occupied by the cars as illustrated using Fig-5. However the last one set of Top and Bottom Platform arranged in a different manner as shown in the fig-4b.

The fig 5(a) &5(b) illustrates pictorially, how by moving only two bottom platforms(6), the top platform(2) gets vacant space below and it can descend for the purpose of un-parking of a car from it or parking of car on it. The two cars parked on lower platforms(6) on one side of the targetedtop platform(2) (from where car has to be retrieved Or on which car has to be parked,) will move away closing the Gaps. This movement is facilitated by a crawler(8). This movement effected and controlled by operation of logic provided to the machine OR control panel OR joystick OR can even be achieved by manually pushing. The normal positions of the lower platform with respect top-platform are provided on the rail, in the form of spring loaded detents or stoppers.

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.

Claims

A system for two level vehicle parking, said system comprising:a single column grouted vertically to a ground support;
a carriage movably engaged to said column, said carriage is configured to move vertically along said column;
an upper platform attached to said carriage wherein said platform is configured to park a vehicle over said upper platform;
atleast one set of rail disposed on said ground support wherein, said set of rail is positioned vertically below said upper platform; and
a lower platform placed on said ground support wherein, said lower platform is configured to park another vehicle and further configured to move in horizontal direction along said set of rail.
The system of claim 1 wherein said upper platform is arranged to be substantially parallel to said ground support.
The system of claim 1 wherein said upper platform and said lower platform configured to have their longitudinal axis substantially perpendicular to front of said carriage.
The system of claim 1 wherein said set of rail is positioned at an orientation which is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said lower platform.
The system of claim 1 wherein said lower platform further comprising atleast one wheel disposed below said lower platform, said wheel configured to move said lower platform horizontally across said set of rail.
The system of claim 1 wherein said lower platform movement is configured to be achieved through manual, electro-mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic means.
The system of claim 1 wherein said upper platform is configured to land on un-laden said lower platform for parking and un-parking purpose.
The system of claim 1 further configured with a series of said two level vehicle parking systems side by side to achieve a multi vehicle parking system.
A method for two level vehicle parking, said method comprising:
attaching a column vertically to a ground support;
parking or un-parking of a vehicle on an upper platform wherein said upper platform is allowed to move in substantially vertical direction along said column; and
parking or un-parking of a second vehicle on a lower platform wherein said lower platform is configured to move with an horizontal movement with respect to the position of said column.
The method of claim 9 further comprising arranging plurality of two level vehicle parking system side by side to achieve multi vehicle parking system.
The method of claim 10 wherein said lower platforms of said series are arrange with a horizontal offset with respect to the position of corresponding said column.
The method of claim 10 further comprising achieving movement ofa series of said lower platforms to a side by an extent shorter than its own width which will vacate the area below said upper platform to descend to said ground support for the purpose of parking or un-parking on said upper platform.