Material or article handling – Plural – static structures for supporting discrete loads and... – Load-underlying members
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-22
2003-05-06
Bratlie, Steven A. (Department: 3652)
Material or article handling
Plural, static structures for supporting discrete loads and...
Load-underlying members
C414S281000, C414S282000, C414S940000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06558101
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an article storage system for handling containers as articles, which may contain semiconductors (wafers).
CONVENTIONAL ART
A conventionally known article storage system of this type includes a rack for storing articles in it and a loader/unloader for loading and unloading the rack.
Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 5-294410 discloses a loader/unloader including a carriage that can run along the front of a shelf, a post standing on the carriage, a lift supported and guided by the post, and a protruder/retractor carried by the lift. The lift includes a rotary table.
The protruder/retractor includes a folding arm mounted on the rotary table of the lift and an article support (fork) connected to the free end of the arm. The rotation of the rotary table causes the folding arm to protrude and retract the article support relative to the shelf.
FIGS. 11
a
and
11
b
show a container
101
containing semiconductors (wafers) as articles handled by the known storage system. The container
101
consists of a body
102
including a storage section, where the semiconductors are stored, a neck
103
and a head
104
. The neck
103
connects the head
104
and body
102
together and is narrower than them. The head
104
and body
102
define an engaging space
105
between them around the neck
103
. The engaging space
105
may generally be used for a robot or another transferrer to catch or hold the container
101
while the container is carried.
FIGS. 11-13
show a rack consisting of vertically spaced horizontal rows of shelves
107
. Each shelf
107
includes a deck
108
formed on its top side, where a container
101
can be placed and supported. Each shelf
107
has a space
110
formed through it, through which the article support (fork)
109
of the protruder/retractor can move relatively up and down.
The loader/unloader can load containers
101
on and unload containers
101
from the rack
111
. As shown in
FIG. 11
a
, the process for loading a container
101
on each shelf
107
includes protruding the article support
109
of the protruder/retractor from its retracted position over the rotary table
112
of the lift to a position (shown with two-dot chain lines in
FIG. 13
) over the shelf
107
, with the container
101
supported on the support
109
. Subsequently, the lift of the loader/unloader is moved downward so that, as shown in
FIG. 11
b
, the article support
109
can move downward through the space
110
of the shelf
107
. This transfers the container
101
from the article support
109
onto the deck
108
of the shelf
107
, where the container
101
can be stored. Thereafter, as shown with solid lines in
FIG. 13
, the empty support
109
positioned under the shelf
107
is retracted to its retracted position over the rotary table
112
of the lift.
It is possible to unload a container
101
from each shelf
107
by operating the article support
109
with the process reverse to the loading process.
Problem to be Solved by the Invention
As shown in
FIG. 12
, one container
101
can be placed on each shelf
107
. Therefore, the storage of a number of containers
101
in the rack
111
needs the same number of shelves
107
, and the storage of a large number of containers
101
in the rack
111
needs the large number of shelves
107
, raising the cost.
For storage of containers
101
in three vertically spaced horizontal rows a, b and c in the rack
111
, it is necessary to provide shelves
107
for the middle row c between the top row a and bottom row b. This increases the vertical distance d between the shelves
107
for the top row a and bottom row b, increasing the height of the rack
111
.
As shown in
FIG. 13
, the width W
1
of the article support
109
of the loader/unloader is narrower than the width W
2
of each shelf
107
. Consequently, when the lift of the loader/unloader moves up and down with a container
101
supported on the article support
109
, and when the carriage runs with a container
101
so supported, the container (article)
101
on the article support (fork)
109
may be unstable.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide an article storage system including a rack lower in height that consists of a smaller number of shelves and a fork that can more stably support an article.
An article storage system according to the present invention is an article storage system for storing therein an article having engaging means. The storage system includes a shelf for supporting the article and a loader/unloader for loading and unloading the shelf. The shelf includes a deck formed on the upper side thereof, on which the article can be placed. The shelf also includes an engaging part formed on the lower side thereof for engaging with the engaging means of the article to hold the article under the shelf. The engaging means and the engaging part can engage with and disengage from each other in the directions in which the article can be loaded and unloaded.
It is possible to store the article in the storage system by either placing the article on the shelf or holding the article hanging from the shelf. Specifically, the article supported by the loader/unloader can be placed on the deck on the upper side of the shelf, or the engaging means of the article supported by the loader/unloader can be engaged with the engaging part on the lower side of the shelf. This makes it possible to support two articles on the upper and lower sides of one shelf. It is consequently possible to greatly reduce the number of shelves to lower the cost in comparison with the conventional system.
The article may have a positioning hole formed in the bottom thereof. The loader/unloader and the shelf deck may each include a positioning protrusion that can engage with and disengage from the positioning hole.
In this case, it is possible to place the article on the shelf deck, with the positioning protrusion of the deck inserted into the positioning hole of the article so that the article can be positioned reliably on the deck. This prevents the article from shifting on and falling from the deck due to an earthquake or another vibration. The loader/unloader can load and unload the article, with the positioning protrusion of the loader/unloader inserted into the positioning hole of the article so that the article can be positioned reliably relative to the loader/unloader as well. Therefore, the article can be put into storage and taken out of storage without shifting so greatly due to vibration of the operating loader/unloader that the article cannot be transferred normally to the shelf, or without falling from the loader/unloader.
The shelf may consist of vertically spaced horizontal rows of shelves. The loader/unloader may consist of a movable unit that can move vertically and horizontally and a fork carried by the movable unit for moving toward and away from the shelf to scoop the article. The positioning protrusion may be formed on the fork.
In this case, it is possible to load an article on each shelf and unload the article from the shelf by moving the movable unit of the loader/unloader vertically and horizontally to position the fork in front of the shelf. By making the positioned fork carry out a series of article transferring operations, it is possible to load the article on and unload the article from either the upper side or the lower side of the shelf. The transferring operations include protruding the fork toward the shelf, moving the fork vertically and retracting the fork toward the movable unit. When the article supported by the fork is put into storage and taken out of storage in this way, the positioning protrusion of the fork is inserted into the positioning hole of the article. This positions the article relative to the fork, preventing the article from shifting so greatly on the fork due to vibration of the moving fork that the article cannot be transferred normally to the shelf, or from falling off the fork.
For storage of three vertically spa
Bratlie Steven A.
Daifuku Co. Ltd.
Schweitzer Cornman Gross & Bondell LLP
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