Material or article handling – Apparatus particularly adapted for charging or discharging a... – With means to transfer – or facilitate transfer of – vehicle...
Patent
1996-03-13
1998-02-17
Werner, Frank E.
Material or article handling
Apparatus particularly adapted for charging or discharging a...
With means to transfer, or facilitate transfer of, vehicle...
414240, 414273, 414264, 414281, 414252, 36447802, E04H00618
Patent
active
057185514
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a mechanized and automatically managed installation for storing objects such as motor vehicles or containers; it includes a self-propelling trolley for the transportation of the object along a runway with storage cells on each side of the runway, into which the trolley unloads the transported object.
STATE OF THE ART
There exists today numerous designs for automatically managed car parks in which motor vehicles are driverlessly conveyed from an entrance area to a storage cell, then delivered on request at an exit area where the owner repossesses his vehicle.
A detailed description of this technique is given in the French Patent N.degree. 90/15547 which refers to a mechanized installation for storing motor vehicles, including a central managing unit, a closed circuit runway fitted with two longitudinal traffic alleys and storage cells distributed at an angle of 45.degree. on either side of each traffic alley, the two rows of emplacements located between the alleys being juxtaposed.
A trolley mounted on a wheeled frame is fitted with self-propelling means, as well as guiding and switching means adapted to allow for its movement along the runway and its entry into the respective storage cells. The trolley is equipped with loading and unloading means enabling it to take hold of and put down an object when the trolley is positioned within a cell, these means being combined with two longitudinal, fixed racks opposite each other, each being made up of horizontal, fixed bars, parallel and at a distance from each other; these racks are arranged to delimit a free central zone between the ends of the fixed bars, the full installation being managed by the central unit, capable of directing the functioning of each trolley and the activating of the loading and unloading means.
Although the installation described above constitutes a considerable improvement compared to previous systems, as the self-propelling trolleys, moving easily due to the guiding means and the herring-bone disposition of the storage cells, result in a saving of parking bays in comparison to earlier systems, very short storage and removal cycles and a reduction of energy required, such an installation does not allow for the arrangement of an optimum number of vehicles in a given space, because it calls for a relatively wide runway permitting the rotation of the trolley when introduced into a cell to load or unload a vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This is why the main object of the invention is to achieve a mechanized installation for storing objects, with a maximum number of parking bays in relation to the surface area.
Another purpose of the invention is to achieve a mechanized installation for the storage of motor vehicles, in which the width of the runway required for the trolley transporting the vehicles is limited to the width of the trolley.
Consequently, the object of the invention is an automatically managed, mechanized installation for storing objects such as motor vehicles or containers, following the type described above in reference to the Patent N.degree. 90/15547, in which, however, the storage cells form a longitudinal angle of between 30.degree. and 60.degree. with the runway and in which the trolley is fitted with a pivoting system enabling it to rotate, on the runway, around the point of intersection of the runway's symmetry axis and the symmetry axis of the cell into which the object must be loaded or unloaded, in order to bring the guiding elements of the trolley along the cell's symmetry axis, to enable the trolley to enter the cell and proceed with the loading or unloading of the object.
In accordance with another object of the invention, the pivoting means includes a vertical element which does not come into contact with the floor when the trolley moves, which can be lowered to bear on the floor at the intersection of the runway and the symmetry axis of the cell in which the object has to be loaded or unloaded and a driving means resulting in the rotation of the trolley around
REFERENCES:
patent: 3161302 (1964-12-01), Burrows
patent: 3570687 (1971-03-01), Toedtli
patent: 5116182 (1992-05-01), Lin
patent: 5425612 (1995-06-01), Ebstein
LandOfFree
Automatic mechanized system for the storage of objects does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Automatic mechanized system for the storage of objects, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Automatic mechanized system for the storage of objects will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1779444