Material or article handling – Process – Of moving intersupporting articles into – within – or from...
Patent
1997-08-25
2000-08-08
Krizek, Janice L.
Material or article handling
Process
Of moving intersupporting articles into, within, or from...
414417, 414459, 4147901, B65G 6300
Patent
active
060992409
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for handling sheet stacks.
Furthermore, the invention relates to an apparatus for handling sheet stacks.
2. Description of Background Art
Known in the art are handling systems for sheet stacks in which the storage of the sheet stacks is implemented using stacker trucks. However, the use of stacker trucks requires plenty of space between the piled sheet stacks and wide truck aisles. Moreover, storage handling of sheet stacks using stacker trucks is difficult to automate.
Also known are systems using transfer beds for the transport of sheet stacks to the storage. The sheets are stacked in high piles which are then transferred to the storage by means of a transfer bed. The transfer beds travel in the storage under sheet stacks piled on supports such as concrete pillars. Such systems are hampered by, the limitation that sheet stacks piled in the storage can be picked from the storage only in a certain order, which prevents random picking of the sheet stacks, e.g., directly from the center of the sheet stack storage. Moreover, the storage requires complicated and expensive foundations.
Further known is a storage system in which the sheet stacks are stored on a pallet with a planar top surface. After stacking, a lift carrier is used to transfer the sheet stack piled on the pallet to the storage. In practice the handling of such sheet stack pallets has proven complicated. They require purpose-designed handling equipment to be used on the processing lines of the sheets. The pallet must be transferred into a stacking station, where the sheets are piled one by one into stacks onto the pallet. When unloading the sheets from such a pallet, the sheets must again be removed one by one from atop the pallet for use on a processing line. Having a conventional construction, the pallets require an operating environment comprising dedicated handling equipment, a pallet storage from which they are fed to the stacking device of the processing line of the sheets, and additionally, equipment for collection and transfer of the pallets back to the storage. Such arrangements are often extremely complicated and require different kinds of equipment for handling the pallets.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus capable of overcoming the disadvantages of conventional techniques.
More specifically, the method according to the invention is characterized by what is stated in the appended claims.
The embodiment according to the invention offers a plurality of significant benefits. The pallet construction employed in the system according to the present invention makes it possible, i.e., that the pallet obviates the need for dedicated feed and stacking equipment on the processing lines of the sheets. Moreover, the pallet stays all the time in the storage equipment or the storage area, whereby no space reservation is required along the processing lines for the pallet stacks. This arrangement further assures that the pallet would not inadvertently land into the sheet-processing line. Moreover, the clumsiness of separate circulation and collection of the pallets is avoided. The capacity of the present system is improved particularly by the property that a plurality of pallets may be piled atop each other in the handling apparatus. Thus, the handling apparatus can perform a second function as a sort of buffer storage for the pallets.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the following the invention will be examined in g
REFERENCES:
patent: 3675801 (1972-07-01), Larson et al.
patent: 3703243 (1972-11-01), Monk
patent: 5456562 (1995-10-01), Schlecker et al.
Korhonen Antti
Valimaki Pentti
Krizek Janice L.
Sunds Defibrator Panelhandling Oy
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