Conveyors – chutes – skids – guides – and ways – Skidways – Retarder
Patent
1997-05-29
1999-06-29
Bidwell, James R.
Conveyors, chutes, skids, guides, and ways
Skidways
Retarder
B65G 1100
Patent
active
059155167
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention refers to a tunnel stand bearing arrangement.
Tunnel stand bearing arrangements of the kind referred to herein above are useful for receiving and storing a plurality of goods which are loaded consecutively into the particular shelf channels of the storage assembly, whereby the shelf channels are designed in the kind of tunnels.
As conveyor means for the goods to be stored, usually received on pallets, one may use chain conveyors which are mounted in all the shelf channels. Such a chain conveyor is disclosed, for example, in the publication WO 94/00370. In this particular chain conveyor, a conveying chain equipped with a plurality of rollers is used as the real conveying member. Both ends of that conveyor chain are connected to each other to form thereby an endless loop which may be moved along the longitudinal extension of the particular shelf channel. During the loading operation, a pallet is laid onto the conveyor chain and pushed into the shelf channel by means of a suitable vehicle, e.g. a fork lift truck. During the unloading operation, the pallets are removed from the shelf channel at the same side thereof, again by means of e.g. a fork lift truck.
One difficulty observed in connection with such chain conveyors may be seen in the challenge that the rolling friction of the chain running along a supporting rail must be kept as low as possible, since a particular shelf channel may receive up to twenty pallets and since not only the individual pallet to be removed from and loaded into the shelf channel, respectively, has to be moved during the unloading and loading operation, respectively, but in each case the entire mass present in the shelf channel. Such moving operation must be performed as quickly as possible.
Moreover, the total mass of goods, which can amount up to 20-times the mass of an individual pallet, has to be slowed down within quite a short time after it has been displaced. In most cases, it is essential that such deceleration must be performed without shocks and reliably within the overall stopping distance allowed by the geometry of the shelf channel. This can be realized such that the backward rolling fork lift trucks after having pulled a pallet out of the shelf channel, stops the row of pallets remaining in the shelf channel at the desired position. However, such an operation is strictly dependent of the skill of the driver of the fork lift truck. If the driver does not decelerate enough the moving pallet row, there is a risk that the pallets overrun the end of the shelf channel whereby the front most pallet falls out of the shelf channel.
The same problems may be observed not only in connection with shelf channels equipped with chain conveyors, but also in connection with shelf channels of a tunnel stand bearing arrangement provided with different kinds of conveying systems, e.g. roller conveyors whose rollers are interconnected by chains, or trolleys coupled to each other.
In order to find a solution for these problems, a great number of stop and braking systems for continuous shelf storage assemblies has been disclosed in the prior art; this fact may be an evidence that the afore mentioned problem really has not been solved satisfactorily up to now. For example, in the publication mentioned herein before, claim 35 discloses such a stop member which has, however, the disadvantages discussed herein after.
For stopping rows of pallets which may have widely varying total masses at a predetermined standstill point, it would be necessary to positively affix a mass-independent path-velocity-curve to the moving total mass. This could be realized with the help of controlled braking motors; however, this would be much too lavish and costly, because each shelf channel had to be equipped with such a braking system.
Instead, as an obvious and commercially reasonable solution, elastically deformeable buffer members are used in most cases. These buffer members, however, perfectly fit in each case a predetermined mass, but show a more or less disadvantageous behavior when the
REFERENCES:
patent: 4212381 (1980-07-01), Cook
patent: 4238022 (1980-12-01), Williams
patent: 5538384 (1996-07-01), Zimmermann
patent: 5567103 (1996-10-01), Konstant
Bidwell James R.
Gilgen Fordersysteme AG
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