Material or article handling – Plural – static structures for supporting discrete loads and... – Load-underlying members
Patent
1981-04-13
1984-09-11
Reeves, Robert B.
Material or article handling
Plural, static structures for supporting discrete loads and...
Load-underlying members
104162, 104172B, 105177, 198472, 293131, 414236, 414267, B65G 100
Patent
active
044707428
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a storage plant, particularly but not exclusively for the storage of palletized goods.
In known warehouses, pallets and their loads are simply arranged side by side on one or more levels. The displacement of loaded pallets requires bulky, slow-acting and expensive transporting and lifting equipments, and requires relatively broad access passageways whenever it is desired to have the possibility of picking up any pallet from the warehouse at any time. Now these access passageways involve a considerable loss of useful space in the warehouse exploitation. Furthermore, it is necessary to add high cost for labor and maintenance.
Various solutions have already been proposed for mechanizing storage systems and taking the maximum advantage of the storage space available, but these proportions appear to be complicated and require heavy, expensive equipments. As an example of prior art is cited the Patent GB No. 1,512,396 wherein the carrier storage structure is divided into units comprising each several tiers of two rows each, movable on rails, each unit being adapted to be driven laterally by means of a separate motor. A carriage adapted to travel along these units carries a tower provided with a platform elevator movable between two storage units. To reach a predetermined storage location it is generally necessary to shift at least one, and more frequently several, storage units weighing tens or even hundreds of tons, in order to clear a passageway for the tower.
In another system described in the Patent CH No. 496,598 a main passageway must be kept free under all circumstances, plus at least one auxiliary passageway, and a pick-up tower is driven along this auxiliary passageway. In addition, the space is divided into different kinds of stores as free areas must be reserved in the store where the handling takes place. This system is also complicated and expensive, and involves the displacement of heavy assemblies. The floor space available is not utilized in an optimal way.
It is the object of the present invention to increase the space available for storage purposes while minimizing the volume occupied by the access passageways and reserving the possibility of picking up at any time goods from any location in the warehouse, by using simple, rapid and low-energy consumption means.
The storing plant according to this invention is characterized in that it comprises a carrier structure extending throughout at least one level and comprising a plurality of paths constituting an orthogonal network, carriages adapted to travel on said paths in two perpendicular directions of said network, first means for moving said carriages or the loads thereof along a complete transverse row in a first direction (y) and second means for moving said carriages in a second direction (x) perpendicular to y through a distance corresponding to a transverse row, whereby the complete carriage supporting structure can be filled except for at least one transverse row, with the possibility of removing one carriage or the load thereof from any desired location by causing all the carriages of the transverse row involved, which are disposed on either side of the carriage or load to be removed, to move laterally through a distance corresponding to one transverse row, together with the neighbouring carriages lying on the same longitudinal rows as the carriages thus moved, so that the carriage or the load to be removed be isolated in the thus displaced free transverse row.
It will be readily understood that the invention consists in shifting the free row by moving a group of carriages and isolating the carriage to be removed from the storage surface area in the thus shifted free row. Therefore, the only requirement to be met is to keep a single free row throughout the storage surface area. However, if the longitudinal dimension of the warehouse is relatively great, it will be better to provide several free passageways to prevent the simultaneous shifting of an to much great number of carriages. The carriage removed from the
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Durafourg & Cie
Hajec Donald
Reeves Robert B.
Schindler Claude Louis
Sibonne S.A.
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