Traveling vehicle system
AssigneeMurata Machinery, Ltd.
InventorsHaruki Ogo, Yasuhisa Ito
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A traveling vehicle system includes a track including a first gap, a partial track, and a second gap, a traveling vehicle including a drive wheel and first and second auxiliary wheels, a first auxiliary track on a near side of the first gap in a traveling direction and in contact with a lower end of the first auxiliary wheel while a lower end of the drive wheel passes through the first gap when the drive wheel enters the partial track, and a second auxiliary track on a far side of the second gap in the traveling direction and in contact with a lower end of the second auxiliary wheel while the lower end of the drive wheel passes through the second gap when the drive wheel leaves the partial track.
Claims9
A traveling vehicle system comprising:
- a track;
- and
- a traveling vehicle to travel along the track;
- the track including a first gap, a partial track, and a second gap in order along a traveling direction of the traveling vehicle;
- the traveling vehicle including a drive wheel to roll on a traveling surface of the track, a first auxiliary wheel not in contact with the traveling surface, on a rear side in the traveling direction of the drive wheel, and fixed in an up-and-down direction with respect to the drive wheel, and a second auxiliary wheel not in contact with the traveling surface, on a front side in the traveling direction of the drive wheel, and fixed in the up-and-down direction with respect to the drive wheel;
- a spacing between a rotation axis of the drive wheel and a rotation axis of the first auxiliary wheel in the traveling direction being a length of the first gap in the traveling direction or more, and a spacing between the rotation axis of the drive wheel and a rotation axis of the second auxiliary wheel in the traveling direction being a length of the second gap in the traveling direction or more;
- the traveling vehicle system further comprising:
- a first auxiliary track provided on a near side of the first gap in the traveling direction, with a length in the traveling direction at least equal or substantially equal to the length of the first gap in the traveling direction, and with which a lower end of the first auxiliary wheel is in contact while a lower end of the drive wheel passes through the first gap when the drive wheel enters the partial track;
- and
- a second auxiliary track provided on a far side of the second gap in the traveling direction, with a length in the traveling direction at least equal or substantially equal to the length of the second gap in the traveling direction, and with which a lower end of the second auxiliary wheel is in contact while the lower end of the drive wheel passes through the second gap when the drive wheel leaves the partial track;
- the second auxiliary wheel is always out of contact with the second auxiliary track when the first auxiliary wheel is in contact with the first auxiliary track, and
- the first auxiliary wheel is always out of contact with the first auxiliary track when the second auxiliary wheel is in contact with the second auxiliary track.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.