Article lifting/lowering apparatus
AssigneeDaifuku Co., Ltd.
InventorHiroshi Otsuka
Life of this patent
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Abstract
When a holding unit is lowered, a control unit gradually increases the lowering velocity of the holding unit toward a target lowering velocity, performs a constant velocity lowering operation of maintaining the lowering velocity of the holding unit at the target lowering velocity, and then gradually decreases the lowering velocity of the holding unit from the target lowering velocity to stop the holding unit. The control unit controls the drive unit to gradually increase the rotational velocity of the pulleys in response to a gradual decrease in the diameter of the outer surface of the belt wound-up around the pulley by unwinding in the constant velocity lowering operation.
Claims6
An article lifting/lowering apparatus comprising:
- a holding unit configured to hold an article;
- a lifting/lowering device configured to lift and lower the holding unit;
- and
- a control unit configured to control the lifting/lowering device, wherein;
- the lifting/lowering device comprises:
- a pulley;
- a belt wound around the pulley to be freely wound-up and unwound;
- and
- a drive unit configured to rotationally drive the pulley, and is configured to lower the holding unit by unwinding the belt from the pulley and lift the holding unit by winding-up the belt around the pulley in a state in which the holding unit is suspended by the belt, and
- the control unit is configured to, when the holding unit is lowered, control the drive unit to:
- (i) gradually increase a lowering velocity of the holding unit toward a target lowering velocity, (ii) perform a constant velocity lowering operation of maintaining the lowering velocity of the holding unit at the target lowering velocity, and then (iii) gradually decrease the lowering velocity of the holding unit from the target lowering velocity to stop the holding unit, and
- the control unit is configured to, in the constant velocity lowering operation, control the drive unit to gradually increase a rotational velocity of the pulley in response to a gradual decrease in a diameter of an outer surface of the belt wound-up around the pulley by the unwinding.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.