US 8,006,824 B2Granted

Storage system and storage method

AssigneeHirata Corporation

InventorsRyoichi Wada, Issei Isaka, Kunio Katayanagi

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Abstract

A storage system of the present invention includes a storage area for arranging and storing articles (W), a carrying-in line (200) for carrying in the articles (W) toward the storage area, and a transfer mechanism (300) arranged on an upper region of the storage area in order to transfer the articles (W) carried in by the carrying-in line to the storage area. The storage area includes a supporting table (100) for arranging and supporting a plurality of pallets (P) capable of loading the articles (W), and the transfer mechanism (300) transfers the articles (W) to the pallets (P) supported on the supporting table (100). Since an operation for transferring the articles stored directly on the floor face as before to the pallets is not required, a carrying-out process is simplified and efficiency of storage process of the articles as a whole (carrying-in from the outside, transfer to the storage area, carrying-out to the outside) is improved.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A storage system comprising:

a storage area for arranging and storing an article;
a carrying-in line for carrying in the article toward the storage area;
and
a transfer mechanism arranged in an upper region of the storage area, for transferring the article which was carried in by the carrying-in line to the storage area, wherein
the storage area includes a supporting table for supporting a plurality of pallets on which the article can be loaded in an arranged state;
the transfer mechanism includes a fixed frame extending in a X direction and a Y direction so as to surround an upper region of the storage area, a movable frame movably supported in the Y direction with respect to the fixed frame, a slider movably supported in the X direction with respect to the movable frame, an elevating arm supported capable of elevation in a vertical direction with respect to the slider, and a holding unit provided at a lower end of the elevating arm and capable of holding the article, further comprising:
a pallet conveying line arranged along the supporting table in order to carry in the pallet toward the supporting table and/or for carrying out the pallet from the supporting table;
and
a reading means provided at the carrying-in line in order to read information of an information medium attached to the article, wherein
the transfer mechanism transfers the article to a predetermined position on a predetermined pallet supported on the supporting table on a basis of the information read by the reading means.

7 more elements

A storage method for carrying in an article by a carrying-in line and transferring the article by a transfer mechanism to a storage area for storage or for carrying out the article in response to a request, comprising:

a pallet carrying-in step for carrying in a plurality of pallets supported by a supporting table arranged in the storage area defined by a transfer range of the transfer mechanism by means of a pallet conveying line;
an address-space setting step for reading information of an information medium relating to the plurality of pallets supported by the supporting table and for setting a address space corresponding to each of the pallets;
a reading step of an article for reading the information of the information medium relating to the article which has been carried in by the carrying-in line;
a carrying-in/transfer step for transferring the article to a predetermined pallet on the supporting table by the transfer mechanism on a basis of the information obtained by the reading step of an article and address-space setting step;
and
an address-space updating step for updating the information relating to the address space for the pallet to which the article was transferred by the carrying-in/transfer step.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.