Daifuku Co., Ltd.

Kazuhiko Miyoshi

Jun Hamaguchi

Masato Inaba

Toshiaki Yokota

Masatsugu Kamei

Atsunobu Iseki

Shigeyoshi Nishihara

Junji Obata

Toshiyuki Iba

Ryosuke Takano

Susumu Morita

Hiroyuki Murakami

Junzo Iwaoka

Toshiaki Hayashi

A flat storage facility includes a storage/retrieval device having a Y-direction moving member that is horizontally movable at a certain height above a storage item placement plane. A carriage is horizontally movable in an X direction on the Y-direction moving member, and a storage item gripping mechanism is provided in the carriage. The storage/retrieval device performs storage/retrieval on a storage item between the storage/retrieval device and respective storage item placement points set on the storage item placement plane. The storage item placement plane is divided into a plurality of unit sections at various heights with respect to a reference plane. When the storage/retrieval operation is performed with the storage/retrieval device, the lowering distance of the storage item gripping mechanism with respect to the carriage is adjusted according to the height of the unit section to which the storage item placement point of a storage/retrieval target belongs.

Method for controlling storage/retrieval device in flat storage facility

A flat storage facility includes a storage/retrieval device having a Y-direction moving member with a length corresponding to the width of a storage item placement plane in an X direction and that is movable in a forward/backward Y direction of the storage item placement plane. A carriage is supported on the Y-direction moving member and is movable in the X direction. A storage item gripping mechanism is supported on the carriage so as to be freely raised and lowered. Lowering of the storage item gripping mechanism is controlled such that downward flexural deformation distances between end portions of the Y-direction moving member in the X direction are determined. Lowering distance adjustment values of the storage item gripping mechanism for the storage item placement points are set based on the downward flexural deformation distances, and lowering distances of the storage item gripping mechanism are reduced by the lowering distance adjustment values.

A raising/lowering conveyance apparatus has at least two sets of container holders operable to be raised/lowered in conjunction with each other, and to be freely movable closer to or away from containers in the back-and-forth horizontal direction. A sensor operable to detect the upper end height of the transferred containers which have been transferred and raised is attached to a position near the lower end of each container holder, to determine abnormality in posture of the transferred containers through a comparison operation between the value of the upper end height of the transferred containers detected by the sensor and the normal value of the upper end height of the transferred containers calculated on the basis of the height of the container being handled.

Raising/lowering conveyance apparatus for article conveying container with container condition sensors

A method for controlling movement of travelling carriers includes performing data communication between front and rear adjacent travelling carriers, an on-board communication device provided to the travelling carrier and performing data communication with a ground-based communication device, and the ground-based communication device sending a movement permission signal at one end of a work area to the on-board communication device of a passing travelling carrier; and transmitting the movement permission signal to all of the travelling carriers within the work area from the ground-based communication device via the on-board communication device and the data communication means.

Method for controlling movement of travelling carriers

A method for controlling movement of travelling carriers includes providing, to a rear travelling carrier approaching a work area at a high speed, current location information corresponding to distances from a measurement starting point to the rear travelling carrier and a front travelling carrier, the rear travelling carrier calculating a following distance between the front and rear travelling carriers based on the current location information, and the rear travelling carrier performing deceleration control to the operating speed based on decremental changes of the following distance.

The present invention relates to a friction drive conveyor including carriers, which can be propelled along a track by frictional wheelsfitted along the track. Each frictional wheelcan be driven by a brakeless motor. A sensorsenses whether each frictional wheelis in contact with any one frictional surfaceof the carriers. The track includes a section along which the frictional wheelsare supported at regular intervals equal to or slightly shorter than the total length L of the frictional surfaceson each side of each carrier. On the basis of a signal output from each sensor, a controllerso controls the associated brakeless motoras to start rotating the associated frictional wheelin contact with any one frictional surfacewhen the forward next wheelgets free of the frictional surfaces, and as to stop driving the frictional wheelhaving got free of the frictional surfaces

Friction drive conveyor

A tester for internal combustion engines is composed of an internal combustion engine support block and a controller and is provided with a cover comprising a pair of lateral plates disposed on opposite sides of the internal combustion engine support block and an outer plate disposed between the outer edges of the lateral plates, the cover being turnable with the inner ends of the lateral plates serving as fulcrums. And a pit is formed under the internal combustion engine support block. The cover is adapted to be opened and closed by turning movement and the opened cover is received in the pit.

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Shiga, Japan

Kazuhiko Miyoshi