Daifuku Co., Ltd.

Toshihito Ueda

Masahiro Takahara

Takeshi Abe

Akira Suzuki

Hiroshi Otsuka

Naoki Takahashi

Yasushi Morikawa

Takeshi Shin

Takuo Yamamoto

Shota Inden

Shinsuke Kawamura

Tadashi Nishikawa

Tomoaki Nishikawa

Yoshitaka Tanaka

Jun Tanaka

Jaesook Kim

Ayaka Kawanami

Sadato Matsugi

Tatsuki Ii

In the case where a transport vehicle has received both a first passage permission and a second passage permission and is to pass through a second passing point, when the travel distance of the transport vehicle from a first stopping point reaches a first set distance, the transport vehicle issues, to a zone control device, a first occupation revocation request for revoking permission to occupy a first passing point, and when the travel distance of the transport vehicle from the first stopping point reaches a second set distance, the transport vehicle issues, to the zone control device, a second occupation revocation request for revoking permission to occupy the second passing point.

Article transport facility

Display screen with graphical user interface

An article transport facility includes a transport vehicle and a segment controller. When the transport vehicle is to travel on a first route section, the transport vehicle requests first passage permission, which is passage permission to travel past a first passage location, from the segment controller. When the transport vehicle is to travel on a second route section, the transport vehicle requests second passage permission, which is passage permission to travel past a second passage location, from the segment controller. In response to the request for both the first passage permission and the second passage permission, the segment controller, if the first passage location and the second passage location are both unoccupied by preceding transport vehicles, permits the transport vehicle to travel from the first route section or second route section into a connecting route section and to occupy both the first passage location and the second passage location.

A control device that performs control to manage the passage of article transport vehicles in a management zone can execute: basic processing for permitting a first article transport vehicle to enter the management zone if no article transport vehicle is present in the management zone, and prohibiting a second article transport vehicle from entering the management zone if the first article transport vehicle is present in the management zone; and first exception processing for permitting the second article transport vehicle to enter the management zone in a case where, even if the first article transport vehicle is present in the management zone, the first article transport vehicle is an article transport vehicle that stops at a station provided in the first path, and the second article transport vehicle passes through a second path and a third path but does not pass through the first path.

A flow rate measurement system measures, by using a flow rate measurement device, a flow rate of cleaning gas in a container storage facility including: a storage rack including supporting portions; a transport device that transports a container to the supporting portions; and a gas supply device that supplies the cleaning gas to the container supported by the supporting portions. The transport device and the flow rate measurement device are connected via a power line communicatively by wire or wireless. The flow rate measurement device measures the flow rate of the cleaning gas in a state in which the transport device has transported the flow rate measurement device and the flow rate measurement device is placed on a target supporting portion.

Flow rate measurement system

Before a moving member that moves along a moving path stops, an article transport facility starts protrusion control by which a moving support portion that is provided on the moving member is moved so as to protrude toward a fixed support portion, and thereafter the article transport facility appropriately determines whether or not to continue the protrusion control. Upon the moving member reaching a protrusion start position, the protrusion control is started so that the moving support portion is moved to protrude, even if the moving member has not stopped. After the moving member has reached a position at which a detection unit that is fixed to the moving member can detect a detection target member that is provided on the fixed support portion, the execution of the protrusion control is continued as long as the detection unit is detecting the detection target member.

An inactive gas introducing facility for a storage rack is provided in which supply of inactive gas to a container is stopped if an open state of an inspection door is detected while in a normal stop state in which a stop nullifying command is not issued and in which the supply of the inactive gas based on the immediately preceding supply pattern is continued and any changes, through manual operation, to a parameter that defines the immediately preceding supply pattern are prohibited, if an open state of an inspection door is detected while in a stop nullifying state in which the stop nullifying command is issued.

Inactive gas introducing facility and inactive gas introducing method

A plurality of transport controls selectively performed by a transport control device include a second transport control performed on a selected one of a first article transport device and a second article transport device as a target article transport device such that the target article transport device is moved only in a first path portion to transport articles when the target article transport device is the first article transport device, and that the target article transport device is moved only in a second path portion to transport the articles when the target article transport device is the second article transport device. An article storage facility includes a partition body that is switchable between an installed state in which the partition body is installed in a path boundary area serving as a boundary area between the first path portion and the second path portion in a movement path to shut off communication between the first path portion and the second path portion, and a retracted state in which the partition body is retracted from the path boundary area to open the path boundary area.

Article storage facility

In an article storage facility, a door pivotable about a door pivot axis extending in a second direction is provided in an opening which is formed in a path-dividing wall portion that divides a traveling path and through which a transport movable body can pass. The door is configured such that its position is switchable between a closed position in which the door extends along the path-dividing wall portion and blocks the opening and an open position in which the door is located on an internal space side and opens the opening so that the transport movable body can pass through the opening. The article storage facility includes a blocking member that is switchable to a blocking state in which the blocking member blocks a portion through which the internal space and an external space communicate with each other in a state in which the position of the door is switched to an intermediate position between the open position and the closed position or to the open position and the transport movable body is stopped at a target position, the target position being a position of the transport movable body at which the opening is within the extent of the transport movable body in a first direction.

When a transport start condition, which includes at least a condition that the controller is receiving a closed state signal, is satisfied, a controller allows a transport operation by an article transport device, and suspends the transport operation by the article transport device when the controller stops continually receiving the closed state signal after the transport operation by the article transport device is started, and further, allows the transport operation by the article transport device to continue while the controller is receiving the closed state signal after the transport operation by the article transport device is started, even if an object to be detected is detected by a monitoring detector.

A first control device executes, if it is determined that a second control device has become unable to output an operation instruction, continued operation processing for operating an inactive gas supply portion based on the operation instruction that was last output by the second control device. The first control device further executes, if it is determined during execution of continued operation processing that a stop condition is satisfied, operation stop processing for stopping the inactive gas supply portion by suspending the continued operation processing.

Inactive gas supply facility and inactive gas supply method

A storage facility includes a controller for monitoring a supply state of the inactive gas for the plurality of storage sections and for controlling the plurality of supply amount adjusting devices. The controller is configured to monitor the supply state of the inactive gas for the plurality of storage sections by dividing the plurality of storage sections into a plurality of monitoring areas, and to control a plurality of supply amount adjusting devices such that the supply state of the inactive gas supplied to the storage sections belonging to each of the plurality of monitoring areas satisfies a set restricting condition defined in advance.

Storage facility and storage method

An inactive gas introducing facility includes an introducing device disposed in a support portion supporting a container accommodating a substrate and configured for introducing inactive gas to the inside of the container through a gas feed opening of the container with discharging gas present inside the container to the outside through a gas discharge opening of the container and a controller for controlling operation of the introducing device. The introducing device is capable of varying the feed rate of the inactive gas. The controller is configured to control the operation of the introducing device such that in the feeding of the inactive gas to the container supported to the support portion, the feed rate is increased progressively to a target feed rate.

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Gamo-gun, Japan

Toshihito Ueda