Article rearranging apparatus

• US 10,640,291 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2019
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Daifuku Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Daifuku Company Limited
• Inventors: Iida, Masaru
• Primary Examiner(s): Crawford, Gene O
• Assistant Examiner(s): Campbell, Keith R
• Application Number:
  US16/243,262
• Publication Number:
  US 20190218040A1
• Time in Patent Office: 482 Days
• Field of Search: 1983471
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1378 the orders being assembled on fixed commissioning areas remote from the storage areas
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/5104 for articles
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/5113 using endless conveyors B65G47/5145 takes precedence

Abstract

A control unit controls a sorting unit and a send-out unit to transport articles received by a receiving unit to an upstream accumulating unit so that articles that belong to the same article group are accumulated on the same upstream branch accumulating unit, and articles that belong to different article groups are accumulated on different upstream branch accumulating units, to transport articles accumulated in the upstream accumulating unit to a final accumulating unit so that articles that belong to the same article group are accumulated on different final branch accumulating units, and an article group with smaller designated sequence numbers is accumulated on a downstream side, in a transportation direction, of an article group with larger designated sequence numbers, and to send out articles accumulated in the final accumulating unit from the send-out unit in accordance with the designated sequence numbers.

Claims

1. An article rearranging apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive articles;

a send-out unit configured to send out articles;

a sorting unit configured to transport articles received by the receiving unit to the send-out unit, and rearrange the articles received by the receiving unit in accordance with designated sequence numbers; and

a control unit,

wherein the sorting unit includes a plurality of accumulation-transport units capable of accumulating and transporting a plurality of articles, the accumulation-transport units arranged in a transportation direction that is a direction extending from the receiving unit toward the send-out unit,

wherein, of the plurality of accumulation-transport units, an accumulation-transport unit arranged furthest on a downstream side in the transportation direction is a final accumulating unit, and an accumulation-transport unit arranged adjacent, on an upstream side, to the final accumulating unit is an upstream accumulating unit,

wherein each of the final accumulating unit and the upstream accumulating unit includes a plurality of branch accumulating units that are separate from each other in parallel in the transportation direction,

wherein the upstream accumulating unit includes a first set number of upstream branch accumulating units serving as the branch accumulating units, the final accumulating unit includes a second set number of final branch accumulating units serving as the branch accumulating units, and the first set number and the second set number are the same number or different numbers,

wherein the receiving unit receives groups of articles, group-by-group, and a sequence in each group differs from the designated sequence numbers,

wherein each of the plurality of upstream branch accumulating units can accumulate articles, the number of which is the second set number or more, the articles arranged in a line in the transportation direction,

wherein each of the plurality of final branch accumulating units can accumulate articles, the articles arranged in a line in the transportation direction,

wherein the number of articles in each of the groups is smaller than or equal to a number obtained by multiplying the first set number by the second set number,

wherein, as for articles of the groups, articles are grouped into article groups according to the designated sequence numbers that increase in ascending order, each article group including the second set number of articles, and

wherein the control unit controls the sorting unit and the send-out unit to;

transport articles received by the receiving unit to the upstream accumulating unit so that articles that belong to the same article group are accumulated on the same upstream branch accumulating unit, and articles that belong to different article groups are accumulated on different upstream branch accumulating units,

transport articles accumulated in the upstream accumulating unit to the final accumulating unit so that articles that belong to the same article group are accumulated on different final branch accumulating units, and articles of a group for which the designated sequence numbers are smaller are accumulated on the downstream side, in the transportation direction, of articles of a group for which the designated sequence numbers are larger, and

send out articles accumulated in the final accumulating unit from the send-out unit in accordance with the designated sequence numbers.

2. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the number of articles that can be accumulated in the upstream accumulating unit is larger than the number of articles that can be accumulated in the final accumulating unit.

3. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a transport conveyor configured to transport, to the receiving unit, articles taken out from an article storage shelf for storing articles, and

wherein the transport conveyor transport articles so that a plurality of articles that belong to the same group are arranged continuously.

4. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising:

a reading apparatus configured to read article information that is provided to articles that are being transported by the transport conveyor, and

wherein the control unit controls, based on the article information read by the reading apparatus, operations of the sorting unit and the send-out unit so as to send out articles from the send-out unit in accordance with the designated sequence numbers, and controls operations of the sorting unit and the send-out unit so as to sequentially transport articles whose article information has not been read by the reading apparatus to the upstream accumulating unit and the final accumulating unit, and send out the articles from the send-out unit.

5. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein if, as a result of transporting articles whose article information has not been read by the reading apparatus to the upstream accumulating unit and the final accumulating unit, the number of articles that are present in one of the upstream branch accumulating units or one of the final branch accumulating units exceeds the number of articles that can be accumulated on each of the branch accumulating units, the control unit stops transporting articles and issues an abnormality notification.

6. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising:

a reading apparatus configured to read article information that is provided to articles that are being transported by the transport conveyor, and

wherein;

the reading apparatus includes a first reading apparatus and a second reading apparatus,

the first reading apparatus reads the article information on the upstream side, in the transportation direction, of the second reading apparatus,

the article rearranging apparatus further comprises a discharge apparatus, which is provided between the first reading apparatus and the second reading apparatus in the transportation direction,

the discharge apparatus discharges, from the transport conveyor, articles whose article information has not been read by the first reading apparatus, and

the control unit controls operations of the sorting unit and the send-out unit so as to send out articles whose article information has been read by the first reading apparatus and has not been read by the second reading apparatus from the send-out unit in accordance with the designated sequence numbers, based on the article information read by the first reading apparatus.

7. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the control unit acquires take-out information, which is information regarding articles that have been taken out from the article storage shelf, and sets the designated sequence numbers based on the take-out information before the article information regarding all of the taken-out articles is read by the reading apparatus.

8. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the control unit acquires take-out information, which is information regarding articles that have been taken out from the article storage shelf, and sets the designated sequence numbers based on the take-out information before the article information regarding all of the taken-out articles is read by the reading apparatus.

9. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the control unit acquires take-out information, which is information regarding articles that have been taken out from the article storage shelf, and sets the designated sequence numbers based on the take-out information before the article information regarding all of the taken-out articles is read by the reading apparatus.

10. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a transport conveyor configured to transport, to the receiving unit, articles taken out from an article storage shelf for storing articles, and

wherein the transport conveyor transport articles so that a plurality of articles that belong to the same group are arranged continuously.

11. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising:

a reading apparatus configured to read article information that is provided to articles that are being transported by the transport conveyor, and

wherein the control unit controls, based on the article information read by the reading apparatus, operations of the sorting unit and the send-out unit so as to send out articles from the send-out unit in accordance with the designated sequence numbers, and controls operations of the sorting unit and the send-out unit so as to sequentially transport articles whose article information has not been read by the reading apparatus to the upstream accumulating unit and the final accumulating unit, and send out the articles from the send-out unit.

12. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 11, wherein, if, as a result of transporting articles whose article information has not been read by the reading apparatus to the upstream accumulating unit and the final accumulating unit, the number of articles that are present in one of the upstream branch accumulating units or one of the final branch accumulating units exceeds the number of articles that can be accumulated on each of the branch accumulating units, the control unit stops transporting articles and issues an abnormality notification.

13. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising:

a reading apparatus configured to read article information that is provided to articles that are being transported by the transport conveyor, and

wherein;

the reading apparatus includes a first reading apparatus and a second reading apparatus,

the first reading apparatus reads the article information on the upstream side, in the transportation direction, of the second reading apparatus,

the article rearranging apparatus further comprises a discharge apparatus, which is provided between the first reading apparatus and the second reading apparatus in the transportation direction,

the discharge apparatus discharges, from the transport conveyor, articles whose article information has not been read by the first reading apparatus, and

the control unit controls operations of the sorting unit and the send-out unit so as to send out articles whose article information has been read by the first reading apparatus and has not been read by the second reading apparatus, from the send-out unit in accordance with the designated sequence numbers, based on the article information read by the first reading apparatus.

14. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the control unit acquires take-out information, which is information regarding articles that have been taken out from the article storage shelf, and sets the designated sequence numbers based on the take-out information before the article information regarding all of the taken-out articles is read by the reading apparatus.

15. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the control unit acquires take-out information, which is information regarding articles that have been taken out from the article storage shelf, and sets the designated sequence numbers based on the take-out information before the article information regarding all of the taken-out articles is read by the reading apparatus.

16. The article rearranging apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the control unit acquires take-out information, which is information regarding articles that have been taken out from the article storage shelf, and sets the designated sequence numbers based on the take-out information before the article information regarding all of the taken-out articles is read by the reading apparatus.