LIFT INTERFACE FOR STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS

• US 20100322746A1
• Filed: 04/09/2010
• Published: 12/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Symbotic, Llc
• Original Assignee: Casepick Systems, LLC
• Inventors: Ulrich, Nathan, Toebes, Stephen C., Sullivan, Robert, Lert, John
• Granted Patent: US 9,694,975 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 414/273
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/045 in a circular arrangement, e.g. towers
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/0485 Check-in, check-out devices
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/0492 with cars adapted to travel in storage aisles
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/065 with self propelled cars
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/10 with relatively movable racks to facilitate insertion or removal of articles cabinets with means for moving compartments up and down A47B51/00; cabinet system, e.g. consisting of cabinets arranged in a row with means to open or close passages between adjacent cabinets A47B53/02
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/127 the circuit being confined in a vertical plane
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/137 with arrangements or automatic control means for selecting which articles are to be removed
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1371 with data records
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1373 for fulfilling orders in warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1378 the orders being assembled on fixed commissioning areas remote from the storage areas
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/57 for articles
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot

Abstract

A transport system for a storage and retrieval system having an array of storage levels, each storage level having respective storage areas, the transport system including a vertical conveyor having a frame and support shelves movably coupled to the frame, each support shelf being configured to hold one or more uncontained case units in predetermined areas of the support shelf, and transfer vehicles disposed on respective ones of the storage levels, the vertical conveyor having a conveyor to transfer vehicle interface configured to transfer the uncontained case units substantially directly between the support shelves and the transfer vehicles for transport to the storage areas in substantially one transfer vehicle picking operation.

Claims

1. A transport system for a storage and retrieval system having an array of storage levels, each storage level having respective storage areas, the transport system comprising:

a vertical conveyor having a frame and support shelves movably coupled to the frame, each support shelf being configured to hold one or more uncontained case units in predetermined areas of the support shelf; and

transfer vehicles disposed on respective ones of the storage levels, the vertical conveyor having a conveyor to transfer vehicle interface configured to transfer the uncontained case units substantially directly between each support shelf and the transfer vehicles for transport to the storage areas in substantially one transfer vehicle picking operation.

2. The transport system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined areas comprise an array of areas.

3. The transport system of claim 1, wherein the support shelves include first elongated fingers and the transfer vehicles include second elongated fingers, the first and second elongated fingers being configured to pass between one another for transferring uncontained case units between each support shelf and the transfer vehicles.

4. The transport system of claim 1, wherein each support shelf of the vertical conveyor is common to each storage area on each storage level.

5. The transport system of claim 1, wherein each support shelf of the vertical conveyor is common to each storage space in the array of storage levels.

6. The transport system of claim 1, wherein each storage area has fixed structure that defines a seating surface contacting an uncontained case unit stored in the storage area.

7. A vertical conveyor system for transporting uncontained case units to and from a multilevel storage structure having an array of vertically stacked storage levels, the vertical conveyor system comprising:

a multilevel vertical conveyor including

a frame,

a drive member connected to the frame,

support shelves coupled to the drive member where the drive member is configured to move the support shelves relative to the frame in a substantially continuous vertical loop, each of the support shelves being configured to support multiple uncontained case units where each of the multiple uncontained case units is disposed at a respective predetermined area of a respective support shelf; and

at least one transfer station extending into a path of the support shelves, the at least one transfer station being configured to load and unload the uncontained case units from a respective predetermined area of a support shelf;

wherein at least one of the uncontained case units are placed in or removed from the predetermined areas of the respective support shelf substantially independent of other uncontained case units disposed in other different ones of the predetermined areas of the respective support shelf.

8. The vertical conveyor system of claim 7, wherein the at least one transfer station comprises at least one in-feed transfer station extending into a path of the support shelves, the support shelves being configured to interface with the at least one in-feed transfer station to receive the uncontained case units, from the at least one in-feed transfer station, in at least one predetermined area of an inbound support shelf, the predetermined area of the inbound support shelf corresponding to a location of the at least one in-feed transfer station.

9. The vertical conveyor system of claim 7, wherein the at least one transfer station comprises at least one out-feed transfer station extending into the path of the support shelves, the support shelves being configured to interface with the at least one out-feed transfer station to remove the uncontained case units, with the at least one out-feed transfer station, from at least one predetermined area of an outbound support shelf, the predetermined area of the outbound support shelf corresponding to a location of the at least one out-feed transfer station.

10. The vertical conveyor system of claim 7, wherein the predetermined areas of the respective support shelf comprise an array of predetermined areas.

11. The vertical conveyor system of claim 7, wherein each support shelf comprises first elongated fingers and each of the in-feed and out-feed transfer stations comprises second elongated fingers, the first and second elongated fingers being configured to allow the support shelves to pass through the in-feed and out-feed transfer stations for effecting a transfer of the multiple uncontained case units.

12. The vertical conveyor system of claim 7, wherein one or more of the in-feed transfer stations and out-feed transfer stations are disposed in a horizontally staggered vertical stack on respective inbound and outbound sides of the vertical conveyor system.

13. The vertical conveyor system of claim 7, wherein one or more of the in-feed transfer stations and out-feed transfer stations are disposed in vertical stacks one above the other on respective inbound and outbound sides of the vertical conveyor system such that the vertically stacked in-feed and out-feed transfer stations extend into respective inbound and outbound shelves by different amounts than other ones of the in-feed and out-feed transfer stations.

14. The vertical conveyor system of claim 7, further comprising bot transfer locations disposed on each level of the multilevel storage structure for allowing transport vehicles to transfer the uncontained case units between storage modules disposed on each level and the support shelves.

15. The vertical conveyor system of claim 14, wherein the transport vehicles are configured to interface directly with the support shelves, the transport vehicles being configured to transport the at least one uncontained case unit between the support shelves and the storage modules with substantially one picking operation.

16. The vertical conveyor system of claim 7, wherein the at least one in-feed transfer station comprises an accumulator configured to form individual bot loads of uncontained case units for placement into the respective predetermined area of the inbound support shelf, where the individual bot loads include at least one uncontained case unit.

17. The vertical conveyor system of claim 7, wherein the at least one in-feed transfer station comprises a depalletizer for removing the uncontained case units from a container and the at least one out-feed transfer station comprises a palletizer for placing the uncontained case units to a container.

18. The vertical conveyor system of claim 7, wherein the multilevel vertical conveyor and the at least one out-feed transfer station are configured such that uncontained case units are removed from the multilevel vertical conveyor in a predetermined order.

19. A method for transferring uncontained case units to and from a multilevel storage structure having an array of vertically stacked storage levels, the method comprising:

providing a substantially continuously moving vertical loop of support shelves, each of the support shelves being configured to support multiple uncontained case units in an array of predetermined areas; and

transferring the uncontained case units to a respective predetermined area of an inbound support shelf of the continuously moving vertical loop of support shelves with at least one in-feed transfer station extending into a path of the support shelves, the respective predetermined area of the inbound support shelf corresponding to a location of the at least one in-feed transfer station;

wherein uncontained case units are individually placed in or removed from each of the predetermined areas of a respective support shelf substantially independent of other uncontained case units disposed in other different ones of the predetermined areas of the respective support shelf.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising transferring the uncontained case units from the support shelves of the continuously moving vertical loop of support shelves with at least one out-feed transfer station extending into the path of the support shelves, the at least one out-feed transfer station being configured to remove the uncontained case units from a respective predetermined area of an outbound support shelf, the respective predetermined area of the outbound support shelf corresponding to a location of the at least one out-feed transfer station.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein transferring uncontained case units between the at least one in-feed transfer station and at least one out-feed transfer station and the support shelves is effected by passing first elongated fingers of the support shelves through second elongated fingers of a respective one of the in-feed and out-feed transfer stations.

22. An automated case unit storage system for handling case units that are adapted for being palletized for shipping to and from a warehouse, the automated case unit storage system comprising:

a multilevel array of storage spaces arrayed on multiple static levels and in multiple rows at each level, each storage space of the array being capable of holding an uncontained case unit therein;

a continuous vertical lift having a lift support configured for holding and lifting the uncontained case unit to the levels of the array, the continuous vertical lift moving the lift support substantially continuously at a substantially constant rate; and

an input for inputting the uncontained case units onto the lift support of the continuous vertical lift;

an output for outputting the uncontained case units from the lift support of the continuous vertical lift

wherein the continuous vertical lift is configured so that outputted uncontained case units from the continuous vertical lift are disposed in a predetermined order that is independent from an order sequence in which the uncontained cases are input to the continuous vertical lift.

23. The automated case unit storage system of claim 22, wherein the continuous vertical lift is a common lift to each storage space on the at least one level.

24. The automated case unit storage system of claim 22, wherein the continuous vertical lift is a common lift to each storage space of the array of storage spaces.

25. The automated case unit storage system of claim 22, wherein the each storage space has fixed structure that defines a seating surface contacting the uncontained case unit stored in the storage space.