GB2172881A - Monitoring stability of storage apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

An upright storage apparatus (10) comprises a plurality of carriers (16) to store articles, each carrier being mounted on an elongated endless carrier track (14), drive means to move the track and hence a 'required' carrier to an appropriate position (see 20) at which articles may be loaded or unloaded, and load cells (22) which can provide a signal related to the loading thereon. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in and relating to upright storage apparatus This invention relates to upright storage apparatus.

Such apparatus normally has a plurality of storage carriers mounted on an elongated endless carrier track. However, as the arrangement is prone to tip over in extreme loading conditions, care has to be taken in order to load the carriers correctly to creat and thereafter maintain, a balanced load.

At present, such upright storage apparatus can usually cope with a maximum imbalance for any number of carriers of up to about 20%. For a 30 carrier unit, consequently, 6 consecutive carriers in an empty condition with the remainder in a loaded condition, could lead potentially to a dangerous imbalance problem.

Such an imbalance could damage the carrier track, or worse could damage the whole apparatus if toppling-over occured. An even worse scenario could be injury to the operator of the apparatus during toppling-over.

An upright storage apparatus in accordance with the invention, comprises a plurality of carriers to store articles, each carrier being mounted on an elongated endless carrier track, drive means to move the track and hence a 'required' carrier to an appropriate position at which articles may be loaded or unloaded, and means to measure the relative loading of the two sides of the elongated track and provide a signal of excess unbalanced loading when such occurs.

Such an arrangement provides a safer apparatus since for warning is received of any dangerous imbalance.

Preferabiy the signal provided is transmitted to means arranged to give an audible and/or visual warning. Alternatively or additionally the signal provided may be transmitted to the drive means to either stop the drive or return the track to a balanced condition. As a further precaution, the signal provided may automatically close the dispenser opening(s) of the apparatus to prevent further loading or unloading of articles.

Suitably, the measuring means comprises a piurality of load cells, at least one load cell to measure the load on each side of the carrier track. Preferably, two load cells are provided positioned underneath the base of the housing of the apparatus, one load cell below each side of the carrier track.

The arrangement is advantageously calibrated so as to provide the signal of excess unbalance loading when the relative imbalanced loading of the sides of the carrier track is either greater the 10% or greater than 15%.

The invention wili now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a front perspective view of a storage apparatus in accordance with the invention; Figure 2 is a cross sectional view of the storage apparatus of Figure 1, and; Figure 3 is a greatly enlonged view of a portion of the storage apparatus of Figure 1.

The upright storage apparatus 10 shown in the drawings comprises a housing 12 enclosing an elongated endless carrier track 14 on which are mounted a plurality of carriers 16 in which any reasonably sized article or series of articles may be stored.

Drives mean (not shown) is provided to move the track 14 on demand, of, for example, an operator 18, to bring a required carrier 16a to an appropriate position, specifically a dispensing opening 20 in the housing, at which the operator 18 may load or unload articles from the carrier 16a. The drive is such that the track is caused to move clockwise (see arrows A) or anticlockwise (see arrows B) whichever is necessary in order to bring the required carrier 16 to the opening 20 by the shortest route possible.

Positioned below each side of the track 14 and underneath the base of the housing 12 are load measuring means 22 preferably in the form of a load cell. Each load cell measures the weight of one side of the apparatus 10 at any one moment in time, and the two measurements are compared to obtain an indication of relative loading at that moment in time.

Should the relative loading be anywhere near to that necessary to achieve an imbalance condition, then a signal of unbalanced loading is produced and transmitted to means to provide, for instance, an audible and/or visual warning. Alternatively, the signal is transmitted direct to the drive means to move the track back to a balanced position or to "cut-out" the drive means altogether.

As a further precaution, the signal provided may automatically close a door 21 of the opening 20 in order to prevent further loading or unloading of the apparatus by the operator 18.

A sophisticated indication of relative loading is shown in Figure 3 in the form of an indicator panel 24 which is positioned near to an apparatus control panel 26 provided on the housing 12 to the side of the opening 20.

The panel 24 has two columns 28 and 30 which indicate the load status of the two sides of the carrier track 14. The level marked A indicates a preferred loaded condition, while the level marks B, C and D indicate 'warning', "cut-off" and "topple-over" conditions respectively.

The operator 18 by simply looking at the columns 28 and 30 can ascertain the load status of each side of the track 14 and the relative load status therebetween by comparing the levels in the columns.

For example, in Figure 3 the load status shown in column 28 is very heavy while the load status shown in column 30 is only heavy, and the relative comparison is large enough to be serious since the cut-off level is nearly achieved. Any further loading of the side of the carrier track 14 indicated by column 28 would lead to automatic cut-off of the drive motor.

To ensure equal distribution of weight and a balanced operation it is very desirable that a loading pattern of opposites is followed for example.

For a machine with 20 carriers the loading pattern would be 111223131445151667 1718891920 10.

For a machine with 16 carriers the pattern would be19102311 124513146715168.

Apparatus in accordance with this invention can vary between fast and slow moving.

Claims (7)

1. An upright storage apparatus comprising a plurality of carriers to store articles, each carrier being mounted on an elongated endless carrier track, drive means to move the track hence a 'required' carrier to an appropriate position at which articles may be loaded or unloaded, and means to measure the relative loading of the two sides of the elongated track and provide a signal of excess unbalanced loading when such occurs.

2. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 wherein means are provided to receive the signal and give an audible and/or visual warning.

3. An apparatus as claimed in either Claim 1 or 2 wherein the drive means receives the signal and either stops the drive or returns the track to a balanced condition.

4. An apparatus as claimed in any preceding Claim wherein means are provided to receive the signal and automatically close the dispenser opening(s) of the apparatus.

5. An apparatus as claimed in any preceding Claim wherein the measuring means comprises a plurality of load cells, at least one load cell to measure the load on each side of the carrier track.

6. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 5 wherein two load cells are positioned underneath the base of the housing of the apparatus, one load cell below each side of the carrier track.

7. An upright storage apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.