AGV Climbing Assembly With Guide Means for Rack Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automated guided vehicles (AGVs) face challenges in ensuring consistent and reliable interaction with storage rack uprights due to variations in upright alignment, ground flatness, and manufacturing tolerances, leading to misalignment and accident risks during vertical movement.
Innovation Solution
The integration of guide means on both the upright and climbing means of the AGV, which cooperate to guide the toothed wheel into an engaged position, ensuring precise alignment and smooth engagement by complementarity of shape and inclined guide faces, reducing the impact of alignment and manufacturing variations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional climbing means without guide means are used, then the structure is simpler, but misalignment and accident risks occur due to variations in upright alignment, ground flatness, and manufacturing tolerances
Solution Approach 1:
Guide means are introduced as intermediary elements between the climbing means and the upright. The guide means on the upright and the corresponding guide features on the climbing means work together to establish precise alignment during engagement, mediating the interaction and eliminating misalignment issues caused by manufacturing tolerances and installation variations.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide means perform preliminary alignment action before the toothed wheel engages with the rack. During the engagement movement, the guide means first establish correct positioning and orientation, ensuring that when the climbing means fully engages, it is already properly aligned, preventing misalignment and accident risks.
2Manufacturing precision
If guide means are integrated to ensure precise alignment, then engagement reliability improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Guide means are implemented with specific local geometric features (guide faces, complementary shapes) at critical engagement points. These localized guide features provide precise alignment control exactly where needed during the engagement movement, achieving high alignment precision without requiring the entire mechanism to be overly complex.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide means utilize asymmetric geometric shapes and inclined guide faces that naturally guide the climbing means into the correct engaged position. The asymmetric design ensures unidirectional engagement and precise alignment through geometric constraint, simplifying the control mechanism while achieving high positioning accuracy.
3Duration of action of stationary object
If precise alignment through guide means is achieved, then wear is minimized and maintenance is reduced, but the initial device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide means perform preliminary alignment action before the load-bearing engagement occurs. By establishing correct positioning and orientation during the approach phase, the guide means ensure that the toothed wheel and rack engage perfectly aligned, minimizing impact loads and wear during operation, thereby extending service life.
Solution Approach 2:
Guide means act as intermediary elements that protect the primary load-bearing components (toothed wheel and rack) from misalignment damage. The guide means absorb the alignment adjustments during engagement, preventing harmful stresses and wear on the rack and wheel teeth, thus extending their durability.
4Productivity
If traditional engagement without guide means is used, then the device is simpler, but operating speed must be limited due to misalignment risks
Solution Approach 1:
The guide means perform preliminary alignment action during the approach phase, establishing correct positioning before the climbing means engages at full operating speed. This preliminary alignment ensures that high-speed engagement does not cause misalignment or damage, enabling the AGV to operate at higher speeds safely.
Solution Approach 2:
Guide means serve as intermediary elements that decouple the approach speed from the engagement precision requirements. By handling the alignment function separately through the guide means, the system allows the AGV to approach and engage at higher speeds without compromising alignment accuracy, thus improving productivity.
Data Source
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AI summary
Assembly comprising: - at least one upright (20) extending in a first direction (Z) and comprising a rack (22) which comprises first teeth (24); - at least one climbing means (110) comprising a toothed wheel (112) which comprises, at its periphery, second teeth (114) adapted to mesh with the first teeth (24) of the rack (22), said at least one upright (20) and said at least one climbing means (110) comprising first guide means (34; 121) configured to cooperate with each other during an engagement movement (DE) of the climbing means (110) towards the upright (20) in order to guide the toothed wheel (112) of the climbing means (110) in the first direction (Z) into an engaged position (PE).