Article Transfer Control During Power-Outage Scooping Retraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing article transport facilities face the risk of movable members stopping mid-transfer and projecting towards a transfer target area during power outages, potentially causing contact with other equipment upon power restoration.
Innovation Solution
An article transport facility with a power supply system that includes a main power supply and an auxiliary power supply, along with a control device that performs a power-outage scooping-up discontinuance operation to retract movable members to a reference position without an article, ensuring they do not project towards the target area during power interruptions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the transfer device uses a pair of movable members to advance and retract articles, then the transfer operation efficiency is improved, but the risk of movable members contacting other equipment during power outage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control device detects power outage conditions and initiates a discontinuance operation before the movable members can complete their projection to the transfer target area. This preliminary action retracts the movable members to a safe position while still within the scooping-up process, preventing potential contact with other equipment upon power restoration
Solution Approach 2:
The invention converts the harmful situation of power outage during scooping-up projection into a beneficial safety mechanism. By detecting the power outage condition and automatically executing the discontinuance operation, the system uses the power outage event itself to trigger a safe state transition, ensuring movable members do not remain in a dangerous projected position
2Reliability
If the auxiliary power supply is used to maintain operation during power outage, then the reliability is improved, but the power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using the auxiliary power supply to complete the entire transfer operation during power outage, the invention applies partial action by only executing the necessary discontinuance operation to retract movable members to a safe position. This partial action approach maintains reliability by ensuring safety while minimizing auxiliary power consumption by avoiding unnecessary complete transfer cycles
Data Source
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AI summary
A transfer device (30) provided for an article transport facility (10) including a main power supply (51) and an auxiliary power supply (52) includes a control device (60) configured to control a driving device (35) configured to advance and retract movable members (31). In a case where the transfer device (30) is performing a scooping-up projection operation to project the movable members (31) from a reference position (P1) corresponding to a support (11) to a projection target position (P2) corresponding to a transfer target area (22) to move an article (W) in the transfer target area (22) to the support (11) at stop of power supply from the main power supply (51) to the transfer device (30), the control device (60) performs a power-outage scooping-up discontinuance operation (M1c) to project the movable members (31) to the projection target position (P2) and then retract the movable members (31) to the reference position (P1) with the movable members (31) holding no article (W).