Mobile Rack Carriage and Spacer Design for Uneven Floors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional mobile industrial rack systems require a level floor to prevent imbalance during movement, which is often costly to achieve by leveling the concrete floor or using footings and grout, limiting their usability on unleveled flooring.
Innovation Solution
A mobile industrial rack system with a flue spacer connector allowing back-to-back racks to move relative to each other and independently supported carriages, along with motor-driven rollers synchronized by an encoder for stable movement on unleveled surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If mobile industrial rack systems are used on unleveled flooring, then installation cost and complexity are reduced, but the racks become unbalanced and unstable during movement
Solution Approach 1:
The flue spacer connector incorporates a play feature that allows dynamic adjustment and relative movement between back-to-back racks. This flexibility enables the rack system to adapt to floor irregularities during movement, maintaining stability without requiring a perfectly level installation surface, thereby reducing installation cost while preserving rack balance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameters of the rack connection by introducing controlled play or movement capability in the flue spacer connector. This parameter change allows the racks to self-adjust to floor variations, eliminating the need for costly floor leveling while maintaining operational stability.
2Strength
If back-to-back racks are rigidly connected, then structural stability is improved, but the racks cannot adapt to floor irregularities during movement
Solution Approach 1:
The flue spacer connector transforms the rigid connection into a dynamic one with controlled play. This allows the back-to-back racks to maintain structural stability through their connection while simultaneously adapting to floor irregularities through permitted relative movement, resolving the contradiction between strength and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The connection system is segmented to allow independent movement of each rack while maintaining their back-to-back configuration. The flue spacer connector acts as a semi-independent element that preserves structural integrity while enabling adaptive movement, allowing each rack to respond to local floor conditions.
3Device complexity
If a single mobile carriage supports both back-to-back racks, then device complexity is reduced, but the racks cannot move independently to accommodate floor variations
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the carriage support into two independent carriages, one for each rack. This segmentation allows each rack to move independently on its own carriage, accommodating floor variations while maintaining relatively simple individual carriage designs. The independence of carriages preserves movement stability on unleveled surfaces.
Data Source
AI summary
A mobile industrial rack system which includes a flue spacer, a carriage spacer, and a synchronous motor control that individually and collectively allows the rack system to be used on unleveled surfaces. The industrial rack system is therefore well suited for storage facilities in which it is not possible or not desired to level an otherwise unleveled floor.