Movable Rear Wall for Automated Pallet Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing order-picking systems for central warehouses require transport loading aids to stabilize goods carriers, limiting the efficiency and throughput of automated pallet compilation.
Innovation Solution
An order-picking system featuring multiple transfer and loading stations, autonomously movable driverless transport vehicles, and a loading robot with a removable rear wall for stable stack formation and easy pallet wrapping, allowing for fully automatic compilation and efficient pallet assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If transport loading aids are used to stabilize goods carriers, then stability of goods stack is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the complex transport loading aids from the system and replaces them with a simple, movable rear wall at the loading station. The rear wall provides stability during the loading process and can be easily moved to allow AGV access, eliminating the need for complicated stabilizing mechanisms on the goods carriers themselves.
Solution Approach 2:
The rear wall acts as an intermediary element between the goods stack and the loading station structure. It provides the necessary stability during loading without requiring complex integration with the goods carriers or transport vehicles, serving as a simple mediating structure that fulfills the stabilization function.
2Stability of the object's composition
If fixed rear wall is used at loading station, then stability of goods stack is improved, but productivity decreases due to blocked AGV path
Solution Approach 1:
The rear wall is designed to be movable rather than fixed. It can be positioned to provide stability during the loading process and then moved to clear the path for AGVs transporting wrapped pallets. This dynamic positioning allows the system to alternate between stability provision and transport access, maintaining high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The rear wall is moved periodically - positioned during loading operations to stabilize goods, then retracted to allow AGV passage. This periodic action between providing stability and clearing the path enables continuous operation without permanent blockage, maintaining system throughput.
3Reliability
If additional stabilizing aids are used, then reliability of pallet assembly is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the stabilizing function from complex transport loading aids and implements it through a simple, movable rear wall. This wall provides the necessary stability during loading without requiring additional stabilizing aids on the goods carriers or complex integration systems, thereby improving reliability while minimizing device complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to a picking system (1) for the automatic assembly of order-specific pallets of goods in a central warehouse. This system comprises a plurality of transfer stations (U1, U2, U3, U4) for providing pallets of goods (W1, W2, W3, W4) containing the goods required for the order-specific pallets, a plurality of loading stations (B1, B2, ..., B16) for the pallets of goods to be loaded according to the order (A1, A2, ..., A16), and at least one autonomously moving, driverless transport vehicle (T1, T2, T3) for transporting pallets of goods to and from the transfer or loading stations (U1, U2, U3, U4; B1, B2, ..., B16), at least one loading robot (V) that can be moved in front of the transfer and loading stations, with which goods can be iteratively removed from the pallets located at the transfer stations to assemble order-specific pallets of goods at the loading stations and then stacked onto the pallets located at the loading stations, and at least one wrapping station (WS) for wrapping an order-specific pallet of goods with film. Each loading station has an automatically removable or automatically repositionable rear wall that serves as a rear stop during the loading of the pallets located there.